A Letter to Next November

The first Gratitude Thanksgiving is November 24. It’s still seven months off, but I want to write about it now because the point of the event is that it takes preparation, and preparation means telling people early.

Here’s what it is: one long Table, twelve seats, Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. The seats go to locals whose family isn’t coming this year. Pay-what-you-can.

Here’s what it isn’t: a charity dinner. A holiday event. A photo op. A fundraiser. A networking thing.

It’s just dinner. With twelve people who, through whatever combination of geography and life, don’t have a full table of their own this year. The widowed parent. The adult child whose kids are traveling to the in-laws. The single person new to Sheridan. The couple estranged from their people.

We set twelve places. We pour water into glasses before anyone arrives. The candles are lit when the first guest walks in. The meal is classical — turkey, stuffing, pie — because the point isn’t the menu. The point is that you sat down, and someone else sat down with you, and neither of you was alone.

Applications open October 1. Write us a few sentences. We read every one.

This will not be the biggest event on the calendar. It will be the most important.