Community dinner ready to be served up on Thanksgiving
Melea Burke
Thanksgiving cheer abounds as friends visit and Pastor John Payne enjoys the food at the Polson Community Thanksgiving Dinner last year.
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POLSON — Say Thanksgiving, and most people think of a big dinner of a golden brown roast turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce shared with family and friends.
That’s exactly what the Polson Community Thanksgiving Dinner strives to be — on a larger scale — from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
Preparations for the dinner started the week of Nov. 15 when Kelli Kinyon began cubing and toasting 65 loaves of bread. The bread came from Franz Bakery, and Kinyon toasted baking sheets full of croutons at the Polson Senior Citizens Center to make stuffing — lots of stuffing.
Last year for the dinner, volunteers roasted 24 turkeys and served at least 500 dinners.
It’s truly a community undertaking, from food preparation, serving, busing dishes, pouring coffee, cutting pie, whipping cream, replenishing salads and rolls and cleaning tables.
“It’s nice for the community that everybody does something,” said Jo Durand, who’s a tireless volunteer.
Asked why she helps at the dinner, she said, “Oh, I think it’s my way of giving back to the community. I’ve lived here for 40 years. ... It’s just one way of saying thank you.”
Cathy Corrigan, Polson Senior Citizens manager, said they use electric roasters to cook the birds.
“Every place there is a plug-in around the Senior Center, there is a roaster,” Corrigan said, adding there are usually two in her office.
Corrigan got involved because her whole family hunts on Thanksgiving. So she decided to come down to the center three years ago. Now she tallies up the number of diners.
“I’m so glad I got involved,” Corrigan said.
She bastes and bakes two turkeys herself; Kaye Stam, who volunteers at the center, cooks four birds; Tracy Plaiss, coordinator for the dinner, roasts four. Additional roasters are plugged in at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church across the street and at the Masonic Temple.
Durand said the turkeys come in the Monday before Thanksgiving. Then on Wednesday evening, after borrowing roasters from everybody, Durand and Stam put the turkeys in oven bags with onions and celery and place them all into roasters.
The Good Shepherd Youth Group treks to the Senior Center on Thanksgiving Eve, potato peelers in hand, and scrapes 150 pounds of spuds donated by the Lake family.
Durand said she gets up at 4 a.m. Thanksgiving morning so she can be at the center at 5 a.m. to get all the roasters started. Then she makes dressing, and gets the potatoes started with the help of Stam.
When the turkeys are finished cooking, they are removed from the roasters for carving, and the juices are used for making gravy — vats of gravy.
Durand’s crew of carvers includes her husband Dean and a crew from Valley Business.
Church members around Polson donate pies, rolls, salads, relishes and whipped cream and deliver them on Thanksgiving Eve.
When people come in for dinner, the air smells of roasting turkey and perking coffee and the building bounces with the low hum of conversation and occasional laughter over the clink of china and silverware and someone tuning a fiddle. Tables are adorned with tablecloths and centerpieces. Not only is the wonderful food made from scratch, but there’s also non-stop entertainment from local musicians and singers.
“We usually have a bunch of people dancing by the end of the dinner,” Plaiss said.
Durand said a friend of hers, Cheri Houle, volunteers at the Ronan community dinner on Thanksgiving. Durand and Houle were friends from fourth grade on up and graduated from Ronan High School together.
“Did you ever think when we were in high school, that we’d be doing this?” Durand asked Houle.
Both women laughed.
But Plaiss said without Cathy, Jo and Kaye, there could be no community Thanksgiving dinner. Plaiss is also invaluable; she organizes all the volunteers, assigns jobs and schedules clean-up crew.
Everyone is encouraged to come down for the dinner and enjoy the fellowship.
“(The dinner’s) free, but if you can donate, that’s great,” Corrigan said.
For people who need a meal delivered or need a ride to the center, call Corrigan at the Polson Senior Center at (406) 883-4735.
For folks who would like to volunteer food or time, contact Plaiss at (406) 883-0642.
It’s not too late to get involved.
With this year’s upcoming dinner, Plaiss said she could use some strapping young or older men to move and set up tables Wednesday night, Nov. 27. Also after the dinner at about 2:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, muscles are needed to take down and return tables and chairs.
