Planning for the Madaro Family Community Fund’s annual Thanksgiving Dinner is in full swing and Rep. Adrian Madaro has announced a major change to the yearly event.
The dinner, which will be held on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, Nov. 28), helps feed the elderly, homeless, low-income and residents that just need a little company during the holiday.
While the charitable dinner, founded by Rep. Madaro’s predecessor, former Rep. Carlo Basile, was always held at the Sacred Heart Church Hall, this year’s dinner will be moved to the Salesian Boys & Girls Club on Byron Street.
“We are very excited to partner with the Boys and Girls Club for this year’s Madaro Family Fund annual Thanksgiving Dinner,” said Rep. Madaro. “I think the space inside the Salesians cafeteria will be perfect for this year’s event.”
Madaro said the event has grown year after year and services residents from throughout Eastie.
“The Boys & Girls Club is a little more centrally located than Sacred Heart,” explained Madaro. “Last year we served over 500 meals, including deliveries, all over East Boston from Orient Heights to Jeffries Point.”
Madaro said having a more centrally located space to host the annual dinner will make life easier for the dozens of volunteers that shuttle people to and from the event as well as making deliveries across Eastie Thanksgiving Day.
“We will be offering shuttle bus service from Sacred Heart Church–the old location–to the Boys & Girls Club on Thanksgiving Day,” said Madaro.
Madaro said as the event has grown and more and more people show up parking started to get tight at the church.
“The Boys & Girls Club has plenty of parking and it is also handicap accessible,” said Madaro. “This will be the first year that we will have handicap access and I believe a lot of people stayed away from the event or relied on deliveries each year because of that. I’m hoping we’ll see more residents turn out, perhaps even some that have never experienced this wonderful event.”
Boys & Girls Club Executive Director Michael Triant said he is thrilled to be partnering with the successful event.
“Adrian is a club kid and he cares deeply about Salesian Boys & Girls Club,” said Triant. “He provides so much assistance to us year round. This is a great chance for us to be of assistance to him. It is an amazing opportunity to help Adrian and the Madaro Family Community Fund provide this dinner to the community we serve. Our facilities are such a great resource to the children and families in our community year round. Now we have an opportunity to open the doors on a holiday, more specifically Thanksgiving, which is a great day to be thankful and spend time with family. Were glad to be able to provide the venue and work with the madaro family community fund to do just that.”
Madaro and a group of friends, family and an army of volunteers from across the neighborhood will provide a full Thanksgiving meal for residents that may otherwise go hungry.
Like years past, the food will be prepared by Spinelli’s chefs, which included salad, a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings and dessert and coffee.
Madaro said the event puts a lot of things we take for granted in life into perspective.
“When you see children of parents with a smile on their face inside the church hall, you know the group of volunteers have done something right,” said Madaro. “I started to come to this event, first as former Rep. Basile’s Chief of Staff, and now as the event’s host. It is really something I look forward to every year and has become as much a part of my family and my Thanksgiving as turkey and stuffing.”