Helping to make the holiday happier

Perry Amvets Post 1971 distributes 103 Thanksgiving dinner boxes at drive-up event

It didn’t take long for Perry Amvets Post 1971 to distribute more than 100 Thanksgiving dinner boxes at a weekend event.

In fact, the giveaway was completed in an hour and half — 30 minutes less than the original two-hour time frame slated for the program on Nov. 14.

During the program, volunteers presented 103 residents in need with boxes that each consisted of a frozen turkey and other packaged and canned foods to round out a Thanksgiving dinner. One box was loaded into each vehicle that drove up to the post, located at at 4128 Main St. in Perry Village, for an event that started at 11 a.m.

The bounty of food was dispensed quickly thanks to a group of dedicated and well-organized volunteers, said Jerry Juncker, commander of Perry Amvets Post 1971.

“We had a lot of help,” he said. “Everybody was fantastic.”

When the post originally announced details of the giveaway last month, plans called for distributing 50 Thanksgiving dinner boxes — one per recipient —on a first-come, firstserve basis.

That goal was set after the post received a $3,000 donation from FirstEnergy to buy groceries for the event. The post also appealed to the general public for cash donations to fund a larger shopping spree, or to contribute canned goods such as gravy, vegetables, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, or boxed items like instant mashed potatoes and stuffing.

Not long after the initial announcement, the post learned it was securing an additional $2,000 allocation from FirstEnergy. At the same time, the public also displayed its generosity with gifts of cash and nonperishable foods. As a result, Juncker and Frank Jones, the post’s second vice commander and chairman of the food giveaway, decided to double the number of Thanksgiving dinner boxes.

Leading up to the event, Juncker also emphasized that people requesting boxes did not have to be military veterans, and no one in need would be turned away.

In addition to the 103 boxes that were handed out, the post had some assorted leftover food that couldn’t be organized into complete packages for the drive-up program. That food will be donated to a local nonprofit organization to be determined by post leaders.

On Nov. 16, Juncker thanked everyone who played a role in making the Thanksgiving dinner box giveaway a success.

“Whether through donations or your hard work and sacrifice to prepare for and pass out the food, we couldn’t have done it without all of you,” he said. “We had a great time and the feeling of warmth of giving to others is overwhelming.”