Ilsa Minor | Daily Press

Volunteers work to cook turkeys in preparation for the 44th Community Thanksgiving Dinner, which will be held at the Escanaba High School Thursday. The dinner was started in 1980 and was the idea of the pastor at Escanaba’s First Presbyterian Church, who hoped to foster fellowship and togetherness while making a special place for anyone who might be alone on the holiday. Only two dinners have been missed since the event’s start, both of which were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the dinner’s early years, the site of the event rotated between churches, but eventually the dinner grew too large and it was moved to the Escanaba High School.