Employed, unemployed and cream can

Story and photos by Bruce Thorson

June 27, 2009, Arapahoe, Neb: Raffi Wartanian, 22, screamed, "I found out an hour ago I just got a job in San Francisco!"

Wartanian, recently graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in history, is participating in a bicycling trip across America helping to raise awareness about cancer.

The 29-member team, part of the 4K for Cancer, arrived in Arapahoe earlier in the day.
The First United Methodist Church hosted a dinner for the riders, church members, family and friends. The will spend the night in Arapahoe. Many Arapahoe-area families are housing the riders.

The cyclists left Baltimore on May 31 and hope to arrive in San Francisco on August 1.

Wartanian discovered a woman attending the dinner was from his hometown, Lutherville, Maryland.

Gail Morris, 67, who currently lives in Seattle, Washington, was in Arapahoe to fulfill her sister's last wishes. Her sister wanted to be buried in Arapahoe, where she and Gail spent their summers growing up with family.

Morris, who has been unemployed for a year and a half, is seriously thinking about moving to Nebraska, maybe in Arapahoe or Lincoln. "The low cost of living in a small town where people are friendly, I could live on my pension here," she said.

The ingredients are all cooked together in a cream can. The meal is corn, potatoes, carrots, sauerkraut and bratwurst. It is then all dumped in a trough-like serving dish. Diners can then scoop out what they want to eat and how much to eat. Toby tenBensel (left), 45, and Ted Downey, 37, pour in the next meal.