Fundraiser planned for Meals on Wheels
Published 7:49 pm Saturday, May 14, 2011
A night of entertainment for a lifetime of nourishment seems like a fair trade.
Attendees at the first-ever Suffolk Meals on Wheels charity fundraiser will help provide just that for nearly 200 recipients of home-delivered meals in Suffolk and Isle of Wight County. The meal program is bringing the Rocky Hock Opry to town this week to perform as a fundraiser for the organization.
“Our meals do more than nourish the body,” said Roseland Worrell, executive director of Suffolk Meals on Wheels. “Our meals help maintain health and aid recovery while providing a method of keeping contact between the homebound and the community.”
The Rocky Hock Opry fundraiser will be held Friday at 7:30 p.m. at King’s Fork Middle School, 350 Kings Fork Road.
Last year, 189 disabled and homebound recipients in Suffolk and Isle of Wight County received two home-delivered meals each weekday. Each person who receives meals, even if it’s just on a short-term basis, means one more person who is able to live independently, Worrell said.
Dozens of volunteers deliver the meals on a regular schedule, often using their own vehicles and gasoline to do so.
The meals are provided at a very low cost to the recipients. That’s why the organization needs money to make it all happen, Worrell said.
The regionally famous Rocky Hock Opry began in Edenton, N.C., about seven years ago as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, Worrell said. They’ve since branched out to provide fundraisers for a number of charity groups.
The country entertainment features songs from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Reba McEntire, Josh Turner, George Strait and others. Comedy is interspersed throughout the show, and local Andy Morris — a favorite at this year’s Nansemond River Pilot Club Womanless Beauty Pageant — will portray Willie Nelson.
Tickets to the event are $15, but must be purchased in advance. They are available from Beale & Curran PLC in Smithfield; Mike Duman Auto Sales; Windsor Pharmacy; Nationwide Insurance; Farmers Hardware in Holland; Dwight Bradshaw, DDS; Billy Smith (925-4541); and the Meals on Wheels office in the garden level at Sentara Obici Hospital.
For more information, call the Meals on Wheels officer at 934-4911.