Firefighters deliver Thanksgiving meals

TOM LAVENTURE

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Marenisco - With Thanksgiving community events shut down from the pandemic this year a group of volunteer firefighters decided to pick up the torch and deliver meals to people from Marenisco to Ironwood on Thursday.

Members of the Marenisco Township Volunteer Fire Department decided recently to step up and deliver meals to people who would otherwise be alone and not have the traditional holiday meal, along with other families who are trying to manage through these difficult times, said Fire Chief Tim Holz. All together there were approximately 140 Thanksgiving dinners delivered Thursday to residents of Marenisco, Wakefield, Bessemer and Ironwood.

"We figured that nobody had anywhere to go," Holz said, noting this was the department's first ever Thanksgiving meal event. "We got together and we talked and everybody felt the same way and so we figured we should try it. We just came up with this idea two weeks ago."

Meals were also delivered to on-duty personnel working at Ironwood Public Safety Department, Gogebic County Sheriff's Office, Michigan State Police and Beacon Ambulance Service. The volunteer drivers included members of the Ironwood Township Volunteer Fire Department, along with others from Wakefield, he said.

The event was possible with a lot of food and cash donations, Holz said. The department cooked 14 turkeys, 50 pounds of potatoes, gravy, green beans, stuffing and pumpkin cake.

"People came in out of the blue and were handing out money to help us do this," Holz said.

The event was posted on the department's Facebook page and flyers were posted around Marenisco.

To prepare the meal the firefighters were given use of the town hall commercial kitchen. Four of the turkeys were cooked on Wednesday and warmed up Thursday morning for the first deliveries while the other turkeys were cooked.

"The cadet program members came in and peeled the potatoes and chopped them up and went the whole nine yards for us," said Danielle Holz, department safety training officer. "So, yeah, we had pretty good participation from the department."

The food was lined up in warmers on the counter to load into to-go containers in an assembly line fashion.

Volunteers used three vehicles and started delivering just before noon in Marenisco and then moved out to the other communities.

It's too soon to say if the Marenisco Fire Department will make this an annual event or host other holiday meals, Danielle Holz said. They will discuss it and look at the feedback, but as of Thursday she said that everything was going as planned even with the challenges that are expected with a first-time event.

"We have a lot of seniors around that don't get a holiday meal," she said. "We don't see this virus going away anytime soon."