The Pandemic Blues, Part 17A: A look at the inspiration provided by South Attleboro’s Christmas Dinner in 2002

This column was published on Dec. 31, 2002 in The Sun Chronicle after the then-19^th Christmas Dinner was held in South Attleboro. The dinner, which had been held for 36 consecutive years, was canceled for the first time this Christmas due to the coronavirus pandemic. 
The dinner, which had been held at South Attleboro Knights of Columbus Hall for decades, had moved several years ago to Attleboro High School after the Knights sold their building on Highland Avenue (Route 123) in South Attleboro.
The dinner began as the Ro-Jack’s Christmas Dinner, as it was originally named for the iconic Attleboro supermarket that sponsored it, thanks to Ro-Jack’s owner Jack Hagopian, and the longtime involvement of the Hagopian family. 
Ed Tedesco of the South Attleboro Knights of Columbus, a good friend of Jack Hagopian and his wife Rose, provided the leadership to have the Knights of Columbus Hall on Highland Avenue (Route 123) in South Attleboro used as the location for the dinner. Tedesco’s family has kept the tradition going since both Tedesco and Hagopian’s deaths in 2003. 
This column is worth revisiting this Christmas Day.

THE LINK TO THE DEC. 31, 2002 COLUMN, which I wrote for The Sun Chronicle:  https://www.thesunchronicle.com/kessler-christmas-spirit-could-last-all-year/article_35a2e4be-38de-59f8-9778-597e7ecf7329.html

If you think the Christmas spirit has no chance of surviving beyond Christmas Day, think again. Stories of selfless acts abounded at the 19th annual Christmas dinner held last week, and they give ample hope that the spirit of the holiday season will last beyond tonight's New Year's Eve celebration.
Take Eleanor Gillan, for instance.
Gillan couldn't stop beaming in the kitchen of the Knights of Columbus Hall in South Attleboro about halfway through the 19th annual Christmas dinner last Wednesday afternoon.
Gillan, a volunteer for the second year in a row, was happy because she got some unexpected help this year at the dinner — from her daughter Jo Ann Stockwell of Attleboro and her grandson Eric.
“ Eric got up this morning, and said ‘Let's go where Gram is going this morning,’ “ Gillan said of her grandson Eric Stockwell, 23. “ It made my day.”
Stockwell, who is a manager of a 99 Restaurant in Portland, Maine, is typical of the estimated 100 volunteers who pitched in on Wednesday: He gave up a good chunk of his Christmas “just to help people who are less fortunate,” he said.
For Stockwell, reaching out to others meant dishing out some of the 180 pounds of whipped potatoes, 150 pounds of squash and 12 gallons of gravy that R. Russell Morin Jr., the owner of Fine Catering by Russell Morin in Attleboro, provided to dinner organizer Ed Tedesco at cost, just as he's done for many years. That was another deliberate act of kindness — the sort that was ubiquitous at the Christmas dinner.
Eric Stockwell's good deed was the start of many more years of volunteering at the dinner for the family, his mother Jo Ann Stockwell stressed.
“ He said `let's go with Gram, so we came,” Jo Ann said while waiting for another tray of food to serve. “ I think we'll be here every year,” she said.
Such sentiments come as no surprise to Tedesco, who has seen a lot of selfless acts in his 19 years of organizing the dinner. And he didn't hesitate to provide a reason why so many folks reach out to those less fortunate than them every year.
“ This is the real spirit of Christmas,” he said.
Other volunteers echoed that sentiment, including first-time volunteer Dan Connors of Cumberland, R.I., who said “ the spirit of the holiday” was the precise reason why he, brother Mike Connors and mother Charlene volunteered to be kitchen helpers.
Adding to the meaning of the holiday is also why North Attleboro's Kelly Bennett, 16, was at the hall on Christmas for the third straight year.She began volunteering two years ago as part of a community service project at her church, and she hasn't looked back since. In fact, the Bennetts were among several families who volunteered together as Kelly's sister Sarah, 18, was there, along with brother John, 12, and her mother Mary.
The reason that the Tri-County Regional Vocational-Technical High School junior gave for volunteering — “ just because it's Christmas and a lot of people don't have food” — sounds simple enough. Yet, it goes to the very essence of what Tedesco, along with second-year dinner sponsor, South Attleboro businessman John Martins, hope to accomplish by putting on the dinner — just as Tedesco and the Hagopians did the previous 17 years.
If you doubt that, then think about what would have happened if there had been no dinner. Without that 19th annual dinner last week, almost 600 people would not have had a decent Christmas meal. That's why the dinner remains as important as ever in the lives of so many people, including the volunteers.
As Kelly Bennett said, “ It just makes you feel good that you can help people out when they need it, and you don't necessarily need it.”
Or, as Eleanor Gillan also said: “God has been so good to me” and I am only too glad “ to help the less fortunate.”
Those words personify not only Christmas, but also the hope that the season's message will live on throughout the rest of the year.