By Douglas Graves C 2009
First printed in the Catasauqua [PA] Press March 5, © 2009
It looked like a sleep-over for adults in the basement efficiency apartment of a nice home. Sleeping bags, some on cots, most spread on the tile floor. The hosts were serving a hot meal; cookies waited at the end of the serving line.
The 14 guests, the homeless people who were spending the night, for the most part had already had dinner.
But a party atmosphere was absent from the basement of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Pennsylvania Avenue in Hanover Township on Friday, Feb. 20. While a small group at a table shared some laughs, the overall mood was somber. Several resigned women sat at one of the tables. No trace of makeup softened their faces, no high-lights livened their salt and pepper hair.
A thin young man in his twenties seemed out of place as he stood at the serving line for a second serving. As for the older men, the main difference between them and any other was a fresh haircut.
This was an emergency rescue operation to take ordinary but homeless men and women off the streets during a bitterly cold winter in the Lehigh Valley.
The Reverend T. Scott Allen and his volunteers were “sharing [their] faith, welcoming and serving others”—the motto on the reverend’s calling card.
Bob and Rita Sorenson of Hanover Township cleaned up in the kitchen after cooking the night’s supper of chicken noodle soup, beef stew and baked ziti.
“The church has been doing this for weeks,” said Rita Sorenson. “We wanted to volunteer. Our sons also helped by baking cookies and rolls.”
It was Reverend Allen who first responded to the request for help sent out by the Trinity Episcopal Church on East Market Street in Bethlehem. Six other area churches agreed to help said Reverend Elizabeth Miller, director of the soup kitchen at Trinity Episcopal Church. Asked if the township authorities have contributed to or tried to interfere with his activities, Allen said, “No.”
In Brookville, Pennsylvania last year, a district judge fined the pastor of the First Apostles Doctrine Church $500 for allowing three homeless men to stay in the church parsonage. Brookville’s solicitor reportedly said, “We’re not going let someone violate the zoning laws because they do it in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Each night a different church takes in a group, feeds them supper, beds them down, and fixes them a breakfast the following morning before they have to go back to the street. Volunteers bring and prepare the food; two of them spend the night with their charges as the homeless get a warm and dry sleep. A second shift of volunteers will come in around 6 a. m. to prepare breakfast.
And what’s for breakfast? “Oatmeal, Hot Pockets, waffles, cereal, coffee and juices,” said Rita Sorenson.
“We could use some more cots,” said Reverend Allen when asked what else he needs. “We haven’t needed money. People have donated their time.” To help or donate money, cots or blankets call (610) 865-3603 or go to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church at 1900 Pennsylvania Avenue between Catasauqua Road and Union Boulevard.
Asked if this is a year-round program, he said “No. Only when it’s cold—when the temperature falls below 32 degrees or the wind-chill factor is below 32 degrees.”
Cindy Bowlby from Slatington said, “It was something very important. We were worried about the people.”
Does it worry her to work with and spend the night with strangers? “Everything is fine. It’s very enjoyable.” She has volunteered to spend the night twice. Bowlby grew up as a member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church but now drives down from Slatington to fellowship with her congregation.
These people were homeless for a variety of reasons. One had sold his house when he got cancer but had no insurance or money to pay for the treatments. The thin young man had been kicked out of his house by his father.
One man told his story but was fearful that any detail in the newspaper would attract the attention of an abusive family member whom he wants to avoid.
Only Julio Millan agreed to be interviewed by the Press, the others being too private or too proud.
Millan, originally from Puerto Rico but most recently from Florida, said he came to the area in June of 2008 looking for work as a truck driver. He said he has a commercial driver’s license but the depression has dried up jobs. “I’ve had to sleep in the woods,” he said. “I’ve even slept under the Minsi Trail Bridge.”
“They let me shower at New Bethany Ministries,” he said. “I can do my laundry there.”
Another’s story was a cautionary tale; how a skilled, self-employed tradesperson, injured on the job and without medical insurance can, in short order, be on the streets. No longer able to ply a trade due to a crippling injury, this person is hoping to qualify for some kind of disability payment. The homeless person’s spouse works part-time for minimum wages and with no benefits to barely survive. “We’ll be OK,” said the homeless person.
The Reverend Joel Atkinson, Canon Missioner from the Cathedral Church of the Nativity was there. He had just brought a group from his church where they had spent Thursday night.
“We have warm, empty buildings,” said Reverend Allen. “Why not share them?”
Other churches participating: Church of the Manger at1401 Greenview Dr
Bethlehem, the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley at 424 Center St. Bethlehem, the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church at 514 Third Ave. in Bethlehem and the New Covenant Church at 23 E Broad St. Bethlehem, the El Shaddai Ministries’ Christian Training Center 529 East Broad St. in Bethlehem and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity at 321 Wyandotte St. in Bethlehem.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
“People Need to Go Where the Silence Is."
Douglas Graves © 2009
Published in the Bethlehem [PA] Press March 4, 2009
“They raped 40 girls and their teachers,” said the Darfuri woman in the film shown at Bethlehem’s Congregation Brith Shalom Feb. 11. “They were bleeding. I saw them.”
About 40 area residents, mostly middle aged to elderly — and several teenagers, gathered to watch “One Night, One Voice,” a film that posits Sudan is using rape as a weapon of war.
The meeting was sponsored by the local chapter of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Liberty High School student Sam Newman was there with his mother, Tova Goldstein.
“I read ‘The Translator’ and it opened my eyes about Darfur,” Newman said.
The group was encouraged by the report of an arrest warrant issued that day for Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. No arrest seems imminent.
Hosted by Rabbi Allen Juda, the local premier of the film was one of 200 simultaneously seen across the United States.
Monsignor John Mraz of Emmaus’ St. Ann Parish read passages urging mercy and forbearance from the teachings of the great religions rooted in the Holy Land.
Patti Price of Moravian College said the 7,500-member African Union force is on the verge of collapse.
The 22,500 UN peacekeepers were not allowed by Khartoum to be stationed in Darfur. “Without this force, there is little or no security on the ground,” said Price. Darfur is about the size of France.
She said that while estimates vary, 400,000 people have died. Besides the violence, illness, malnutrition, and neglect, rape is widely used as a weapon of war.
The camera fixed on the burned bodies of two children, their torsos sprawled in the desolate brown dust; their youth confirmed by a delicate hand sticking out of a torn sleeve that carbonized close to the blackened torso. The child’s face was burned away. The other’s head, also black in the dirt, was charred and laying some inches away from its sunken, sooty torso.
“The Janjaweed came and burned them alive,” testified another woman. “[They were] throwing the children to the fire.”
“The children are being abused with something as dirty as this,” said Rose Laxar from Tamaqua, as she signed a “Save Darfur” petition.
Projected on the screen were eight dead infants, their heads just visible under a straw mat covered with light green brush held down by stones.
“When someone rapes a woman,” said Adrianne Fricke, an international human rights attorney speaking in the film, “they rape her entire tribe. It’s considered, in the traditional sense, the deepest affront. By raping a woman in front of her male relatives it ensures the destruction of the fabric of that family.”
“There is no justice for the women of Darfur,” said the narrator.
“There has been just one rape conviction in Sudan and that was because of a confession,” said Dr. Kelly Askin, a moderator on the telecast.
“The stigma on women gives power to the rapists,” said Dr. Askin. “We need to be taking the stigma and putting it on the rapists.”
“Help Darfur” petitions to the new president were being circulated by earnest young women.
Charlie Vaccaro and Miranda Johnson displayed a tinfoil cardboard-backed solar cooker as an example of a simple gift that will give employment to Darfuri women while reducing their need to risk attack and rape while foraging for firewood.
