Fellowship Dinner Planning

Thank you to everyone who attended the April 7 Fellowship Dinner planning session, and to those of you who couldn’t attend but sent suggestions! Altogether about 20 people contributed, which was awesome; here are the highlights:

General notes:

We will keep most events on Thursdays, since we haven’t seen a drop in attendance and the choir has been able to help with cleanup. We will continue to fund the dinners through freewill offerings. This year we would like to schedule entertainment for the cookouts as well as the winter events.

Tentative 2016-2017 schedule:

• October – We are waiting to hear whether the ASU Korean Students Ensemble will be putting on our program, and if so, on what date. The food will be pasta; vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available. 
• November – The traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner, on Thursday, November 17. 
• December – Holiday ham dinner on Thursday, December 15.
• January – “Dinner with Your Deacon,” probably on Thursday, January 12; details to be hammered out with the Deacons at their May meeting. 
• February – TWO events; a potluck dinner on Thursday, February 16, at 5:00 pm, and the Shrove Tuesday pancakes on Tuesday, February 28, from 11:00 am-1:00 pm. 
• March – The Lenten Fish Fry on Thursday, March 16. We will add potato salad to the menu.
• April – The Earth Day dinner on Thursday, April 20, serving loaded baked potatoes and sweet potatoes. 
• May – The Memorial Day cookout at noon on Monday, May 29. 
• June – NO scheduled events.
• July – The Independence Day cookout at noon on Monday, July 4. 
• August – The 90+ tea on Thursday, August 17 (time to be determined). 
• September – The Labor Day cookout at noon on Monday, September 4.

Entertainment:

Suggestions included the Me & My Brother guitar and drum group; marimbas; The Steele Sound (small steel drum group); The Desert Belles; a barbershop quartet; The Sun City Accordion Club, or a subset of it; a piano duet; James Jones (descendant of a Buffalo Soldier); The Arizona Trio (two guitars and a banjo); Bill Ciccione (blind vocalist/pianist); a fireman from the Buckeye Valley Fire Department; and videos.

We hope to have the entire schedule for next year hammered out in May and to send out the brochures for next year in the June SPIRE so everyone can mark their calendars well in advance of the fellowship evenings.

Thank you again for all the wonderful suggestions. I believe this WILL be our best year of Fellowship Dinners ever!

~Beth Mabee