Linda Pavlick and Steve Taylor serve food at Goff Middle School’s Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday, November 18.

Howard L. Goff Middle School hosted its traditional Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday in the school gymnasium. It is a cherished event that has brought the faculty, staff, and community together for more than 20 years. Although the feast was cancelled last year because of the pandemic, the spirit of generosity, collaboration, and thanksgiving never dimmed.

Timothy Galvin and Rachel Mathis volunteering at Goff Middle School’s Thanksgiving Feast.

“The Thanksgiving Feast demonstrates the best parts of our school community: coming together to support each other and giving back to our community,” said Goff Social Studies Teacher Timothy Galvin, who coordinated this year’s event. “Again, thank you to everyone who made it happen this year!”

This year’s feast was dedicated to Tammy Kirwin and Natalia Multunas, who organized and ran the event for almost 15 years. The event could not have happened without their support, time, effort and guidance. The school will always be indebted to them for making the feast the cherished tradition it has become.

Special thanks to the following people who make this event possible!

• The hosting duty is now served by the MAP program. A special shout out to Sharon Dunn and Maureen Janowski for their invaluable support and organization that made the event run smoothly. Also, thank you to the rest of the MAP staff, including Chrissy Blake, Kristen Foley, Rachel Mathis, and Sarah Murchison, for donating their time and effort in various roles to make it happen.
• Phyllis Sanford, Jeannine Garcia and the kitchen staff for donating food and cooking turkeys
• Jim Truss and the Goff custodial staff for setting up and breaking down the tables
• Steve Taylor for helping serve food, clean up and delivering the donations of leftover food and supplies to the Albany City Mission
• Linda Pavlick for helping to serve food and making the flowers
• Patty Dority for the use of the Home & Careers’ kitchen and making food
• Megan Lopez and the Student Council for donating supplies and helping make food
• Jen Quail and Peer Leadership for making food
• Lauren Crispino and her class for creating the table centerpieces
• Katherine L’Etoile and 6th grade Jump Start for making decorations
• Kathy O’Leary for collecting donations
• Zach Troxell for going above and beyond with carving turkeys and kitchen support
• John Dunn for carving turkeys
• Gabriella Sacks for finding substitute coverage
• Paul Hoff, Lara Vazquetelles, Rosaire Higgins, Donnamarie Vlieg, the Dunns, Chrissy Blake, and Mike Neumann for roasting turkeys
• The PE staff for the use of the gym and coolers
• The EGTA and PTO for monetary donations
• Price Chopper and Zachary’s bakery for their food donations
• The support of Superintendent Jeff Simons and the rest of Central Administration
• The support of Jill Barker and the rest of Goff Administration
• And the countless others who donated money, food and supplies to make the event happen