Over 400 served holiday dinner

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Whether to help serve or to eat, more than 300 area residents showed up for the 13th annual Portales community Thanksgiving dinner Thursday at the Memorial Building.

People of all ages and all walks of life crowded into the building as soon as the dinner started at 11 a.m.

link Staff photos: Alisa Boswell

Area residents are served Thanksgiving dinner Thursday at the Memorial Building during the annual community Thanksgiving dinner.

Head Coordinator Joe Parie said people from the entire surrounding area, not just Portales, were welcome to come eat at the dinner.

“We had over 300 here and sent out about 140 meals,” Parie said of the dinner, adding that it usually serves around 500 each year.

“For the longest time, we had full tables, and that’s what we shoot for,” Parie said. “And we had lots of wonderful help. It’s been a very successful day.”

Parie said he enjoys the people the most about the dinner.

“So many are so grateful, then a lot of them come in just to socialize,” he said. “We just get a lot of wonderful people here.”

Portales residents who were home bound got food delivered to their door on Thursday.

Dolores Gonzales, — just like Parie — has volunteered all 13 years the event had been happening, along with her husband.

“Seeing that they’ll take it to people at home, who can’t go out (means a lot),” Gonzales said. “My husband took some (food) to two neighbors. One lady can barely walk.”

Saphronia Hollaway of Melrose, a first timer to the event, said she and her husband, Casey, were just looking for something different to do this Thanksgiving holiday, and they had heard the Lighthouse Mission in Clovis had more than enough volunteers, so they decided to help out at the Portales dinner.

“We don’t know anybody here other than Joe (Parie). My husband contacted him. We just wanted to do something different for the holidays,” Hollaway said. “We just wanted to teach our girls how to give back and not be selfish. It’s been awesome. It’s really well organized and put together. It’s just awesome to see people come together for something like this.”

Her daughters, Renise, 9, and Zona, 7, said they enjoyed the experience of being able to help others.

“I like it. I like talking to the people and having fun,” Renise said, adding that her family of four had gotten to laugh with people a lot that day.

Hollaway said her family has a large extended family, so holiday celebrations are often planned on different days as was the case this year.

“We just said whatever comes up, we’ll plan around this, so this was our main priority today,” she said.