MORGANTOWN — Preparing Thanksgiving dinner for nearly 200 people is a pretty tall order, but the Salvation Army has it covered.
Make that, the Day Before Thanksgiving dinner.
Members of WVU’s men’s basketball team are among the volunteers scheduled to help serve the Army’s annual offering of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and all the other trimmings.
That happens from 4-5 p.m. today at the organization’s Morgantown headquarters on University Avenue.
“It will be a traditional meal,” Salvation Army Lt. Nicole Greenland said.
She leads the local SA chapter with her husband, Sheldon Greenland, who is also a lieutenant in the organization.
“We’ll have all the side dishes and desserts,” she said. “We want to make it nice for everyone.”
The couple is spending their first holiday season here in their new posting.
Both grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, where Sheldon Greenland’s parents were active in the Salvation Army ministry.
Following earlier postings in Cleveland and Atlanta, they came to Morgantown this summer.
They also did missionary work in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Now, Nicole Greenland said, both are looking forward to Christmas in north-central West Virginia while enjoying what is the full-on holiday season for the Salvation Army.
The Salvation Army’s annual kettle drive and angel tree campaigns launched here last week.
This year’s goal for the kettles is $300,000, Greenland said, and all monies raised go to outreach projects across Monongalia, Marion and Preston counties.
There are more than 1,000 angels for trees this year, she said.
That program is geared to youngsters in need of clothing and shoes for Christmas. A toy is always on the wish list just for the Yule fun and magic.
Morgantown, meanwhile, has its own tradition of “It’s a Wonderful Life”-styled magic for Christmas.
Every year since 1978, an anonymous benefactor — or, the estate of an anonymous benefactor, perhaps — placed a $1,000 bill in a kettle here as part of the drive.
The location is different every year.
And yes, it’s actual currency, complete with President Grover Cleveland’s somewhat stern countenance smack on the center of the bill.
“We heard about that,” the lieutenant said.
Tweet @DominionPostWV
JBissett@DominionPost.com
