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  • MARK SCHLACHTENHAUFEN | THE EDMOND SUN Cay Wright, left, and Tiffany Hockenbarger carve turkeys Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church in advance of Thursday's Edmond Community Thanksgiving Dinner on the University of Central Oklahoma campus.

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  • MARK SCHLACHTENHAUFEN | THE EDMOND SUN Warming trays wait Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church of Edmond. On Thursday, they will hold delicious food for guests attending the annual Edmond Community Thanksgiving Dinner.

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  • MARK SCHLACHTENHAUFEN | THE EDMOND SUN Dick Geib stands in a 40-foot refrigerator truck holding food destined for Thursday's Edmond Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the University of Central Oklahoma. During the past few years, the truck has been donated for the dinner by U.S. Foods.

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  • MARK SCHLACHTENHAUFEN | THE EDMOND SUN Mike Laska, left, and Gary Wallis load a table into a 40-foot refrigerator truck Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church of Edmond. During recent Edmond Community Thanksgiving Dinners, U.S. Foods has donated the truck.

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Discussion

November 23, 2010

Citywide Thanksgiving dinner plans going full speed

Volunteers still needed for Thursday

Patty Miller The Edmond Sun

EDMOND — Joy comes in many forms at this time of the year, from the joy of receiving to the joy of giving.

For more than 500 volunteers who have helped prepare the city’s Thanksgiving dinner, to the ones who will be delivering, serving or cleaning up on Thursday, they all will be on the giving end as well as on the receiving end.

More than 3,000 hungry Edmondites are expected to sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal and friendly words as volunteers make them feel at home.

Dinner will be served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Nigh Center on the University of Central Oklahoma campus.

“This is one of the few places that can hold the crowd we plan to feed,” said Mike Laska, the organizer of the dinner that first started 29 years ago.

For many of the volunteers it is a family affair and like the Laska family some have been volunteering since the inception of the dinner.

Cay Wright was carving turkeys Tuesday with first-time volunteer Tiffany Hockenbarger in the kitchen at First Presbyterian Church.

Wright said she and Laska made mashed potatoes the first year.

“I think we served ourselves and about 30 other people that first year,” Wright said. “The next year we served about 150 people and it has grown ever since.

Tiffany Hockenbarger said she volunteered this year because she was tired of the traditional family dinner and wanted to give back to the community.

“I have always served before, and seeing the joy on the people’s faces and knowing you are doing something to help someone makes you feel good,” Wright said.

The first dinner was held at First Presbyterian Church, and now 11 churches throughout Edmond are involved in a yearly rotation system. Although all of the churches have a role in the preparations, three churches organize the preparation each year.

In addition to First Presbyterian, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is helping and First United Methodist Church is hosting the event.

With food costs up 10 percent to 15 percent, Laska said, “Where we lacked in the number of food donations we normally receive, we made up in some very generous dollar donations this year.”

Every year is different, Laska added.

“There have been fewer volunteers to help with preparation of the food this year,” Laska said, “but we have people volunteering to help serve and clean up, although we can always use more.”

Laska’s daughter Kathryn Konrad said she has never known Thanksgiving to be any other way.

“I started as a 3-year-old and this year my 2-year-old son dressed up like a turkey to help publicize the dinner.”

Konrad said 150 turkeys are baked and sliced and two types of dressing are ready along with the sweet potatoes. The hams, all 500 pounds of them, are ready to bake.

St. Monica Catholic Church’s youth group will descend on First Presbyterian Wednesday to peel almost 500 pounds of white potatoes that will be mashed and served along with corn, green beans and fruit salad.

“Dad does all of the gravy in small batches,” Konrad said, “and the desserts are all donated. We are hoping the dessert fairy is working really hard right now. I am always worried we won’t have enough desserts although pies and brownies always seem to show up.

“One year I went home and baked 14 pumpkin pies because I was afraid we might run out of desserts.”

On Thanksgiving Day, work begins at about 5 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. for the volunteers.

“We are fortunate, God always finds a way to get it done,” Laska said.

After everyone is served, any leftovers will be taken to the Jesus House, and other items will be given to the HOPE Center, Breakfast on Boulevard, Samaritan House, Cooks Nite Out and Sister BJ’s Pantry.



TO VOLUNTEER for the Edmond Community Thanksgiving Dinner call 340-0691, ext. 343. For home delivery of a meal, call 341-3602, ext. 130.

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