BRUSH PRAIRIE — Thanksgiving isn’t for six more days, but it smelled a lot closer Friday afternoon at Hockinson High School, as the scent of gravy-smothered turkey and mashed potatoes lingered in the hallway leading to Room 143.
Inside is the school’s developmental resource room, where around 15 special education students were thanking 150-200 family, teachers and community members for their support with an early Thanksgiving meal.
“All the students have been really excited leading up to today,” said Matt Henry, a junior at Hockinson who serves as a peer tutor for the resource room. “It’s their favorite time of year. They’ve been peeling potatoes, painting leaves and decorating the room to get ready.”
Preparation for the annual feast — the seventh or eighth, according to Leslie Ruby, a special education teacher at the school — started a few weeks ago. Teachers discuss all aspects of throwing a party with the students, including how to create a menu, shop for food, cook, decorate and be a good host.
“There’s a leisure component to it,” Ruby said. “We go over how to organize the room and clean it before having guests, how to greet people when they get here and appropriate things to talk about.”
The students did a majority of the work, according to John Frank, another special education teacher at the school.
“They peeled 50 pounds of potatoes, they cut flowers and put together centerpieces, they put cloth on the tables, they made cranberry sauce and pumpkin cake and apple dump cake,” Frank said. “We’ve been learning about measurements in math, so they used what they’ve gone over in the classroom while cooking. It’s an important event for the kids. They take a lot of pride in it.”
As guests trickled into the room on Friday, students welcomed them and showed them where to get food and where they could sit. Once people were seated, the students walked around and offered to bring them apple juice or coffee.
Some teachers brought in turkey for the meal, which consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, biscuits, cake and cookies. The students assisted in cooking everything other than the turkeys. They also bought all the ingredients. As part of the class, students visit the grocery store every week. They go over how to budget and food shop. They compare prices to make sure they can afford all they want and need to get. The weekly grocery trips in recent weeks have been in preparation for the Thanksgiving feast.
“This event covers a lot,” Ruby said. “It ties so much from instruction together. It makes things we cover in the classroom real.”
Josh Pool, 15, is one of the students in the class who organized the meal. He said his favorite part of setting up for the feast was decorating the room, especially cutting flowers. He also said this was his first time cooking, and he wants to show his family how to cook biscuits and make cranberry sauce like he and his classmates did.
Many students had parents and family in attendance. Other teachers in the school, many who teach students from the resource room in other subjects, came to the feast, along with athletic coaches who have students on their teams.
Principal Colleen Anders and other administrators stopped by on Friday, as well as community members, including some who have businesses that hire students as part of their work program.
“It confirms the support we have from the community,” said Keila Dean, director of special education at Hockinson. “It’s great to know we can call on these people to help us with the kiddos. This is our way of giving back to them and the amazing staff at the school who support us.”
Fire District 3 members also came to the feast on Friday, earning a big cheer when they entered the classroom. The district makes regular appearances at the feast. This year was the first as part of the department for Josh Hall, but he was familiar with the event. Hall graduated from Hockinson in 2011 and is now an intern with Fire District 3. While at the school, he worked as a peer tutor in the class.
“It’s awesome to see the involvement with the students’ families and the community,” Hall said. “I remember all the planning that went into events like this and how excited the kids got. This is a lot more people than we used to get.”
