Growing up in the Midwest, I lived near scores of family who gathered every Thanksgiving for great food, fellowship and football. It was a time that we all looked forward to. My cousins and I would play games on the lawn while the adults caught up on family news and discussed world events. Now I live in Virginia; far away from my family, but with a new “family” with whom I share Thanksgiving. At the Suffolk Family YMCA, we celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 20. Two hundred fifty of our members gathered together at our childcare center to participate in an event that included a catered meal, family games and fellowship.

As I walked through the gathering I was reminded again of the importance of community involvement. Many of our Teen Leader’s Club members played games with children at our games tables and DJ Smoove volunteered his time to play music at the event. Celebration Church, which meets in our Childcare building to worship on Sundays, donated turkeys and came out in large numbers to serve our members the dinner feast. A wonderful Thanksgiving program created by Tonja Williams, assistant childcare director, featured several of our before and after school children and featured Thanksgiving greetings in dialects from around the world. For our members, it was an opportunity to share a meal with new and old friends while building stronger community ties.

If you read this column regularly you are familiar with the YMCA motto; we build strong kids, strong families, strong communities. The Suffolk Family YMCA Thanksgiving dinner is a great example of how we live that motto. Our goal for the Thanksgiving dinner was to provide our members with an event where they could fellowship with their YMCA family. After watching the kids play games while the adults caught up on news about each other and talked about world events, I know that we lived our mission that evening. I am already looking forward to having Thanksgiving with my Y family next year.