PHOTOS: Sussex Seniors Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner a Week Early

Who cares if it’s a week before Thanksgiving? There’s never a wrong time to enjoy turkey, pumpkin pie and all the fixings.

The Sussex department teamed up with the Waukesha County Aging Resource Center to round up 85 hungry Sussex seniors at the to enjoy a holiday feast on Wednesday.

Mary Smith, a representative from the resource center, said Waukesha is dishing up the meal for over 1,000 seniors around the county a week early so residents don’t go into turkey overload.

“We do it early because, in the years past, we did it a day before Thanksgiving,” explained Smith. “But then everyone’s like, ‘Well, we have turkey tomorrow.’ So they all get burnt out because they have dinner here, and they have it the next day, and then they have it Friday. So now we do it a week in advance.”

But the real holiday treat is the collaboration between Sussex and the resource center. Amy Flaherty, the Parks and Recreation Director, said providing entertainment like bingo and a performance in exchange for the food is a phenomenal pairing.

“This partnership is really nice because we don’t provide food that often during our events, so it’s great that they can do this for us,” Flaherty said.

The seniors weren’t required to pay anything to eat, but the resource center suggested a $4 donation to cover some of the catering costs. Flaherty also said the turnout at the Thanksgiving party was beyond what she’d expected.