JG-TC.com > News > Church Thanksgiving dinner is family event

TODAY'S HEADLINES

SPECIAL SECTION

ONLINE POLL

ONLINE EXTRAS

SITE TOOLS

OTHER LINKS

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Monday, November 24, 2008 9:25 PM CST
Church Thanksgiving dinner is family event

By SHARON MOSLEY, For the JG/T-C

SHELBYVILLE — George and Nonie Bolinger of Shelbyville have hosted some big Thanksgiving dinners over the years.

With a large extended family and six children of their own, the Bolingers are used to buying large turkeys and feeding a crowd. But, while most big families are used to making room for one more at the table, the Bolingers have taken it to the extreme.

Thursday, as they have for more than 30 years, the Bolingers will be coordinating a dinner for more than 50 people at the First United Methodist Church in Shelbyville. The event draws people from throughout the community to share a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

“We started the Thanksgiving Day dinner because there were some people who were not able to have dinner with their families or they had no family to have dinner with,” Nonie Bolinger said. “At the time I was delivering Peace Meals to shut-ins and they aren’t available on Thanksgiving so we knew a lot of people would be alone.”

For the Bolingers, expanding their family meal meant recruiting a few volunteers, including any of their own children who were in town to provide side dishes and desserts and increasing the number of turkeys and potatoes needed. Diners can enjoy a sit down dinner in the church’s Fellowship Hall or carry outs are available. There is no charge for the meal.

The church takes reservations for the dinner so the cooks know how much food to prepare, but somehow, even with a few extra guests, the food always stretches. Volunteers handle all the preparation and clean up with often guests stepping in to help out.

The meal takes on a family reunion like quality with conversations, laughter and sharing. Some are young families with children, others are single seniors. One small boy referred to George Bolinger as “the big happy boy who runs the dishwasher.”

Feeding the hungry is a tradition for the Bolingers, who also coordinate the church’s food pantry ministry that serves more than 300 families in an average month. Married for more than 50 years, they show no signs of stopping.

“No one should be alone on Thanksgiving,” said Nonie Bolinger. “Not when there’s a church and a meal available.“

Thanksgiving dinner is served at noon. For reservations call the church office at 774-4131 or 774-3013.

Add your comments

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Not already registered?
Then click Here.

Comment policy:

JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.

In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.

We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.

No comment may contain:

* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.

If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.