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Date: 10/23/2019
HUNTINGTON – Veteran’s Agent Edward Renauld, who also chairs the Board of Selectmen, and his wife Aimee Burnham, Huntington’s Treasurer/Collector, remember four years ago when they first came up with the idea to do something special to honor the veterans in town.
They hosted a dinner to honor veterans, and the event has become an annual tradition.
The fourth annual Veterans Dinner, sponsored by the Council on Aging, will be Nov. 9 at 4:30 p.m. in Stanton Hall. Huntington Veterans of any age are welcome to attend free of charge with their families. There is a suggested donation of $10 per person for all other Huntington residents. This event is for Huntington residents only and primarily for veterans and their families.
At first, Burnham did all the cooking, making chicken parmigiana the first year, and chicken cordon bleu the next. Then last year, Renauld suggested prime rib, to be accompanied with twice-baked potatoes, salad and dessert.
The menu proved to be challenging, especially for the 60 plus veterans and their families which attend the dinner. Stanton Hall, the former Grange Hall, did have its kitchen upgraded in 2011, but the oven in there now is a standard oven. Burnham said the steamer that the Grange left behind comes in handy.
They soon realized that the combination of prime rib and twice-baked potatoes, which are labor intensive on their own, was too much for the kitchen, and asked Darryl Fisk, proprietor of Moltenbrey’s Market in Huntington who they had ordered the meat from if he could help them out.
Fisk has become well known in town for the cooked meals that he sells to customers on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursdays. They include beef tips with vegetables, cooked ribs, beef goulash, roasted chickens, squash casserole, macaroni and cheese – and those are just from memory as some of the meals this writer has bought. Customers have to be quick and get in the store in the early afternoon, because they quickly sell out.
Fisk agreed to cook the prime rib last year, which Renauld picked up before the dinner, and he did not charge the town for the effort. This year, the town offered to pay him for cooking, but he refused, saying it was a way for him to give back.
That is typical of the spirit behind the Veterans Dinner. Kathleen Peterson, COA chairwoman, said most of the people in the Town Hall help out. Peterson and Anna Horkun of the COA, Huntington Administrative Assistant Helen Speckels, and Jen Peloquin, secretary and assistant to about four departments, prepare the hall for the event, doing the “grunt work,” Peterson said.
Selectman Karon Hathaway makes cupcakes, and Darlene McVeigh and her husband Bill McVeigh donate the wine. The town grants a one-day beer and wine license for the dinner.
Burnham said it’s a very costly dinner, and started taking up a lot of the COA budget. This year, residents voted to accept a line item of $1,000 in the town budget to pay for the meal. The Huntington Cultural Council also supports the event with a grant for entertainment.
“This is the lovely thing that the townspeople voted for at Annual Meeting,” Burnham said. “It’s the town’s gift to the veterans.”
“We want to make sure we’re honoring our vets. We want them to know they’re appreciated, and we appreciate the sacrifice made by them and their families,” Peterson said.
Last year, Renauld’s parents came out from Townsend to join them at the dinner. Renauld, who is originally from eastern Massachusetts, served in the Air Force as a firefighter from 1989 to 1996, stationed in England and at Hanscomb Air Force Base. He now serves as Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention at Westover Air Base. Renauld has been the town’s Veteran’s Agent for seven years.
Aimee Burnham grew up in Huntington, and she and Renauld and their two children now live in the house she grew up in. “I don’t expect to go anywhere else. I like it here,” Burnham said. Before becoming treasurer, she was a selectman for nine years, and served as chair for part of that time. Between the two of them, they have served on many of the boards in town.
“It’s such a nice community event. This is something that reaches another part of the community, not people I see on a regular basis,” Burnham said, adding that everybody helps to clean up.
Reservations for the Veterans Dinner are required due to the limited seating for 60 people, and may be made by calling 512-5205 by Oct.31.
“Some people will show up, so we make sure we have a little extra,” Renauld said. Last year they had to bring up another table from the basement.