Giving back is a holiday tradition

Before you gather the family around the table for Thanksgiving dinner, before you bow your heads, before you watch the Detroit Lions, before you fall asleep on the couch with the fireplace blazing, why not do something that will make you and your family truly thankful this Thanksgiving?

Why not start your day by taking the kids to see how the other half lives and lend a hand? Why not do what Pamela Atkinson does every year?

Atkinson, Salt Lake's version of Mother Theresa, the unofficial protector and overseer of Salt Lake's poor and homeless, works in behalf of the homeless almost daily. But on Thanksgiving, she does more — if that's possible.

On Thanksgiving, she buys enough turkey and all the trimmings for 40 to 60 people and hands if off to Ed Snoddy, coordinator of Homeless Outreach, for cooking. Together, they place the hot food in Styrofoam boxes and coolers, and deliver them to various homeless haunts around the valley — over the river and through the woods to empty lots they go. They give

them hot food, not to mention sleeping bags, blankets, socks, hats and gloves for those who need them.

You can have a similar experience. The one thing they have plenty of are homeless and what Atkinson calls "the near homeless" — those who are one paycheck away from being on the streets and can't afford food or insurance.

If you want your kids to really appreciate their lives, if you want to do more than talk about charity while you're going for your second helping of potatoes, then take them uptown for a few hours on Thanksgiving.

"I get a lot of calls from people who want to help, but they

don't know how," says Atkinson.

Here's how:

• Call the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City and volunteer your family to help on Thanksgiving. Volunteers cook and serve a turkey dinner to the homeless.

• Help the Salvation Army deliver meals to homebound people, mostly the elderly and ill.

• Lend a hand at the Crossroads Urban Center, which needs volunteers to help distribute food for the needy to prepare for a Thanksgiving meal.

• Deliver blankets and pillows to The Road Home shelter or food to the pantry at the Crossroads Urban Center.