{"id":30493,"date":"2023-11-23T22:36:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T05:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-senior-community-center-serves-more-than-300-thanksgiving-dinners\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:20:18","slug":"aztec-senior-community-center-serves-more-than-300-thanksgiving-dinners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-senior-community-center-serves-more-than-300-thanksgiving-dinners\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec Senior Community Center serves more than 300 Thanksgiving dinners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Connie
Connie Hutcheson, Senior Center coordinator, said many gracious people donated pies for the Thanksgiving dinner. (David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The first Thanksgiving after the recent reopening of the Aztec Senior Community Center brought a nice turnout for traditional fare and celebration. It began at 11 a.m. with home deliveries and takeout.<\/p>\n

Connie Hutcheson, Senior Center coordinator, said she started cooking at 4 a.m.and was very grateful for the help of about 20 volunteers. She said they cooked 24 turkeys, starting last week with the process of roasting, shredding and freezing.<\/p>\n

By shortly after noon they had delivered about 200 meals, and the dining room was filled with about 75 people enjoying their holiday meal.<\/p>\n

Charles Dobey, Aztec community services director, along with his wife, headed up the delivery team. Hutcheson said her assistant, Erica Martinez, was helping with deliveries and a big part of the effort.<\/p>\n

Martinez said, \u201cI feel good, I think it\u2019s great to be able to provide for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, Thanksgiving means \u201cfamily and friends and I\u2019m thankful for what we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobey said he and his wife, Brenna Dobey, did a delivery route.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really cool to get out into the county and see different places, and I had no idea we delivered to as many places as we did (about 15).<\/p>\n

He said they heard a lot of \u201cGod bless you,\u201d as they delivered in the city\u2019s hot\/cold truck.<\/p>\n

All the traditional favorites \u2013 turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberries \u2013 and variety of pies, including pumpkin, apple, cherry, pecan and mincemeat was served.<\/p>\n

Hutcheson said the community generously donated 50 to 60 pies. Thanksgiving simply means \u201cfamily and friends,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, we love it. We\u2019re just thrilled that we can help people, said Hutcheson.<\/p>\n

\"Margie
Margie Long, left and Doris Retherford said they love the new, much larger modernized kitchen. (David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Doris Retherford, a city employee in charge of the food line, was joined by Margie Long, who said she\u2019d been there volunteering since about 7 a.m. to make sure everything was ready.<\/p>\n

Retherford, who also volunteers at the Frontline Mission, said, \u201cit feels wonderful to help people, they need it \u2026 to see their face and how happy they are that somebody appreciates them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frances Stokes, Retherford\u2019s sister, was also volunteering. She said she was doing \u201cwhatever they need me to do.\u201d The word \u201cfulfillment\u201d came to mind as she described the feeling of helping people on Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

Aztec resident Mike Confer said he comes to the senior center \u201csemi-regularly.\u201d For him, Thanksgiving is a time of \u201cgiving and helping.\u201d He was joined at the table by Joe Vigil, who said the food was \u201cgood, compliments to the cooks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vigil said it was a day for \u201cgiving, being with people, family, friends and saving the day for being together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eunice Lansing joined the gentleman with her dog Abbie. Lansing said it would be Abbie\u2019s last Thanksgiving, as she had cancer.<\/p>\n

\"Eunice
Eunice Lansing enjoys Thanksgiving dinner with her beloved dog Abbie. (David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lansing said she enjoyed the holiday event. \u201cThey always have good food here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the new, much larger kitchen, Torey Clark said, \u201cI think it\u2019s awesome.\u201d She said the event \u201cturned out great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margie Long, who said the new kitchen helped them to be more organized. \u201cNo more running back and forth like we were before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long said the senior center would also provide a dinner for the community on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Jerrie Frame, who ran a travel business in Aztec for over 30 years, said she returned recently after living in Idaho for 4 years \u201chelping her kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cOh God, am I glad to be back \u2013 this is where my heart is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jerrie
Jerrie Frame, who recently returned to Aztec, said she loves seeing \u201cpeople out and about\u201d on Thanksgiving and you can \u201calways find something to be thankful for.\u201d (David Edward Albright\/Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cAnd so for me, Thanksgiving is a day that I just walk around all day with this horrendous grin on my face because I love seeing people out and about and you can always find something to be thankful for,\u201d Frame said.<\/p>\n

Jim Long, Margie\u2019s husband, demonstrated his giving, caring spirit by stopping to check on the Tri-City Record <\/em>vehicle, which had its hood up because of a blown radiator hose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently remodeled kitchen streamlines the preparation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1240,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81100,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30493\/revisions\/81100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30493"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}