Thanksgiving Baskets 
Details 2011:
Where: Lock N' Roll Storage
When: November 19, 2011@ 9:00 am
What: Package baskets and deliver
Contact: Wade Beckman at 713-515-2223 or service@aggielandrotary.org
History
For Thanksgiving, 1996, Dick Forrester organized our now annual Thanksgiving Basket project that are delivered to families that are in need in order for them to be able to partake of a nice Thanksgiving Day Dinner. In 1996 we delivered 20 baskets.
Since the inception of the program, the Rotary Club of Aggieland has provided hundreds of local families with all the “fixin's” for a full Thanksgiving Dinner. In the months prior to the holiday itself and through a variety of sources, the club identifies families who, because of financial hardship, medical conditions, or physical challenges might not be able to afford a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Then, with the financial and in kind support of club members and other individuals, church groups, schools, and local businesses, the club purchases frozen turkeys, stuffing mix, canned vegetables, sweet potatoes, marshmallows, cranberry sauce, fresh fruit, dinner rolls, and desserts. Local school children contribute their time and talent to decorate, with a Thanksgiving theme, the cardboard boxes in which these items will be delivered.
How it Works
On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, club members gather in the morning to assemble the boxes, each of which contains the right amount of ingredients for the size of the family to which it will be delivered. Aggieland Rotarians, with the welcome help of family members and other volunteers, then fan out across our community to deliver these boxes to the intended destinations. The smiles and expressions of thanks that club members receive from the appreciative families are ample reward for the months of logistical planning, fund raising, and labor required to pull it off each year.
Service Above Self
The project began small at first, but it has grown substantially over the past years as the club has increased its ability to identify needy families, to raise funds to purchase food, and to muster the volunteer workforce necessary to carry out a project of this magnitude. In 2007, the club delivered 100 complete Thanksgiving Dinner Baskets to less fortunate fellow citizens in the Brazos Valley. The Thanksgiving Baskets Project just illustrates one of the ways that the Rotary Club of Aggieland is living up to the Rotary International Motto of “Service Above Self”.
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