CRC past meets the present

Former Emanuel UCC pastor, Rev. Bob Macfarlane and his wife Diana, are back in town for a three-month stint while he serves as interim supply minister at Emanuel.

Rev. Bob Macfarlane was pleased to attend Saturday night’s Community Resource Center banquet at St. Joseph Mercy-Chelsea (formerly Chelsea Community Hospital).

Although he’s been gone from the community for 30 years, Rev. Bob served here for 10 years from 1978-1988. During that time, he also was on the Board of Directors of Chelsea Community Hospital and was active in helping to establish the Community Resource Center in response to Manchester’s needs when its largest employer, Double A Products, announced its closing in late 1987.

Along with David Little, Dick Kuntz, and of course,  Claire Reck–“Manchester’s one-woman social  service agency”–Macfarlane pitched in to help get the fledgling CRC on its feet. And when he approached the President of Chelsea Community Hospital for fund-raising ideas to help keep the young agency solvent while it brought in counselors, job recruiters, and other assistance for local families displaced by the loss of such a pivotal business in the community.

“Why don’t we have a banquet?” Macfarlane recalls the President asking. “We will donate the food, the chefs, and the servers–and you bring the people.”

And so, they did. At that first banquet in 1988, Claire Reck was presented with the award that still bears her name.

“We (myself, Little, Kuntz, and Reck) were all there at the first banquet,” Macfarlane said. “And so, it makes me very happy to be back here to celebrate this 31st banquet with you all.

“It’s great that the CRC is still making things happen after all these years.”

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.