Good Fellows Club surpasses $1 million in funding at annual Christmas luncheon

Celebrating a jovial start to the Christmas season in Charlotte, members of the Good Fellows Club were encouraged to donate any loose change — an amount, perhaps, to rival billionaire Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper — during their 103rd annual luncheon Wednesday.

About 1,800 members and guests filled the Crown Ballroom at the Charlotte Convention Center/NASCAR Hall of Fame, smiling widely as they handed checks to “bag boys” careening in and out of the 230 closely-packed tables.

The club raised over $1 million in all, with about $300,000 donated at the luncheon itself, according to Malcolm Everett, outgoing president of the Good Fellows.

“It’s awesome. The future is just going to get bigger and bigger,” Everett said in an interview. “The only problem is, this is the biggest room in Charlotte.”

This year alone, the Good Fellows distributed $800,000 to nearly 2,900 working-poor families, Everett said. The club was founded in 1917 by congregants of the Second Presbyterian Church.

Against a backdrop of red and green LED lights, incoming club president Richard “Stick” Williams praised philanthropists for their enduring support of “parts of our community that we need to be strong.”

“This spells Charlotte — this is a community coming together,” Williams said in an interview. “There are families that just need to get through a rough spot, and then they get a life again.”

Jesse Cureton, the executive vice president and chief consumer officer of Novant Health, spoke of a “superhero” mother who lost her job and struggled to support her family, including a three-year-old daughter with a chronic disease. But by asking for help and piecing together community support, Cureton said, the mother’s story had a happy ending.

“The seed that you sow will be paid forward,” Cureton told the audience, which included a number of elected city and state officials. “It’s hard to think that for so many people in our community, they are just one or two events away from needing help.”

Everett and Good Fellows Vice President Peter Pappas jokingly recapped the year’s major headlines while the “bag boys” hurriedly collected donations.

They poked fun at the wave of millennials moving into South End, claiming that the newcomers stop at every brewery on the way to uptown while riding their Lime scooters.

The pair surmised that by the time the Silver Line light rail corridor is built, every Good Fellows member would likewise have silver hair — if they didn’t already. And they needled former Gov. Pat McCrory, who sat near the front of the stage, suggesting a toll road would be named in his honor — so long as he didn’t attempt a re-election bid.

“People actually laughed at some of the jokes today,” Everett said.

Everett said the over $1-million donation total could increase in the coming weeks. At its 102 annual luncheon last year, Good Fellows also raised $1 million. Through its centennial celebration in 2016, the club’s donations reached about $1.3 million.

This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 6:03 PM.