Bringing holiday cheer to the Five Towns

Thanksgiving is approaching — this year it’s Nov. 22 — and Five Towns organizations and institutions are doing their best to spread the holiday spirit.

To help families in need items can be donated to the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC at 207 Grove Ave. in Cedarhurst. Canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, stuffing mixes and soups, and potatoes, onions and carrots are requested. Help provide a turkey and dessert for a $54 donation. Contact staceyfeldman@guraljcc.org or (516) 569-6733.

Lawrence Elementary School students are learning the value of community service by running a food drive as well. Teachers have encouraged students to bring in nonperishable items to class. On Sunday, Nov. 18 from 10 a.m. to noon the school is encouraging students to bring their parents to the school’s cafeteria to help sort the collected items into baskets that will be distributed to families in need.

This task used to fall to the Student Council alone, however, this year the school is including everyone. “We have needy families and we don’t want anybody to go hungry,” Margret Brickman, the school’s social worker who helped organize the event, said. “It’s Thanksgiving. We try to show even our new families that we are a kind caring community.”

Baskets will be donated to the Five Towns Community Center, Our Lady of Good Counsel and Island Harvest, a food bank, but there will also be treats for the children that volunteer to help. The first 50 students to show up receive a free “Kindness is my superpower” shirt, there will be karate demonstrations, face painting, dancing and soccer and basketball games.

Jennifer Talenti, explained how this food drive ties into their lessons. “Empathy has been a school-wide theme for November,” said the English as a new language teacher and student council adviser. “We want to show them how we can make experiences for others better, and how we become better people by helping.”

Free Thanksgiving meals will be served at Five Towns Community Center, 270 Lawrence Ave. in Lawrence, on Nov. 21 from 5 to 9 p.m. This is the inaugural event for It Starts Here, an organization begun by Inwood resident Atasha Mays Fredericks. With some assistance from her coworkers at North well Health, Fredericks organized the event that will offer turkey and the traditional side dishes, seasonal drinks such as apple cider and giveaways. Nalini Thomas, one of Frederick’s coworkers, held a barbecue over the summer and raised nearly $800 to purchase food, coats, hats, gloves, lip balm, hand sanitizer and more to be given away to those in need.

Fredericks said that her son Jordan first thought of the idea a number of years ago, but now that her five sons have gotten older she’s been able to find the time to put this together. “I want to bring people together,” she said. “I felt that with the everyday hustle and bustle trying to make ends meet it’s hard. And some people can’t afford a fancy dinner and there are some elderly people or people with family far away without anyone to celebrate with … So many people get depressed around the holidays, I hope we can bring everyone some cheer.”