Jim Powers of Allentown, a retired airline pilot, spoke quietly with several people after the film. “I work for Air Serv International,” he said, “We fly aid workers all over Darfur. The roads are dangerous.”
“People need to go where the silence is,” said Maria Bella, an actor from Pennsylvania and member of the televised discussion panel. Another panelist quoted Ellie Wiesel: “What hurts the victim the most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.”
April is Genocide Prevention Month. Go to www.savedarfur.org. Call 1-800-GENOCIDE to leave a message for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Call 888-473-7885, Extension 1 to record a message that will be broadcast to the women in Darfur. Contact Rabbi Juda at 610-866-8990 for more information.
Published in the Bethlehem [PA] Press March 4, 2009
“They raped 40 girls and their teachers,” said the Darfuri woman in the film shown at Bethlehem’s Congregation Brith Shalom Feb. 11. “They were bleeding. I saw them.”
About 40 area residents, mostly middle aged to elderly — and several teenagers, gathered to watch “One Night, One Voice,” a film that posits Sudan is using rape as a weapon of war.
The meeting was sponsored by the local chapter of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Liberty High School student Sam Newman was there with his mother, Tova Goldstein.
“I read ‘The Translator’ and it opened my eyes about Darfur,” Newman said.
The group was encouraged by the report of an arrest warrant issued that day for Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. No arrest seems imminent.
Hosted by Rabbi Allen Juda, the local premier of the film was one of 200 simultaneously seen across the United States.
Monsignor John Mraz of Emmaus’ St. Ann Parish read passages urging mercy and forbearance from the teachings of the great religions rooted in the Holy Land.
Patti Price of Moravian College said the 7,500-member African Union force is on the verge of collapse.
The 22,500 UN peacekeepers were not allowed by Khartoum to be stationed in Darfur. “Without this force, there is little or no security on the ground,” said Price. Darfur is about the size of France.
She said that while estimates vary, 400,000 people have died. Besides the violence, illness, malnutrition, and neglect, rape is widely used as a weapon of war.
The camera fixed on the burned bodies of two children, their torsos sprawled in the desolate brown dust; their youth confirmed by a delicate hand sticking out of a torn sleeve that carbonized close to the blackened torso. The child’s face was burned away. The other’s head, also black in the dirt, was charred and laying some inches away from its sunken, sooty torso.
“The Janjaweed came and burned them alive,” testified another woman. “[They were] throwing the children to the fire.”
“The children are being abused with something as dirty as this,” said Rose Laxar from Tamaqua, as she signed a “Save Darfur” petition.
Projected on the screen were eight dead infants, their heads just visible under a straw mat covered with light green brush held down by stones.
“When someone rapes a woman,” said Adrianne Fricke, an international human rights attorney speaking in the film, “they rape her entire tribe. It’s considered, in the traditional sense, the deepest affront. By raping a woman in front of her male relatives it ensures the destruction of the fabric of that family.”
“There is no justice for the women of Darfur,” said the narrator.
“There has been just one rape conviction in Sudan and that was because of a confession,” said Dr. Kelly Askin, a moderator on the telecast.
“The stigma on women gives power to the rapists,” said Dr. Askin. “We need to be taking the stigma and putting it on the rapists.”
“Help Darfur” petitions to the new president were being circulated by earnest young women.
Charlie Vaccaro and Miranda Johnson displayed a tinfoil cardboard-backed solar cooker as an example of a simple gift that will give employment to Darfuri women while reducing their need to risk attack and rape while foraging for firewood.
Jim Powers of Allentown, a retired airline pilot, spoke quietly with several people after the film. “I work for Air Serv International,” he said, “We fly aid workers all over Darfur. The roads are dangerous.”
“People need to go where the silence is,” said Maria Bella, an actor from Pennsylvania and member of the televised discussion panel. Another panelist quoted Ellie Wiesel: “What hurts the victim the most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.”
April is Genocide Prevention Month. Go to www.savedarfur.org. Call 1-800-GENOCIDE to leave a message for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Call 888-473-7885, Extension 1 to record a message that will be broadcast to the women in Darfur. Contact Rabbi Juda at 610-866-8990 for more information.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
“Our Work Isn’t Done.”
By Douglas Graves © 2009
High spirits and hope for the future filled the crowd as the Star of Bethlehem aligned with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision from the mountain top and coincided with the next day’s inauguration of the 44th president, Barack Obama, and his vision for change in the way that America does business.
About 150 people crammed into Sayre Hall at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity on Wyandotte Street in Bethlehem on Monday, Jan. 19 to commemorate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The hosting clergy had to scramble, bringing more chairs into the large room to accommodate the more than expected number of attendees.
Master of Ceremony duties were ably done by Liberty High School student and student leader Stephen Font-Toomer. He was there, he said, “To honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—he was so great. No one stepped up to the plate to do what he did.”
Sponsored by the Bethlehem Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), the event featured dances by two youth groups and a chorale performance by the Lepoco Peace Singers. Aspiring opera singer Krizia Nelson, a Freedom High School senior and the Show Case Choir president gave good evidence of her bright future by singing a solo to entertain the room. Nelson, the daughter of Carl and Millie Nelson, hopes to attend the Oberlin Conservatory for Music in Ohio.
“Martin Luther King was inspirational; not just to me, to all people,” said Nelson. “It’s all a chain reaction. Martin Luther King opened up doors for change and non-violence.
A troupe led by Liberty High School ninth grader Yasmine Dowdell performed a step dance to everyone’s delight. The Wings For Life dancers also entertained.
However, the festive mood changed when the guest speakers began to access racial justice in America.
“We are all enamored with the results of the election and with Barack Obama,” said Stephanie Hnatiw, the Executive Director of the YWCA. “But I think one consequence of the Obama victory is that Americans who are not black will figure racism and its legacy has finally been defeated.” This would be wrong according to Hnatiw.
“Our work isn’t done,” she said. We still have a very, very long way to go.”
The YWCA director then gave some statistics to illustrate her point: Medium income for a black household is $25,000 while for a white household its $40,477; high school graduation rates—80 percent for whites, 60 percent for blacks; the chances of going to prison—16.2 percent for a black person but 2.8 percent for a white; black men in college in 2000—603,032 were outnumbered by black men in prison—791,600. Hnatiw provide additional evidence illustrating the racial disparity in other areas such as health, drug abuse and housing.
“We can’t stop now,” she said. “We have to continue the struggle. Racial justice will be here when there is no disparity among the races.”
Bethlehem Area School District executives Dr. Joseph Lewis and Thomas Washington had front row seats at the event so heavily attended by Liberty High School students and alumni. Among the students present was Liberty High School’s tenth grade class president, Kevin Peterman who, wearing a necktie under an Obama tee-shirt, had just returned from Martin Luther King Park where he had given a speech.
When Liberty High School alumnus Dr. Ernest H. Smith, a retired medical doctor now living in Los Angeles, spoke he reminded the audience of Bethlehem’s long history of racial tolerance. He said he had been in the Liberty High School marching band when it was invited to President Harry Truman’s inaugural parade in 1949. “It was the only integrated unit marching in the parade,” he said. He related how, on orders from the Secret Service, he and his brother were moved from the ends of the ranks they were in and placed in the middle so that potential racists in the crowd would not be able to attack them easily.
[It was an Executive Order by President Truman in 1948 that directed the Armed Forces and the Civil Service to integrate. As a result, his popularity was so low that most observers thought it would cost him re-election.]
While Martin Luther King “had a dream,” Dr. Smith recalled that the Civil War-era heroine, Harriet Tubman, also “had a dream.” [Tubman, born a slave in Maryland, had escaped. She took on the mission to rescue other slaves from bondage, making 13 trips and rescuing over 70 slaves.]
Dr. Smith, while sharing in the general euphoria of the moment, had a cautionary view of the meaning of Obama’s election.
