For many, Thanksgiving is about more than the food

This Thanksgiving, siblings Garry Wiles and Jamie Long got together to share more than just a meal.

They honored their father, a Vietnam veteran, by keeping alive a five-year long tradition of sharing Thanksgiving dinner at the American Legion in Lower Burrell.

“Our dad is a member here. He’s in the hospital now, we’re kind of doing this (in) his memory,” Wiles said. “One of my reasons for wanting to come here was to find the guys that actually remember him.”

On Thursday, organizations across the Pittsburgh area hosted Thanksgiving dinners to provide the community with holiday meals and companionship.

Richard Wolanin, 71, spent the last four days prepping all the fixings for a turkey dinner for his fellow American Legion members and the Lower Burrell community.

“My mother always told me, ‘You never repay kindness. You always pass it on.’ So that’s what I try to do,” said Wolanin, who was dressed in his chef’s whites.

Wolanin estimated he made around 120 pounds of turkey, 60 pounds of mash potatoes, six big cans of green beans in addition to a plethora of other thanksgiving sides such as sweet potatoes and pies.

Helping to serve the food to the small crowd of diners gathered inside the American Legion banquet hall was Wolanin’s wife, Lorie Wolanin, Sheryl Haley, Jackie Ahlstrom and Diane Rupert.

Rupert, 74, of Lower Burrell, has helped Wolanin the last two years.

“It’s like a labor of love. We really like to serve the people that don’t … have any place to go, and so it’s our pleasure to serve them Thanksgiving dinner,” she said.

Just under three miles away at Central Presbyterian Church in Tarentum, another group of volunteers served, packaged and delivered their own plates of Thanksgiving dinner.

In the church’s fellowship hall, the Rev. Robert Dayton joined a small group of community members to enjoy a plate of turkey.

“We’re a small congregation. We only have 60 members, but really … we have a commitment to the community,” he said.

Despite the smaller size of the church, the volunteers provided more than 200 people with Thanksgiving dinner.

Dave Rankin, who coordinated the holiday meal, attributed the church’s outreach to their establishment within the community.

“We decided we should open it (the dinner) up to the public, and so here we are, 30 years later, still doing it,” he said.

Lifelong friends Cheryl Fondrk of Natrona Heights and Bonnie Spencer of Springdale have Thanksgiving dinner when their families are not able to gather to celebrate the holiday.

“It’s a sit down on Thanksgiving. So there’s not too many that do a sit down where you can celebrate Thanksgiving,” Fondrk said.

In the kitchen and delivering meals were a number of volunteers who are not active members of the church.

Neal Silliman, of Lower Burrell, saw an ad from the church in the newspaper more than 20 years ago and has been helping with the annual Thanksgiving dinner since.

This year Silliman was in charge of making the mash potatoes.

He showed off the giant masher, labeled with his name, behind the 100-plus pounds of potatoes in the church’s kitchen.

Sharon Craft, 65, traveled two hours from Sigel, Pa., to help.

Craft grew up a member of Central Presbyterian Church before moving away.

Despite no longer living in the area, it is Craft’s tradition to roll up her sleeves and serve food on Thanksgiving.

“I recently lost my husband, almost five years ago. So this is, you know, my day,” Craft said about the importance of being surrounded by community over the holidays.