Editor’s Note: If you unplugged during Thanksgiving to spend more time with family and friends, good for you. However, that means you may have missed this heartwarming story about how the Clarkesville community came together to feed hundreds of people seeking fellowship and a good meal. It’s a story worth re-sharing.
The fire in Eric Holbrook’s smoker worked through the dark again this year. It threw a low orange glow across the grass behind Clarkesville First Presbyterian Church, the same place hundreds walked into on Thanksgiving morning for the seventh Clarkesville Community Thanksgiving. Holbrook kept watch from midnight to sunrise, turning the birds that fed the whole crowd.
Arriving at the crack of dawn, volunteers lined the room with trays, foil, and piles of meat from thirty-five birds. They tore into the smoked turkeys and worked the bones clean. They stacked the 75 pounds of dressing pans prepared by Sherry Smith. They poured tea that came from neighbors who saw a single Facebook post and brought what they had on hand. They gathered flour, seasoning, sugar, broth, and more, which had been stored at the local Dairy Queen where Smith works.
For his part, Darren Johnston joined the work five years ago, after seeing how much the Thanksgiving meal mattered to the town. He said he did not know Holbrook before then, and that the event brought them together. Their work at Thanksgiving also led to the Christmas meal the church now runs each year. Other volunteers came because they saw the flyer in town. Several families came to dine, share, care, and prepare. Their children met folks at the door with kind words and a warm welcome, little ladies and gentlemen.
Holbrook’s wife, Mariah, worked beside him again this year. Their children took on jobs of their own. It was a family endeavor, one of many that gathered at the church for this all-hands-on-deck event.
A young man named Steven Sumner paid his water bill, noticed a flyer, and walked in at seven in the morning. He stood at a long table and helped pull meat apart. He said he wanted to serve his community, believing it was one of the best ways to give thanks to life and to Jesus Christ. He said the work felt large at first. Then he watched two or three dozen people surround the task and turn it into something possible. He said he planned to come back.
Zach Ford brought his boys, Lennox and Gentry, after searching online for ways to serve during the holiday. He read the Now Habersham post and reached out to Holbrook. The boys shredded two or three trays of turkey and then swept the hall. They moved chairs and kept at it until the floors were clear. Lennox learned the work from another volunteer at his table. He said he learned how to shred turkey and that he learned to serve others. Ford said he came because his family had been blessed and he wanted his sons to see what it meant to give.
People who walked through the door at eleven found long tables covered with plates and wrapped sweets. Volunteers guided them to seats. Some came hungry. Some came lonely. Some came because they wanted the sound of voices rising off the walls of the church. No one paid. No one explained anything. They sat and ate and rested.
Now Habersham’s Hazel Cording, who also volunteered, said, “Many hands make light work.” A truth that holds. The kitchen moved in a steady rhythm all morning. By one o’clock, the plates thinned out, and the room settled. The volunteers wiped their tables. Children swept the last corners. Holbrook stepped away from the smoker at last.
The turkey team of Clarkesville did it again by golly, and they say they’ll fire up those smokers again next year, sure as sunrise.