Dr. Smith reminded the audience that while the ancestors of African-Americans came to this country involuntarily, dragged in the chains of slavery, Barack Obama who he describes as an American-African, was born in the United States of a father who came voluntarily as a free man.
“If you don’t have that root of slavery, you can’t claim to be an African-American,” he said. “Americans can’t think that because Obama is the president that the issue of African-American slavery is solved because it is not. The issue is still on the table.”
He said that African-Americans were emancipated by war and law; that Barack Obama cannot carry that baggage for them.
Dr. Smith also compared the reparations that interned Japanese-Americans got with the “40 acres and a mule” that he said some Union generals thought freed slaves should have been awarded but were not. [“The (United States’) redress program made $20,000 payments to 82,210 Japanese Americans or their heirs,” according to Democracy Now.]
The celebration wrapped up with the crowd joining hands in small groups and singing the civil rights hymn, “We Shall Overcome,” ending with the line, “ . . . oh deep in my heart, I do believe, the Lord will see us through some day.”
High spirits and hope for the future filled the crowd as the Star of Bethlehem aligned with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision from the mountain top and coincided with the next day’s inauguration of the 44th president, Barack Obama, and his vision for change in the way that America does business.
About 150 people crammed into Sayre Hall at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity on Wyandotte Street in Bethlehem on Monday, Jan. 19 to commemorate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The hosting clergy had to scramble, bringing more chairs into the large room to accommodate the more than expected number of attendees.
Master of Ceremony duties were ably done by Liberty High School student and student leader Stephen Font-Toomer. He was there, he said, “To honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—he was so great. No one stepped up to the plate to do what he did.”
Sponsored by the Bethlehem Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), the event featured dances by two youth groups and a chorale performance by the Lepoco Peace Singers. Aspiring opera singer Krizia Nelson, a Freedom High School senior and the Show Case Choir president gave good evidence of her bright future by singing a solo to entertain the room. Nelson, the daughter of Carl and Millie Nelson, hopes to attend the Oberlin Conservatory for Music in Ohio.
“Martin Luther King was inspirational; not just to me, to all people,” said Nelson. “It’s all a chain reaction. Martin Luther King opened up doors for change and non-violence.
A troupe led by Liberty High School ninth grader Yasmine Dowdell performed a step dance to everyone’s delight. The Wings For Life dancers also entertained.
However, the festive mood changed when the guest speakers began to access racial justice in America.
“We are all enamored with the results of the election and with Barack Obama,” said Stephanie Hnatiw, the Executive Director of the YWCA. “But I think one consequence of the Obama victory is that Americans who are not black will figure racism and its legacy has finally been defeated.” This would be wrong according to Hnatiw.
“Our work isn’t done,” she said. We still have a very, very long way to go.”
The YWCA director then gave some statistics to illustrate her point: Medium income for a black household is $25,000 while for a white household its $40,477; high school graduation rates—80 percent for whites, 60 percent for blacks; the chances of going to prison—16.2 percent for a black person but 2.8 percent for a white; black men in college in 2000—603,032 were outnumbered by black men in prison—791,600. Hnatiw provide additional evidence illustrating the racial disparity in other areas such as health, drug abuse and housing.
“We can’t stop now,” she said. “We have to continue the struggle. Racial justice will be here when there is no disparity among the races.”
Bethlehem Area School District executives Dr. Joseph Lewis and Thomas Washington had front row seats at the event so heavily attended by Liberty High School students and alumni. Among the students present was Liberty High School’s tenth grade class president, Kevin Peterman who, wearing a necktie under an Obama tee-shirt, had just returned from Martin Luther King Park where he had given a speech.
When Liberty High School alumnus Dr. Ernest H. Smith, a retired medical doctor now living in Los Angeles, spoke he reminded the audience of Bethlehem’s long history of racial tolerance. He said he had been in the Liberty High School marching band when it was invited to President Harry Truman’s inaugural parade in 1949. “It was the only integrated unit marching in the parade,” he said. He related how, on orders from the Secret Service, he and his brother were moved from the ends of the ranks they were in and placed in the middle so that potential racists in the crowd would not be able to attack them easily.
[It was an Executive Order by President Truman in 1948 that directed the Armed Forces and the Civil Service to integrate. As a result, his popularity was so low that most observers thought it would cost him re-election.]
While Martin Luther King “had a dream,” Dr. Smith recalled that the Civil War-era heroine, Harriet Tubman, also “had a dream.” [Tubman, born a slave in Maryland, had escaped. She took on the mission to rescue other slaves from bondage, making 13 trips and rescuing over 70 slaves.]
Dr. Smith, while sharing in the general euphoria of the moment, had a cautionary view of the meaning of Obama’s election.
Dr. Smith reminded the audience that while the ancestors of African-Americans came to this country involuntarily, dragged in the chains of slavery, Barack Obama who he describes as an American-African, was born in the United States of a father who came voluntarily as a free man.
“If you don’t have that root of slavery, you can’t claim to be an African-American,” he said. “Americans can’t think that because Obama is the president that the issue of African-American slavery is solved because it is not. The issue is still on the table.”
He said that African-Americans were emancipated by war and law; that Barack Obama cannot carry that baggage for them.
Dr. Smith also compared the reparations that interned Japanese-Americans got with the “40 acres and a mule” that he said some Union generals thought freed slaves should have been awarded but were not. [“The (United States’) redress program made $20,000 payments to 82,210 Japanese Americans or their heirs,” according to Democracy Now.]
The celebration wrapped up with the crowd joining hands in small groups and singing the civil rights hymn, “We Shall Overcome,” ending with the line, “ . . . oh deep in my heart, I do believe, the Lord will see us through some day.”
'We Need to Tell the Marine Story’
By Douglas Graves © 2009
Orginally published Semper Fi Magazine Jan/Feb 2009
Meeting the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps in his Pentagon office made it clear that enlisted Marines, the staff non-commissioned officer and the non-commissioned officer corps of the Marine Corps have a superlative representative standing next to the Commandant. When Sergeant Major Carlton Kent spoke with Semper Fi Magazine in November, the 16th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps discussed a wide range of issues but the conversation had a recurring theme: Kent has very high opinions of his Marines, Staff NCOs and NCOs—and high expectations from them.
“The Commandant [General James T. Conway] did a great thing recently,” he said. “The Marine Corps was the first service to nominate staff non-commissioned officers to the congressional fellowship program. No other service has put an enlisted service member up for the fellows program.”
The program assigns some of the country’s best and brightest service men and women (up until now, officers only) to serve on the staffs of U. S. Senators and Representatives.
“We had eighty-some nominations,” he said. “Eighty per cent of those Staff NCOs had college degrees.”
The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is very proud of the two senior enlisted Marines selected for the program; his pride and enthusiasm for the enlisted leadership of the whole Corps was evident.
He first experienced the Marine Corps’ staff non-commissioned officer leadership as a student and athlete at South Side High School in Memphis, Tennessee. “Gunnery Sergeant Bill Adams always had a story to tell,” said Kent about his recruiter. “He walked around talking to everybody. He was a very impressive guy.”
It was the gunny’s “hip-pocket” stories that first got Carlton Kent to consider the Marine Corps. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in November1975.
Boot camp was also Kent’s first opportunity to shine as a leader. He was a squad leader in his Parris Island recruit platoon. Recruits don’t get a squad leader’s job by just standing around doing enough to get by—they are selected by drill instructors for their leadership potential revealed by the high intensity demands and stresses of recruit training. The next time he was in a recruit training regiment (in San Diego) as a staff sergeant drill instructor, he was meritoriously promoted to gunnery sergeant.
