St. Timothy and St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic parishes held another successful joint Thanksgiving dinner for senior citizens on Nov. 23.
Around 140 people attended the dinner in the St. Timothy School cafeteria while another 80 meals were delivered to seniors living in the Forest Glen seniors complex in Sully Station by a team led by Bill and Melanie Cormier along with Franco Jose, Rob Scenna and several members of Scenna’s family.
Four meals were home delivered by Bob and Jane Venafro of St. Tim’s.
Another 20 meals were taken by people attending the meals for family members and neighbors who were unable to attend the dinner.
Four to-go boxes were dropped off at the St. Timothy rectory for the priests.
St. Timothy Pastor Father David Meng led the gathering in saying grace while St. Andrews Pastor Father Robert Wagner made a visit later in the event. Fathers Sunny Joseph of St. Timothy and Joseph Townsend of St. Andrew also dropped by.
Knights and student volunteers prepare the to-go boxes for delivery to Forest Glen.
Early prep work on the meal began three days earlier on Thursday night, lead by St. Timothy Past Grand Knight Mark Zuharanek, who serve as the lead chef for the dinner.
A half dozen volunteer Knights from both parishes and their spouses continued the early prep on Saturday.
A large number of brother Knights from both parishes dropped off cooked turkeys and pies on Sunday morning as their donations to the dinner.
Sunday’s kitchen work included carving each of the more than 20 donated turkeys.
Peter Grau, far left, and Freddie Parra, right, were among the volunteers who carved the turkeys.
Other volunteers made the salad and placed it into individual bowls.
The meal preparation spilled over into the cafeteria where the pies where sliced and placed on foam plates.
Donations for the free raffle included three gift certificates to Great American Restaurants from St. Timothy Knight Dave Morgan, 12 bottles of wine and 25 centerpieces of flowers. St. Andrews Grand Knight Kevin O’Connell called the winning tickets.
Many volunteers helped with the cleanup while Zuharanek delivered leftovers to a nearby fire stations.
The last task of the day was to strain the boiled turkey remnants into large containers for use as turkey stock. The turkey stock will frozen and used to make Brunswick stew that the St. Timothy Knights will sell on Superbowl Sunday in early February.
Left to right below: Steve Powers, Carl Unterkoffler, and Jason Hepler make the turkey stock in the evening after everyone else went home.
