EMMAUS, Pa. – Thanksgiving came a week early in Emmaus.<\/p>\n
The East Penn School District held their annual Senior Citizens Thanksgiving Luncheon at three different schools today.<\/p>\n
For Emmaus High School Senior Bodie Rainford and fifty other National Honor Society Students, the annual Thanksgiving Luncheon is the fulfillment of a promise. A compact with the community.<\/p>\n
“It’s amazing. It’s one of the best parts of my year,” grinned Rainford.<\/p>\n
It’s an East Penn Tradition going back 30 years, renewed in three district schools each November.<\/p>\n
“The guests talk about their children that they have at the school. I talk about how I know their grandchildren, and that’s really where the conversations start,” said Rainford.<\/p>\n
The guests are Golden Age Cardholders, which is a perk issued to local retired folks. It entitles them to free plays, concerts and the most popular event, the Thanksgiving Luncheon.<\/p>\n
“Just great really great that they think of us that don’t have much, and just do this for so many years,” said Bob Kahle, Emmaus High School Class of ’71.<\/p>\n
Paul Bauer is one of more than 900 people being fed today by students like Bodie, and faculty.<\/p>\n
“Almost every kid that comes by here we try to talk to, because they sacrifice a lot here. They get out of class, for one. But the nicest thing about it is they’re so conscientious. They’re constantly walking around, finding out what we need, taking away the garbage or whatever it might be,” said Bauer. “And the band here is fantastic too.”<\/p>\n
Bridging the gap, and paying it forward, generation to generation.<\/p>\n
“The same thing with family, it’s just bigger. All these people, they’re all so nice,” said Rainford.<\/p>\n
The people love the vibes, whether gobbling the turkey, or pounding the pumpkin pie, in a setting that defines community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EMMAUS, Pa. – Thanksgiving came a week early in Emmaus. The East Penn School District held their annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,2363,1416,13005,24241,2355,24240],"class_list":{"0":"post-40092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-community-engagement","12":"tag-east-penn-school-district","13":"tag-emmaus-high-school","14":"tag-national-honor-society","15":"tag-seniors","16":"tag-thanksgiving-luncheon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}