A volunteer with Saved with Amazing Grade Nicole Miraglia, dips out a serving for one of the 1,450 dinners given to those in the community on Saturday. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
A Community Thanksgiving Dinner continued to grow this year with 1,450 meals served between Salem and Centralia.
Saved with Amazing Grace, the Oddfellows Lodge in Salem, and the Marion County YMCA joined efforts with 50 to 60 volunteers to sponsor the program. Bonnie Carroll started the dinner after receiving a message from God and is amazed at its growth.
“It has grown over the last 4 years and getting bigger every year. It’s completely unexpected and we are grateful. And I’m just thankful for the community. The way they have pulled together. The Apostolic Church doing what they did. The extra volunteering that I had this year. I’m so grateful for it and Country Creek Treasures and everyone just pulling together.”
The Apostolic Church volunteered to cook the 300 meals that were delivered for distribution at the Centralia Community Youth Center.
The Oddfellows Chris Watkins says there was a lot of preparation to feed so many people.
“A lot of smoking. We had 95 turkeys this year and all of them were smoked. The Odd Fellows stayed up all night and I was up all night at the Apostolic Church smoking and help from them as well. All the volunteers came out to help serve and we had about 800 deliveries and that’s the community help right there. That’s where it all starts and ends, with our community.”
Because of COVID-19 all meals were prepared to go with pickup outside the Salem Community Activity Center.
The YMCA continued its blanket giveaway program. Director Jed Casburn was pleased.
“Last year we started a blanket drive and we got 54 blankets this year. Everyone knows this year is rough with Covid but I think we did well we had some blankets here late in the afternoon. And this event has grown and the number continues to go up so it’s exciting to be a partner with them.”
The group hopes they will be able to move back inside next year and offer inside dining for the meal. Nearly $2,000 in donations were raised for the dinner.
