For five years, Michael Day has been a driving force behind offering free turkey dinners on Christmas Day, but this year the meal is going to the next level thanks to others stepping up.
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A free, sit-down Christmas turkey dinner will be served to the community on Christmas Day at the Quo Vadis Pizzeria at 316 St. Clair St. in Chatham from noon to 3 pm
Day said the meal is open to anyone, adding you don’t have to be on hard times to be welcome.
“Whoever wants a meal on Christmas day, you don’t have to be alone, you can come here,” he said.
Take-out meals will also be available.
Day, who has worked at the pizzeria for two years, said he only intended to ask the owner, Harshana Fernando, if he could use the restaurant. But he was not surprised when his boss decided to get onboard and be a part of it.
“This is awesome,” Day said of Fernando. “He does stuff like this through the community all year long, so this made it even extra-special that he’s willing to jump in and help me out.”
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Fernando, who regularly helps out organizations such as FreeHelpCK and provides meals for homeless people, said he wanted to do something at Christmas.
“But, I didn’t want to make anyone work on Christmas Day,” he said.
Fernando said it is a bonus that Day is willing to organize the event and do the cooking.
Noting he is excited about hosting the free meal at Quo Vadis, Fernando said, “I always love giving back. . . that makes me happy.”
Day said giving out free turkey dinners began at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when he and some friends “got together and just threw money in a hat to do what we could do.”
When he went public with the event a few years ago, Day said it was “unbelievable” the help that was received.
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Day credits Kristy Gold, a bartender at the Elephant’s Nest in downtown Chatham, who leads the fundraising efforts, including collecting donations from customers.
He said the $2,000 raised this year is the most so far. He added the fundraising amount has grown every year, because “when people see what we’re doing with the money they want to help out.”
The first turkey dinners were given out to people in baskets.
Day said this is the first time the free meal is going to be served in a restaurant. It will be a full Christmas turkey dinner with potatoes and veggies, cranberries, and rolls “and it’s all free,” he added.
When asked why he decided to take on this project, Day said, “I’ve been in this spot before, where we had nothing growing up and you didn’t know if you were going to eat or not.”
Now that he is a position where he can help people, he decided: “Let’s just go for it.”
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