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Seven club members — Mario Sa’Cuto, Eric Zielinski, Ann Lloyd, Mildred Bunche, Anil Nair, Dennis Wong and Roy Fuchs — prepared hot dogs, hamburgers and cheeseburgers for about 20 residents and a few guests.
Sunrise Rotary has "helped make this holiday a bit better for Gillespie’s residents for the last few years, and looks forward to doing the same next year," Sa’Cuto said.
Special thanks go to Lloyd for contributing a delicious and beautifully presented homemade potato salad; to Bunche, who organizes the club’s meal service at Gillespie for the first Saturday evening of every month; and to Sa’Cuto, chair of the club’s Hand On Committee. The group plans one event each month when members are invited to join and put into practice Rotary International’s motto — Service Above Self.
Zielinski and Sa’Cuto got the grills going. Those two, with last-minute drop-in chef Wong, cooked the food. Nair, Lloyd and Bunche served the dogs, burgers, potato salad, coleslaw — and even a bit of sauerkraut — as fast as the food came off the grill.
Dessert was Fuchs’ basket carved out of a watermelon and filled with fresh fruit.
The club’s guests enjoyed the barbecue, and thanked club members.
The Gillespie Center is owned and operated by Homes With Home, a Westport nonprofit that runs the 15-bed facility for single men across the street from Westport’s police station and the five-bed Hoskins Center for women next door.
Both provide shelter, meals and a wide range of social services to help residents re-enter society. Homes with Hope also runs a food pantry and a number of apartments and homes that afford independent living for individuals and families, and provides a range of social services for these clients.
Homes With Hope’s President and CEO Jeff Wieser recently told a local group: "Westport has the unique distinction of having a homeless shelter within one block of a Tiffany’s.”
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