43
Struthers City Schools thanks senior citizens with turkey dinner
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
STRUTHERS
Isaac Bulies isn’t a stranger to helping the community’s senior citizens.
In fact, the fourth-grader at Struthers Elementary School often volunteers at Maplecrest Nursing Home on Sexton Street with his grandmother, who works there.
But on Tuesday afternoon, Isaac was running from table to table in the Struthers High School cafeteria, hand-delivering bottles of water and cups of coffee to about 100 city residents who were there for the Struthers City School District’s first senior-citizen turkey dinner.
“They’re happy if some person is able to help them out,” Isaac said.
Isaac was just one of 12 fourth-graders invited to volunteer at the dinner, which Joseph Nohra, superintendent of Struthers City Schools, said was a way to thank the city’s senior citizens for their past and present support of the school district.
Other volunteers included members of the high school’s Interact Club, a service club sponsored by the Struthers Rotary, who served dinner to each guest. Administrative staff from the school district’s three buildings, along with school-board members, also were on hand to help and offer their support.
In addition to a meal that included turkey, green beans and apple crisp, guests were treated to holiday-themed musical performances by the SHS Starlight Singers and the Struthers Middle School Show Choir, as well as festive decorations in the cafeteria.
More than 100 people made reservations for the dinner, Nohra added.
“Our seniors have given so much, and this is an opportunity to give back to them,” he said. “They built this community, and we want to interact with them.”
Nohra noted, too, that the city’s senior citizens are always welcome to visit the district’s schools — and that they love to do so — but that it may not always be an easy task.
For Milly Chopp, the dinner was the first time she’d been in the new high school.
Chopp, who attended the dinner with Marie Adduch, said she heard about the dinner and wanted to check it out, simply because the school district hadn’t hosted anything like it before. They appreciated the school district’s wanting to “get together with the seniors that passed all the levies,” Chopp said.
Both Chopp and Adduch added that they’re already looking forward to next year’s dinner.
Neighbors Ron Zagorsky and Bill Mastrangelo decided to attend the dinner for reasons similar to Chopp and Adduch’s.
Zagorsky, who said he’s lived in Struthers for more than 40 years, said coming to the dinner was “something different” to do — and mentioned that he was pleasantly surprised by the good food and entertainment.
“I would come again — and so would he,” Zagorsky said, gesturing toward Mastrangelo. “This is a nice thing they’re doing for the community.”