21st annual community dinner held at CHS
The 21st annual community dinner was held Thursday evening Nov. 21 in the Coshocton High School cafeteria.
Cathy Waibel has been the organizer for many years. “Last year I dressed like a pilgrim and that costume is home hanging in the closet. This year I made aprons for me and my daughter. Mine says Gobble Gobble and hers has all turkeys on it. My daughter Mary Waibel comes back and helps every year and my husband is out there somewhere, he keeps the coffee going. So, it’s a family thing. It’s not really that much work. I start in September about fair time getting my newsletters out. I start making phone calls and get everything worked out and get it up here and the girls take it from there. Seventy-five kids are helping with serving tonight, either checking in, seating people or getting drinks or food for everyone. Everyone in here is volunteering and having a good time.”
Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, dinner rolls and mini pumpkin cupcakes were on the menu this year.
Waibel said, “Alisa is in charge of the kitchen. As soon as they were done feeding the kids in the morning she gets everything in the oven that needs to go in and gets the turkeys baking. Without the kitchen staff we couldn’t pull this off. They volunteer their time, in fact all of them are here tonight. They came back and volunteered their time again tonight. Right now we have a count of 288 meals. We had 28 turkeys. Everyone back here working will eat too. So, we’ll end up with over 300 meals tonight. We opened the doors early, it was getting kind of chilly and we aren’t used to that cold yet. ”
Alisa Howell makes sure everything is prepared and ready to serve on time. “We put the turkeys in at 11:30 a.m. this morning. It’s been a two day process to get everything ready but I’ve got a good staff of women that know which direction to go and that helps a lot.”
Coshocton High School juniors Carlie Taylor and Drew Duren were volunteering as servers this year for the first time.
“I’m a little nervous,” Taylor said. “We’re just doing it to help out the community. It’s pretty easy so far but the more people that come it will be a little harder.”
Duren said she liked helping, “I think it’s fun.”
Joyce Shaw said, “This is my fourth year coming to the dinner. I am amazed by how organized they are. It’s wonderful and the food is delicious.”
Entertainment for the evening was the chamber choir and after dress rehearsal cast members from “Sleepy Hollow” came out in costume to interact with the people.”
Principal Scott Loomis said, “The jazz band will entertain too. We have a class during the day that focuses on jazz. We love this event. We have over 100 students involved in this that have volunteered throughout the evening to put this on and we love bringing the community in.”
Category: Education
