A White Christmas

By Don Bradley

Richard White needed only a few minutes to get a booth at Starbucks looking like a home office. Laptop running, papers scattered, two phones going, pen in hand, checking lists, juggling calls…

Christmas is his busy time and for this guy, it’s always Christmas. He starts in January.

In 1977 as a Kansas City police officer, he got an idea to put on a Christmas Day dinner for senior citizens. He walked a beat in Westport, talked to folks and knew many would be alone on Christmas.

Sounds like a 1940s Bing Crosby movie.

The difference is that nearly a half-century later, White’s holiday feature is still playing.

One year, way back, transportation fell through at the last minute and police cars were dispatched to pick up the seniors and bring them to the dinner.

Sirens? Of course, to great delight.

Other years saw bad weather and financial woes. One year, White had a heart attack around Thanksgiving. He still pulled it off.

He’s got a troupe of 200 or so volunteers and a guy named “Fast Eddie” smokes all the turkeys.

But it is White who does the heavy lifting. He’s the one who works with 150 or so businesses for raffle prizes that help pay for the event. Event space, guest list, transportation, food prep, volunteers…

And the father of four and grandfather shows up every Christmas morning at 5 a.m. and stays to the end to make sure the dinners come off.

“I don’t know anyone who has given up his Christmases for other people the way he has,” said longtime Westport merchant Dick Nigro, who started helping out in 1978.

White’s daughter, Shaina Brisbane, said she went to her first dinner in utero.

“I used to tell people I had the biggest family Christmas in Kansas City,” she said.

The first dinner in 1977 served 35 seniors. Now, the number is more than 500 at three different locations and everybody goes home with a bag of fresh fruit.

Another 300 meals or so are home delivered.

White’s Christmas dinner is bigger than ever. That’s good.

And White, 77, is older than ever. That’s challenging.

“I just can’t find anybody to take over,” he said at the Starbucks last week. He retired from KCPD in 1997 and now works for the Federal Reserve.

He’s come close a couple of times to finding a successor, but both those fell through.

A key hiccup might be money. White estimates he kicks in $2,000 or so every year from his own pocket.

This is year 48. Do the math.

“I’m still good for now and I’m going to try to make 50 years,” he said.

He paused then nodded. “Yes, I would like to make 50.”

This whole thing came out of KCPD’s metro patrol division in 1977. The commander at the time, Major Dick Fletcher, asked for ideas for a Christmas community project.

White had gotten to know lots of seniors on his beat and noticed how happy they were for something as simple as a little chat.

Some were lonely. Particularly at Christmas. They told him their kids were far away and wouldn’t make it home.

So, White suggested a Christmas dinner for senior citizens. Not only did Major Fletcher embrace the idea, he volunteered his family to help with transportation using two borrowed church buses.

The first dinner was held at a hotel on 43rd Street. Most of the 35 who attended showed up again the following year with friends like themselves.

Over the years, those “friends” have become like family. They look forward to their reunions.

“It was like I had all these grandparents that I saw once a year,” Brisbane said.

“They watched me grow up.”

One year while waiting to be interviewed by a TV station, White visited with a man who asked him how the dinners were going. White told him the biggest problem was transportation.

The man turned out to be the head of Kansas City’s Area Transportation Authority. That’s when ATA started providing rides to the dinner using volunteer drivers.

The dinners are now held at three locations:

• Solid Rock Bible Church at 2501 N.E. 39th St. in the Northland
• St. Peters School, 6400 Charlotte St.
• Christ United Methodist Church, 14506 E. 39th St. in Independence.

Shania Brisbane knows her father can only go so long with this, and she thinks the person who takes it over might have to come from the same place.

“He was out there on his beat and got to know these people…he saw the need,” she said. “This was about community service.”

And income status was never part of the deal.

As White, the old beat cop, said, “Doesn’t matter how much money you have if you’re alone on Christmas.”

Bing Crosby could definitely sing that line.

For more information go to: kcmoseniorcitizendinner.com or call 816-572-2646