Volunteers make Thanksgiving meal a success
Coshocton High School student Jade Hasseman is pictured carrying out meals to attendees of the 14th annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner held Nov. 16 at Coshocton High School. Josie Sellers | Beacon
COSHOCTON – Seniors Tara Salmans and Jenny Wang enjoy watching the community come together at the annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner held at Coshocton High School.
The pair was busy Thursday evening, Nov. 16 checking people in who made reservations for the dinner, but they weren’t the only students volunteering their time. Students were out in the fourth floor commons area manning displays featuring the different activities of clubs at the school and in the cafeteria seating guests and serving them food.
“This teaches kids responsibility and leadership and it’s nice to be able to give back to others,” Wang said.
Salmans agreed that volunteering makes you feel good.
“I like helping families and the response you get from those you help,” she said.
Cathy Waibel, who has headed up organizing the free dinner for 14 years, said it couldn’t go on without all the volunteers and those who make donations of products and monetary contributions.
“The dinner just falls together now,” she said. “We send letters out before fair and start getting phone calls that people have items for us to pick up. We couldn’t do this without every one of these kids either and the fantastic kitchen staff. I want to say thank you to everyone involved with this.”
Waibel said they had 24 turkeys to carve up this year and estimated 600 meals would be served.
One of those meals was enjoyed by Dian Patterson who has been to quite a few of the dinners.
“The good-tasting food brings me back and you get to see people you know and some you haven’t seen for a while,” she said.
Curiosity brought Joyce Shaw out to the dinner for the first time.
“The food is delicious and I’m glad I came,” she said.
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