An extra guest joining a family of seven at a traditional Thanksgiving meal isn’t uncommon, but this year William James says one of the things he’s thankful for was a reversal of that pattern by getting to know the stranger alone at a table his family joined during the annual community meal hosted Thursday by The Salvation Army Juneau Corps.
“It’s something we do every year,” he said of the midday gathering at the Juneau Yacht Club, where the meal has been served the past three years. Last year “we were all spread apart, and we met a whole lot of new people and saw a whole lot of old friends. It was fun.”
This year the family stayed together since James’ mother was visiting from Sitka. They joined Mike Cerny, who said he moved to Juneau in June from Bellingham, Washington.
“I just like got off the boat here and decided to check it out,” Cerny said, adding that “I ended up deciding I want to stay up here for a short time.”
Ryan Friend (right) carves a turkey while other members of his extended family help prepare an annual community Thanksgiving Day feast hosted by The Salvation Army Juneau Corps at the Juneau Yacht Club. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Cerny said he learned about the community meal from hosts at the city’s cold-weather shelter where’s currently staying. As is traditional at the annual meals, the diners and hosts represented a mix of community leaders, families, visitors from outside town and people experiencing homelessness.
Among the people who’ve been both guest and host is Jason Magness, who was at this year’s meal as a server delivering meals and drinks as requested by those seated at the tables. The inside of the yacht club was brightly lit by the sun coming through from outside on a cloudless, crisp day — and this year Magness said one of the things he’s thankful for is being able to enjoy such weather.
“Friends, being alive and the cold because it’s good on my skin,” he said.
For Jared Olin the gathering was a chance to appreciate Juneau’s communal spirit of making a meal freely available to all, even though as an Alaska Native he is among those who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in its traditional sense due to a mythology that overlooks historical conflicts that occurred at the time between Native Americans and settlers. But he said he still does a large feast if he’s with family on the holiday as an observance of togetherness.
“We would always like to put up a big dinner, and get turkey and ham and yams and all that,” he said. “So we’ll do the whole thing. We don’t really celebrate the meaning (of Thanksgiving), but (it’s a) time you have a chance to get a lot of food together and have a family time like that.
About 300 guests dined at the year’s community meal, down from the estimated 450 or so the past couple of years since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the events, which organizers said may be due in part to a mid-summer leadership change at the local Salvation Army corps. Petr Yanosokiov, a citizen of the Czech Republic who spent the past six years in London, and his wife became co-leaders of the local chapter in July.
Volunteers prepare traditional Thanksgiving Day meal plates during a communal meal Thursday at the Juneau Yacht Club. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Yanosokiov, participating in his first full-fledged Thanksgiving celebration, said after the meal he’s been involved in plenty of similar events during his nearly 30-year career with The Salvation Army and some situations simply end up posing more challenges than others.
“It’s always kind of chaos if you see it from the inside, but when you are sitting at the table and you’re eating your food people enjoyed it,” he said.
The leftover food is being donated to St. Vincent de Paul Juneau, which operates low-income housing complexes in Juneau as well as the city’s cold-weather emergency shelter.
As has become tradition over the past 30 years, a sizable percentage of the volunteers helping with Thursday’s feast were multiple generations of family members and friends recruited by Jerry Harmon, the guru behind other local pioneering events such as Juneau Gold Rush Days. Two of his son-in-laws, Ryan Friend and Jeremy Witmore, were helping Harmon carve the 50 smoked turkeys in the kitchen during the hours leading up to serving time — and they said they’d be repeating the feat at their own family celebration later during the day.
“At three o’clock this morning I put it in the smoker,” Witmore said. “It takes nine hours. My wife’s at home (and) every hour she has to spritz it with turkey juice.”
Petr Yanosokiov (center), co-leader of The Salvation Army Juneau Corps, says grace before the organization’s annual communal Thanksgiving Day at the Juneau Yacht Club. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Friend and Witmore, both of who are continuing another family tradition by working as miners, said they’re thankful this year they can be in Juneau to volunteer and celebrate at home.
“Helping people, being with family, getting to do community service,” Witmore said. “I mean me and Ryan travel a lot for work, so it’s nice to be home for the holidays.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