However, at end of his first enlistment, Kent, then in Hawaii, was considering whether to stay in the Marines or to get out and go to college. “A gunnery sergeant knew I was thinking of getting out,” said Kent. “He said, ‘Let me tell you some of your options. You can go and do other great things in the Marine Corps.’
“He also told me that the grass is not always greener on the other side—and it’s not,” said Kent. “From that day on I knew my place was in the Marine Corps because there’s nothing like the Marine Corps family—the common bond we all have.
“The Staff NCOs and NCOs have to be positive examples. Their Marines are going to listen to them,” said Kent about the role of the enlisted leaders. “They have to talk to their young Marines.”
He sees the work of the enlisted leaders as being key to the Corps’ re-enlistment rate. “We have a combat-hardened Staff NCO and NCO corps. When they talk to their Marines and tell them their options we have Marines re-enlisting at a high rate,” said Kent.
“The majority who re-enlist want to stay in the operating forces. We have to make sure we give them a break, however, and not constantly have them in a deployment cycle. They have to be well-rounded in the Marine Corps.”
Asked for an example of the success of the Corps’ retention program, Kent talked about 2/5.
“Second Battalion, Fifth Marines [5th Marine Regiment] was getting ready to re-deploy,” said Kent. “Two hundred Marines volunteered to extend past their EAS [expiration date of active service] and go back to Iraq with their unit and fight. That’s one of many positive examples of the outlook that the Marine Corps has today.”
However, Sergeant Major Kent sees the need to look past Iraq. “We’ve been focused on Iraq. That was our initial focus—to get over there and kick some butt; however, we have lost some of our corps competencies; for example, jungle training and amphibious operations. We use our Navy brothers and sisters to get us there—and they fight with us, but the average young Marine has not even been on a ship. We haven’t had Marines going to Bridgeport [California--for cold weather training] like we used to do. We need to do combined arms exercises at 29 Palms. We haven’t done those in several years. We need to get back our corps competencies. That’s what the Commandant is doing and Marines are excited about it.”
Sergeant Major Kent is proud of what his Marines have accomplished in Iraq, but shares the Commandant’s concept of focusing greater effort in Afghanistan.
“All those places [Ramadi, Al Anbar, and Fallujah] used to be [scenes of] bloody, bloody battles. They are very good right now. And now the Iraqi people want to take back control of their country.
“The Marines have done a great job of crushing the insurgency,” said Kent.
“The Commandant said we need to focus more on Afghanistan,” said the Sergeant Major. If you talk to the average Marine in Iraq they will tell you they are bored. They say, ‘We don’t have any bad guys to kill.’
“We have Marines in Afghanistan and it’s very austere. There’s nothing out there. We don’t need a big PX, mess halls, Burger Kings and Popeyes,” said Kent. “We are an expeditionary force. The Marines are taking it to the enemy over in Afghanistan.
“We [Sergeant Major Kent and Commandant General Conway] went to visit these Marines [in Afghanistan]. The Commandant asked, ‘What do you need?’ They just smiled. They were ankle deep in dust, they were sleeping on MRE boxes and they said ‘Nothing, sir. We’re just happy because we can go and engage the enemy all the time.’ And that’s the kind of attitude our Marines have, said Kent. “That’s why the Commandant says ‘It’s our type of fight’—it really is.”
Are Marines up to the highly technical equipment that is being fielded? “We are constantly training; we trust the commanders [to get the training done]. We have new equipment throughout the Marine Corps,” he said.
The quality of recruits is fine according to the Sergeant Major. “Our recruiters go after high standards They don’t go after sub-standard recruits. We don’t have any issues with the education level of people coming in. The Commandant and I just have to tell the Marine Corps’ story.”
When asked to describe the value of the Marine Corps’ martial arts program, the Sergeant Major quickly made the point that it is not just all about hand-to-hand combat.
“It actually works because these Marines have used these techniques in combat. It’s not just the physical part—it’s where we teach important corps values: honor, courage and commitment. But yes, it does work; Marines have proven that it works. It builds a lot of confidence in Marines.”
How does some of the battles fought in Iraq stack up against such icons of Marine Corps history as Belleau Woods, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir and Hue City?
“I think Fallujah is up there,” said the Sergeant Major. “I witnessed what those Marines were doing there. It was heroic.
“Marines don’t want to let down the Marines who came before them. They are going to continue to live up to the legacy. They fight for their country and their fellow Marines. And they take pride in that.”
The Sergeant Major believes that the Corps’ young heroes are getting their share of recognition. As the sergeant major of the Marine Forces at Central Command he was on the board that reviewed combat citations for Marines. “I can tell you that the Marine Corps has the most fair [awards approval] process of any of the services.
“The first thing that should go through a Marine’s mind when he sees someone wearing an award is, ‘That Marine earned it.’ More young Marines are getting combat V’s [a device affixed to a medal’s ribbon denoting valor] because they are the ones out there hooking and jabbing.
“Corporal Jason Dunham is the only Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor,” said the Sergeant Major. “But I could go down a list: Navy Crosses, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars, Navy Commendation and Navy Achievement medals with Combat V’s, Purple Hearts . . .
“One example of [valorous conduct] is a corporal that died protecting his fellow Marines,” said Sergeant Major Kent. “His convoy was hit by an IED [improvised explosive device] and he was trapped—he was burning. When Marines tried to rescue him he yelled, ‘You all get away from the vehicle! It’s going to explode!’ He didn’t survive, but he was thinking of his Marines, not himself. His comrades continued to try to get him out, to no avail.”
He told another story of a brave lance corporal who died laying down a base of fire while urging his fellow Marines to evacuate a building in Fallujah. Sergeant Major Kent’s voice resonates with pride as he tells his stories about individual Marines.
How are their families holding up?
“One of the things that the Commandant has done is to improve the Family Readiness Program by hiring Family Readiness Officers instead of relying on volunteers from military spouses. It’s a great program that the Commandant kicked off to assist our families.”
What can the Marine Corps League do to help?
“The Marine Corps League is one of our biggest fans, they really are. We love them,” said Kent. “They are part of our legacy.
“They can assist by continuing to tell the Marine Corps story. That would be a great thing that would attract a lot of people as far as recruiting.
“They are involved with the Marine-for-Life program—helping Marines find employment. They are a great network and they assist our Corps with numerous things like the Toys-For-Tots program. They are truly part of the ‘Once a Marine, Always a Marine’ tradition. Their [former Marines’] legacy will be continued by the great Marines we have in our Corps today.”
Sergeant Major Kent concluded on a personal note, “It’s an honor for me to serve as Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.”
Orginally published Semper Fi Magazine Jan/Feb 2009
Meeting the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps in his Pentagon office made it clear that enlisted Marines, the staff non-commissioned officer and the non-commissioned officer corps of the Marine Corps have a superlative representative standing next to the Commandant. When Sergeant Major Carlton Kent spoke with Semper Fi Magazine in November, the 16th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps discussed a wide range of issues but the conversation had a recurring theme: Kent has very high opinions of his Marines, Staff NCOs and NCOs—and high expectations from them.
“The Commandant [General James T. Conway] did a great thing recently,” he said. “The Marine Corps was the first service to nominate staff non-commissioned officers to the congressional fellowship program. No other service has put an enlisted service member up for the fellows program.”
The program assigns some of the country’s best and brightest service men and women (up until now, officers only) to serve on the staffs of U. S. Senators and Representatives.
“We had eighty-some nominations,” he said. “Eighty per cent of those Staff NCOs had college degrees.”
The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is very proud of the two senior enlisted Marines selected for the program; his pride and enthusiasm for the enlisted leadership of the whole Corps was evident.
