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Special holiday dishes provide another meaningful way for these Detroiters to serve others
If side dishes can be called the unsung heroes of any holiday meal, it can also be said that the family members and friends that taste Allison Walker's first attempt at making potato salad during this Fourth of July holiday weekend will be receiving a treat from a native Detroiter who is known for her heroic and giving heart.
A 1979 graduate of the former Dominican High School — an educational institution on Detroit's east side that was deeply rooted in a tradition of service — Walker would go on to become a sergeant with the Detroit Police Department. Walker's 17-and-a-half-year journey with DPD included serving as the commanding officer for the Detroit Police Athletic League during the later stages of her law enforcement career.
Walker describes her service to Detroit PAL as "community policing at its finest" because it closely connected her to the Detroit community she loves, as she watched young people "bloom" while learning new skills.
However, Walker would have another experience during her career with DPD that was the furthest thing from joyful, when she was diagnosed with Heerfordt-Waldenstrom syndrome, a rare manifestation of sarcoidosis, which can present itself as a fever, facial paralysis, inflammation of part of the eye, and enlarged parotid glands — the salivary glands in front of each ear. But true to her giving and service nature, Walker would respond to her health challenge by coming together in 2009 with her fellow New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church member, the late Amy Thompson-Turner, to found the Caring Hands Sarcoidosis Foundation, which provides "patient advocacy, educational materials, and self empowerment" for people suffering with sarcoidosis.
And with caring and loving hands, beginning Tuesday, July 1, Walker embarked on a new journey to prepare a special batch of potato salad for her loved ones to enjoy with their holiday feasts this weekend. In doing so, Walker was connecting with someone who taught her to help others and also how to be brave when confronted with adversity. That person is Walker's late mother, Helen Jean Hart Walker.
"While chopping the ingredients and remembering my mother in the kitchen during the holidays making her famous potato salad, waves of wonderful memories washed over me," explained Walker, who in the absence of her mother's instructions turned to a recipe she found online for "Dee Dee's Soul Food Potato Salad," billed as a "cookout worthy recipe," which Walker discovered at
On the morning of July 2, Walker reported that her oldest daughter Jessica was already delivering a bowl of the potato salad to a friend and that a good-size portion was in her freezer for her son Christopher to enjoy over the weekend.
"I'm not sure if it's supposed to be frozen, but nothing beats a try than a try, and I'll be nibbling on the rest," Walker, who received an enormous helping hand in the kitchen from her grandson, Joshua Sidney Chapman, said. "Memories of my mother making potato salad for holidays were precious moments that I had long forgotten about, and I am thankful for the opportunity to relive them again while doing something nice for family and friends."
On the afternoon of July 3, a thankful tone also could be heard in the voice of Temika Wallace, the kitchen manager at St. Patrick Senior Center (Detroit's largest health, wellness and activities center for older adults, located at 58 Parsons, off Woodward behind Orchestra Hall), which has a well-earned reputation for serving some of the heartiest lunches in the city.
For Wallace, a week with a summer holiday provides an opportunity for her to feed seniors at St. Pat's, as well as family and friends, during the holiday weekend, in an extra-special way that she believes is more than worth the extra effort that is required to pull off the feat.
"I love working at St. Pat and making our seniors happy and full, and I feel the same way about the food that I will be preparing for my family and friends for the holiday," said Wallace, a longtime Midtown resident, who will be making her famous seafood pasta salad this holiday weekend to accompany ribs and chicken cooked on the grill. "I make my seafood pasta salad from scratch, and I make it with my own ingredients. And it's just good to see everyone when they're enjoying it and wanting more."
Lisa Gonzalez has a knack for doing more and more for southwest Detroit residents of all ages through three community organizations that she supports: Congress of Communities, a resident-led organizing and advocacy agency that facilitates solutions addressing community needs and concerns; Detroit Champions of Hope, which champions the importance of early childhood care while stressing the importance of parents, caregivers and child care providers as a child's first teachers, and the Mexican Patriotic Committee of Metro Detroit, which promotes Mexican arts and cultural activities, including the Miss Mexico Pageant, an event that symbolizes an ongoing commitment to empowering young women in the community.
With everything Gonzalez has going on, after a long day of activities and meetings, during the evening of July 1, Gonzalez was still excited to talk about foods that will be enjoyed in her community over the holiday weekend. The word "yummy" was repeated constantly by Gonzalez as she described carne asada, a traditional Mexican dish composed of marinated skirt steak or flank steak that has been grilled and thinly sliced.
But after all the grilled food is eaten, Gonzalez says there is another far more simple dish that she will be looking forward to that members of any any community can whip up, and that is Fresas con Crema — strawberries and cream. Gonzalez likes to make the dish using Cool Whip with blueberries on top,. But more than that, she says, the presence of food favorites during a holiday or anytime is a sure sign that good things are going on in a community.
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"In our community, we enjoy our food," Gonzalez said with a spark in her voice, even after participating in a late community meeting minutes before. "Even if it's just chips and salsa, or fruit; whenever we come together for anything, we'll have food. It's one of our favorite things to do. It's a source of joy and unity."
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Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city's neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@ or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Making a holiday dish is another way these Detroiters do a good deed
