For a first time doing it, the turnout was "wonderful" Sunday at a free Thanksgiving meal at Wiscasset Community Center, Dave Sawyer of Lincoln Lodge of Wiscasset said Sunday night. "Couldn't have been better. I think between our takeout and the people who attended, we probably served well over 120 people.”

In a wiscassetnewspaper.com story last week, Sawyer had encouraged people to “come in and eat in and sit down and meet someone new, and maybe, pick up with an old friend ... It's the time of year when we need to come together.” He said 12 turkeys would be cooked and carved, the meat picked and ready to serve with stuffing, vegetables and pie. 

Lucy Oyster of The Friends of the (Wiscasset Public) Library Cookbook Club explained last week, “Several of us had been talking about, ‘Oh, what would be some great holiday ways to give back to the community?’ And then, my husband (Jake Ackerman) is a new Mason this year, and they had been talking about doing a Thanksgiving dinner.” Cookbook Club members voted in September to help, and now about a dozen members have committed to making a total of 20 pies as a donation to the Lodge, said Oyster, who works at and volunteers at WCC.

"We have a lot of pumpkin pies coming” for the Nov. 23 meal there, Oyster said of the club's contribution. “Several apple pies. We have some custard pies coming. We have apple, cranberry crisp. And myself, I was on the fence” about what pies to make. “I was thinking chocolate, a chocolate pie and a custard pie, but there's other custards happening, and no other chocolate pies. And I feel that for me, the epitome of Thanksgiving is actually a chocolate pie, topped with homemade whipped cream. So I'm probably going to make two of them.”

The idea to put on the free meal came from a lodge brother and the Lodge, Wiscasset Parks and Recreation, the cookbook club, and the local church food pantries the Lodge has done fundraisers for over the years, “have all pitched in together,” Sawyer said.

Wiscasset Newspaper asked Sawyer last week if the Lodge was looking to make the meal an annual event.” We're going to kind of see how it goes,” Sawyer said. “I know we're going to have some bumps in the road. But we're hoping that it’ll be well received and something we could build on." With all the groups helping, he said, "There's a lot of potential here."

Asked again Sunday night about the prospects given how well the meal went, Sawyer said, “We would love to make this an annual thing. I’ve talked to all my mason friends who helped. They were very excited about it.

“And we saw ladies from the food pantry. And it was just a great day. Very successful. It was awesome.”