We were more than ready by noon last Thursday! we’d been waiting for this meal for two weeks, smelling the roasting turkeys and the pies and so much more! Of course, all of our students had a part in preparing it, so they’d been right in the kitchen smelling what we were at last all going to be very, very thankful for!
It’s an annual event. A week before Thanksgiving we hold our own Thanksgiving gathering at the Center prior to everyone’s dispersal to families and friends across the country. We start off after morning classes with an hour or so of potluck appetizers furnished by staff and maybe a game or two. It’s our time to be together, and it’s a big deal and a big meal. A very big meal! This year, under the guidance of our Home Management Instructors Maureen, Shon and Delfina, our students prepared four turkeys, three kinds of stuffing, 30 pounds of potatoes, green bean-mushroom casserole (and one without), mac and cheese, a ham and pumpkin and pecan pies. There were candied yams and sweet potatoes and 100 homemade dinner rolls. And when we were all done, we pushed back our chairs a bit and went around the room, each offering at least one thing he or she is thankful for this year. The gist of it is this – we are thankful for each other, for our families and friends, for the opportunity for blind students to learn blindness skills and confidence from teachers who believe in them as blind people, for the opportunity to be those teachers sharing with their students, and for those leaders of the National Federation of the Blind (our founders) who believed that such learning was more than just possible, but necessary!
No, we don’t have any pics of people enjoying the meal, and we make no excuses. We were also feeding ourselves after all!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
