Lawyers practice grilling at soup kitchen
(Jones Byrd minds the turkeys on the grills.)
Grill Team Six members (from left) Scott Sexton, Dudley Witt, Mike Silver, Walter Holton, Jones Byrd and Winslow Taylor.
Grill Team Six, a group made up mostly of attorneys that provides and prepares food for local nonprofits, spent several hours on Monday, Nov. 24 grilling turkeys in the parking lot at Samaritan Ministries.
The more than 30 birds grilled by the group were donated by two local churches and served last Thursday for Samaritan’s Thanksgiving celebration. (They also grilled hotdogs for Samaritan volunteers and staffers.)
It was the first time the lawyers had brought their mammoth grill to Samaritan to prepare Thanksgiving food. The aroma of basted, grilled turkeys floated far beyond the corner of East Northwest Boulevard and Patterson Avenue. Samaritan Ministries Executive Director Sonjia Kurosky said every holiday season generous volunteers help the agency by donating and preparing food.
Sonjia Kurosky
“The neighborhood will smell the best it ever has,” she said. “It just permeates the air. It’s my favorite day of the year at the ministry because of the smell.”
Grill Team Six leader Walter Holton said the group – whose name is a nod to Osama bin Laden-slaying Navy Seal Team Six – was happy to help out. Holton heads his own firm, but is known for his appointment by President Clinton as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, a job he held for seven years.
Initially, he said, the guys pooled their money and bought the grill for their personal use. Holton said they then found that they received great satisfaction from cooking for nonprofit agencies.
“We have done some cooking for Samaritan Ministries, Cancer Services and some others. It’s a good use of the grill and we have a lot of fun with it,” said Holton, who calls the team professional weekend tailgaters.
Silver
Team member Mike Silver, a Forsyth County assistant district attorney, said, “You want to help out where you live and make the community that you live in better. Any nonprofit that you can help out locally, I think everybody should do that type of service.”
Silver considers fighting crime in the DA’s office as a community service. The grilling is a different kind of service, he said, and a welcome one.
“This is more of social justice, where we are just trying to help the community and the people. We are trying to work for people who need help and services. It feels good to help out,” he said.
Kurosky said that the kitchen staff prides itself on providing a traditional Thanksgiving meal for more than 350 people, including families and veterans. In addition to turkey, this year’s menu included green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, ham and an assortment of desserts and turkey, according to Kitchen Manager Derrick Newkirk.
New Friendship Baptist Church volunteered to serve the food on Thanksgiving.
“We like to make sure our guests have all of the comforts of a nice, home-cooked Thanksgiving meal like the rest of us,” Kurosky said. “They don’t want anything too fancy or gourmet. That’s what they like.”
For more information, visit www.samaritanforsyth.org or call 336-748-1962.
