Flint, MI — Well of Hope, a Flint nonprofit organization, will host its 15th annual Blessed to be a Blessing Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Chia Morgan, founder and coordinator of the dinner, said the event has evolved since she started it 2008.
It expanded when she began partnering with Catholic Charities a little over a decade ago, and despite having to move the dinner outside through COVID-19, she said she anticipates anywhere from 400 to 600 guests on their second year back indoors.
“I love this city, and I love the people,” Morgan said of her work on the event, which will include over 50 volunteers, “a complete turkey dinner,” a DJ and Round One Mobile Gaming Lab for younger guests.
“We got a gaming truck for the kids because coming to the dinner is not exciting for them … but the gaming truck allows them to … engage with their peers and their counterparts,” she said.
Another special addition to this year’s dinner will be an announcement close to Morgan’s heart. She told Flint Beat that she’s been working with multiple sponsors in order to gift a single mother and her children a vacation.
“This year, I was praying and I was asking God, ‘What do you want me to do?’” she said. “And it came to me about single mothers who are working, working, working, working, and they just don’t have enough to take a break.”
Morgan said she is a single mom herself, and she knows how important travel can be to expanding children’s perceptions of themselves and the world.
“I want our youth to be able to see beyond these four corners of this little bitty city,” she said. “And so we want to try to do our part. If it’s just one family that we can help a mom kind of de-stress for a weekend and give her kids something to look forward to. That’s where our hope is.”
Morgan said more information about that gift will be shared at Tuesday’s event.
The 15th annual Blessed to be a Blessing Thanksgiving dinner will take place at the Center for Hope, located at 812 Root St.