An Intimate Senior Q in New England
By Morgan Wotherspoon
This year Big Boned BBQ chose to do two events. Alex Morales and I decided to invite the wonderful seniors from Sparrow's Point 3 to our Coventry dinner. Our two events were the Coventry Senior Center on October 16th and the West Warwick Senior Center on October 30th.
This is our third year participating in Senior Q and we love it more than ever. This year brought a whole new aspect to Senior Q; we now have senior groupies and these events have become more intimate. Our first event was the Coventry Senior Center and Pat Saballa the volunteer coordinator was once again very helpful and made our Coventry event very successful. Our Menu for this event was pulled pork, chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, and potatoes au gratin. The best part of cooking all day is getting to eat lunch with the seniors as well. It gave me the opportunity to talk to the seniors that visit the Senior Center on a weekly basis. They are so fun and full of life and stories. They were very nice and thanked me just for my time because I hadn't even served the food yet, but I did fill the kitchen with the smell of butter and leeks to make the potatoes au gratin. The whole staff and volunteers including my wife did a great job to help Alex and I serve the meal. I would like to personally thank the Girls Scouts of Troop 38 Coventry for serving and clearing tables. Even my four year old daughter Miranda put on an apron and cloves and helped clear tables. She proved to be the entertainment for the seniors talking their ear off as she cleared the plates. One senior asked her why she was wearing gloves and she said, "Because I don't want to get cooties." I was a proud father because she worked so hard and made the seniors laugh. We served over 90 seniors and had a great time doing it. I received a thank you card with over twenty signatures from our new groupies.
Our second event was the West Warwick Senior Center on October 30th. Manny Murray and his staff are top notch. This was our third year doing the West Warwick event and we have become very close to the seniors and the staff. Our menu was pulled pork, ribs, chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese and apple pie. Like the Coventry event I was able to sit down and have lunch with the same seniors that were signed up for the dinner meal and we had a wonderful conversation and they were very excited about the event and wanted me to cook for them on a regular basis. When the food came out they were very happy and the plates had empty bones and the people that couldn't finish were asking for doggie bags. We served over 70 seniors. Alex and I consider ourselves to be very blessed to be apart of Senior Q.
