‘You helped keep a roof over our heads.’ Good Fellows raises millions for families.
Her dad came to America on a raft.
Fleeing the Cuban dictatorship, her dad and mom settled in Charlotte to provide a better life for their children.
“My parents were always hardworking,” a woman recounted during a video interview with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings.
Jennings shared the interview on a big screen at Wednesday’s 107th annual Good Fellows Club Christmas Luncheon at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Crown Ballroom in uptown.
The club helped the woman with rental assistance when she fell on tough times during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennings, a guest speaker at the event, said.
Now the woman, whom the club is helping to remain anonymous, works at the CMPD Animal Control shelter to support her five children — her husband is permanently disabled from a wreck.
“She’s a fighter,” Jennings said, recounting how the woman seeks out 12-hour shifts. “She never gave up.”
In the interview, the woman thanked Good Fellows, saying the club “helped me and my children keep a roof over our heads.”
How much did Good Fellows Club raise?
For the second straight year, the luncheon raised over $2 million for working families in emergency need in greater Charlotte from the record 1,800 people in attendance, said Betsy Zarzour, Good Fellows Club executive director.
Last year, the all-male club helped at least 2,000 families with an average gift of $1,600, club chairman Peter Pappas said.
The club has a longstanding reputation in Charlotte, and Jennings quipped that he’d finally made it in the Queen City, having been asked to speak at the event.
“I’m trying to convince my wife of 32 years,” he joked, drawing laughs from the crowd.
On Thursday, the all-women Good Friends Charlotte raised over $650,000 at its 37th annual Gather & Give luncheon in the Crown Ballroom. About 1,100 women attended the event.
The club was able to assist additional families beyond the 2,200 served last year, club members said.
“These funds will allow us to continue our mission and meet the growing demand for critical services to individuals and families in Charlotte,” club president Bev Lassiter said. “We work to improve lives and inspire hope, and with these funds, we can provide the support to do exactly that.”
At the Good Fellows luncheon, Graeme Keith III, a development partner with the Keith Corporation, also addressed the crowd.
”It’s not hyperbole for me to say that your generosity and what you are doing by supporting Good Fellows Club is changing lives, changing families and changing generations,” Keith said.
Ribbing of Charlotte’s famous things
Wednesday’s Good Fellows luncheon also came with its characteristic ribbing of famous things Charlotte from club leaders on stage.
Wells Fargo recently pulled its sponsorship of the PGA Tour event at Quail Hollow Country Club, but a new sponsor has already been secured, they joked: Ambien, the sedative sleep medication, with the tourney now called the Sleepy Hollow Classic.
The Charlotte Hornets announced a new website, but they had trouble stringing together the “w,” “w,” “w’s” at the beginning of the website URL, came another wisecrack.
Get it? “www” in this case standing for the absence of “wins, wins, wins.”
Back and forth went the questions and punchlines between Pappas and Jubal Early, club vice chairman for sponsorships.
Fellowship, helping the less fortunate and hearing the good-natured banter keep longtime club member Murrey Atkins coming back. Decade. After decade. After decade.
Atkins, 86, won the honors as the longest-attending member at 66 years.
Someone handed him a mega-bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve champagne.
“Is this illegal for me to have?” he quipped to Charlotte Observer reporters about to interview him after the luncheon.
“I’m a native of Charlotte, and this is Charlotte,” Atkins said of how club members give back to the community by helping people in need.
Four generations of his family were at the luncheon, he said.
“It’s inspiring,” he said of the event. “I take a lot of pride in it, that this is happening in our town.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2023 at 6:26 PM.