The Lehigh Acres Rotary Club at its noon time meeting Thursday got an update from Mike Buff, one of its members who talked about the upcoming free Thanksgiving Dinner that Rotarians, with the help of volunteers, put on every year in Lehigh.

“I told them where we were and what would be needed and things like that,” Buff said. “I told them that I was going to approach a local restaurant to see if we could get donated pies for desserts and things like that,” Buff said.

The annual Thanksgiving Dinner has become a tradition in Lehigh, started back in 1998 by Lisa Goehle who was the executive director of L.A. Social Services. When the agency closed in 2006, the Lehigh Rotary Club decided to take it over and is has been held every year since.

Goehle said this is the 11th year that the dinner has been served. She said she and her agency began it because she knew of the need in Lehigh for many people back then who would not be able to prepare it or go to a holiday dinner.

The Thanksgiving dinner is for anyone in Lehigh who wants to come and enjoy a good meal and meet friends.

“It’s not just for people who are needy; it is for everybody,” Buff said. “There are folks who may not have a place to go to and there are seniors who won’t take the time to prepare their own Thanksgiving dinner. And because the food served by the Rotarians is so good, word gets around that it is the best dinner in town.

And the tradition has caught on because many of the same families comes to the dinner on Thanksgiving Day every year.

“It is free to the public,” Duff stressed.

Servings begin at 10:30 a.m. and continue to 2:30 p.m. And there’s plenty of parking on the church parking lot. The social hall is located on the west end of the church grounds. It’s the building where Bingo is held. And St. Raphael’s, which does not charge for the use of the building, is across Lee Blvd. from Walmart.

If some of the visitors want to give, there is a donations jar near the front and many people do drop money in it.

“We’re appreciate of that. In fact, what we got last year is helping us start off this year,” Buff said.

“But we as Rotarians want to emphasize that the meal is for the people of Lehigh and we do not expect them to feel they have to pay for it,” he said.

Buff said they were going to cook 26 large turkeys this time, “a few more than last year.”

“Since last year, there have been so many foreclosures and people out of work in Lehigh. We thought me might cook just a little more,” Buff said.

If anyone would like to give beforehand to help the Rotary Club, they can send a check to them at PO Box 803, Lehigh Acres, FL., 33936.

“In Rotary it is ‘service above self’ and that’s what this is all about,” he said.

Members of the Rotary and often their family members, wives and children, and others in the community turn out to volunteer to cook and serve the food and later, to clean up.

“We like to leave the kitchen at St. Rafael’s Church as clean or better as it was when we started,” Buff said.

Many of the same people volunteer every year to work the serving line and there are always a few new ones who turn out to help.

“A lot of children help us out by serving the desserts,” he said. If you would like to volunteer, call Buff at 239-464-4253.

Dick Groetchen is the primary cook and he and three or four others start out the day before cooking the turkeys. People like Paul Goehle, Lisa’s husband, have been helping to cook turkeys for all the years there has been a dinner.

“They come in early and stick the turkeys in the ovens and some of them leave and then some come back throughout the day to begin preparing other things,” Buff said. “Then we have people who help to prepare the other things. We have a gravy lady who just cooks the gravy for us,” he said.

Buff’s wife, Anita, is also one of the volunteers.

“She’s here to do whatever is needed to be done,” Buff said.

The cooks and volunteers don’t eat before the people begin arriving.

“We eat sometime during the day; sometimes the volunteers will take turns, and sometimes some of us don’t eat until afterwards, if there is any food left,” Buff laughed.

“Those who come to our dinners leave full,” Buff said. “And they’ll see friends and neighbors there and those in the Rotary club that many will know.

“Chief Don Adams from the fire department is our president – he’ll be there as well as most members of our small club,” Buff said.

“And we usually have a blessing before the meals by one of the priests at the church,” he said.

“Everyone has a good time and that makes us happy,” Buff said.