2005 Thanksgiving Dinner Feeds 450
The 5th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner proved a great success! 450 meals were served or delivered to folks in the West County as compared to last year’s 300 meals. Chef Roger Collins, The Community Church of Sebastopol and members of our wider community all worked together to produce a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Our volunteers ranged all ages and came from all walks of life – Chef Roger was thrilled with the response from both the volunteer staff and our dinner guests and he is already making plans for next Thanksgiving!
Everyone was invited to participate in the free Thanksgiving Diner – families who could not afford a traditional dinner, folks who would otherwise be eating alone or people who didn’t want to cook for themselves but wanted to be part of a community project helping others – all came together for this annual event. Contributions can still be made to help offset expenses for the dinner – just make a check out to The Community Church of Sebastopol with a notation in the memo line “Thanksgiving Dinner.’
A note from Karin about Roger Collins: Roger is a big man with an even bigger heart. If you have never met Roger, he stands well over six feet tall, with a booming voice and a ready smile. Despite his gruff exterior and somewhat scary demeanor, Roger is just a big teddy bear. The Community Thanksgiving Dinner is his personal pet project – he coordinates the volunteers and buys all of the food, spending money from his own pocket. Roger does the cooking, starting before dawn on Wednesday, working late into the night on Thanksgiving Day finishing up on Friday. Earlier this year, Roger’s house burned to the ground and despite his personal hardships, he was right there, ready to help those less fortunate than himself. Any money he receives beyond expenses for the Thanksgiving dinner does not go into his pocket, but instead, is used to purchase toys for needy children who attend the Christmas Dinner at the Masonic Hall on Christmas Day, where once again, Roger will be cooking. That’s how big of a man Roger is.
