Every Tuesday before Thanksgiving is the annual ACE Thanksgiving. This year, the school opened its doors to the students’ family members, as well as the public, on Tuesday, November 25th.
The idea for the first Ace Thanksgiving started with the students, not the adults. The students came up with an idea to host a Thanksgiving for just the school students and staff. They wanted to come together and have friends and family around them because they loved the ACE community and realized that some people did not have people or a place to celebrate the holiday. For a few years, it stayed like this until they made the idea of opening the event to the public. At this time, many homeless people in the community would be welcomed in for a hot meal alongside students, families, and distinguished guests from the community.
When the school decided to make Thanksgiving a community event at ACE, there would be a Parents’ Night before the ACE Thanksgiving Day to give out frozen turkeys donated from Stew Leonards. Volunteers would cook it at home and bring it in on the day of the event. It was like that for a while until things changed.
In 2012, ACE started partnering with Abbot Tech High School, and the food would be shipped to Abbot Tech’s culinary program and prepared a few days before the special day.
The number of people that came to this event expanded over time, and many people, like Mayors, past teachers, State representatives, Superintendent, Board of Ed members, and Mr. Moore with one of his 6th grade classes, City and school officials, made the ACE Thanksgiving part of their yearly tradition.
This year’s event was another fun day filled with family, friends, and food, but the effort the students put into this day made it one of the most memorable feasts since Covid. 55 students stayed after school to volunteer their time to help set up, host, serve, and clean up. It taught students about being generous and grateful for the community.
English teacher, Melissa Lasky, said “The best part of the day was being able to see former students and their families, and I am so proud of the students for the way they came together to make it one of the best ACE Thanksgivings I can remember.”
ACE Senior, Jordyn Rock, said that she “enjoyed serving the food, and the best part about it was all of the desserts.”
It takes money from the community to keep this school up and running, and we appreciate the community’s support, so this has become one of ACE’s most meaningful traditions.
