Volunteers needed for annual dinner

Volunteers are the backbone for a successful Thanksgiving dinner in Sedro-Woolley.

The annual Sedro-Woolley Thanksgiving dinner will give community members an chance to come together and enjoy a traditional meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. 

Volunteers do everything from preparing the meal to setting tables and cleaning up.

Event organizer Stephanie Lokkebo said 50 community members have already offered to volunteer.  She is hoping to enlist at least 50 more helpers and is expecting to feed about 400 people.

Volunteers are not only needed the day of Thanksgiving but the day before to help prepare the stuffing, salads and peel potatoes.

“Volunteers can come for an hour, a day or two days,” Lokkebo said, adding that some volunteers arrive at 8 a.m. Thanksgiving day and stay until the last crumbs have been cleaned.

Last year, volunteers of all ages participated, including 5-year-olds who bussed tables and students from Sedro-Woolley High School and Cascade Middle School who prepared food the day before the holiday.

Volunteers will also deliver meals to those who cannot attend and provide transportation.

Longtime Thanksgiving volunteer Elinor Nakis said the neatest part about volunteering is that it brings people together in the community who were strangers only five minutes before.

“I think it’s a good way to support the community and a good way to say thanks,” Nakis said.

The Thanksgiving dinner has occurred for more than 25 years and is in its second year since a hiatus in 2006. Lokkebo has organized the event after former organizer and founder Bill Stendal retired from the event in 2005.

Lokkebo said the dinner last year went well and she is looking forward to another successful dinner next week.

Donations from last year’s dinner helped pay for this year’s, Lokkebo said. Donations will still be accepted this year but people will have other options as to where they can put their money.

At the dinner, donations can be made for next year’s Thanksgiving dinner or to Meals on Wheels, Skagit Habitat for Humanity or the Helping Hands Food Bank in Sedro-Woolley.

“I think (the Thanksgiving dinner) is a way to bring the community together and make sure people receive a good, hot, wholesome meal,” Nakis said. “For some folks it would otherwise be another day.”

The free dinner is from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Nov. 27 at Cascade Middle School and is open to all ages.

For more information, call Lokkebo at 360-855-0231. To place an order for a delivered meal, contact the senior center at 360-855-1531 or the chamber at 360-855-1841. For those who are unable to acquire transportation to the event and need a ride, call Nakis at 360-856-0747.

Codi Hamblin can be reached at 360-855-1641 or at