To the Editor,

For over 30 years, volunteers from the Weirton Ministerial Association (WMA), Rotary Club, the Salvation Army and various businesses in our town have donated their time, talent and treasures to sponsor the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner Feast for our Senior Citizens and shut-ins of our community.

This year was no exception as Jeannie Smith from WMA and Lisa Conti from Rotary, Majors Eric and Tonya Roberts of the Salvation Army, coordinated this effort on Thanksgiving Day. Dozens of volunteers showed up at 7:30 am to pack and deliver meals throughout the city.

President Harry S. Truman said, “it is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit”. Well, it is apparent to the city none of this could happen without the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church community (President Dean Makricostas) and their men’s fraternal lodge, the Order of AHEPA (President Jim Antoniou).

For 19 years, church and AHEPA member, Nick Tranto, has chaired the cooking event with his team of cooks and volunteers, spanning over 5 days of labor in the church to prepare 500 hot entrees for our seniors and shut ins. The success of this event that receives a wide range of groups and individuals volunteering their time would be extremely difficult to pull off without the organizational skills and facilities of the All Saints-AHEPA team.

As a former vice-president of AHEPA, I have witnessed their dedication and quality of food prep and can only say a huge “thank you” to both the church and AHEPA for the use of all of their facilities as part of the mission to feed people.

My sincerest congratulations and thank you to all participating organizations, donors, volunteers, high school and college students, to our Weirton alumni who traveled home for the holidays to spend time with their families but took time out to come and pack dinners. These types of events make our city great for our citizens. I am honored and proud to belong to a city that respects the values of giving back to our community.

With thanks to all.

Dean M. Harris

Mayor City of Weirton