In the spirit of Christmas, there was a lot of giving going on Saturday at the Heather Grove assisted-living center for veterans near West 33rd Avenue and Federal Boulevard in northwest Denver.
Fred Harris, the facility’s chef, and his “crew” — including Heather Grove staffers, residents and volunteers — had been food-prepping and cooking for a week to get ready for the center’s free Christmas Day dinner for the homeless and others in need.
It was all part of Heather Grove owner and area physician Hai Bui’s ongoing effort to give back to a country that took him in 30 years ago as a young refugee from Vietnam.
On Saturday, the Heather Grove team planned to serve turkey, homemade cornbread dressing, made-from-scratch mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and pie and cake to between 600 and 1,000 people.
The facility’s van took 300 meals Saturday morning to Samaritan House, motels on Colfax Avenue and to homeless people living in the Sloan’s Lake area, Harris said.
The chef, who has been at Heather Grove for 20 years, cooked 45 turkeys. Some veterans from the assisted-living center relived KP duty from their past, pitching in to peel about 420 pounds of potatoes.
“This is the best I’ve felt in a long time,” Harris said, taking a break around midday, as volunteers sailed past him out of the kitchen with overflowing plates of hot sliced turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes for those in the adjacent dining room. “It’s just a good feeling.”
Heather Grove is home to about 45 veterans ranging in age from 39 to 92, with military service stretching back to World War II.
The facility’s residents have physical and mental-health needs, but a goal of the Christmas dinner was to involve the vets again in service to the community, said Jan Steckline, resident services administrator for the center.
“We wanted them to feel that part of our home was going to be open to others in need,” Steckline said. “And they opened their hearts.”
Kate Bouchard, a nurse practitioner for Bui’s internal medicine practice, had come to volunteer at the community dinner with her husband, Todd Trower, and their children.
The Bouchard-Trower group took a break from kitchen work to visit the room of the facility’s oldest veteran, 92-year-old Frank DeHerrera, who served in Germany during World War II. They wished him a merry Christmas.
“It was fun and nice to see all the people,” said 12-year-old Ethan Trower, about his contribution to bringing Christmas cheer to Heather Grove.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
