Temple Elementary School’s Thanksgiving celebration is the quintessential community event. Last week it brought the town together for the 40th time.
“It’s my favorite day in Temple,” Amy Cabana said. “With the kids and seniors coming together it’s really special.”
Every year on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, the school becomes the town center. Students dress up in their Sunday best. Their parents fill the kitchen to help prepare. Former students now in middle school get to miss class to come back. Senior citizens from town line up for lunch and a show.
Ninety-two-year-old Dot Turini has come to 39 of the 40 Temple Thanksgivings.
“You get to see a lot of people you don’t usually see,” she said, adding that it is a testament to the sense of community in Temple.
“This isn’t so much about the dinner, but this town is so supportive,” she said. “I can’t see and I have a hearing problem, and my family doesn’t live around here, but people in town are so supportive.”
The event is sponsored by the town’s recreation commission. The food is donated and mostly prepared by parents at home. On the third Thursday in November, they bring it in and help prepare in the kitchen. When community members start showing up, their coats are taken and escorts given by students and returning middle schoolers. They are served by fourth-grade students, who waited years for the role.
“It’s totally their thing, for the fourth-graders,” Cabana said. “It’s kind of a rite of passage.”
The kids agree. Two of the fifth-graders at South Meadow School who came back to help this year are Owen Anderson and Caden Robbins.
“It’s fun and I like serving the people,” Robbins said. Anderson said one of the reasons the kids like it is that the food is so much better than school lunch.
Whatever the reason is, everybody loves Temple Thanksgiving.
Principal Niki McGettigan said, “The biggest thing is that the whole community comes together, which is what makes it so fun.”