The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Stoneleigh Apartments helps to bring people together
CANASTOTA, N.Y. >> No one should be alone for the holidays, and Stoneleigh Apartments is making sure its residents have a family of friends to sit down and enjoy Thanksgiving with.
For years, Linda and Jerry Smith would host a Thanksgiving dinner at Stoneleigh Apartments with all the trimmings— turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, cranberry sauce and more.
“My parents did this for about ten years. My father was the first building superintendent and when he found out there were peoplewho didn’t have any place to go, he convinced my mother that we should do Thanksgiving dinner at Stoneleigh Apartments,” Manager Barbara Smith said. “I’d come to help my parents make dinner.”
Smith said there are residents at Stoneleigh who don’t have any family left or any family living in the area — meaning the holidays can be an especially lonely time.
“My father didn’t like the idea of the residents here not having anywhere to go,” Smith said. “Stoneleigh opened in 1982, and they had Thanksgiving dinner here until my father retired in 1996. This is a subsidized senior citizens apartment complex and my father didn’t think people should spend Thanksgiving eating a peanut butter sandwich by themselves.”
Stoneleigh Apar tments started the Thanksgiving dinner up again around three years ago, Smith said, when she
and her friend Lori Markowski looked for a way to volunteer to help people after Thanksgiving — rather than sit around on the couch.
Around 20 to 25 people sit down to eat at the Stoneleigh Apartment Thanksgiving dinner with all the usual fixings. Smith and Markowski provide all the food and do all the cooking, from the potatoes to the turkey. However, after hearing residents comment on how the SNACK program and Tenant’s Association serves turkey as well, Smith said they’re mixing it up this year and doing one turkey and one ham.
Assistant Manager Melinda Parmeter bakes pies for dessert and her daughter, Chyanne Parmeter, helps with clean up.
For 13-year resident Barbra Vair, what everyone does for Stoneleigh is remarkable and credits Smith for being so caring.
“Smith has everyone’s best interest in heart, and they do an unbelievable job,” Vair said. “We all love her very much. Without this, I’d assume there’d be people who wouldn’t have a Thanksgiving dinner. Some people don’t have family around here, like me. My family is all out of state. And there are more people here like me.”