A plate of Thanksgiving food
Cassidey Kavathas/ The Bona Venture
kavathcj20@bonaventure.edu
BY: CASSIDEY KAVATHAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Since 2018, Aaron Chimbel and his wife, Bethanne Chimbel, have opened their home to students and faculty who can’t get home for Thanksgiving or don’t have family nearby.
“Nobody should have to be alone on a holiday,” Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School of Communication, said. “I can’t think of a worse thing than somebody’s sitting by themselves for Thanksgiving.”
As Thanksgiving break quickly approaches, many students won’t be able to return home for the holiday. The Franciscan Center of Social Concern, organizations around campus and faculty like the Chimbels have offered to share this holiday.
“It’s a great day to just celebrate what we don’t do enough, which is being thankful for things. We tend to kind of focus on negatives or frustrations, divisions, anger,” Chimbel said. “There’s plenty of all that so it’s nice to have a day where that hopefully is all about being thankful for the many gifts and blessings we have.”
The Warming House, staffed by Bonaventure students and the oldest-run soup kitchen, will serve Thanksgiving dinner.
“One of the management classes will be helping prepare that meal. They chose to do turkey, and they’re going to do stuffing and green beans and corn and cranberry sauce, and then we’ll have a nice dessert for them too.” Alice Miller Nation, director for the Franciscan Center of Social Concern, said.
The SBU food pantry will be open in the week of Thanksgiving on Nov. 21 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to supplement groceries. Dinner will be offered as take-out at St. Stephen’s Epscopal Church in Olean. Like the Chimbels, the Georgian family has opened their doors to celebrate the holiday.
“For people who are staying on campus we have the St. Stephen’s meal as an option and that’s a takeout or they could go to one of two professors’ homes for dinner if they chose to.” Miller Nation said.
Any Thanksgiving dinner can be a large feat especially with more people attending.
“My wife, Bethanne, teaches in the School of Education. She coordinates all the food. I help out very little, but I find out when the football games are gonna be and plan everything around the football and then if a student needs a ride to our house.” Chimbel said.
For Chimbel, food, football, family and friends make Thanksgiving his favorite holiday. Nation agrees—she loves the atmosphere around Thanksgiving.
“Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it doesn’t have the pressure that sometimes people put on themselves for Christmas or other holidays, depending on what you practice,” Miller Nation said. “ I love Thanksgiving because people who get together whether it’s a Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving a family and friends, they’re together because they want to be together. I absolutely love that part of it.”
Chimbel agrees that the true joy in the holiday is enjoying the company of others.
“It’s also nice to not have to worry about getting people a present or anything. Any of that it’s just about coming together, enjoying a meal,” Chimbel said.
Thanksgiving, a holiday centered around feeling grateful, showcases the Fransican values of the university.
“[Thanksgiving] definitely reflects the Franciscan values in terms of being appreciative and bringing people together. The kind of common bond among people and Franciscans love to gather and eat and drink,” Chimbel said.
The core values of Franciscanism, compassion, wisdom and integrity, are seen throughout the celebration.
“Being grateful ties into all three of those. I think that being compassionate, being wise, and having integrity all sort of is grounded in being a person who is aware of what they’ve been blessed with,” Miller Nation said. “And from that, we’re able to out of our gratefulness … we’re able to feed people with compassion. We’re able to be people have wisdom and learn from experiences. We’re able to be people of integrity, and always do the right thing, even when no one’s looking. Especially when no one’s looking.”
Following Thanksgiving is Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday. The university participates in Giving Tuesday, a day inviting individuals to consider giving to their favorite charities.
“Tuesday is a day of radical empathy, encouraging people to support not-for-profits who often serve many people on the margins of society throughout the year,” Nation said.
Tuesday, Nov. 29, the university invites people to give in support of the FCSC which includes the Warming House and the SBU Food Pantry.
“Each year I give a gift to the FCSC in honor of someone who taught me much about being a person of integrity. It’s a day for me to give back, fully aware that I have been blessed in so many ways,” Nation said.
kavathcj20@bonaventure.edu
