Frontline Mission gears up for annual Thanksgiving Dinner

With just over a week to go before the annual Thanksgiving Dinner at the Menard in Wasilla, Frontline Mission Executive Director Matthew Sheets has an unusual problem—too many people have asked to volunteer.

“For Thanksgiving Dinner, we have about 450 slots already filled for volunteers,” he reports, adding that in some cases, they have gotten creative in finding things for the volunteers. “I think we can see the good will of the community expressed through these sort of things.”

He says that volunteers are part of the DNA of Frontline Mission, and that part of the mission for them is to engage in the sector of the community looking for ways to serve.

Sheets says the mission for Frontline Mission is found right in their mission statement: “A connecting place between compassion—those who are choosing to show that compassion—and those who are going through less fortunate times.” He says that what they do is help be a bridge to people who are concerned and want to help others in their community connect with people going through tough times.

“We want to create that avenue for people to find themselves serving the community and giving back and helping neighbors who are just like them, but maybe fell on hard times or had other things going on.” He says that it key to Frontline Mission.

He says that the work being done at Frontline helps meet the different needs of those who walk in their doors.

“There’s of course food insecurity that exists, and there’s poverty challenges that we experience. But there is also emotional need and there is physical health (needs).” Sheets says that there have been cases where they have been able to connect people with medical providers and dental appointments as the opportunities arise. “It’s not all the time, but over time when someone’s been in need, we’ve been able to connect them. That’s what we’re about.”

Not everyone who walks in the door is there for food, Sheets says. Some people who have come in to receive relational care and are looking to simply connect with another person, and for some, Frontline offers that family connection. “People can experience loneliness. They can experience loss, maybe going through grief, or maybe they just live out in the boonies and this is their trip into town and this is their family at Frontline.” He says that many people don’t think of care as a resource, despite it being a need that all people have. “It may look a little different person to person, but it’s still a need for everybody.”

It is all of those needs that spur on events such as the Thanksgiving Dinner. Sheets says that at any given table, people with different needs—maybe homelessness, maybe substance use recovery, maybe a mom who’s spouse is on the Slope, maybe even a bank manager with nowhere else to go—could be at the same table with different needs. “They’ll sit at the same table, enjoy the same meal, and they’re all together. There’s no judgement. The idea is we all come, we all sit at the same table, and we enjoy the same food, and we laugh at the same jokes, and we build a community together.”

Sheets says that they are anticipating anywhere from 1500 to 200 people to share in the Thanksgiving Dinner, which is scheduled for Thursday, November 27, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Menard Sports Complex in Wasilla.

After that, they will start preparing for their annual “Adopt-A-Box” for the Christmas holiday.

“We want to give the resources we have to the people in the community. If we’re not doing that, then we have lost the whole focus, the whole mission.”

For more information about Frontline Mission, please visit www.frontlinemission.org