By Dan Murphy
Many volunteers and community groups stepped up, as always, in Yonkers to make sure those who needed help had a good Thanksgiving meal last month, with several events in which we saw the good people of Yonkers taking care of their own.
The Nepperhan Community Center held its annual Thanksgiving meal giveaway, in which more than 800 families received a turkey and all the fixings to bring home to their families. Thank you to Yonkers Contracting, Fidelis Care, ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Dr. Martin Sayegh, Valley Oil Co, the mayor’s African American Advisory Board and Youth Advisory Board, Yonkers Railsplitters and Yonkers MBK for their help and support to make this possible.
And thanks to Dr. Jim Bostic and everyone at NCC for making sure this day of giving happens every year without a hitch.
At Stew Leonard’s in Yonkers, another turkey giveaway had first-responders joining with Mayor Mike Spano, Stew Leonard Jr., and others to hand out 3,000 turkeys to food-insecure families, and to local soup kitchens, homeless shelters and charities.
Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller and Yonkers Fire Commissioner Robert Sweeney, as well as dozens of firefighters, police officers and first-responders formed a line of giving, passing the frozen turkeys one-by-one and helping place them in the back of vehicles to be delivered throughout the community to designated families in need. This is part of a community effort by Stew Leonard’s to give those in need something to be thankful for this holiday season.
Another yearly tradition at Stew’s has become the annual pardon given to a turkey. Spano performed the pardon, granted to “Mooney,” who will now live out his remaining days in happiness on a Westchester turkey farm. The practice of pardoning a turkey dates to the days of President Abraham Lincoln and has become a beloved American tradition carried out at the White House each year.
We agree with Spano when he said, “As we head into the holiday season, let us continue to remember to give of ourselves and serve those who may need an extra hand or just a simple smile to comfort them.” Let us all try to live by those words until year’s end.
