Students gather with their favorite adults for Friendsgiving lunch

Tables and seats were organized for students and guests along the walls of the elementary school gym, with "Happy Friendsgiving 2023" coloring pages scattered on the tables, ready for crayons. The main serving area was in the center, with long tables placed end to end full of ham, meatballs, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, rolls, casseroles and other foods.

As the time drew near for the second festive lunch of the day to begin, Angela Allen, who serves on the boards of the school district and the Parent Teacher Community Club, announced: "Thank you everybody for coming! Once you have your dinner partner, you may start at that end of the dinner table and start serving yourself!"

Evergreen Elementary School held its annual Friendsgiving lunch in the school gym on Friday, Nov. 17. Each student could invite an adult friend to join them in honor of friendship and Thanksgiving. The food was prepared and served by volunteers and members of the Parent Teacher Community Club.

Resident Keisha Rushmore accompanied her third-grader son Mason to the lunch, with baby brother Milo in hand. "I think this is part of Wrangell," she said. "We can all enjoy it together."

For over a decade, the elementary school banquet has been a tradition. In November 2019, the meal was held at the Nolan Center. Principal Ann Hilburn described it as "a big dress-fancy affair."

Third-grade teacher Jen Davies remembers the Nolan Center lunch well. "It was super cool," she said. "It was packed."

Since the COVID shutdown, the annual event has been making a comeback. Hilburn said the parent teacher club decided to plan something this year less grand than the Nolan Center but more practical, opting to hold it at the school and divide the event into two scheduled times, with pre-K through second grade from 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. and third through fifth grades from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

"My son is 11 and he was part of it back in first grade, so it's been a pretty long tradition," said parent teacher club president and Friendsgiving organizer Jayme Howell.

The annual feast started with humble beginnings in 2012 when Mikki Angerman, then a second-grade teacher, became inspired after teaching her students about the origins of Thanksgiving. "I just did it right inside my classroom just with our class, and the parents loved it so much. The kids loved it so much."

Angerman said the event became so popular that it slowly expanded. "So then we spread it to K-2, and we met in the little multipurpose room," she said. "Because of the popularity, it grew to schoolwide."

After Angerman went to teach special education at the middle school and high school, she wasn't sure that Friendsgiving would go on at the elementary school. "I wasn't sure that the tradition would continue, you know, once I was gone, and the principal that was here then was gone," she said. "And they did continue it! So it makes my heart very happy!"

Angerman attended the lunch with her grade-school son Griffey.