The annual Bea Gaddy Thanksgiving Dinner will be held this year at Cherry Hill’s Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center instead of its usual site at the Patterson Park recreation center, which is under repair, Mayor Brandon Scott announced Monday.
The dinner will be held Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
At a press conference Monday, Scott said that because of “severe issues” with the Patterson Park rec center’s HVAC system, the center had to be temporarily closed for several weeks while the facility was undergoing those repairs.
“We knew that the place needed to be able to accommodate a large number of people who gather in the community year after year and needed access to a kitchen and rooms to hold the volunteers, including myself, who is always a volunteer on Thanksgiving Day,” Scott said. “And today, we are happy to say that this year’s dinner will be held right here in the new Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center, in this beautiful gym.”
The venue change is only temporary, however, Scott said.
“We will be able to go back,” he said. “The rec center will have the system fixed. We’ll be able to do that. But over the next few weeks we’re going to be working really closely with Miss Cynthia [Brooks] and her team, with all of our elected officials, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods, and the Mayor’s Office of Home and Services to ensure that we are getting the word out to everyone.”
City agencies are also working with the Bea Gaddy Family Center to determine the logistics of getting people to the new venue.
“And that is also going to include us figuring out for some folks who may need to figure out how to be able to get here, how we’re going to transport them from traditional areas here to Cherry Hill,” Scott said. “That’s why we gathered everyone here today, to ask you to help us get that word out. To make sure that this necessary change that happened due to unforeseen circumstances does not diminish the light of this event.”
Cynthia Brooks, executive director of the Bea Gaddy Family Center, thanked Scott and Councilwoman Phylicia Porter, whose district includes Cherry Hill, for helping the historic Thanksgiving event find a temporary home.
“You wanted to step in and make sure that we get settled and find a home, and you did. You kept your word, and I’d like to say that this Middle Branch Health and Wellness Center is an awesome place. This year, after 21 years of being at Patterson Park, we came looking for a location that could match Patterson Park for what we needed it to be. And this is where we found a temporary home,” Brooks said. “And this facility will be open to everyone in the area. Like the mayor says, we’re going to do everything we can to move those that normally come out to our Thanksgiving dinner to receive the food, clothes, and other items to here on Thanksgiving Day. This will be our 42nd year, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Porter called the move an opportunity for communities to come together.
“So, for 42 years the Bea Gaddy Foundation has been able to transform the lives of so many people in the city of Baltimore, and I’m grateful this year that the Thanksgiving Dinner this year is being held this year in Cherry Hill at the Middle Branch facility,” Porter said.
“If you’ve ever been a part of the Bea Gaddy Thanksgiving Dinner, you see how much light it pours into the community, how much folks look forward to it, how it becomes a place where we’re able to interact, and if just for one day allow some of our residents and neighbors to feel like they’re actually having a big family dinner,” Scott said. “We’re going to throw everything at it to make sure that this event, like it always does, goes off without a hitch.”
Bea Gaddy was a Baltimore City councilwoman who established the Patterson Park Emergency Food Center in 1981 out of a need to feed her own family. Her generosity extended to feeding neighbors and friends, helping them with clothing and more. This grew into the nonprofit organization, Bea Gaddy Family Centers, which today helps feed and clothe people in need in the Baltimore area, and throughout Maryland.
