Gander club makes a difference to peoples lives
On the morning of December 12, 1985, shortly after takeoff from Gander en route to Fort Campbell, the chartered Arrow Air Flight 1285 aircraft crashed killing all 256 passengers and crew on board. The international charter flight was carrying U.S. troops from Cairo, Egypt to their home base on Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The troops were predominately members of the 101st Airborne Division.
Gander International Airport has long been a popular refueling stop for military planes since before World War II and the community has close ties to the airport.
In the wake of Arrow Air Flight 1285, a memorial was erected at the crash site and is referred to as the “Silent Witness” memorial. This site is just outside the town boundaries of Gander, but readily accessible from the highway.
Jumping ahead to December 25, 2011, members of the Rotary Club of Gander are gathering on Christmas Day morning to begin serving at the annual Christmas Feast. This was the 6th year of this Gander tradition. The Rotarians and other community volunteers serve Christmas dinner to persons experiencing loneliness at this time of the year. It is often said you can’t buy a coffee on Christmas Day and, if you are alone, this serves to compound your feelings of isolation. The desire to provide a place to meet and share the joys of the season, as a community, was the prime motivator in the germination of this annual event. Our guests come from all over the community. We have persons, that cannot afford a Christmas dinner of their own, sitting with empty nesters whose family members are away working and to whom the thought of Christmas dinner for one compounds their sense of separation.
A number of venues have served as the host of the event and this was our second year at the “Goose”, the name given to our local Irving Restaurant on the TCH. The volunteers were setting tables and preparing the food, all of which are donated by community partners. Our guests began to arrive and were seated. It is our tradition that the volunteers sit and eat with the guests. Everyone gets to share in the event as one big family. While initially the volunteers, who often come with their whole families, didn’t understand our reasoning, this has become a very powerful part of their experience. Volunteers and guests are encouraged to share the meal with someone you don’t know. Rotarian volunteers say exposing their teenagers to persons that are experiencing sorrow at such a joyous time helps to ground them in our hectic society.
As the food was being served, we got word that a small U.S. military flight was to land in Gander. On this flight there were 15 people that may have to overnight in our town. This certainly would be changing their plans for Christmas. We were told that the passengers were on their way to a local hotel. What they would not realize is that none of the local hotels serve a Christmas Day meal. Knowing this we always try to prepare some extra so that we may extend a warm welcome to the hotel’s guests that find themselves on Christmas Day in Gander Newfoundland. We phoned the hotel to say we could accommodate them and sent some of the Rotarian volunteers to pick them up.
I am sure that the unexpected interruption of their Christmas leave could only have been compounded when they were whisked away from their hotel, after just arriving, by a bunch of strangers promising Christmas Dinner.
When they arrived they were quickly seated and enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner with Christmas carols being sung by another local volunteer. Among the passengers was a family that included a young child. Getting baby food on Christmas Day took the quick action of a local Rotarian contacting our local Women’s Shelter, another community partner, and soon we had diapers and food arriving.
As with all our guests, the passengers, now our new friends, were given gifts at the end of the meal and encouraged to stay for the caroling. Some of the guests, in speaking with their Rotarian dining partners during the meal, revealed their connection to the Arrow Air disaster and that they too were members of the 101st Airbourne Division. Right away and without any prompting, three Rotarians suggested that they’d be happy to drive the servicemen and women to the site. They were profoundly moved. We told them that the citizens of Gander have been welcoming the world for 70 years and their brothers and sisters are now a part of us.
Unexpected acts of kindness, no matter how small, can have a powerful effect. A smile, a greeting, an invitation to dinner or a drive across town are simple acts that each build on a feeling of fellowship and community.
Submitted by
Sue Walsh
On behalf of the Rotary Club of Gander