Our story...

 

If you have known my husband and me long, you know that Thanksgiving is more than just another holiday to us. Every year for more than a decade we have helped cook and serve dinner for over a thousand people in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. This includes meals delivered to the homebound and all nearby police and fire personnel working on the holiday.

Maybe they can't afford to provide a traditional homemade Thanksgiving meal for their families, maybe they don't have anyone to share it with, or maybe they're not healthy enough to make their own holiday dinner. We don't ask questions. These are our guests. We cook everything from scratch.

Our goal is to provide not only the homemade meal, but also a place people can come together. This is what the holiday holds for us and how we give thanks for all that we have each year.

After the 20th Annual Free Thanksgiving Dinner in 2012, the man who started and ran this charity meal for 20 years retired. (This man also happens to be the reason my husband and I met.) That year we took over as organizers.

 

This year is the 25th year the Free Thanksgiving Dinner has been served. Although the founder of the meal is no longer with us, we're carrying on in his memory. We are continuing the this traditional meal as we were taught. We'll make everything homemade and special as any family's holiday meal.

 

Please help us keep this tradition alive and give thanks by giving to others.