On Thanksgiving Day, the Rice Auditorium on the grounds of Spring Grove Hospital Center was filled with the hustle and bustle and wonderful holiday cooking aromas that so many of us take for granted.

It was the third annual Loverde Family Community Fund Thanksgiving Day feast for the homeless and nothing was being taken for granted.

A number of first-time volunteers helped set up tables and chairs, serve food, give out gift bags, and clean up.

All experienced what veterans of the first two holiday events already knew: This was among the most worthwhile things they had ever done.

The Café on the Grove prepared a delicious, traditional Thanksgiving feast that was served to over 140 men, women, and children.

There was no food line to stand in. Forty volunteers served the guests meals, desserts, and made sure coffee cups were filled.

While guests enjoyed their dinner, they were entertained by the pop, rock, and Christmas songs of vocalist Cara Costantini, musician David Zee and drummer John Kessell.

The feast, which began at 1 p.m., wound down at 4 p.m., when many of the guests happily assisted volunteers breaking down tables and chairs and police the auditorium.

Joe and Cindy Loverde's Loverde Family Community Fund provides this special holiday treat to our neighbors from the Westside Homeless Shelter, Mosaic Community Services and Spring Grove Hospital.

People going through tough life transitions and behavioral problems are treated with the care and dignity we all expect when dining out or at home.

It is an important event and a touching experience, as illustrated by the hand-made thank-you notes distributed to the volunteers by one guest.

On pieces of lined copybook paper, lettered in pencil, each one simply read, "Happy Holiday from Janice."

Brian Costantini

Catonsville

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