Hot Dog Club offers ‘Season of Joy and Giving’

It started with a knock on the door in the spring of 2018. David Duncan walked to the porch on his two prosthetic legs.

The visitor was a young boy who lived down the street at Lake Wildwood. He asked for a drink of water. 

The youngster came back the next day … and the next. He started bringing his friends.  A few weeks later, David invited several neighborhood children to a hot dog supper on a Friday night. He and his wife, Shirley, served soft drinks and had cupcakes for dessert. He led a short devotional and Bible study.

They began meeting every Friday and called it the Hot Dog Club, even though hot dogs weren’t always the main menu item.

Over time, David learned their names, where they lived and their family situations. They began to trust him. They shared their hopes, fears, dreams and prayer requests.

The children became regulars at the Duncan home. They often would drop by after school for snacks. At the weekly meetings on Fridays, they were provided with food, clothes, school supplies and spiritual nourishment. The program’s outreach was later extended to a wide assortment of people, including adults.

In February 2020, David and Shirley were invited to speak at a Valentine’s banquet at New Heights Church. David told the group he didn’t always know where the food was going to come from on Friday nights at the Hot Dog Club but that “God always provides.’’

Dorothy McCranie, a member at New Heights, had planned and prepared a taco bar for the banquet that night. She sent the leftover food home with the Duncans for their Friday night gathering.

That was the beginning of McCranie’s involvement with the Hot Dog Club. She started volunteering on Friday nights. Other church members soon began helping out, and the church hosted a party for the children, with a water slide, beach towels and a meal. 

“We looked for any opportunity where we could bring in the church and make a difference,’’ McCraine said. 

McCranie helped Shirley shop for clothes, toys and personal hygiene items for the club’s annual Christmas party.

David had devoted more than 50 years of his life to ministry.  He was a double amputee, having lost both legs to diabetes. In 1996, he received a pancreas and a kidney in a double organ transplant.  Glaucoma robbed him of his sight in his right eye and he suffered from tunnel vision in his left.

But he never waved a white flag or threw himself a pity party. A man once told him:  “You’re the most ‘unhandicapped’ handicapped person I’ve ever met.’’

On December 11, 2022 – just a few days before the Hot Dog Club’s Christmas party – his big heart gave out. He was 65.

The Friday night get-togethers have carried on in his memory. The club continues to provide food, clothes, school supplies and other assistance to needy families at Lake Wildwood.

Shirley said the club now averages about 170 on Friday nights. A few weeks ago, during the time SNAP benefits expired, the group provided food for 236 people. 

For last year’s Christmas party, the club selected 10 Lake Wildwood families and hosted a Christmas dinner. They also sent them home with snacks, blankets and artificial Christmas trees with lights and decorations.

This year, the Hot Dog Club decided to go big.  

“It has been on Dorothy’s heart for the past 12 months that God was doing something,’’ Joanna Hardy, a church administrator at New Heights, said. “She didn’t know quite what, but she has been praying about it.’’

McCranie said she came up with the idea three months ago for what is being called the “Season of Joy and Giving” For the first three Friday nights in December, families at the Lake Wildwood gathering will be provided with a hot meal and items and gifts from the “grace table.”

  The theme for Friday, December 5 is “Warmth and Comfort.’’ Items from the grace table include socks, gloves, stocking caps, hoodies, sweat shirts, jackets. McCranie said the club has enough of those clothing items for the 175-80 people who are expected.

She said additional donations are still needed for Dec. 12 when the theme is “Cleanliness,” and for Dec. 19, when there will be a Christmas party in the Duncan’s back yard.  The theme for that night is “Rest.”

Items for “Cleanliness”  include shampoo, soap, body wash, deodorant, powder, toothpaste, toothbrushes and feminine hygiene products. Items for “Rest” include pillows, pillow cases, throw blankets, story books and devotionals.

“Whoever God sends to us on those Friday nights will have things to take home,’’ McCranie said. “It’s a whole lot of faith. David always said if somebody shows up, and they need it, we’re going to give it to them. As long as God provides, we’re going to do it.”Donations for the “Season of Joy and Giving” can be made at   New Heights Church, 158 Lamar Road, Macon, Georgia 31220 For more information, phone 478-757-2240 or email joanna.hardy@newheightsmacon.com