Thanksgiving starts early and often around town

By Ian Perrotta

The spirit of Thanksgiving was thick in the air this past week.

It started last Friday with a Thanksgiving dinner at People’s Community Services (PCS). A group of Hamtramck residents who call themselves the Melanics organized the meal as a way to give back to the community they live in.

Each year, the Melanics – whose name is derived from the word melanin, which gives pigmentation to skin – go to a different organization to provide a holiday meal to those in need. This year they chose to stay in the city, and in conjunction with PCS they were able to feed close to 200 people. Additional help came from members of the Hamtramck High wrestling team.

“We do it to share our blessings and help out the less fortunate,” says Jalecko Whittaker, a member of the Melanics, “and to bring people together.”

Flash forward to Tuesday afternoon to the after-school H.O.P.E. program at Holbrook Elementary School, where a group of kids were trying out a couple of lessons: the history of Thanksgiving and its meaning, as well as proper dining etiquette.

They all received a turkey meal, complete with mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables and dessert. One student couldn’t have summed it up better:

“It’s so good I could slap myself,” the boy said.

The Thanksgiving spirit didn’t end there. On Wednesday, PCS once again opened up its doors to the community to provide a holiday meal. This time, thanks to a generous donation from patrons of the Red Caboose Wine Shop (at the intersection of Holbrook and Brombach) and its owner Ronnie Salem, PCS was able to provide 25 families with a nutritious Thanksgiving feast that included turkey, potatoes, green beans, corn and soup.

And though the paper went to press before these next two events, they’re definitely worth mentioning. On Thanksgiving, the city’s newest non-profit organization Making It To The Finish Line hosted their own event.

And at Walter’s Party Store (at Carpenter and Caniff), the store owners once again hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for their loyal customers for the 10th year in a row.