He first experienced the Marine Corps’ staff non-commissioned officer leadership as a student and athlete at South Side High School in Memphis, Tennessee. “Gunnery Sergeant Bill Adams always had a story to tell,” said Kent about his recruiter. “He walked around talking to everybody. He was a very impressive guy.”
It was the gunny’s “hip-pocket” stories that first got Carlton Kent to consider the Marine Corps. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in November1975.
Boot camp was also Kent’s first opportunity to shine as a leader. He was a squad leader in his Parris Island recruit platoon. Recruits don’t get a squad leader’s job by just standing around doing enough to get by—they are selected by drill instructors for their leadership potential revealed by the high intensity demands and stresses of recruit training. The next time he was in a recruit training regiment (in San Diego) as a staff sergeant drill instructor, he was meritoriously promoted to gunnery sergeant.
However, at end of his first enlistment, Kent, then in Hawaii, was considering whether to stay in the Marines or to get out and go to college. “A gunnery sergeant knew I was thinking of getting out,” said Kent. “He said, ‘Let me tell you some of your options. You can go and do other great things in the Marine Corps.’
“He also told me that the grass is not always greener on the other side—and it’s not,” said Kent. “From that day on I knew my place was in the Marine Corps because there’s nothing like the Marine Corps family—the common bond we all have.
“The Staff NCOs and NCOs have to be positive examples. Their Marines are going to listen to them,” said Kent about the role of the enlisted leaders. “They have to talk to their young Marines.”
He sees the work of the enlisted leaders as being key to the Corps’ re-enlistment rate. “We have a combat-hardened Staff NCO and NCO corps. When they talk to their Marines and tell them their options we have Marines re-enlisting at a high rate,” said Kent.
“The majority who re-enlist want to stay in the operating forces. We have to make sure we give them a break, however, and not constantly have them in a deployment cycle. They have to be well-rounded in the Marine Corps.”
Asked for an example of the success of the Corps’ retention program, Kent talked about 2/5.
“Second Battalion, Fifth Marines [5th Marine Regiment] was getting ready to re-deploy,” said Kent. “Two hundred Marines volunteered to extend past their EAS [expiration date of active service] and go back to Iraq with their unit and fight. That’s one of many positive examples of the outlook that the Marine Corps has today.”
However, Sergeant Major Kent sees the need to look past Iraq. “We’ve been focused on Iraq. That was our initial focus—to get over there and kick some butt; however, we have lost some of our corps competencies; for example, jungle training and amphibious operations. We use our Navy brothers and sisters to get us there—and they fight with us, but the average young Marine has not even been on a ship. We haven’t had Marines going to Bridgeport [California--for cold weather training] like we used to do. We need to do combined arms exercises at 29 Palms. We haven’t done those in several years. We need to get back our corps competencies. That’s what the Commandant is doing and Marines are excited about it.”
Sergeant Major Kent is proud of what his Marines have accomplished in Iraq, but shares the Commandant’s concept of focusing greater effort in Afghanistan.
“All those places [Ramadi, Al Anbar, and Fallujah] used to be [scenes of] bloody, bloody battles. They are very good right now. And now the Iraqi people want to take back control of their country.
“The Marines have done a great job of crushing the insurgency,” said Kent.
“The Commandant said we need to focus more on Afghanistan,” said the Sergeant Major. If you talk to the average Marine in Iraq they will tell you they are bored. They say, ‘We don’t have any bad guys to kill.’
“We have Marines in Afghanistan and it’s very austere. There’s nothing out there. We don’t need a big PX, mess halls, Burger Kings and Popeyes,” said Kent. “We are an expeditionary force. The Marines are taking it to the enemy over in Afghanistan.
“We [Sergeant Major Kent and Commandant General Conway] went to visit these Marines [in Afghanistan]. The Commandant asked, ‘What do you need?’ They just smiled. They were ankle deep in dust, they were sleeping on MRE boxes and they said ‘Nothing, sir. We’re just happy because we can go and engage the enemy all the time.’ And that’s the kind of attitude our Marines have, said Kent. “That’s why the Commandant says ‘It’s our type of fight’—it really is.”
Are Marines up to the highly technical equipment that is being fielded? “We are constantly training; we trust the commanders [to get the training done]. We have new equipment throughout the Marine Corps,” he said.
The quality of recruits is fine according to the Sergeant Major. “Our recruiters go after high standards They don’t go after sub-standard recruits. We don’t have any issues with the education level of people coming in. The Commandant and I just have to tell the Marine Corps’ story.”
When asked to describe the value of the Marine Corps’ martial arts program, the Sergeant Major quickly made the point that it is not just all about hand-to-hand combat.
“It actually works because these Marines have used these techniques in combat. It’s not just the physical part—it’s where we teach important corps values: honor, courage and commitment. But yes, it does work; Marines have proven that it works. It builds a lot of confidence in Marines.”
How does some of the battles fought in Iraq stack up against such icons of Marine Corps history as Belleau Woods, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir and Hue City?
“I think Fallujah is up there,” said the Sergeant Major. “I witnessed what those Marines were doing there. It was heroic.
“Marines don’t want to let down the Marines who came before them. They are going to continue to live up to the legacy. They fight for their country and their fellow Marines. And they take pride in that.”
The Sergeant Major believes that the Corps’ young heroes are getting their share of recognition. As the sergeant major of the Marine Forces at Central Command he was on the board that reviewed combat citations for Marines. “I can tell you that the Marine Corps has the most fair [awards approval] process of any of the services.
“The first thing that should go through a Marine’s mind when he sees someone wearing an award is, ‘That Marine earned it.’ More young Marines are getting combat V’s [a device affixed to a medal’s ribbon denoting valor] because they are the ones out there hooking and jabbing.
“Corporal Jason Dunham is the only Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor,” said the Sergeant Major. “But I could go down a list: Navy Crosses, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars, Navy Commendation and Navy Achievement medals with Combat V’s, Purple Hearts . . .
“One example of [valorous conduct] is a corporal that died protecting his fellow Marines,” said Sergeant Major Kent. “His convoy was hit by an IED [improvised explosive device] and he was trapped—he was burning. When Marines tried to rescue him he yelled, ‘You all get away from the vehicle! It’s going to explode!’ He didn’t survive, but he was thinking of his Marines, not himself. His comrades continued to try to get him out, to no avail.”
He told another story of a brave lance corporal who died laying down a base of fire while urging his fellow Marines to evacuate a building in Fallujah. Sergeant Major Kent’s voice resonates with pride as he tells his stories about individual Marines.
How are their families holding up?
“One of the things that the Commandant has done is to improve the Family Readiness Program by hiring Family Readiness Officers instead of relying on volunteers from military spouses. It’s a great program that the Commandant kicked off to assist our families.”
What can the Marine Corps League do to help?
“The Marine Corps League is one of our biggest fans, they really are. We love them,” said Kent. “They are part of our legacy.
“They can assist by continuing to tell the Marine Corps story. That would be a great thing that would attract a lot of people as far as recruiting.
“They are involved with the Marine-for-Life program—helping Marines find employment. They are a great network and they assist our Corps with numerous things like the Toys-For-Tots program. They are truly part of the ‘Once a Marine, Always a Marine’ tradition. Their [former Marines’] legacy will be continued by the great Marines we have in our Corps today.”
Sergeant Major Kent concluded on a personal note, “It’s an honor for me to serve as Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.”
“Happy Obama Day!”
By Douglas Graves © 2009
“Happy Obama Day!” shouted Bethlehem Township’s Brenda M. Brown to some friends as they entered the Bethlehem Room at the Comfort Suites on 3rd Street.
The Bethlehem Chapter of the National Association of Colored People’s (NAACP) post-inauguration party in honor of President Barack Obama’s meteoric ascension to the office of President of the United States was like a close family getting together with a few community friends. Pride and maybe some surprise mixed with elation defined the mood of the group.
