Members of a youth group at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church in Ijamsville are thankful they get to enjoy sumptuous meals with their families on Thanksgiving.
However, they recognize that there are some members of the community who cannot afford to buy the turkeys, potatoes, pies and other staples of the annual feast.
And for the past two years, they have done something about that.
"I'm able to have a great Thanksgiving," said Jake Gluck, 12, and a seventh-grader at Windsor Knolls Middle School. "For people who aren't able to, I want to make sure they have a good Thanksgiving, too."
St. Ignatius' social hall was loaded with cans, turkeys and sacks of potatoes on Monday night, ready for the second annual "Cooking up Faith" event, where young parishioners will prepare Thanksgiving meals for 54 needy families, double what they did last year.
More than 80 children and 15 adults volunteered to help gather food they planned to cook on Wednesday and bring to a pantry run at the home of church member Jo Otsby, who lives on Reichs Ford Road in Frederick.
Otsby will distribute the meals on Thanksgiving Day to needy families she has identified.
Several businesses also chipped into the effort, including Urbana restaurant Foster's Grille, which provided 50 pounds of potatoes to the group. Several grocery stores, including the Giant in Urbana, the Safeway and Superfresh in Mount Airy, the Weis locations in Damascus and Spring Ridge, and the Wal-Mart located on Guilford Drive in Frederick all contributed gift cards to the food drive, said organizer, Kim Loyd.
By Monday night, they had gathered almost 30 turkeys, more than 50 pounds of potatoes, and the fixings for more than 20 pies.
Tommy Loyd, 14, and a home-schooled high school freshman, said his aunt gave him and his brother, Kevin, 13, three whole turkeys to donate to the drive. Both brothers considered the food drive important because they felt it wasn't right that some people should go without a meal on Thanksgiving.
"I just think everyone should have a Thanksgiving dinner," Kevin said.
Carol Smith, the parish's religious education coordinator, said the food drive was important because it not only taught young people the value of service and its importance to the Christian faith, but also the fellowship and enjoyment that comes from that service.
"It's fun to help," Smith said.
And the children seemed to learn that lesson well.
Kayla Kastner, Morgan Gluck and Julie Vorhees, all 14-year-old freshmen at Urbana High School, said they enjoyed the opportunity to work together on the project.
"It was really fun," Kayla said about the food preparation. "We got to wear bandanas because we didn't want to wear hairnets."
But that wasn't the only lesson the Thanksgiving-themed event offered the children.
"In the process, we get to teach them how to cook," said Diane Hess, a youth ministry assistant.
E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.
