Beacon holds Thanksgiving dinner
More than 200 people gathered at Pine Island United Methodist Church for the Beacon of H.O.P.E.’s second annual Thanksgiving dinner. After a short prayer, a traditional dinner of turkey and stuffing was served.
“This is the second annual Thanksgiving dinner hosted by the Pine Island United Methodist Church and the Beacon of H.O.P.E.,” Beacon director Betsy Haesemeyer said. “Last year the invitation was to our after-school kids and their families and we ended up with about 125 people. This year we opened it up island wide by announcing it in the Eagle to make it a community-wide dinner and we’re estimating that we’ll have more than 200 people. I think we doubled the number of volunteers from last year.”
Richard Fuerneisen from Cape Coral brought his granddaughter Kaitlyn to the church to help serve the food.
“I am with a group called the Lost Riders,” Fuerneisen said. “The Lost Riders Riding Club is a non-profit organization focused on the cause of direct giving in the form of a ‘Hand Up’ for the good of the community. We just did the March of Dimes run and raise the most amount of money. You probably saw us standing on corners in diapers it was a lot of fun and we raised a lot of money for the March of Dimes. On Monday we are bringing complete turkey dinners out to this church and delivering them to Jim McLaughlin.”
“I was here at 9 this morning and my volunteer kitchen crew have been coming in and out all day long,” said McLaughlin, a Beacon volunteer. “As you know, during the winter we feed 40 children a day 4 days a week. During the summer we feed three times that – about 120 kids a day 4 days a week. That’s all part of our summer camp program.
“For tonight, JJ Palmiero brought 11 or 12 additional volunteers who are helping to serve and helping to bus the tables,” he continued. “This is truly a community event with so many volunteers from all over the island. And we’re off to a great start already, it’s only 5:30.”
A complete traditional dinner was served, including turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, baked carrots, green bean casserole, tacos, chicken quesadillas, black beans and rice and black beans and yellow rice and a complete dessert bar set up.
The dinner serves as a fund raiser for the Beacon.
“People can donate here tonight or they can go online at www.BeaconOfHopePineIsland.com,” McLaughlin said. “The Beacon is growing and growing and growing. This is a real joy for me and everyone participating. It’s been a long day and now I can sit back and relax and talk to people.”