It was a time of giving thanks at St. Joseph Center for Special Learning in Pottsville on Tuesday as the people who assist students during the school day were thanked with a hot turkey dinner with the all the fixings.
The dinner event was part of the second day of Catholic Schools Week, which runs from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6 across the country. St. Joseph Center is observing the week from Monday through Friday with different activities each day.
For the dinner, two turkeys — 13 and 15 pounds — were taken from the ovens in the school kitchen by 10:30 a.m. for the meal at noon. The smell of the roasting turkeys had everyone in the school in a Thanksgiving Day mood all morning. Students Tyler Tray, 13, and Keith Bouffard, 14, worked in the kitchen, directed by secondary/life skills/functional academic teacher Joell Olenik and teacher assistant Kim Ciarvella.
“I went out earlier with Keith to get groceries, and when I walked in the building, I thought ‘Thanksgiving’ from how it smelled. It was great,” Ciarvella said.
The turkeys were carved by Tray under the direction of Olenik, who showed him some safety tips on carving. After the carving, the turkey meat was placed in one oven to keep hot, while the other was used to bake biscuits.
Tray knows his way around the kitchen and enjoys cooking. Recently he made from scratch five strombolis for the school lunch menu, which has three days of hot food served.
Kernel corn and green beans were placed into pots and heated on the stove, stirred by Bouffard and Ciarvella. While the school provided the main items like turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables, others made the dinner a partial potluck dinner that included a variety of items, including baked ziti, kielbasi and homemade cranberry sauce. Dessert was served after the meal.
Advancement Director Amanda Campbell said there are about 15 non-employees who assist the students every day.
“They’re therapeutic support staff, home health aides, special care nurses — support people for the individual students,” Campbell said. “We have a big celebration with lunch that everybody is invited to come to. All the teachers and staff brought in side dishes and complements. We’re all one happy family whether you’re employed by our school or not, so it’s a great time to get together like a family Thanksgiving dinner.”
Campbell said that the preparation and serving of meals is a great way for some of the students to learn either as vocational training or for personal skills.
“Essentially they’re put in charge with guidance, so they create the menu and the shopping list,” Campbell said. “As with this and other activities, they have to create the budget and ask for the correct amount of money for the shopping list using flyers from different grocery stores. It’s the whole process of the kids putting it together, and then they’re proud of their work.”
When it was time for lunch, Tray and Bouffard helped prepare the platters at the counter with school staffers. At one table, teacher aide Michelle German, Pine Grove, and teacher assistant Siera Wilson, Pottsville, enjoyed their turkey dinner while they took turns in feeding Debbianne Herring, 7, who attends the school. Wilson has been at the school for one month, while German has worked there for eight years.
“The turkey is very good. They did a good job,” German said. “We could smell the turkey all morning. This was very nice. I love my job.”
Home health aide Tanya Stockman, Tannersville, has been at the school for four years.
“This is very nice and we really appreciate it,” Stockman said.
As the dinner ended, each helper received a card and a pink carnation as a gift of gratitude for the caring they put in assisting their student.