Golden Gobblers
Hungry crowd packs Civic Center Thursday
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

George Brown III, owner of Staff's Catering, checks on a whole passel of turkeys being prepared for Thursday's Community- Wide Thanksgiving Day Dinner. Brown, whose company has been with the event its entire 10 years, said the meal was almost entirely paid for by an anonymous donor. L-N Photo by Brenda Sommer

The bloom isn't off the rose for the free Community- Wide Thanksgiving Day Dinner, which drew huge crowds during on its 10th birthday.

"Oh goodness gracious," said Danny Roberts, pastor of New Life Assembly of God, who has coordinated the holiday meal event since it began 10 years ago in its current form. "They were backed up down the hall, out the back and out the door. It was unbelievable! You couldn't determine how many it was, but it was a good turnout, even with the cold weather."

Diners were in no danger of running out of food, most all of which is prepared by Staff's Catering.

"The good thing about Staff's is they always keep me supplied with plenty of food," Roberts said. "It was pretty close, but we had plenty of food."

George Brown III, owner of the catering company, said he was happy to be cooking for the meal for the 10th year in a row. The free event, held at the El Campo Civic Center on Thanksgiving Day, drew 250 people during its first year, and by last year, the number of attendees had grown to about 2,000.

"I said at the beginning, 'You know, one day it's going to get to the point where it gets really big,'" he said. "We add more food every year."

Staff's prepared 100 25- pound turkeys for Thursday's event, plus 50 gallons of gravy, 100 gallons of green beans, 120 gallons of yams, 50 gallons of cranberry sauce, 100 loaves of bread and 1,500 pounds of cornbread dressing.

Brown loves the egalitarian nature of the ever-growing event.

"It doesn't matter who you are in this town, you're welcome to come, from movers and shakers to people who otherwise wouldn't have a meal," he said.

Pastor Roberts said although he originally intended to hand out three scholarships at the dinner - a new program for adult dinner volunteers or their graduating-senior children - he's holding off to make sure the program is done properly.

"We had a number of people who registered for the scholarships, but I will be getting back with all who registered to get more information," he said. "I got ahead of myself a little, thinking we'd hand them out during the dinner, but I'm new at this. It's new, and we want it to be above-board, so we just took applications Thursday. We're working all the bugs homeauction2.out of it and don't want anyone to feel someone got preferential treatment."

But all in all, Roberts said the dinner was a huge success in its tenth year.

"There were plenty of door prizes and a tremendous turnout," he said. "It all turned out wonderful."