Fostoria dinner, euchre tournament to benefit church's free-meal distribution

FOSTORIA — Every once a while when a situation looks bleak, a ray of light shines through to raise one's hopes.That happened recently when Staci Reiter of Fostoria Chapter 94 of the Order of the Eastern Star contacted Jill Brickner, secretary of Fostoria's High Street United Methodist Church, to inform her of the plan for the Eastern Star chapter and Fostoria Masonic Lodge 288 to host a spaghetti dinner and bid euchre tournament to benefit the church's free community drive-through dinner fund.The church began hosting free dinners monthly during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and they've continued since then. But as time's gone on and some financial resources have dried up, the continuation of the dinners went into jeopardy.Reiter said she hopes the dinner and euchre tournament can at least buy the dinners some time.The events are scheduled for Jan. 24 in the Masonic Temple at 113 E. Tiffin St. The spaghetti dinner will be an all-you-can-eat affair from 4 to 6:30 p.m., at $10 per person, with carry-out meals also being available. For those who are interested — whether beginners or veterans — the euchre tournament will start at 7 p.m., with a $10 buy-in per player for seven rounds."The funds are very low for the free dinners," Reiter said. "I think the church is looking at closing them after the funds are gone, and, you know, we have a need in Fostoria for the free dinners and the church is very passionate about continuing that. But their funds are very, very low, and as worthy matron of Eastern Star, I saw that need in the community and that is one of our passions and values that we strive to work on, to take care of our community."So, our hope is that we can raise as much money as we can to at least cover another month, and maybe we could even do two months if we are successful at helping the church do these free meals."Brickner, who coordinates the dinners for High Street United Methodist, said measures such as decreasing the size of the meals have been taken to prolong their availability."I was surprised and grateful, for sure," she said of hearing from Reiter. "We used to get grants to help fund this and we're not getting grants anymore. It's kind of, like, I thought we would be done by the end of the year. But then someone donated some money so we could go on a few more months and then (Reiter) called and said they were going to do a fundraiser. So, that will help us go on for a couple of more months, hopefully. With the prices of everything and no grants, it really makes it hard."Reiter and Clair Morse, a member of the Fostoria chapter and deputy grand matron of the Ohio Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, said that while the local organization is small in numbers, it hopes to attract new members and expand its outreach."If someone comes to us with a good cause and need and we have the funds to do it, we usually try to support them," Morse said.Reiter said the Masonic Temple, of which the cornerstone was laid in 1913, has been prepared for its newest event."We have a beautiful, historic building," she said. "We just got it spruced up; we did our cleaning over the weekend. So, we're excited to show the building off and provide fellowship with other members of the community. We'll have other brothers and sisters of the order there, and they'd love to share stories and have a social activity with community members as well."