Being Thankful at Thanksgiving

I had the opportunity to do something new and different this year for Thanksgiving.  Greg and Patti have been involved with volunteering on Thanksgiving at a halfway house and I was lucky enough to be able to join them this year, along with Hilary as well (her first time, also).  Most of these poor folks suffer from mental illnesses, which has caused them to have quite hard lives and if it weren't for that halfway house, most of them wouldn't even have a house over their heads.  Being able to help prepare and serve a full Thanksgiving dinner to these folks was an amazing experience and certainly drove home all that I have to be thankful for.

The day started by arriving to find Garrett (a new friend) manning the kitchen by himself.  But we jumped in and soon had pots cooking, things baking, and food being prepared and set out on all sorts of plates.  Oh yeah - one funny thing worth mentioning; the first task that was assigned to me; make the coffee.  I don't drink coffee, so I had to ask for a couple of pointers from Greg before I had the process down, and soon the coffee dispenser was filled and ready to go.

From there, we set to getting some appetizers laid out for the folks that were in the dining area already, then it was back to the kitchen to focus on the main courses.  All the things you'd expect to find at a full Thanksgiving meal were there; turkey (I don't know how many there were, but it was a lot, and the meat had been cut and separated into light and dark), potatoes (70 pounds!), squash, stuffing, carrots, green-bean casserole, rolls, etc.  When all the food was prepped, we all headed out to the dining area to put plates together and serve to each person.  This was a nice touch, to actually bring a plate to each person and to wish them a happy Thanksgiving.

Then, while they were eating, it was back to the kitchen with us, to get a start on the cleanup.  But before too long, the main course was done, "seconds" had been given out where needed, and it was then time for dessert.  And what desserts - pies, pies, and more pies.  And cookies, and brownies, and coffee/ginger breads.  (I hadn't had much of a chance to eat any of the real food, but I made up for that with the desserts - an all too common habit of mine.)

As the cleanup process progressed, the dining guests began to trickle away - some upstairs to their rooms, some gathered in the common areas within the house, and some went back outside to wherever they spend their days.

We got the rest of the food cleaned up and put away, dried and put away the last of the cooking/dining implements, and then swept and tidied the place up to how it had been when we found it.

Before we left, the Director of the house gave us a tour of the place to show how they are helping these people.  Man...the folks that work here must really do this out of the goodness of their hearts because they really don't have much to work with.  But they do everything they can to try and give their guests as normal a life as possible.  Truly impressive.

After saying our goodbyes, we headed off to Hilary's house where she cooked up a small dinner for Greg, Patti, Garrett, me, and herself.  It was a nice finishing touch to what had been a great day...

...and then on Saturday, many of the Legion Riders took shifts at a local grocery store ringing the bell for the Salvation Army.  But that's a story for another day (just kidding; there is no follow-up story.  We rang bells, collected money for an amazing charitable organization, and wore cute Santa hats while doing it.  End of story.)  :-)

I can't wait to do all of this again, next year!