North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG — Knights of Columbus volunteers are planning to serve up to 900 free turkey dinners on Thanksgiving.

It’s an Ogdensburg-area tradition for over 30 years.

“I started cooking the 38 turkey breasts at 5 a.m, said Chairman William Taylor on Wednesday. He has been helping with the dinners for the past 26 years. By the end of the day, over 600 pounds of turkey were cooked.

Gary Seymour and Mark Sovie made up the rest of the skeleton crew whose job it was to slice the 38 turkeys. Seymour has been involved since he started over 30 years ago.

“At the beginning we didn’t want people to be alone on Thanksgiving Day, so we had them eat in. Then after one year we found out there were a lot of shut-ins, so then we decided to start deliveries,” said Taylor.

“And the next thing we knew people wanted pick-ups. They could get here, but they didn’t want to eat in. They wanted to pick up, so that is how it all developed over the years,” he said.

Many volunteers take part in helping with the dinners, said Taylor.

At least 30 drivers deliver meals, between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The number of deliveries was up to 330 meals the morning before Thanksgiving, but more phone calls requesting deliveries were still coming in the day before Thanksgiving.

Almost 200 meals are being delivered to the Centennial, Riverview and Parkview senior housing towers.

About 18 volunteers from the confirmation class and Key Club come Wednesday night to help with packaging rolls and cranberry sauce.

On Thanksgiving Day there are 11 kitchen volunteers and seven servers.

“We try to make the diners feel like they are in a restaurant. They sit down and are served drinks, the meal and then dessert. We make it nice and convenient for them,” said Taylor.

“We have been lucky again this year. Donations are almost there again to take care of the whole meal. People are realizing there is a need with food prices going up, and they have been very generous,” said Taylor.

As to why Knights of Columbus volunteers help with Thanksgiving dinners for so many years, Taylor says,”It makes us happy to help. I can hear the joy in their voices. It makes our heart feel good.”