Kids were invited, some as young as three or four. Several teenagers were in the crowd of about 55 people. “We kept it non-alcoholic because we wanted to include children so they could understand the meaning of today,” said Cordelia Miller, the First Vice President of the Bethlehem NAACP. “This is totally new beginning for this country. We, as a black community, are celebrating with the world today.”
Seven-year old Nyah Best, a second grader at Thomas Jefferson Elementary, had her own take on things. “It’s Barack Obama’s birthday,” she said, prompting some help from her mother, Shakima Dowdell. After a consultation with her mom, Nyah added, “He held his hand up and they told him to say something and then he was the president.”
She was perfectly clear about what she wants to be when she grows up: “I want to be a nurse, like my aunt.”
Her sister, Yasmin Dowdell, a ninth grader at Liberty High School, when asked how she felt about the inauguration said, “I’m very happy and surprised be born into a time when history is being made. It was almost as if Martin Luther King was on TV speaking this afternoon.”
Laura Lawrence, the treasurer of the Bethlehem NAACP, was more emphatic. “This is the best day that this country ever had,” she said. “We are making a sea-change: this the first day of our maturity. He said every thing I wanted him to say—including to ‘nurture your children.’”
As the room filled up, the band, On Fire, played the Bill Wither’s song It’s a Lovely Day while adding the refrain, “Obama, Obama, Obama . . .” The room started to warm up. Then a man, an impromptu cheer leader, shouted “Give me an O! Give me a B!” Soon the crowd was shouting along and getting excited while on a television in the background played footage of the new president and his family.
“Obama came from a varied background that qualified him for president,” said Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem NAACP. “Dr. Martin Luther King led the way so that anyone coming behind can succeed.” Lee gave credit to higher powers. “God in his divine providence determines what we will or won’t do.”
Lee also gave credit to Obama’s mother and grandparents: “His mother prepared him for the task; his grandparents raised him.”
Lee is a former board member of the Bethlehem Area School District and former president of the Parent-Teacher’s Association.
Lieutenant Colonel Jerome Hatfield of the New Jersey State Police, wearing civilian clothes, celebrated Obama’s inauguration with family. The big former Grenadier is a 1977 graduate of Liberty High School. When asked what Obama's inauguration means to him, he said, "It represents an opportunity for change. In looking at the National Mall during the inauguration, it truly represented the melting pot of America. This occasion instills the hope and faith necessary to move this country forward. Hopefully, other countries will be inspired at this administration's outward ability to recognize and respect differences amongst people. I hope that the results would lend itself to greater peace in our world.”
The officers and matrons of the association had come early to fill up long tables with sandwiches, snacks, and cold drinks for the celebratory, yet reflective crowd.
Lincoln Elementary School principal Benita Draper-Terry arrived to join the festivities. “I’m here to celebrate the election of President Obama,” she said. “I was telling my students today that it was just 45 years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial.
“Another part of his dream has been realized today,” said Draper-Terry. “I think the whole campaign has been remarkable. It’s one country—we have to work together. As Barack Obama has said, it's not about him, it's about the people coming together to make this a better nation."
“Happy Obama Day!” shouted Bethlehem Township’s Brenda M. Brown to some friends as they entered the Bethlehem Room at the Comfort Suites on 3rd Street.
The Bethlehem Chapter of the National Association of Colored People’s (NAACP) post-inauguration party in honor of President Barack Obama’s meteoric ascension to the office of President of the United States was like a close family getting together with a few community friends. Pride and maybe some surprise mixed with elation defined the mood of the group.
Kids were invited, some as young as three or four. Several teenagers were in the crowd of about 55 people. “We kept it non-alcoholic because we wanted to include children so they could understand the meaning of today,” said Cordelia Miller, the First Vice President of the Bethlehem NAACP. “This is totally new beginning for this country. We, as a black community, are celebrating with the world today.”
Seven-year old Nyah Best, a second grader at Thomas Jefferson Elementary, had her own take on things. “It’s Barack Obama’s birthday,” she said, prompting some help from her mother, Shakima Dowdell. After a consultation with her mom, Nyah added, “He held his hand up and they told him to say something and then he was the president.”
She was perfectly clear about what she wants to be when she grows up: “I want to be a nurse, like my aunt.”
Her sister, Yasmin Dowdell, a ninth grader at Liberty High School, when asked how she felt about the inauguration said, “I’m very happy and surprised be born into a time when history is being made. It was almost as if Martin Luther King was on TV speaking this afternoon.”
Laura Lawrence, the treasurer of the Bethlehem NAACP, was more emphatic. “This is the best day that this country ever had,” she said. “We are making a sea-change: this the first day of our maturity. He said every thing I wanted him to say—including to ‘nurture your children.’”
As the room filled up, the band, On Fire, played the Bill Wither’s song It’s a Lovely Day while adding the refrain, “Obama, Obama, Obama . . .” The room started to warm up. Then a man, an impromptu cheer leader, shouted “Give me an O! Give me a B!” Soon the crowd was shouting along and getting excited while on a television in the background played footage of the new president and his family.
“Obama came from a varied background that qualified him for president,” said Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem NAACP. “Dr. Martin Luther King led the way so that anyone coming behind can succeed.” Lee gave credit to higher powers. “God in his divine providence determines what we will or won’t do.”
Lee also gave credit to Obama’s mother and grandparents: “His mother prepared him for the task; his grandparents raised him.”
Lee is a former board member of the Bethlehem Area School District and former president of the Parent-Teacher’s Association.
Lieutenant Colonel Jerome Hatfield of the New Jersey State Police, wearing civilian clothes, celebrated Obama’s inauguration with family. The big former Grenadier is a 1977 graduate of Liberty High School. When asked what Obama's inauguration means to him, he said, "It represents an opportunity for change. In looking at the National Mall during the inauguration, it truly represented the melting pot of America. This occasion instills the hope and faith necessary to move this country forward. Hopefully, other countries will be inspired at this administration's outward ability to recognize and respect differences amongst people. I hope that the results would lend itself to greater peace in our world.”
The officers and matrons of the association had come early to fill up long tables with sandwiches, snacks, and cold drinks for the celebratory, yet reflective crowd.
Lincoln Elementary School principal Benita Draper-Terry arrived to join the festivities. “I’m here to celebrate the election of President Obama,” she said. “I was telling my students today that it was just 45 years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial.
“Another part of his dream has been realized today,” said Draper-Terry. “I think the whole campaign has been remarkable. It’s one country—we have to work together. As Barack Obama has said, it's not about him, it's about the people coming together to make this a better nation."
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Rich in Volunteers--Short on Food
By Douglas Graves © 2008
The shelves are almost empty. The food in stock will sustain health but choices are very limited. The store is so small that only one family at a time can go in. Moveable food shelves compete with three, wheeled racks over-crammed with clothes. Twenty dollars is considered a substantial donation—no big corporate sponsors or government grants here. Still, the St. Stephen’s Food Pantry in Whitehall is doing good business.
Food Bank Director Karen Schell is also the Regional Sales Manager of the Equine Division for Straight Arrow Products. She is the kind of person who only sees the bright side of the situation—just as she sees only the gentler angels of human nature.
“St. Stephen’s [Episcopal Church] is kind enough to provide space, electricity and shelves,” she said. “The church members also provide volunteers, food and money to us.” The Food Pantry is in one of the rooms that the large church at 3900 Mechanicsville Road. “It’s a community effort. Next year we hope to get other churches to participate more.”
The numbers aren’t yet in for 2008, but the number of households served jumped from 525 in 2006 to 590 in 2007. Job loss, economic downturn, foreclosures and evictions are likely run that number up for 2008.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church’s Annual Report sums it up: “We serve Whitehall residents of all ages, races, and creeds. We are the only food pantry serving the area.”
