In the 23 years that Geta and Janice Asfaw have hosted their annual neighborhood Thanksgiving Dinner, a number of things have changed.
Their children, once youngsters running around among the guests, are for the most part all grown up. And their charity has expanded from just a meal for senior citizens to include an annual bicycle giveaway to local fifth- and sixth-graders as well as youth scholarships.
But no matter what happens, Geta says, the rationale behind the holiday fest remains constant.
“We’ve always felt that as local businessmen we should give back to the community — not just take the money,” he said. “That’s what we said at the start. If we’re going to (be here), we’re going to do that. Even when we didn’t have much, we always felt it was our responsibility.”
On Thursday evening, more than 500 seniors made their way to the Asfaw’s McDonald’s restaurant on Colorado Boulevard, where they stuffed themselves, not on Big Macs, but on a traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes — and some stuffing as well.
“This is just wonderful,” said D.J. Jackson of Denver, as she shared a meal with her husband E.J., a World War II veteran.
“My mother and aunt have come to a number of these and have always spoken very highly of it. We’d always been working before, but now that we’ve retired we decided to give it a try.”
The Jacksons were part of the first of the evening’s seatings, although Geta admits that if diners turned up after the scheduled serving time, they wouldn’t be turned away.
And although a number of patrons came dressed to the nines, the sense among the folks spread out inside the restaurant’s Playland area was more that of a room full of old friends sharing a meal.
“I come in here every morning for coffee,” said Tom Hurd, a neighborhood resident who was waiting for friends to join him.
“This is really nice for people who can’t afford to pay for their Thanksgiving meals, but we just like meeting and talking.”
