Almost at the last minute, organizers of the annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner have decided to put it on again … but need lots of help.

Longtime coordinator Bev Arnold, who had stepped back some last year, is now recuperating from knee replacement surgery and isn’t mobile at the moment. She said she will do whatever she can from home, making phone calls and helping coordinate, but the call has gone out to community residents to also step up and help pull the dinner together.

Offered for more than a decade, most years at the Escalon Community Center, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner is open to all and also features home delivery to those elderly, ill or shut-ins that can’t get to the meal site.

“We are looking for people to help, donations to help buy food,” Arnold said.

Monetary donations for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner can be made to the Escalon Ministerial Association, P.O. Box 1, Escalon, CA 95320.

Along with Arnold, Deanna Jackson is a longtime coordinator of the meal, working with the home deliveries side of the effort and people that need to get them delivered can contact her at 838-6808.

Arnold can be reached at 838-3336 for those that want to volunteer to work on that day or help with preparation ahead of time and her sister, Pam Mendez (838-6827) is also working with the group and can be contacted for information. Arnold said they aren’t sure where the cooking will be done or by whom, but a core group wants to make the dinner happen.

“We don’t know how but we’re going to do it,” Arnold said. “Let’s see what we can do.”

Organizers have a little over a month to pull it all together, with Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 28.