Southern Arkansas University student residents come from across the globe, but for the 10th year, they came together to serve the underprivileged in the Magnolia community a warm meal for Thanksgiving at the Annual Residence Hall Association Turkey Dinner.
“It was so nice helping people in the community that I don’t even know,” said Caitlin Amyx, junior Early Childhood Education major from DeWitt and president of the Residence Hall Association. “I was excited to see how many of the RHA members wanted to volunteer to help with this event. We had around 20 students who helped throughout the evening.”
At the end of the evening on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, nearly a thousand hot meals were distributed from the First United Methodist Church in Magnolia to 243 Columbia County residents. The meals were traditional Thanksgiving fare: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, roll and dessert.
Southern Arkansas University departments, organizations, and individuals donated 37 turkeys, which were prepared along with the rest of the food by SAU’s Aramark cafeteria staff. Desserts were also donated by the SAU community.
“It was great to have so many different representatives from the halls,” said Alex Wynn, sophomore Business Administration major from Parkers Chapel and executive vice president of the RHA. “We got it done really quickly and really well. It was good to go there and do something good and have fun doing it.”
