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Thanksgiving is the quintessential American celebration. While most of us gather at or near home, some 37 million others speed across this vast and great land, braving crowded airports, hazardous weather, hectic schedules, and harrowing highways, all to be drawn, instinctively it seems, “home” for an annual affirmation of love and loyalty to family and friends. Indeed, home is where the heart is, or certainly wants to be. For 100 years the Cosmo Club has been home and shelter to thousands of international students who have forged a steadfast brotherhood committed to a universal meaning of Thanksgiving. Their Cosmo sense of belonging finds expression in countless daily acts, big and small, of generosity, friendship, and mutual respect. Whether sharing “home-cooked” food across our kitchen table, working on the house, participating in weekly coffee social hours, international dinners, and other special events, helping others with their school work, learning how to communicate in another’s native language, partying together, perhaps lazily gathering in our TV room for convivial fellowship, or rising unhesitatingly and selflessly to the aid of a stricken housemate, our Cosmo family, young and old, nurtures an all-encompassing sense of Thanksgiving centered in, but extending far beyond, the confines of our warm and wonderful home at 307 East John Street in Champaign, Illinois. The Cosmo Club annual Thanksgiving Benefit Dinner is a striking manifestation of our pledge to all of humanity: Generous and compassionate understanding, while beginning at “home,” knows no boundaries. We wish of course that all of you could have reveled in the breathtaking array of food donated and prepared by the Cosmo Board, residents, and friends. Many of you will of course remember the joyful spirit of the day, recalling also that all proceeds from ticket sales are given to a deserving and needy charity, chosen usually for its work on behalf of children worldwide. Recent recipients include struggling organizations in Central America, Ecuador, India, Romania, Turkey, Zambia, Romania, and the USA. This year, Julio Urbina, a former Cosmo resident and house manager and currently a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, proposed that the proceeds from the Thanksgiving Dinner be donated to a small and poverty-stricken elementary school on the outskirts of Lima. (See next article for more information.) |