The end of an era, the legacy of a community

After 48 years, the West River Health Service Foundation held their final community turkey luncheon Thursday afternoon at the Hettinger Lutheran Church. The long-running event can be traced back to the year 1976 by the West River Health Services Hospital Auxiliary.

“The auxiliary evolved into scholarship programs; it evolved into raising funds for furniture in our facilities. They’ve done a lot of really terrific things,” said Ted Uecker, the Fund Development Officer at West River Health Services. 

Barbara West, one of the volunteers, says that one of the earliest pieces of equipment that was fundraised for was a transport isolette for newborns that needed to go to Bismarck for specialized care.

About six years ago, the auxiliary group disbanded, leaving a void that would be filled by additional volunteers. “Our foundation thought that ‘well, they’ve run this for 42 years, maybe we should jump in there and try to keep it going for the town. It became quite a tradition’,” said Uecker.

The group thought it was important to continue the tradition of a community meal where those in town pitch in. Carolyn VanWyk, a teacher from Lodgepoll, SD, was president of the auxiliary and the one who originally got the town excited about the prospect of a community luncheon.

“When they first started, they did it by goodwill donation. Then about midway through they went to five to seven dollars a meal,” said Uecker. While the cost of food has gone up, the group felt it was still important to offer the meal through a goodwill donation. “Let’s not price it. Let people give what they can give or what they’d like to give,” Uecker said.

In her time volunteering for the event, West has seen immense growth that those lending their time just couldn’t quite keep up. “People are aging out. So volunteers are getting too old to be doing it. We’re getting tired,” West said. “The younger people, how can they volunteer during the week? Everyone’s got full-time jobs. So its difficult for people who are working full time to volunteer and give this time to it.”

Another logistical concern that West notes was the amount of effort and time Kyle Kennedy had to put into ordering and preparing the turkeys. Replacing ovens at the grocery store with smaller ones meant more batches, more batches meant more work. 

As the number of meals served have dropped, so has the dollar amount raised. Despite that, the luncheon still served its purpose as a source of pride and fellowship for the community. “We’re trying to reach out to the community and let them know that we need some of these gifts to help us provide the facilities and equipment and physicians and nurses we need. Ya know it’s a long way to Bismarck; it’s a long way to Rapid City. We want our people to be stabilized right here,” said Uecker.

One of the main reasons why the event won’t take place in its current iteration is due to logistics. Out of an abundance of caution, the group doesn’t want someone to fall ill due to any potential cross-contamination. While this may be the final turkey luncheon, the hope is that the event can evolve into something new. “Maybe that’s a good thing, ya know? We don’t have to do the same events over and over. It’s not a bad thing to change,” said Uecker. Some of the potential ideas the group is considering include returning to the adult prom that’s been done in the past.

“Hopefully another organization will think ‘That was a really nice meal. Let’s pick that up again and do that,” said West. “I would say the story should be about what a great event it has been and what a service the hospital auxiliary has provided to our hospital over the years. And thanking Ted for carrying on the luncheon for the last years, when the hospital auxiliary ladies could no longer lead it.”