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It didn't matter if Thursday marked their first meal delivery or the 10th year on the front lines of the Salvation Army's “TurkeyFest” -- the chance to help the less fortunate made Thanksgiving that much more meaningful to all involved.
“We feel very blessed,” said Susan Carnes, who arrived at the Salvation Army with her family, each eager to deliver turkey and all the fixings to several Papillion residents who might not otherwise have a holiday meal.
Carnes' daughter, Brooke Boland, a 20-year-old student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, suggested the family venture after receiving an e-mail about delivering meals to the elderly and disabled.
The Salvation Army has sponsored the TurkeyFest for 16 years. All the food is prepared over several days by dozens of volunteer cooks working out of the Salvation Army's Omaha headquarters near 38th and Cuming Streets.
Similar scenes played out across the metro area as churches, homeless shelters and businesses spent part of Thursday feeding the needy. The Stephen Center Emergency Shelter at 2723 Q St., for example, served meals out of a Mayflower moving van. Later in the day, the Siena/Francis House opened its doors at 1111 North 17th St. for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
At the Salvation Army, a line of volunteer drivers — 160 in all, along with their accompanying family, friends and delivery baskets — spilled out of the headquarters and into the parking lot.
Inside, TurkeyFest veterans Betty and Jerry Golmanavich took the drivers' delivery baskets and carefully filled each one with packages of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, green beans with almonds, rolls and cookies.
The Golmanaviches don't have family in the Omaha area. But after a decade of serving up Thanksgiving meals at the army, Betty Golmanavich said, “this has become our family.”
It didn't matter that the couple's own Thanksgiving meal would come from a crockpot. All that mattered was making time for others, said Betty Golmanavich, choking back tears as she talked about Thanksgiving at her house: “We just have so much to be thankful for.”
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