Easter’s multitudes

Serving all walks of life

The cavernous hall at Fayetteville’s Central United Methodist Church was again humming like a beehive on the Saturday before Easter as the 18th annual M&N Augustine Foundation’s Easter Feed opened its doors for a free meal at 11 a.m.

And once again, there I was at the end of the serving line, handing out bread slices.

Beside me, Circuit Judge Beth Storey was spooning out dobs of cranberries. Beside her, District Judge Joanna Taylor of Huntsville was ladling gravy onto mashed potatoes and dressing. A bit farther down the line, Third District Rep. Steve Womack and his personable wife Terri were manning their stations. Then there was Washington County Prosecutor John Threet and Sheriff Tim Helder each doing their part to serve others.

I was pleased the congressman, a former colonel after a 30-year stint in the Arkansas Army National Guard, appreciated the way my bread was stacked in neat rows, like a platoon at parade rest. “Great work,” he shouted. I saluted and handed a little girl, waiting patiently, her slice.

As always, the drill sergeant of the serving line was Fayetteville attorney Jim Rose III, who used his tennis shoes to sprint from one end of the lengthy line to the other barking assignments. Never at a loss for issuing legalistic commands, Rose was the ideal choice for this position.

The room was bustling with those from all walks of life, including 200 volunteers toiling inside and outside the kitchen. The young and the aged, the disabled and energized teenagers all pitched in. Across the room toiled former state Rep. Jan Judy and former state Sen. Sue Madison alongside her daughter Eva, of the Washington County Quorum Court. Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan was in the serving line, as always. There was Hog baseball coach Norm DeBriyn, and Larry Slammons, the retired former chief of the U of A police department chatting at one table.

Everyone was laughing, chatting, just as the all-inclusive event intended. It’s a day where those with influence and power in the community eagerly serve those with neither. And as always, the room felt like family.

This annual gathering under the auspices of the Augustine Foundation headed by one of my favorite folks, Dr. Merlin Augustine, would serve a record number of meals: Five thousand folks received meals in the Great Hall between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and another 3,000 were delivered to those who couldn’t join the festivities. Dr. Augustine was his familiar pollinating self, buzzing through the room dispensing embraces, laughs and gratitude on everyone. This is a profoundly meaningful day for he and his wife Beverly.

Among my favorites to meet this year was the pretty and personable 17-year-old Lorrie Vasquez, a junior from Fayetteville High who was adorned with a striking tiara and banner. She had been chosen as the queen of this event as well as the Augustine’s Foundation’s annual International Festival that raises funds for all the good it does in the community.

She told me she and other pageant contestants together raised over $12,000 this year to help the less fortunate gain a foothold for themselves. What a wonderful tribute to this young lady and her peers who as teenagers recognize the value of giving back. I suspect a lot of their awareness comes from having equally great parents.

Neglecting vets

When the rains begin falling on the veterans home in Fayetteville, we can all expect the downpour to last for months and months. And so it’s no surprise that the violations continued to stack up last week as investigators continued their work in the wake of the alleged neglectful death of a veteran in the home that went unreported for weeks.

I and others familiar with the widely reported culture of fear and neglectful mismanagement at the home expect still more violations and revelations to come as heads at the top continue to tumble one after another. Sad stuff when we are talking about proper care for our state’s nearly 300,000 veterans.

I especially appreciate what Martha Deaver, president of the not for-profit Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents, told Doug Thompson of NWA Media the other day: “The Fayetteville veterans home is continually, year after year, refusing to follow the [same] laws and regulations that all 231 [nursing home] facilities are required to follow.” Missing our Buffalo?

The state Department of Environmental Quality’s official “notice of intent” that accompanied the permit sought by C&H Hog Farms of Mount Judea states the runoff from the proposed waste-application fields would begin along an “unnamed tributary of Mill Creek flowing into Big Creek.” The White River then is cited on that same document as the ultimate receiving stream that might be affected by possible hog waste.

Because the notice requires each relevant water body between the initial receiving and the final potentially affected streams to be listed, I wonder why there’s not the slightest mention of the Buffalo National River, which our state agency clearly knows receives the flow from Big Creek then empties into the White River. How can they have accepted this?

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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial, Pages 15 on 04/02/2013

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