Schell’s hope for more church involvement came to pass in a way for which she is grateful. “St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Second Street just gave us a generous donation—they closed up shop but left us some money.” Schell didn’t want to reveal the amount but she was very happily calculating were the windfall could best be spent.
Other churches have helped mostly by “faithfully donating food and money,” said Schell. “They have kept us going when times were lean.” Some of those appreciated churches include Faith Evangelical Lutheran, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran, St. John’s UCC, Shepherd of the Hills. Some civic organizations pitch in: Whitehall Township Woman’s Club and the Lion’s Club of Whitehall.
Schell is enthusiastic about the network of volunteers and organizations that keep this little operation going. “Whitehall Food Bank is very rich in volunteers but we are always short on food,” she said. “We have a wonderful group of people who work hours and hours. Young and old help out, [church] members and non-members—most have full-time jobs.”
These are the kinds of folks who probably know of the exhortation from Psalms 146: “How blessed is he . . . who gives food to the hungry.”
“Doreen Wagner comes every week with her 12-year old granddaughter Alycia Wagner and Alycia’s friends Mariah Lopez, Tamara Wesmann and CeCe Barona. Scott Heefner is an ‘every week’ regular. Donna Scott brings the bread from Weiss Market (they provide bread every week) and helps unload the food that Tom Steckel and Dave Heffernan pick up from Second Harvest every four to six weeks.”
It isn’t just the manual labor that keeps things going. “Carol Siegmund handles the checking and savings accounts,” said Schell. “Judy Kuntz, our church secretary, handles correspondence associated for the Food Bank.”
Some provide financial back-up for supplies that run short. “Karen and Marty Brynildsen help buy food when we fall short. For example, they bought enough pancake mix to cover [a shortage].”
This year the Food Bank added free clothing to their services. “Karen Brynildsen and Doreen Wagner started a clothing drive for the recipients for the food bank,” said Schell. “Marilyn Shive and Darlene Dimmick organize and distribute the clothing which is free to our recipients.”
Northampton High School senior Karrysa Herman her mother, Denise, come in on Monday nights to help distribute food. Other hard workers include Joe and Matthew Lathrop, John Rothschild, Charlie Robinson, Terry Daubet and Dottie Lesavoy. Beverly and Tom Donegal also help with their hard work..
The annual food drive conducted by postal workers get a special, emotional ‘thank you’ from Schell. “The postal workers are doing this on their own time—they’re also breaking their backs.” She pointed to a poster board with food-laden mail trucks and postal workers posing with their culinary collections from customers on their mail routes.
“Second Harvest faxes me a list of what is available and I can stock up.” The “available” list varies every week so there is no chance to keep a dependable supply of any particular brand. This week Schell ordered 10 cases of corned beef and 10 cases of meat balls with tomato sauce. Second Harvest provides 70 per cent of the food to the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Food Pantry.
Sometimes candy is available from her suppliers. The fiscally creative Schell once had what she thought was a great idea: take the candy, have church youth groups re-sell it at fund-raisers and use the money from the candy sales to buy hard-to-find staples to give out to the needy. But, no. Strictly against government rules. No selling of donated candy to buy something useful.
Other food donors include Nestlès who “is very generous” said Schell. The shelves have scatterings of Nestlès’ chocolate drink mix and other products.
Recently Boy Scout Zachary Wehr proposed an Eagle Scout project that he hopes will raise 6,000 pounds of food.
Schell is hoping for donations of the hard-to-find items: jelly, peanut butter, and canned tuna fish. She also needs a food freezer to replace one that is broken.
The Food Bank’s service is for Whitehall residents only who have a financial need. Each family gets one visit per month and should bring bags or boxes for their food. Call 610-262-1264 for an appointment but call only between 9 a. m. and 8 p. m. (It is a private home.)
The shelves are almost empty. The food in stock will sustain health but choices are very limited. The store is so small that only one family at a time can go in. Moveable food shelves compete with three, wheeled racks over-crammed with clothes. Twenty dollars is considered a substantial donation—no big corporate sponsors or government grants here. Still, the St. Stephen’s Food Pantry in Whitehall is doing good business.
Food Bank Director Karen Schell is also the Regional Sales Manager of the Equine Division for Straight Arrow Products. She is the kind of person who only sees the bright side of the situation—just as she sees only the gentler angels of human nature.
“St. Stephen’s [Episcopal Church] is kind enough to provide space, electricity and shelves,” she said. “The church members also provide volunteers, food and money to us.” The Food Pantry is in one of the rooms that the large church at 3900 Mechanicsville Road. “It’s a community effort. Next year we hope to get other churches to participate more.”
The numbers aren’t yet in for 2008, but the number of households served jumped from 525 in 2006 to 590 in 2007. Job loss, economic downturn, foreclosures and evictions are likely run that number up for 2008.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church’s Annual Report sums it up: “We serve Whitehall residents of all ages, races, and creeds. We are the only food pantry serving the area.”
Schell’s hope for more church involvement came to pass in a way for which she is grateful. “St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Second Street just gave us a generous donation—they closed up shop but left us some money.” Schell didn’t want to reveal the amount but she was very happily calculating were the windfall could best be spent.
Other churches have helped mostly by “faithfully donating food and money,” said Schell. “They have kept us going when times were lean.” Some of those appreciated churches include Faith Evangelical Lutheran, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran, St. John’s UCC, Shepherd of the Hills. Some civic organizations pitch in: Whitehall Township Woman’s Club and the Lion’s Club of Whitehall.
Schell is enthusiastic about the network of volunteers and organizations that keep this little operation going. “Whitehall Food Bank is very rich in volunteers but we are always short on food,” she said. “We have a wonderful group of people who work hours and hours. Young and old help out, [church] members and non-members—most have full-time jobs.”
These are the kinds of folks who probably know of the exhortation from Psalms 146: “How blessed is he . . . who gives food to the hungry.”
“Doreen Wagner comes every week with her 12-year old granddaughter Alycia Wagner and Alycia’s friends Mariah Lopez, Tamara Wesmann and CeCe Barona. Scott Heefner is an ‘every week’ regular. Donna Scott brings the bread from Weiss Market (they provide bread every week) and helps unload the food that Tom Steckel and Dave Heffernan pick up from Second Harvest every four to six weeks.”
It isn’t just the manual labor that keeps things going. “Carol Siegmund handles the checking and savings accounts,” said Schell. “Judy Kuntz, our church secretary, handles correspondence associated for the Food Bank.”
Some provide financial back-up for supplies that run short. “Karen and Marty Brynildsen help buy food when we fall short. For example, they bought enough pancake mix to cover [a shortage].”
This year the Food Bank added free clothing to their services. “Karen Brynildsen and Doreen Wagner started a clothing drive for the recipients for the food bank,” said Schell. “Marilyn Shive and Darlene Dimmick organize and distribute the clothing which is free to our recipients.”
Northampton High School senior Karrysa Herman her mother, Denise, come in on Monday nights to help distribute food. Other hard workers include Joe and Matthew Lathrop, John Rothschild, Charlie Robinson, Terry Daubet and Dottie Lesavoy. Beverly and Tom Donegal also help with their hard work..
The annual food drive conducted by postal workers get a special, emotional ‘thank you’ from Schell. “The postal workers are doing this on their own time—they’re also breaking their backs.” She pointed to a poster board with food-laden mail trucks and postal workers posing with their culinary collections from customers on their mail routes.
“Second Harvest faxes me a list of what is available and I can stock up.” The “available” list varies every week so there is no chance to keep a dependable supply of any particular brand. This week Schell ordered 10 cases of corned beef and 10 cases of meat balls with tomato sauce. Second Harvest provides 70 per cent of the food to the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Food Pantry.
