Every year, the Statler Hotel hosts 'Thanksgiving for Your Service,' a full Thanksgiving meal to say 'thank you' to military personnel, veterans, first responders and their families.
"We look forward to this event every year," Statler Hotel Assistant Food & Beverage Director Erik Franke said. "I think it's important that we show appreciation, but also just how much we care."
500 people were expected to come through for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Some came alone but found new 'extended family' while they were there.
"I almost got teary-eyed," U.S. Army Reservist Jill Sizemore said. "MY family was affected by the Ashville disaster. That's why I'm not home this year. We were trying to figure out what to do and Jen found this, my wife found this, and I thought it just felt right. I just cheered up, and then I get here and everybody is saying 'thank you!'"
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"It's always nice to come home feel you're special, important, people show they appreciate what you do for them," U.S. Air Force Reserves Staff Sergeant Tyler Thompson said. Thompson recently returned home from a tour in Kuwait. "Just the generations that are all in one space! We've all served and given our lives, sacrificed our time and energy, all for the greater good be it to help our country, to help our family."
The extended law enforcement family knows that sacrifice all too well after Greenville Police Officer Cooper Dawson was killed in the line of duty this week. This holiday there is an empty seat at a table where Dawson should be.
"That's right," former law enforcement officer and Vietnam veteran Roy Ross said. "On any given day we never know. I mean, 'cause we put our life on the line to protect and serve."
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Service is the throughline for the people who came to 'Thanksgiving for Your Service.'
"I hope they feel like people do care," Franke said.
Operation Forever Free and the Centurion American Development Group along with the Statler Hotel helped make the 7th annual event possible.
