Pulaski continues, alters Thanksgiving tradition

The coronavirus pandemic put many festivals, activities and traditions on hold in 2020, but it didn’t deter Pulaski from making sure everyone was fed for Thanksgiving.

St. John Lutheran Church and Pulaski Area Community Education teamed up with businesses and community volunteers to dish out almost 300 meals and take those meals to area residents sheltering at home for the holiday. For 10 years, the church has held an annual harvest meal for local residents just before Thanksgiving, bringing in up to 225 people each year for the feast, but with the pandemic prompting most places to limit occupancy inside buildings, St. John couldn’t invite people in to eat.

That didn’t stop the church from cooking the meal as usual, though, this time on Thanksgiving Day itself, and then soliciting community volunteers to pack the backs of their vehicles and deliver those meals.

“We usually have people come in house and eat, but with COVID, we weren’t able to do that this year,” said Larry Yaw, pastor at St. John.

When he realized that having the regular meal at the church was not an option, Yaw reached out to Mark Heck, director with PACE, to figure out how to make sure community members got the turkey with all the trimmings but without the risk of contracting the coronavirus.

“We said, let’s do something. We know we have community members in need,” Yaw said. “Mark and I started brainstorming together.”

“That’s when we thought, we’re just going to deliver it to them,” Heck added.

Once the idea hatched, it didn’t take long for the two to wrangle up almost 150 volunteers and 60 vehicles to take the meals from the church and deliver them to people in Pulaski, Krakow, Angelica, Sobieski and Hobart. Vehicles quickly lined up at the church, curving around the parking lot to patiently wait as students with the Pulaski Community School District hauled out green and red tote bags and loaded them up for delivery.

“They’re coming as a family and doing it,” Heck said. “It’s giving them something to do, so now they can be together, they can talk, they can enjoy some quiet time, and then they take a meal, deliver it to someone’s house, knock on the door and walk away.”

The volunteer effort didn’t stop at delivering the food. Heck and others started the day before baking pies and prepping food. The Friends of Pulaski are lending a hand, as are a number of businesses like Bay Tek, Figaro’s, MCL, Fireside Realty and Thrivent.

“It’s not just St. John and PACE,” Yaw noted. “We have community members that have been stepping up and volunteering by making pies and donating food, donating resources. This has been a couple of weeks in the works, getting all the pieces together.”

Ten turkeys and 160 pounds of potatoes were prepared for the meals, along with 30 packages of stuffing and 45 cans of green beans, according to Heck, though he lost count at how many dinner rolls and pies were baked. In addition, tote bags with the meals will include crafts made by children, prayers, calendars and a thank you letter from volunteers expressing their gratitude for being able to serve.

Yaw said that, if people express an interest, the Thanksgiving meal delivery might continue once the pandemic has subsided. St. John would still continue the harvest feast, he noted, but it could be expanded.

Canceling the dinner was not an option for Yaw or Heck. Both men felt that it was more important than ever to reach out to people who were alone for the holidays and give them some hope.

“In this time, we’ve seen a lot of people say, ‘Well, I guess we can’t,’ and we wanted to figure out a way that we can,” Heck said. “It really allowed a lot of people to step up and help out in a lot of different ways.”

“It’s a time of darkness for many people, and they feel isolated and alone,” Yaw said. “We’re here to say, you’re not alone. We can be that light to those people and let them know they’re thought of and cared for.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com