Delivery coordinator Bonnie Rake, center, gives instructions to Marietta resident Suzanne Walker, right, on where to deliver an order Thursday morning as project manager Shaun Harris watches. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)

MARIETTA — Volunteers at Norwood United Methodist Church pitched in not only Thursday but all week long to brighten up Thanksgiving for Washington County residents.

“A Boy Scout troop was here Tuesday helping us cut pumpkin and apple pies,” said Bonnie Rake, delivery coordinator.

“Wednesday we started opening the cans for the green bean casserole and kept cooking all day,” Shaun Harris, project manager, said.

The church distributed meals by delivery or pickup. Rake said no requirements were needed to receive a meal.

“We’ve sent meals to Belpre and Lowell,” Harris said.

The volunteers started putting meals together between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Thursday, Rake said. Delivery orders started going out at 9:30 and pickup orders started at 11.

Rake said she had been volunteering for approximately 20 years.

“We do this to let people know we are here for the community,” she said.

Rake told a story about one volunteer who brought more than just food to one recipient.

“(The recipient) was a blind woman. They asked our volunteer to bring the food inside and set it down. She did. Then the blind woman asked her to pray with her. She got her daughters out of the car that were with her and they prayed together. She had company on Thanksgiving,” she said.

A volunteer driver said this was her second year delivering meals for Norwood.

“We had so much fun last year, we decided to do it again,” Marietta resident Suzanne Walker said. “It’s just three of us who do Thanksgiving: me, my husband and my sister-in-law. We want to make other people’s Thanksgivings brighter.”