A Touch of Ireland for Marlborough Seniors

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 3/24/21

Although celebrations and parades for St. Patrick’s Day have been curtailed because of Covid 19, the Marlboro-Milton Lions Club delivered a little bit of Irish cheer to their town’s …

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A Touch of Ireland for Marlborough Seniors

Posted

Although celebrations and parades for St. Patrick’s Day have been curtailed because of Covid 19, the Marlboro-Milton Lions Club delivered a little bit of Irish cheer to their town’s senior community.

Robert Kirk and his team at Kirky’s Deli in Milton, prepared 224 meals of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and Irish soda bread. He said Stephen Jennison, President of the Marlboro-Milton Lions Club, had mentioned carrying on the tradition of cooking for the seniors at the Marlboro Presbyterian Church, only this time the meals would be delivered to them.

Kirk said the initial estimate was for 100 meals but that quickly grew to 190 and finally settled out at 224 meals.

“It was touch and go there because we were running out of corned beef and there wasn’t any to be found,” he said. “I went lookin’ and huntin’ and we got it done. My four girls worked very hard all week and put a lot of time in and did a great job, tirelessly and non-stop.”

Kirk said Marlborough really came together to make this event happen.

“It’s a small community that reached out and took care of the seniors who can’t get out,” he said. “When it comes down to it, we are a small town and we have to stick together and help each other. When it’s your turn, then you don’t complain, you get up, do what you’ve got to do and get it done.”

Supervisor Al Lanzetta said dinners have been held at the church for many years but this is the first year that meals were being delivered.

“Because of Covid the seniors haven’t gotten together and the other day I spoke to Anna Rose, who is the President of the Marlborough Seniors Club, who said it is a shame that they were going to again miss their St. Patrick’s Day corned beef dinner. I said wait a minute maybe we can do something,” he said.

Lanzetta enlisted the help of his fellow Lions Club members to distribute the meals to Jenny’s Gardens I & II, Milton Harvest and to individual homes of seniors.

“So all the meals get delivered and we put a smile on their faces. We all need that,” he said.

Anna Rose said she was initially speaking with Lanzetta about vaccines and mentioned the seniors missing their Irish dinners. Lanzetta quickly called her back and gave her the green light to compile a list of those who wanted a meal. She said once word got out, “we had more seniors sign up than we even figured because we usually don’t get them all signed up from Jenny’s Garden or Milton Harvest, and this time we did, every apartment.”

Lanzetta said the meals were free to the seniors and funding came out of the senior budget line item that the town provides for every year.

Jennison said the Lions Club did a dinner similar to this one for the senior picnic last summer and for Thanksgiving in November. He said Lanzetta asked him and the Lions Club to help deliver the meals and without hesitation they rose to the occasion.

“I’d like to thank the community and thank the Town Board for helping to fund this and I’d like to thank Rob Kirk and his girls for really coming through with 224 meals,” Jennison said. “They did a bang up job.”