By: Sue Kramer
LAMBERTVILLE – In Allonia K. Thompson’s Thanksgiving kitchen, the preparations that began the day before moved along smoothly, but on a much larger scale than in most homes.
The reason for the hustle and bustle was the sheer number of expected guests – around 150 needy people. The setting was St. John’s Church on North Main Street, and while the event was the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, Miss Allonia was overseeing the annual Delaware Valley Council of Churches dinner, a fete that takes weeks of planning and two days of cooking and baking to prepare for.
Along with the giving spirit of the many volunteers who helped set up tables and chairs, roast and carve turkeys, prepare mashed and candied sweet potatoes, and line the counters of the kitchen with pies, another story unfolded; one of the caring and giving spirit of a local couple.
The preparations for the Thanksgiving meal began weeks ago before Miss Allonia entered the hospital for surgery that would have her returning home just two weeks before Thanksgiving. Knowing she would be under her doctor’s orders to "take it easy," she started lining up the extra help that would be needed to serve a full Thanksgiving meal to the expected guests at St. John’s plus deliver nearly 50 additional dinners to recipients of Meals on Wheels.
"I was going around asking folks if they could help me because I was going in the hospital," Miss Allonia said. "So I went to Rick (Buscavage), but he wasn’t there. His wife (Kathy) asked me what did I need? So I said, well, you can’t buy all that stuff; I have the money to do it. So she got the list, and he bought everything – and I mean the aluminum pans, potatoes, sugar, all the beans, two kinds of butter – everything for the dinner. You name it, he bought it."
She continued, "So last week he came by, and I asked him to give me the check, (his bill) and he said, ‘You got it.’ And I said, ‘Not yet.’ He gave me hugs and kisses and said, ‘That’s your check.’ I told him, ‘You’ve got to be kidding! I have the money to pay for it.’ He said, ‘You take that money and help somebody who really needs it.’ "
Miss Allonia was still stunned as she recalled the kindness and generosity of the Buscavages, who own Rick’s restaurant on South Main Street.
The story of people giving of themselves continued throughout the two days.
"Al (Varga), he had called me," Miss Allonia said, "to tell me he was bringing fresh flowers in the morning for my tables."
Mr. Varga is Lambertville’s former police director. He and his wife, Marie, own Blue Ribbon Flowers in Hamilton Township. Mr. Varga drove from Hamilton to deliver the fresh flowers for the tables Thanksgiving morning, his contribution to the meal.
"The flowers were beautiful," Miss Allonia added.
Even Father Leon helped out by bringing some pies. When asked if he made them himself, Miss Allonia said with a giggle, "Are you kidding me?"
"And Richard (McDonough) brought the rolls, napkins, and green vegetables," she said.
Mr. McDonough owns the Van Horn-McDonough Funeral Home on York Street.
"Everybody gave me things and didn’t want any money," Miss Allonia said.So Miss Allonia is going to donate the money collected for the dinner to as many worthy causes as she can, and she has some needy families in mind as well.
The Thanksgiving dinners began about 20 years ago with Barbara Crawford overseeing the preparations. There have been several people taking charge since then with Miss Allonia garnering the title of "executive chef" for the last three. She is assisted by Dorothy "Dottie" Welsh and Carol Bishop, both Lambertville residents. The dinner is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Council of Churches, which includes St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, New Hope-Lumberville United Methodist Church, the First Baptist Church of Lambertville, First Presbyterian Church, Lambertville Assembly of God, Trinity Episcopal Church and several others.
It takes a lot of volunteers to cook, serve, deliver meals and clean up after 150 people. Besides many church volunteers, members of the Lambertville-New Hope Rotary and others, children came to help.
Three Lambertville Public School sixth-graders lent a hand setting tables as a form of community service to put toward the 25 hours needed to earn their year-end trip to Washington, D.C.
Still other children came from the Holy Trinity Junior Youth Group. The youth group meets monthly and enjoys the fellowship of their activities, which include hayrides and other community/church events.
Dr. Gary Grover and his wife, Janis, came to lend a hand Wednesday afternoon after spending two hours standing outside helping the Lambertville-New Hope Rotary with its sidewalk citrus sale.
"I’m glad they have the heat on here," Dr. Grover said as he prepared to set up extra chairs. "After being outside selling grapefruit, I feel like a Popsicle."
Then he added, "It’s a good opportunity for me to come out and offer my time. It’s really nice. It’s not something I get to do too often – get to help serve turkey to people."
As the bustle continued in the kitchen, Lambertville Public School teacher Chris Colt carved turkeys. He even had roasted one of them himself.
"I’m glad to see she got the help she needed," Mr. Colt said of Miss Allonia. "People don’t realize that this is a lot of work."
Then he added if the help hadn’t arrived, Miss Allonia would have prepared the entire meal herself.
When all was said and done, 151 Thanksgiving dinners had been served, and as in all holiday meals, there were leftovers. John and Barbara Hencheck helped Miss Allonia package the leftover turkey, stuffing, potatoes and other goodies, then they took them to the Hibernia Apartments for the senior citizen residents to enjoy Friday.
"Everything turned out beautifully," Miss Allonia said.
