With a 1.5-mile long table, this dinner in Pa. aims to break barriers and a world record

A bridge wasn’t flat enough, so the York pastors thought of a different place to build a dinner table more than a mile long.

They walked along city streets once divided by riots and wondered what would happen if there were 10,000 acts of kindness during one year in York County. And what if that year ended with the biggest dinner in the world?

Even as the county made national headlines after police were called twice for five black women golfing too slowly, the pastors saw a community that could be a light to the nation.

“We want to show what we see as the true side of York to the world,” said Rev. Joan Maruskin, a community volunteer and retired pastor.

She and Rev. Ramona Kinard were walking together a few months ago – several weeks before Grandview Golf Club sparked a conversation about racism and diversity – and talked about the riots that divided York in the late 1960s. They kept coming back to all that’s changed in 50 years.

Kinard remembered staying safe during the riots in 1968 and 1969 this way: “I was very young…I remember laying on the floor because my mother told me to lay on the floor. My husband remembers tanks coming through.”

That feels like a distant memory, though discrimination and racism still exist in York County. Divisions also exist – sometimes by zip code – and Kinard wants to change that.

“It shouldn’t be city people and county people. York is part of York County,” she said.

The pastors want to bring all of those people together to break bread and a Guinness World Record for the longest dinner table. By snaking about 1,000 tables together like dominoes through Penn Park, they think they can reach a mile and a half to beat the record.

It’s a plan as optimistic as Maruskin’s peace-sign earrings, and the purpose is to unite on something good.

The slogan of the dinner is “Celebrating York’s Unity Through 10,000 Acts of Kindness.” An act of kindness will earn someone a seat at the record-breaking table, and it will also grow love in York County and beyond.

“Younger teenagers are feeling less and less optimistic…” said Shelly Merkle, the former superintendent of York Suburban School District, who resigned following a criminal mischief case involving a former colleague's vehicle. “Our concrete goal is helping people understand they alone can make a difference. By one act of kindness, I can create unity. I’m a part of not just the problem, but the solution.”

“She had all of these skills that none of us had,” Maruskin said. “We couldn’t do this without Shelly.”

“They are a bunch of creative, right-brain thinkers who needed a task master,” Merkle said. “I’m taking their wonderful ideas and keeping them organized and on track.”

The time frame is one year. A mental clock starts on June 30 to complete 10,000 acts of kindness by June 30, 2019, when the dinner will be held.

Merkle’s previous job in education allowed her to serve, she said, and that desire was still there.

“I’m out of education right now, but I needed to serve,” she said. “It makes one think, why not become a full-time volunteer?”

She was brought into these volunteer efforts by former colleague Mary Jo Fero. The list of people behind the unity dinner is long and varied, including chairwoman Jody Appell, wife of the late York businessman and philanthropist Louis Appell Jr., and organizer David Smith, co-owner of I-ron-ic.

Fero said the group sees an act of kindness as more than simply pulling out a chair for someone.

“It’s going out of your way to do something that enhances someone else’s life, impulsively or planned, but basically results in making someone else’s life better,” she said.

The effort already has support from local schools, the YMCA, and city and county leaders. The dinner will be free to all those who attend, prepared commercially and paid for by public and private donations.

Smith and Sean Arnold, owner and chef at The Left Bank, are organizing the food.

Until June 30, the group is focusing on finishing its website, which will be 10000actsofkindness.org, and continuing to rally support, which has been the easy part so far.

“People are excited about helping,” Kinard said. “At first I didn’t know if we’d have enough people to help, but we’re running out of chairs in meetings.”

Pastors who are accustomed to sharing the good news want to share the great news about York. It’s not that they have forgotten history. They just don’t want to memorialize it. Racism is still systemic in York and across the country, but the organizers of the unity dinner are focusing on the stories that often go untold.

“There’s more good happening in this world than not,” Maruskin said.

And after hired help takes down nearly 1,000 6-foot tables and about 8,000 chairs, they hope everyone else knows that truth, too.

“We believe York is a wonderful place, and we believe the world needs to know it,” Maruskin said.