Narratives and Photos
provided by Alan Aulson
Dressed in Pilgrim attire, John Duggan – a self-described proud member of the Georgetown Kiwanis – shared that he has a plum position acting as one of the greeters to the Kiwanis Annual Thanksgiving Dinner.
Last week’s dinner represented the 48th year the dinner has been served in town to the senior population.
Bob Brown explained how “it all started as a scout project … and now, this year, we’ve done 22 twenty-pound turkeys. We’ll feed between 170 and 200 people. We deliver to elderly residents, residents of Trestle Way, oh, somewhere between 50 and 70 places. They’re being delivered by the Georgetown Varsity Baseball Team.”
Deliveries are made to shut-ins, those unable to make it, and to the police station, and the fire station also.
Former town moderator, Beverly Enos has been helping to serve at the luncheon since the first year the event started. “The Kiwanis would do the cooking, and the Jacee women would do the serving. I love coming to this event every year and seeing everyone,” she said. “When we finish serving, there are a lot of folks who will take home some leftovers. I go around table-to-table and ask who would like an extra dinner, for themselves or someone who couldn’t come in,” she explained.
Lenny Mirra and Bob Lopes were two of the many Kiwanis members (it seemed the ENTIRE club turned out!) stripping the meat off turkey bones. “We pull all the meat off and when we’re ready, the carcasses will be boiled and juice from it will be used as part of the stuffing,” Lenny shared. “We do this every year. It’s a great event for the community.”
Kiwanis members start at 6:00 a.m. the day of the event, after working about four hours cutting up the turkeys the afternoon before, separating the dark meat from the rest.
Roger MacCauldy, Jr., president of the Kiwanis has been serving meals for 21 years now. He detailed how Billy Roy had started the turkey meal as part of an Eagle Scout project. “His dad was in the Kiwanis at the time and got them to help. The club thought it was just a great idea and we’ve been doing it every year since.”
Roger said that “it’s great to see everyone who comes and see them enjoying one another’s company. In addition to the turkeys, we serve 120 pounds of potatoes, 100 pounds of butternut squash, 40 pounds of green beans, and we make our own gravy and our own stuffing.”
