‘Tis the Season to Share & Be Thankful

Numerous Families to be Impacted by Local Generosity this Thanksgiving

Left to right, Lari Hopkins, SMMC Case Manager, Jennifer Gill of Elara Caring Home Health making the donation and Mark Kimball, SMMC CEO. St. Mark’s partnered with the Family Crisis Center to conduct a Thanksgiving food drive. The baskets contained everything to make a traditional thanksgiving meal for six people. Its the hospital’s 23rd year to organize the Thanksgiving drive. They collected enough to serve 126 families in Fayette, Lee, Bastrop and Colorado counties. Laurie Quitta, Director of Nursing organized the drive. “It’s the happiest day of the year at St. Mark’s to serve those in need,” said Hopkins. Photo by Andy Behlen

If you smelled wood burning early Friday morning, it was for a good cause. The Holy Smokers at St. James Episcopal Church in La Grange cooked 80 turkeys for the Family Crisis Center. The birds smoked for 11 hours before being distributed to families in Fayette, Lee, Colorado and Bastrop counties. And, the Episcopal Church Women baked some 200 dozen (2,400) cookies to go with the birds. FCC’s Gina Gralinski picked up the cookies and turkeys. She was joined here by Smokers (left to right) Mike Parrish, Bill Rugeley, Tom Tracy, Ed Dykes, Larry Kahanek, Chuck Gibson and Jason Krupala. Photo by Bill Bishop