A Thankful Dinner For LEAP

The following article was submitted by the youth agency LEAP.
Every year, right before Thanksgiving, LEAP holds its annual Thankful Dinner. LEAPers from all around the city come together in one location, to eat, play games, enjoy each other’s company, explain what they are thankful for and dance. Several hundred children, counselors and volunteers filled the Hillhouse High School cafeteria.

If one word could be used to describe the Thankful Dinner this year, it would be ​“Joy.” Everyone simply had a blast. But it takes a lot of good people to make it all possible.

The Thankful Dinner is made possible by New Haven’s extremely generous community. Businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, LEAP parents and board members donated food. Alumni, parents and board members also donated several hours of their time to prepare and serve the food. This meant there was plenty for everyone, including turkey, yams, corn, rice and beans, greens, and desserts galore.

Hillhouse High School, which donated the cafeteria, is a wonderful partner for LEAP that makes space available for LEAP’s neighborhood programs year round.

LEAP kids arrived with their high school and college student counselors from five neighborhood sites: Church Street South, Farnam Courts, Dwight, Dixwell and Fair Haven. They joined with their counselors in card games, checkers, and bingo while volunteers got the food ready.

But before anyone ate, children from each of the sites got up and read their essays about what they are thankful for – each one receiving a robust ovation.

LEAPers in their speeches gave thanks for a range of personally meaningful things over the last year, including: loving parents, a new foster family, teachers who care and their LEAP counselors.

Businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, LEAP parents and board members donated food. These included Orange Street Market, Sandra’s Next Generation, Trader Joe’s, Target, and the Connecticut Partnership for Children. Alumni, parents and board members also donated several hours of their time to prepare and serve the food. This meant there was plenty for everyone, including turkey, yams, corn, rice and beans, greens, and desserts galore.

No Thankful Dinner would be complete without some dancing – a great way to have fun and burn off the calories from a big meal. So the last twenty minutes were just that as kids and counselors danced to the latest tunes. They did the Whip and the Nae Nae.

Just one more thing for which to be thankful.