On January 27th, 2010 the Horicon Masons met for their 2nd annual soup making for the widows. 10 members showed up at 5:30 pm at Headon’s catering to hone their soup making skills. Some of the would be chefs cut small portions of either turkey or pot roast from the bones and chunks of meat. Others removed the cooked turkey bones from the oven and started a pot of water to boil them. The same was done with the beef.
Soon the kitchen was filled with pleasant smells, a lot of conversation, jokes and laughter. While the meat was being processed, others chopped carrots, celery and those dreaded onions. As soon as the meat was coming to a boil, the vegetables were added. Peas and corn were then also added. After a short time, the pots were removed from the stove and placed on wire racks in the cooler to cool until the next day. Again, we did not add any seasonings because of anticipated diet restrictions.
Card Sent With Each: “May these SOUPS keep you warm until SPRING arrives. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them for you.”
The next day, three members came in and skimmed the grease from the top of the soups and then packaged them all into pint containers and labeled. They were then placed into the walk-in freezer to await their distribution. All together, there were 196 pints of Turkey Soup and 94 of Pot Roast Soup. A couple of the wives purchased bright colored spring bags and 4 pints of soups were packaged for each widow.
They were then handed out at the Past Master’s meeting night so that some of the delivery boys would be different from our regular attendance. Everyone was enthused about taking them. When I asked about one widow who was in a nursing home. The Junior Warden (a Doctor who had taken her a coffee mug and teas) answered that he would be glad to deliver it; she was so very appreciative that we remembered her. The Senior Deacon asked where the soup was for a widow in a home in Dixon (I had mistakenly thought that it might be too far to drive-30 miles). He was given a bag. Two masons said that they were sorry that they missed the preparation night and wanted to be included next year. There was no hesitancy about taking bags for delivery as there were non left over.
An announcement was made that during their visits, if a member noticed a widow in need, then please report back and we would see about taking care of that need. It was also announced that the IMOS had grants to give to those in real need, but it was up to us to determine first of that need. The Secretary announced that we had one member who was willing to help out in any of the widow’s need.
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