Photo: COURTESY OF THE YELLOW RIBBON FUND
The Yellow Ribbon Fund’s annual toy drive for the children of wounded service members.
For non-profits based in the South, Thanksgiving is prime time for the work they do in their communities. The Yellow Ribbon Fund, based in Bethesda, Maryland, supports injured military service members and their families, including those being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, D.C. YRF is gearing up for its three annual Christmas parties for patients, including their annual toy drive for the children of wounded service members.
Farther south, Hosea Helps in Atlanta will serve its 48th annual feast for the homeless and hungry on Thanksgiving Day at the Georgia World Congress Center. This year’s event will serve Thanksgiving dinner to 10,000 people, along with providing medical services, clothes, and a hair salon. Volunteers can register at 4Hosea.org.
And the Green Heart Project in Charleston, South Carolina, is all about getting at-risk school kids involved in gardening, learning about vegetables, and having fun working and playing outside. G&G’s CJ Lotz gives friends Green Heart’s Bloody Mary gift box, a roundup of local “mix-ins and fixin’s” including the project’s own pickled okra, a way to give back that’s so delicious, we’d literally raise a glass to that.
History Teacher
Photo: Courtesy of the Historic Oakland Foundation
The African-American Burial Ground at Atlanta’s historic Oakland Cemetery.
Atlanta’s historic Oakland Cemetery is famous for the 27 Atlanta mayors, six Georgia governors, and multiple Civil Rights leaders buried there. Less well known are the African American Grounds, where several thousand people of African-American descent, including former slaves, were laid to rest in the decades when the cemetery was segregated. For the first time in more than 100 years, the Historic Oakland Foundation has begun a major renovation of the African American Grounds to ensure that this section of the cemetery remains as beautiful as it is historic.
The Foundation is also reaching out to the decedents of African-Americans buried there to learn more about their stories and to add to the public’s understanding of ourselves, our neighbors, and the history that we all share and are still working to understand.
Parting Shots
This week, the team at The Shot is: Nodding along to: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s ode to the Big Green Egg, including the new must-have item in Southern real estate—custom-built egg holes. … Passing along: Those deep-fried turkey safety tips we mentioned earlier, courtesy of Chief Fire Marshal Mike Julazadeh of the Charleston Fire Department. … Retweeting: Moon Pie’s response to @uketrout’s question: “Are there any @MoonPie stuffing recipes for turkey?”
… And finally, we’re thankful for: The many gifts in our lives and that, as bad as a Monday ever gets, at least we’re not the Georgia Dome, which was reduced to a pile of rubble Monday morning almost before the sun came up. But mostly, we’re just thankful.
Until next week, friends.