USO Great Lakes Opens Doors for Annual Thanksgiving Dinner

On November 23rd USO Great Lakes hosted their annual Thanksgiving Dinner for service members and their families. The meal, catered by Real Urban BBQ of Highland Park, served 820 guests with all the holiday fixings, including turkey, ham, stuffing, corn, potatoes, and biscuits. Our partners at The Fresh Market in Lake Forest provided the hungry members of our armed forces 80 delicious pumpkin pies. After the meal, troops and their families gathered to enjoy the amenities of the USO Center including free Wi-Fi, movies and video games.

The dinner could not have been possible without the 67 volunteers who aided in serving the meal, cleaning, and greeting the guests as they entered. Thank you to our USO Board members, volunteers, local professionals, family, and friends who helped with the Thanksgiving Dinner. A salute goes out to Navy personnel who helped to decorate the center and who were also responsible for the set up of the room and who stayed after to help clean up. A special thanks to Dan Hampton of the Chicago Bears and his family, who made a guest appearance to help serve!

The Thanksgiving Dinner is an annual program provided by the USO Illinois. The feast is just one of the many programs that offers a ‘Home Away From Home’ for military service members and their families over the holidays.

Published December 17, 2017