Rotary, community team up to help 1,200 families for Thanksgiving

Janelle Clausen
Friends and families enjoyed spending a morning on helping people in need on Sunday, working together to assemble 1,200 Thanksgiving meals for families in need. (Photo by Grace Tan)
Friends and families enjoyed spending a morning on helping people in need on Sunday, working together to assemble 1,200 Thanksgiving meals for families in need. (Photo by Grace Tan)

The weekend leading into Thanksgiving was dotted with a handful of orders going wrong for the Rotary Club of Great Neck’s annual turkey drive, whether it was where they would go or what they would get.

More than 100 volunteers worked with the Rotary Club of Great Neck to provide meals to 1,200 families. (Photo by Grace Tan)
More than 100 volunteers worked with the Rotary Club of Great Neck to provide meals to 1,200 families. (Photo by Grace Tan)

Roger Chizever, the organizer of the event, said it involved quite a few phone calls, text messages and trips to get what they needed – as well as several volunteers to bag all the food up. But in the end, he said, what matters is that 1,200 families will be getting full Thanksgiving meals.

“We always persevere, no matter what gets thrown our way,” Chizever said.

Each station had multiple helpers to finish the job in the most efficient way. (Photo by Grace Tan)
Each station had multiple helpers to finish the job in the most efficient way. (Photo by Grace Tan)

More than 100 volunteers of “all ages” gathered at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to assemble bags of meals, according to Lakeville Elementary School fifth grader Eileen Li, who wrote about the event, and “everyone had a job to do.”

Among the volunteers were families, members of the Great Neck Chinese Association, Key Club members and members of the Interact Clubs from both Great Neck High Schools. New Hyde Park high school students also helped.

Volunteers of all ages participated in the event. (Photo by Grace Tan)
Volunteers of all ages participated in the event. (Photo by Grace Tan)

“Volunteers helped place bagged potatoes and carrots, canned vegetables, dessert, and turkeys into tote bags, and then loaded them into trucks that came from different charities all over Long Island,” Li said. “From there, the food would be distributed to families in need.”

Li said that one of those volunteers was Arturo Gomes, a Portuguese immigrant who would drive a food-filled truck to so hundreds of families could get a bag of food and turkey.

He also personally knew what it was like to be hungry and wanted to help make sure fewer kids felt that way, Li said.

Friends and families enjoyed spending a morning helping people in need. (Photo by Grace Tan)
Friends and families enjoyed spending a morning helping people in need. (Photo by Grace Tan)

“It feels good to be giving back, as I always think of the help I received when my family needed,” Gomes said.

Chizever said this assembly of meals would be given to several organizations, who in turn distribute them to families in need. This translates to thousands of people being able to eat turkey meals together, he said.

“That feeds a lot of people, what we give,” Chizever said.

Chizever said his hope for next year, which will be the Rotary Club of Great Neck’s 30th year doing the turkey drive, is to greatly increase how many turkey meals can be donated.

Bags of food waited to be loaded into trucks, and then transported other charitable organizations where they were given out. (Photo by Grace Tan)
Bags of food waited to be loaded into trucks, and then transported other charitable organizations where they were given out. (Photo by Grace Tan)

“If we do 1,500, we’ve got to see how the room looks and see if we can add anymore room to that,” Chizever said, “but there’s a big need out there for this.”

Last year, the Rotary Club of Great Neck donated 1,100 Thanksgiving dinner meals.

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