Thankful for church volunteers

Fred Glass was nearly finished distributing meals to hundreds of volunteer delivery drivers Thursday when he sat down and speedily pressed buttons on his BlackBerry.

"I've had this phone for two years," he said. "I had Internet service on this thing this whole time and didn't realize it."

He chose the right time to discover the phone's Web capabilities.

Glass had phone numbers for all of the fire stations in the county, but he didn't have the addresses. He had several plates on standby for those firefighters working on Thanksgiving and he needed to give his drivers directions in a hurry.

A few Google searches later, he found the addresses and jotted them down on individual index cards.

It seemed to be the only bump in the road in what could have been a chaotic morning.

For the 11th year in a row, Glass and several more of his fellow parishioners at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church gave away boxes upon boxes of food to those in need.

"Once it gets rolling, it goes pretty good," said volunteer Bill Lewandowski, who was taking a breather between distributing food to drivers and serving the more than 300 people arriving at the parish hall for their sit-down Thanksgiving dinner.

"Serving the crowd that comes in next is going to be the toughest job," Lewandowski said.

Glass anticipated serving up to 1,500 meals. In the end, he distributed about 1,300, he said.

"We had enough food for it," Glass said of the proposed goal of 1,500. "We thought a lot more last-minute calls would come in, but they didn't."

Each outreach project seems to trump the one the year before at St. Frances Cabrini. Glass hopes to combine more forces next year and incorporate assistance from other churches and charity groups.

Will and Emily O'Lynnger were among the drivers who arrived Thursday to deliver food. They were going to deliver to one of the local fire stations.

"We're vegetarians, so we're not all that big on turkey, but it's that time of the year to give," Emily O'Lynnger said. "It's just important to give."

People were served turkey, stuffing, gravy, corn, peas, bread and dessert. Those who arrived at Xavier Hall to dine in also were served cranberry and apple sauce, Glass said.

The food remained plentiful as of noon. The drivers were gone but several pans were still full.

An hour later, the hall would be packed with more than 300 diners. Several of them would be encouraged to bring home bread, pies and other remaining leftovers.

It was a food giveaway and volunteers nearly had too much to give away.

"We had a lot of food, but we had a lot of volunteers," said Arthur Wicks, who arrived shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday to help. "Everything ran smooth."