ANDERSON, Ind. — For the 38th year, the Gospel Highlights Thanksgiving Day dinner took place in Anderson.
Volunteers cooked and put together about 1,500 meals that were delivered to homes and given out in drive-thru fashion at Anderson Zion Baptist Church.
“You don’t even have to drive, you can walk," said James L. Warner, one of the organizers. "When you leave here, you’re going to have a dinner.”
He's happiest on Thanksgiving when he's helping others.
“I have never, not one time, been able to sit down with my family and have our Thanksgiving Day dinner. They have it, but I don’t be there," Warner said. “Anytime I can help somebody, I feel good about doing it. God’s been good to me.”
He’s one of dozens of volunteers that started cooking at 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning.
“Nobody gets paid for doing this," Warner said. "I don’t, nobody does. All of us are doing this from a free spirit of giving and it’s been a blessing.”
Each volunteer, like Willie May Rayford, are exactly where they want to be.
“As long as we can help somebody, we don’t care who it is or where they are. As long as we can help somebody, that’s what we’re here for," she said. "That’s what it means to me, to help somebody else.”