We are just days away from Thanksgiving, and while most of us will be enjoying a nice meal with our families, there are many who are homeless or will go without this holiday. But thanks, to the Old Savannah City Mission, at least for one day, no one went hungry.
It was wall-to-wall people in Forsyth Park Saturday, all getting an opportunity to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
Some 480 turkeys, representing over 7,000 pounds of bird helped feed the masses in the 12th annual Old Savannah City Mission Day of Great Thanksgiving, an event made possible by hundreds of volunteers.
"We have had over 860 applications to serve as volunteers and a number beyond that probably equal to it," said Rev. Jim Lewis from Old Savannah City Mission. "People just walking up and saying I wanna help, what can I do."
One of those volunteers is Brinson Clements, who along with several others takes the responsibility for preparing the turkeys.
"I can't take credit for that, I'm going to tell you real fast, God just put this thing together, it was awesome," said Brinson Clements. "I enjoy doing it, I know the good work that the mission does and I like to be a part of helping out."
And the help is certainly appreciated by those receiving the meal.
"I think that it's a wonderful, wonderful blessing," said Jacqueline Walker. "It's such a benefit for the community to come out and do this for people that are homeless, people that are less fortunate."
"It's fabulous, it's better than fabulous," added Lamar Clark. "Can't beat it nowhere, not even the restaurants can beat it."
While, serving tasty meals was one of the goals of this day, it wasn't the only one.
According to Rev. Lewis, "One of the goals we have in doing the Day of Great Thanksgiving is to encourage unity in the community."
One look around tells you that that mission was accomplished.
Last year, the Great Day of Thanksgiving served a little over 5,200 meals, this year they were expecting to increase that number to 7,000.
