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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula November 24, 2003 Text © 2003 Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly Press Release. Photos © 2001 Keweenaw Now.

Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly need volunteers for Thanksgiving dinners

HANCOCK --  On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2003, Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly will be hosting several holiday dinner sites in Houghton, Keweenaw, Baraga and Ontonagon counties. Volunteers are needed to help cook, set-up, serve, socialize and clean-up. Entertainers are welcome to volunteer their talents during the festivity.

Help is also needed to transport elderly to and from the party sites and deliver hot meals with a visit to the homebound. Volunteers are especially needed in the Ontonagon area to help deliver meals with a visit to the homebound in the outlying areas. 

Senior citizens from Keweenaw County and northern Houghton County enjoy a 2001 Thanksgiving dinner with Little Brothers volunteers and staff at the Copper City Community Hall. (Keweenaw Now file photo by Michele Anderson)

Beginning at 1 p.m. Little Brothers volunteers will be serving a full course meal with all the trimmings in the following locations:

Doelle Senior Citizens Center, Tapiola
Saint Ignatius Church, Houghton
United Methodist Church, 109 Greenland St., Ontonagon
Copper City Community Hall, Copper City
Church of the Resurrection, 900 Quincy, Hancock
Sacred Heart Church, 1383 Rockland, Calumet
Grace Lutheran Church, M-26, South Range
St Anne's Church, Baraga.

The Little Brothers staff invites to the dinners elderly people who would otherwise be spending Thanksgiving Day home alone.

"We will also be preparing hot meals for those elderly who are unable to come out," said Mike Aten, Little Brothers executive director. "In all we will be serving close to 1000 meals."

This typical Thanksgiving meal served by Little Brothers included a colorful carrot salad (foreground), turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls and several kinds of pie. (Keweenaw Now file photo by Michele Anderson)

The Thanksgiving Day activities will include dinner, fresh flowers, candles, table cloths, homemade desserts and great company for the elderly attending. This is but one of the continuing celebrations put on by the Little Brothers to let their elderly friends know that they are special, that they have a friend and that someone cares.

Due to the increased demand for home-delivered hot meals on the holidays, Little Brothers will prepare and send out hot meals from the Apostolic Lutheran Church on Third and Tamarack in Laurium and from Grace United Methodist Church in Houghton. The hot meals will be ready at 12 noon and will include a full course meal, homemade dessert and flowers. United Methodist Church in Ontonagon, Doelle Senior Center in Tapiola and St. Anne's Church in Baraga will also be delivering hot meals from their sit-down meal sites and will be ready at 1 p.m.

The Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization committed to relieving isolation and loneliness among the elderly. Little Brothers activities offer to people of goodwill the opportunity to join the elderly in friendship and celebration of life. The group has been providing services to the elderly in the Copper Country for more than twenty years.

See the Nov. 22, 2001, Keweenaw Now photo essay,  Little Brothers serve Thanksgiving meals to seniors (Thanksgiving meal in Copper City).

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