Rotary Club of Lehigh Acres wants everyone in the community to become aware of the free annual Thanksgiving Dinner that they host annually.
It’s on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27) and begins at 11 a.m. to continues to 2 p.m. or until the food is all gone at St. Raphael’s Church on Lee Blvd.
Last year, he said close to 500 people showed up for the annual feast that is held in the parish hall of St. Raphael’s Church on Lee Blvd., just across from Walmart.
One of Rotary’s official mottos, Service Above Self traces back to the early days of the Rotary Club in the U.S.
And the Rotary Club Lehigh Acres believes strongly in those words and as such, does much for the community, by giving out dictionaries and thesauruses to elementary school kids to a host of other activities. The local club is not a big one – it has around 28 members – but it does these community projects.
And the biggest of those things may be the Thanksgiving and the Christmas Day dinners that they prepare for the community at no cost.
Preparing a dinner for 500 people or more and that is what Buff is predicting for this year’s annual feast and it is no easy task.
This began more than 10 years ago when Lisa Goehle, who then was director of a help agency in Lehigh Acres, noted that there were lots of needy people who would not be able to have a Thanksgiving Dinner. So she set about, along with her husband, Paul Goehle, a Rotarian, to cook dinners. Volunteers came in and helped out and on that first Thanksgiving Day, more than 100 people came for the free dinner. That was before the Great Recession hit the country. Lehigh was hit especially hard.
Goehle says she is happy to see how the dinner has continued to grow in attendance since the Rotary took it over eight years ago.
This is the 8th annual Rotary dinner, and each year the Rotary buys more turkeys, more potatoes and more vegetables plus additional desserts, expecting a larger crowd.
“Things are still rough out there for many people and many will not be able to buy a Thanksgiving meal and many won’t even be able to attend one because family and friends don’t live in the area. And there are many, many people who can’t afford the extra expenses of a Thanksgiving dinner, Mike Buff Rotarian said.
As the Rotarian’s have said over and over again, this Thanksgiving Dinner is free of charge. We do not ask for money. If there are those who want to donate into our Wishing Well at the entrance.
If you want to volunteer, you should probably come at around 9:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
“Just bang on the door and we’ll let you in and assign you to a certain task to help us out,” Buff said. Volunteers serve desserts, beverages and help those who are unable to walk through a line. They keep the lined filled with food. They usher people in and show them were they may sit.
And best of all, Buff says, they are there to help clean up. Volunteers can call me on my cell if they would like. It’s 239-464-4253.