• Swift Creek High School set to serve Thanksgiving dinner

The meal is entirely free, and everyone is welcome.

By Janet Erickson
SVI Media

The Swift Creek High School Student Council invites Star Valley to a Thanksgiving Dinner at Swift Creek High School between noon and 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 28.  The meal is entirely free, and will be served by the high school’s student body.

Though it may be the case for some guests, this meal is not necessarily offered to meet financial needs, but rather to create a sense of family and community for folks who need human connection during the holiday.

Mark and Michelle Van Slyke, who are working with the students in organizing the meal, are also collaborating with the Afton Food Pantry to ensure that there is enough food for the crowd, and volunteers from local churches are helping with food preparation.

The students would love help with setup, serving and cleaning up after the meal. “We could use help setting up from 10-12,” said Mark.  “We will need volunteers to help refill rolls and drinks, which is more of a social assignment, but I want people to feel like they have a community.”

Financial donations to the project are welcome, and anyone wanting to volunteer their time can contact Mark at 435-764-1690 or Michelle at 307-248-0277.

“If you just don’t want to cook Thanksgiving dinner, come eat with us,” said Mark. “The social element is just as important to us as the financial element. We just want human beings to be with other human beings and take care of one another.”

• Thanksgiving is a community event for Alpine

Top of the Rockies comes together for Alpine residents.

By Dan Dockstader
SVI Media

The Alpine Community Thanksgiving Dinner, now an annual tradition, stared with residents Bill and Pam Callahan. They saw an opportunity to assist their community and organized  the first Alpine Thanksgiving Dinner at what would become the Donn Wooden Civic Center.

As the event has grown in size so has the need for supplies and labor. Alpine Top of the Rockies club stepped in to help.

In 2017 records show 85 people attended the dinner. By 2022, the number had increased to 175 and last year 223 joined Alpine for Thanksgiving dinner.

Alpine resident and Top of the Rockies member Justin Fritz has already distributed the 2024 food assignments.

Fritz credits local businesses for helping make the event possible. He said first the food contributions come in followed by donations of time and labor.

Broulim’s donates turkeys, hams and mashed potatoes, while the Alpine Car Wash provides the dressing.

Then Top of the Rockies volunteers step in to cook and prepare the turkeys and hams, along with the side dishes, desserts and “all the other traditional Thanksgiving vittles,” he said..

“This year our volunteers will be cooking 10 20 lb. turkeys, 4 20 lb. hams and a 100 lbs. of our world famous ‘Not Your Grandmother’s Green Bean Casserole,’ plus stuffing, yams, gravy and much more,” Fritz explained.

Individual homes are key to the success of all the preparation coming together this week. Much of the food is prepared in the Alpine homes of “our wonderful volunteers, and these folks are artists!” he advised.

“After the turkeys are prepped and cooked with love, the volunteers take the turkeys and all the drippings,” to the civic center, he  said. “These drippings are essential for a proper, homemade gravy.”

Help for the dinner is always welcome. “There is still time for anyone who wants to help cook or volunteer in any way to sign up,” noted Fritz. A volunteer list was circulated with Top of the Rockies earlier in the fall.

Top of the Rockies meetings are held in the Alpine Civic Center at 6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month. The organization started as a snowmobile club but has expanded to many of areas of service in Alpine.

Thanksgiving Dinner this year will be Thursday, Nov. 28. Football starts at 2 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. dinner.

Alpine Top of The Rockies will hold a debriefing session with the lead volunteers after the event to start preparation for 2025.

“The event planning starts the day after Thanksgiving said Fritz. “With an accurate count from the previous day. The planning is easer with a fresh memory.”

A volunteer will watch for deals on dry goods that can be used for the coming year.