It has long been a tradition that the Knight of Columbus of this Council cook a meal for the staff, residents and their family or visitors on Mothers’ Day. With the current pandemic running its’ course, no outsider is allowed to enter the St, Joseph’s assisted living center. They are quite pleased to say they have not had one single case of COVID-19 thus far and they aim to keep it that way.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday May 12th 2020, nine Knights gloved-up and masked-up and cooked hamburgers and hot dogs supplemented with tomatoes, lettuce, condiments, chips, and a cookie. This meal was cooked and prepared at the Community Center instead at St. Joseph’s where the cooking has traditionally been done for the past many years. Dan Murphy lead the charge (our Director of Community Activities); but was assisted by Efrain Ochoa, Jack Ramsden, James Smith. Larry Balagna, Arthur Rodriguez, David Ybarra, myself and Billy Calander. Incidentally, Billy celebrated his first day of retirement by helping with the cooking – what a guy!!
Once the hamburgers and hot dogs were finished and the fixings were assembled and everything cleaned up and put away for use later all was loaded onto Dan’s truck. Dan and David then took the meal to St. Joseph’s and dropped the meals onto the loading dock where it was retrieved by the staff at St. Joseph’s. Normally we serve the meal to the resident and have lively conversations – the coronavirus prevented us from doing that; but our effort did show the residents we were thinking about them and honoring the many Mothers in residence. We cooked for about 80 staff and residents. Thanks to all who helped keep the tradition alive.