Photos of the Day

9th Festival of
Potluck Foods

October 10, 2004

Message from Rickey Sain
Executive Director
Resources Unlimited Foundation

Things went well all around.
 
Near-perfect fall weather, sunny and warm. Both Jim Boushay and I were impressed and humbled by the creative ways the two emcees clearly worked cooperatively—(1) Vicki Quade, playwright and producer of Late Nite Catechism, one of the longest running non-musical comedies in American history; and (2) Joshua Clark, a high school senior who won the national ACT-SO competition in oratory for his speech on Coretta Scott King.  Just wonderful. And Lee and Monica? The two "Ice Cream Ladies" dispensed free Oberweis Gourmet Ice Cream from a gleaming blue and white cart sporting an overarching red umbrella. Big smile.

Across the afternoon we had maybe 450-500 celebrants. I'm not sure—never really counted, not this year, nor in previous years. There were people everywhere. We're so grateful to so many for their help in so many ways to make for a feast so compelling in a time seemingly so divided and turbulent.

The foods kept coming and coming. Best of all from the point of view of an organizer, I was dumbfounded by the number of people yesterday who, at the 5 p.m. official close, helped with take-down. We were outta there by 5:50, packed and cleaned up. Remarkable, and wonderful.  Jim and I continue to give thanks with a grateful heart. We're profoundly humbled by how things went. The Oak Park Public Library and the Park District of Oak Park have been wonderful, as have many institutions and individuals, certainly this year and also across the years since 1995.

And an unexpected surprise this morning is reporter Grace Aduroja's Chicago Tribune news story on the community potluck, appearing coincidentally on the national observances of both Columbus Day and National Coming Out Day. Multiply the stories of Frank Sommerfeld and Cora Williams and David Urban, all of whom were quoted in the article, and you have a sense of the short history in nine years of the potluck festival experience and spirit.

We want to get going on vacation tomorrow afternoon, after we first supervise the morning return of the tables and chairs to the churches loaning them. We'll then go on retreat for a few days at Gethsemani Trappist Monastery in Kentucky, and then head southeast from there.

We couldn't get away anyway until after we come back from this morning's breakfast kick-off of Let Justice Roll. We need to leave for that and be downtown by 8 at Fourth Presbyterian Church to help kick-start that new initiative to get the poor and poverty back on the national agenda.  It's no secret that in the last decade it has not been fashionable or popular to talk about the poor and the most vulnerable among us. 

Jim and I are serving as local chairs of that initiative, along with other local chairs and with such national chairs, among others, as Jim Wallis of Call to Renewal in Washington, DC, and Rev. James Forbes of Riverside Church in New York City, and such wonderful faith and moral leaders, among others, as Rev. Calvin Morris of Community Renewal Society and the Chicago Coalition to Protect the Homeless, Mary Nelson of Bethel New Life, and Jennifer Kottler and Al Sharp of Protestants for the Common Good. Involved are many other faith and community voices in this broad local and national effort. Many more will soon become involved. To this morning's breakfast and press conference, we were pleased to bring along the new president of the Community of Congregations, Rev. Marnie Rourke. Altogether the initiative is challenging. There's a lot of important advocacy work to do.  And advocacy of course is part of Resources Unlimited Foundation's specialized work in civic engagement and social justice.