Glen Vienneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 11/00) - Greeted by the smell of turkey, people lined up for a Thanksgiving meal on Monday at the Salvation Army.

The sixth annual feast started at about 11 a.m. when volunteers and cooks headed to the Salvation Army NWT Resource Centre on Franklin Avenue to prepare meals for 345 people.

"Thanksgiving is a day when all you do is eat and celebrate with friends and family," said Capt. Karen Hoeft.

They came from various background and for different reasons; they had no extended families, they were on a low income or they simply wanted to be with a crowd of people.

For Arlene Hache, the thought of not cooking that day was good enough for her.

"I deliberately chose not to cook at home this day, I'd rather be here with community people," said Hache.

The same went for Kate McLeod, who brought her three children.

But, she did help her friend to cook a turkey at her home since McLeod's friend was among the 12 church parishioners each given the responsibility of cooking one of the dozen turkeys.

Just having a good meal was enough to put smiles on the faces of those who were down on their luck.

For Fred Avery, he was grateful for being able to bring his family for a serving of turkey, ham, vegetables and potatoes.

"I always tried to support the Salvation Army when I could, not like I'm looking for a return favour," said Avery.

The meal was something that Dave Shed of Rae-Edzo also appreciated, especially after his Thanksgiving plans fell through after his wife became ill.

Once other Salvation Army parishioners in Rae-Edzo heard he was coming to Yellowknife "everybody wanted to come into town," he said.

As a result, he bused about 25 people from his community to join those in Yellowknife for the special meal.

It is something that pleased Capt. Hoeft.

"It's an opportunity for us to be grateful together," he said.