Auxiliary members and Finch sisters: Sharon, Donna, and Connie, carry on their mother Sally’s legacy to promote literacy. The Harvest dinner, Friday, Oct. 13, from 4-6 p.m., raises money for the ALA’s Finch Education Fund. All are welcome. (Photo by Jeanie Petersen)

OXFORD - The Oxford American Legion Auxiliary (ALA of Fort Hill Post #376) is getting things ready for this year’s benefit Harvest Dinner.

The roast turkey feast (with loads of trimmings and dessert pies) will be on Friday, October 13, from 4 to 6 p.m., dine in or take-out. Community members are invited to have a delicious hearty, “home cooked” meal and support this good cause, the Finch Book and Education Fund.

Each year, members of Unit 376 bake and donate sweet, homemade apple and pumpkin pies to serve for dessert. The rest of the dinner will be cooked in the Post 376 kitchen by ALA volunteers along with the SAL and Legionnaires, aka the “Legion Family”, who pitch in with food preparation and serving at this event.

The evening's menu is delicious roasted turkey breast, turkey gravy, stuffing, jellied cranberry sauce, real mashed potatoes, and your preference of squash or string beans. Dessert, if you have room, will be your choice of home-made apple or pumpkin pie, with whipped cream on top. The Harvest feast is $12. Take-outs are $13.

The proceeds from the ALA Harvest Dinner are for a memorial fund named after Sarah "Sally" Finch, who passed away in 2003. This once proud member of the ALA Unit 376, started the fund twenty-three years ago, to promote literacy in Oxford. Sally helped sponsor volunteer programs on the national and local levels of the ALA. Three generations of Finch women, members of Unit 376, carry on Sally’s legacy, and this year, there will be a special Finch volunteer.

Auxiliary member, Becky Finch-Mersereau, who lives far away in Nevada, will be flying in to join her (Finch) Aunts this year. She wants to bake some pies and help serve the Oxford community to honor her grandmother Sally and the American Legion Auxiliary!

The Finch Book and Education Fund provides revenue for books for the Oxford Academy Primary School students.

To date, the Oxford Legion Auxiliary has donated well over $7,000. The historic Fort Hill Post #376 is located at 17 S. Washington Avenue. For inquiries, contact unit president Louise Spicer, at (607) 843-9495 / email:  Oxford107@Frontier.com; or call the American Legion at (607) 843-8166. For more info on the ALA, visit:  oxford-ala.chenango.org.