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ECHO packs visitors in for annual Christmas feast

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ECHO Christmas Day Dinner 2010

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JANESVILLE — Local chef Stan Arnold did the twist briefly during a bongo drum roll while he thanked volunteers and visitors for coming to the ECHO Christmas Community Dinner at St. William School in Janesville.

“Feliz Navidad, and all that,” Arnold told the crowd of a few hundred who had come Saturday for a holiday feast of turkey, stuffing, veggies and mashed potatoes with gravy.

Arnold was head cook at the free annual event at the school on the city’s west side.

As of noon Saturday, 450 people already had dined at the community dinner.

And officials said volunteers had delivered at least 150 dinners to a local nursing home and to dozens of local shut-ins.

With an hour left to serve the dinner, visitors were still filtering in and a live band was cranking up a sing-along of version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

“This is what I like to see,” said ECHO coordinator Marge Sell, beaming as she gazed around the packed dining hall at St. William School.

ECHO officials estimated they would serve about 800 meals Saturday—200 more than last year and the biggest turnout since the nonprofit service group started hosting the dinner nearly 40 years ago.

Sell says it takes more than 100 people to help serve food and clean and set tables at the dinner.

Saturday was local resident Kevin Brown’s seventh straight year attending the dinner. He said it always delivers good food and great times.

“It’s a nice time to spend with family and friends,” Brown said.

Arnold said he gave volunteers at the dinner a simple pep talk:

“I just told all the helpers, ‘We’re serving our grandmothers Christmas dinner four to six hundred times today,’” he said. “That’s it. It’s Christmas.”