On Saturday evening, Bethany Hall in Danford Lake was filled with dozens of hungry people for the annual Thanksgiving meal fundraiser. 

Sheila Emon, secretary treasurer with the Bethany Hall committee, explained that the traditional dinner has been going on for decades, and is one of their biggest fundraisers in the calendar. 

“We prepare for 200, some years we get 170, 180, other years we’ve hit 250. Those are the years that try our patience because we get scared we’ll run out of food,” she said with a laugh. “Everybody comes out to help.”

A resident of Danford Lake for the last 35 years, she said that it’s a team effort to get everything ready. 

“We buy all the stuff and all of our members of the community come out and help us prepare it,” she said. “We had seniors here on Friday doing the peeling of the potatoes and carrots. This is one of our biggest fundraisers to keep Bethany Hall, our community hall, open and our rent low.”

Emon said that it’s nice to be able to keep alive a tradition that was passed down to the current committee, which numbers about five members. 

“The previous committee members, they’ve all retired due to age and they’ve introduced the next group and [trained] us on how to do it,” she said. “Nothing changes from year to year, and that’s what people like I think.”