Submitted by Clark Judge.
The Killingworth Ambulance Association is used to serving the community. It is not used to the community serving the KAA. But that’s exactly what happened Thursday afternoon.
Literally.
Francesco Lulaj, owner of La Foresta Restaurant, showed up at the ambulance association’s headquarters to serve EMTs with 30 bags of donated dinners prepared and cooked earlier that day. Each bag contained two plastic dishes with meals straight off the La Foresta menu and fresh out of its kitchen.
There was home-cooked manicotti, with ricotta cheese and tomato sauce. There were home-made meatballs. And there was sea bass Milanese, with capers and lemon sauce sitting on a bed of yellow rice. In short, there was enough in each bag to feed two or three customers.
Only these meals didn’t come with a bill. They came with an expression of gratitude.
“You guys donate your time and expertise,” Lulaj said, taking a break from handing out meals with Mike Haaga, the KAA’s chief of service. “You’re amazing. This is just a small thing I’m doing. What you go through is above and beyond.”
Lulaj’s contribution is no small thing. The dinners took an estimated eight hours from start to finish and were prepared without 26 of La Foresta’s employees, laid off because of the COVID-19 alert. In their place, Lulaj called on three persons to assist, including his chef.
Nor was Lulaj’s contribution unusual. The previous week he dropped off 65 bags of meals to feed the Killingworth Volunteer Fire Company. And the week before that, he went door-to-door in the Beechwood retirement community, delivering food to 600 people. The dinners took three to four days to prepare and another four hours to deliver.
“It’s not about the food,” he said. “It’s a gesture through human contact. It’s something for somebody who’s really in need.”
Then he paused.
“And next week,” he promised, “we’re going to be someplace else.”
So what gives? No, it’s more like who gives. Killingworth’s residents, that’s who. Last weekend, it was Andrea Freibauer of Andie’s Cookies dropping off two-to-three pounds of cookies with the KAA. The week before, it was an anonymous donor delivering 250 protective face masks. And in late March it was Heidi Giaccone donating 10 R-95 masks she found in her family’s basement.
Now this.
“As a community,” said Lulaj, who last week donated 150 face masks to the KVFC, “we should pay attention to people who donate their time. I donate food. Somebody else donates money. It’s all OK. Your time is more valuable than anything else, yet that’s what (the KAA) does.. You stay away from your family, wake up in the middle of the night – maybe 1 or 2 in the morning — and drive sick people to the hospital. I am very appreciative of what you do for our town.”
Lulaj said he wanted to demonstrate that appreciation and, naturally, thought of donating food. In six years of operating La Foresta in Killingworth, he provided the local fire company with meals at regular intervals, a practice he began when the KVFC alleviated his concerns about a potential fire hazard shortly after the restaurant’s opening.
But he’d never reached out to the KAA. Until this week.
““Honestly,” Lulaj said, “I thought they were the same people. It never came to my mind that they were different.”
It’s a common misperception. When he realized his mistake, he telephoned Haaga Wednesday to make amends — asking if he could donate meals the following afternoon. When Haaga jumped at the offer, Lulaj asked how many dinners he would like. Haaga said 25. Lulaj dropped off 30.
“This is a great community,” Haaga said, shaking his head. “Everybody takes care of everybody.”
But the KAA is supposed to take care of everybody because … well, because that’s what it does. The community isn’t supposed to take care of the KAA. Yet that’s what it’s doing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with random acts of kindness the new normal.
Lulaj is the latest example.
“People don’t understand how much we are saving by (volunteers) donating their time to take care of us,” he said. “The same thing with the Fire Department. We take it for granted, and that’s not a good thing. We have to show the younger generation that if you volunteer you’re making your community safer and better. That’s how we take care of each other, and this is my way of showing my appreciation for what you do. This comes from the heart.”
Photos provided by KAA.