Sometimes candy is available from her suppliers. The fiscally creative Schell once had what she thought was a great idea: take the candy, have church youth groups re-sell it at fund-raisers and use the money from the candy sales to buy hard-to-find staples to give out to the needy. But, no. Strictly against government rules. No selling of donated candy to buy something useful.
Other food donors include Nestlès who “is very generous” said Schell. The shelves have scatterings of Nestlès’ chocolate drink mix and other products.
Recently Boy Scout Zachary Wehr proposed an Eagle Scout project that he hopes will raise 6,000 pounds of food.
Schell is hoping for donations of the hard-to-find items: jelly, peanut butter, and canned tuna fish. She also needs a food freezer to replace one that is broken.
The Food Bank’s service is for Whitehall residents only who have a financial need. Each family gets one visit per month and should bring bags or boxes for their food. Call 610-262-1264 for an appointment but call only between 9 a. m. and 8 p. m. (It is a private home.)
Sergeant Robert A. Bell, Shivering in an Ancient Battle Jacket . . .
By Douglas Graves © 2008
Marines mustered from all over the Valley on Monday, Nov. 10 at Cedar Beach Park on Hamilton Street in Allentown. The late afternoon wind swirled fallen leaves and chilled the stones of Marine Corps memorial set like sentinels over the fallen. The oldest Marine present was Dom Marciano who had served as a 60-millimeter mortar man with the Sixth Marine Division on Okinawa in 1945.
It was the 18th annual memorial service held at the monument set in a glade between Hamilton Street and Muhlenberg Lake near the 24th Street traffic signal. As the Marines and friends of Marines crowded in and around the eight tall stones that form the perimeter of the memorial, retired Master Gunnery Sergeant Carl J. Schroeder Jr. led the group in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Most of the Marines wore elements of an old uniform or a Marine Corps League jacket and cap. Some wore baseball caps emblazoned with “Marines” or “Marine Corps.” Several were in business suits or blazers with lapel pins depicting medals earned long ago. Lance Corporal Jamie J. Williams of Allentown was wearing “biker” regalia with campaign ribbons. Regardless what they were wearing, the spirit of comradeship was evident.
Veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were all represented.
Sergeant Robert A. Bell, shivering in an ancient battle jacket and accompanied by his wife, Nora, rendered a crooked fingered salute for his flag and brought his arthritic hands together in noiseless applause as leaders stepped from the ranks to speak to the group. Bell, now in an assisted living home, had served his country from 1945 to 1951.
Retired Hospitalman First Class Richard Bentley of Macungie wore the forest-green Marine Corps uniform authorized for Navy Corpsmen assigned to the Fleet Marine Force as medical personnel. One man approached him and thanked all corpsmen for being there when Marines are in tough spots.
Allentown Assistant Police Chief and former Marine David M. Howells, Jr. attended with his father who is a former Allentown Police Chief and Marine. Major Jim Robbins attended and gave a short speech to his comrades. Robbins, an Allen High School teacher and reserve Marine officer, was a detachment commander in the Iraq war.
Lehigh Court of Common Pleas Judge and Marine colonel Jim Anthony attended as did former Marine corporal Bill Derricott, a retired Parkland School District teacher.
Whitehall High School student Connor Purcell and his brother Corey, as a drum and fife duo, provided timeless martial tunes for the simple affair. Sergeant Howard J. Cooper of Wescosville read the birthday message sent in 1921 to Marines in all “posts and stations” by the thirteenth commandant of the Marine Corps, General John A. Lejuene a World War I general and revered figure to Marines.
The Marines finished the service by singing the Marines’ Hymn that ends with the refrain, “If the Army and Navy ever look on Heaven’s scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.”
Following the annual Marine Corps memorial service many in the group met for a cake-cutting at the VFW hall on Hamilton Street. The “youngest and oldest Marine” present were invited to be the first served from the celebratory cake.
This year the honor went to Marciano, the WW II veteran, and to Sergeant Howard Cooper, the youngest, at 42.
The celebration of the U. S. Marine Corps’ 233rd birthday was a simple event but the emotion that all Marines feel for this day is best understood by realizing that on every November 10, Marines around the world from generals to privates gather together in groups large and small to celebrate the day 1775 when the Marine Corps was first organized in Philadelphia. These celebrations may include lavish banquets with grand military balls or maybe just three dirty-faced men in a far away fighting hole sharing a cold ration, but, without fail, the Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated.
Marines mustered from all over the Valley on Monday, Nov. 10 at Cedar Beach Park on Hamilton Street in Allentown. The late afternoon wind swirled fallen leaves and chilled the stones of Marine Corps memorial set like sentinels over the fallen. The oldest Marine present was Dom Marciano who had served as a 60-millimeter mortar man with the Sixth Marine Division on Okinawa in 1945.
It was the 18th annual memorial service held at the monument set in a glade between Hamilton Street and Muhlenberg Lake near the 24th Street traffic signal. As the Marines and friends of Marines crowded in and around the eight tall stones that form the perimeter of the memorial, retired Master Gunnery Sergeant Carl J. Schroeder Jr. led the group in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Most of the Marines wore elements of an old uniform or a Marine Corps League jacket and cap. Some wore baseball caps emblazoned with “Marines” or “Marine Corps.” Several were in business suits or blazers with lapel pins depicting medals earned long ago. Lance Corporal Jamie J. Williams of Allentown was wearing “biker” regalia with campaign ribbons. Regardless what they were wearing, the spirit of comradeship was evident.
Veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were all represented.
Sergeant Robert A. Bell, shivering in an ancient battle jacket and accompanied by his wife, Nora, rendered a crooked fingered salute for his flag and brought his arthritic hands together in noiseless applause as leaders stepped from the ranks to speak to the group. Bell, now in an assisted living home, had served his country from 1945 to 1951.
Retired Hospitalman First Class Richard Bentley of Macungie wore the forest-green Marine Corps uniform authorized for Navy Corpsmen assigned to the Fleet Marine Force as medical personnel. One man approached him and thanked all corpsmen for being there when Marines are in tough spots.
Allentown Assistant Police Chief and former Marine David M. Howells, Jr. attended with his father who is a former Allentown Police Chief and Marine. Major Jim Robbins attended and gave a short speech to his comrades. Robbins, an Allen High School teacher and reserve Marine officer, was a detachment commander in the Iraq war.
Lehigh Court of Common Pleas Judge and Marine colonel Jim Anthony attended as did former Marine corporal Bill Derricott, a retired Parkland School District teacher.
Whitehall High School student Connor Purcell and his brother Corey, as a drum and fife duo, provided timeless martial tunes for the simple affair. Sergeant Howard J. Cooper of Wescosville read the birthday message sent in 1921 to Marines in all “posts and stations” by the thirteenth commandant of the Marine Corps, General John A. Lejuene a World War I general and revered figure to Marines.
The Marines finished the service by singing the Marines’ Hymn that ends with the refrain, “If the Army and Navy ever look on Heaven’s scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.”
Following the annual Marine Corps memorial service many in the group met for a cake-cutting at the VFW hall on Hamilton Street. The “youngest and oldest Marine” present were invited to be the first served from the celebratory cake.
This year the honor went to Marciano, the WW II veteran, and to Sergeant Howard Cooper, the youngest, at 42.
The celebration of the U. S. Marine Corps’ 233rd birthday was a simple event but the emotion that all Marines feel for this day is best understood by realizing that on every November 10, Marines around the world from generals to privates gather together in groups large and small to celebrate the day 1775 when the Marine Corps was first organized in Philadelphia. These celebrations may include lavish banquets with grand military balls or maybe just three dirty-faced men in a far away fighting hole sharing a cold ration, but, without fail, the Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated.
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