St. Gall turkey dinner: What Elburn does for St. Patrick's Day

ELBURN - Some communities have parades, complete with troops of men in kilts marching with bagpipes.

Others might host community meals with corned beef and cabbage.

But in Elburn, for decades, nothing has heralded the arrival of St. Patrick's Day more than a community meal of turkey with all the trimmings. 

For 129 years, St. Gall's Catholic parish in Elburn has hosted its annual community meal. 
 
As legend has it, through the early years of the 20th Century, the community meal and fundraiser for the church's Altar and Rosary Society, scheduled in mid-March, featured a traditional St. Patrick's Day corned beef feast.

But during World War II, when the country suffered from a beef shortage, the church turned to a local farmer to provide them with turkeys. The meal was such a hit that it hasn't changed since.

Or so the story goes, said Jeff Walter, of Elburn, a parishioner at St. Gall's. 

Walter and his wife, Carrie, have served as chairpeople for the church's turkey dinner for the last three years.

"History can be a little fuzzy on things sometimes, though," Walter said.

Regardless of how it began, though, the turkey dinner has served as a landmark spring event in Elburn for generations.

"This is what we do on St. Patrick's Day," said Russ Ruh, of Big Rock, a parishioner at St. Gall's.

The Walters said the more than 400 volunteers working the event were expected to serve more than 1,000 turkey dinners, including 600 meals to-go.

In all, organizers went through 1,700 pounds of turkey, 450 pounds of potatoes and "four cases" of stuffing mix.

Food preparation began Thursday, March 8. The turkeys were roasted Saturday at the homes of volunteers, including the homes of some who are not parishioners at St. Gall.

"We put the word out on Facebook and other places that we could use some help, and we had people who live in Elburn, but don't attend here, who just wanted to open their ovens to us," Jeff Walter said. "It's really something."

Potatoes, gravy and vegetable sides were prepared on site Sunday morning.

The event covers three locations, as the St. Gall parish hall played host to those dining in, and the Elburn American Legion Hall a few doors down from the church in downtown Elburn served as the headquarters for those organizing the to-go meals.

And, tn the kitchen at the Elburn Congregational Church, across the street from St. Gall, a group of men, including Ruh, gathered to peel, cook and mash potatoes.

While it has kept diners coming back for generations, the work of preparing the meal has also kept an army of volunteers coming back time and again.

Ruh, for instance, said he has worked in the kitchens for the turkey dinner for decades, beginning when he was 16 years old.

Mary Kugach, of Elburn, has supervised to-go meal preparation for the last six years, and has worked in some capacity at the dinner for almost two decades.

"It's the community interaction, that's what keeps me coming back," Kugach said. "Everyone comes to this, so it's a chance to get to see most everyone for at least one day."

And Pat Hartwig, of Montgomery, formerly of Elburn, who heads the St. Gall Altar and Rosary Society, said she has worked the turkey dinner for more than 30 years.

She said the turkey dinner's success in recent years has hinged on its ability to draw people from throughout the community, whether life-long locals or those newer to the Elburn area.

"It really helps everyone to see the closeness of this community," she said.

Carrie Walter said many of the people who staff the turkey dinner have held the same jobs for years, helping the event to run annually, mostly without a hitch.

"It's amazing to see how this just goes, all on its own, in a lot of ways," she said.

Russ Ruh's father, Herb Ruh, 80, also of Big Rock, said the importance of the dinner to the community is what keeps volunteers like him coming back year after year after year.

"If they could do this for over 100 years, you'd hate to be the last, the one that just let this great tradition go down the tubes," Herb Ruh said.