We’ve been looking for ways to give around the holidays, so when I saw Michelle post the holiday meal train on the Rocky River page it seemed like a great way to spend the first part of Thanksgiving. I contacted my husband, sister-in-laws and my parents and we all decided to make double our recipes for the holiday so that we could feed the Rocky River Fire Department while they were away from their families. I sat down with my children and explained to them the need for the fire department to work over the holidays and how kind they were to sacrifice often to protect us. I asked them if they knew how to change the world. They looked at me with their big beautiful blue eyes. “One random act of kindness at a time.” I totally stole it from the movie Evan Almighty, but if it’s good enough for Morgan Freeman, it’s good enough for me ;). My kids immediately pulled out their coloring supplies and got to work making the best fire trucks, rainbows, tree houses on fire (this one takes some imagination) they possibly could to give to the fire fighters. The morning of Thanksgiving, I woke up with all of my groceries ready to start cooking. My husband was about to jump in the shower when I stopped him. “It smells like rotten eggs.” YUP…. That’s right. Our main drain had backed up. Panic mode. Did I mention we also host Thanksgiving for our family? I said a couple “goooooosefraaabbbaaas,” about a thousand oms … and then we sprang into action. Michael called the service department (who we will subsequently be delivering food to on Christmas morning) and are currently at my house right now fixing the issue. I called my Sister-in-law Dianne, who generously agreed to have Thanksgiving at her house on the fly and my parents, who let me shower and cook at their house. We made it just in time to meet my family at the station with what felt like about a gazillion pounds of food. A very sweet client of ours (Suzy) had contacted me the day before to let me know that her husband worked at the Rocky River Fire Department and was working on Thanksgiving. She said Steve would take us in to see the fire trucks including the vintage truck. So… we brought the whole family! And a camera… of course. These guys were so amazingly kind. They spent a TON of time showing our kids each and every truck, letting them get in, run the horns, teaching them about how things work and even got dressed in their full gear. To quote Lily, “It was the BEST DAY EVER.” It is a memory they will never forget. Right as we were leaving, an emergency was called in and the kids watched as a couple of the guys rushed out to help someone. We ended the day with a fabulous meal at Dianne’s who threw together the best last-minute Thanksgiving in the history of man kind. We finished the night out with the GREATEST game of Parker Brothers “Sorry” (that’s the vintage version for anyone under 30) there ever was. Lily was right. BEST THANKSGIVING EVER.
How do you chang the world? “One random act of kindness at a time.”
Sign up for the Rocky River holiday meal train.
