By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES – A delicious Thanksgiving dinner will be served to around 80 Niles residents today, thanks to the hard work of the Oak Manor Student Council.
Thursday morning, students prepped for the big dinner by peaEling four tubs full of potatoes.
Students are providing turkey, ham, green bean casserole, rolls, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and pies, which will be delivered by volunteers.
"The students have really done an excellent job with this. They have been wonderful in helping get things ready, they have been very organized and this is something they seem to enjoy," Juli Findeiusen, teacher at Oak Manor and sponsor of the student council said.
To raise money for the dinner, students held money drives and sold Viking ware (clothing that represents Niles Schools). Findeiusen said around $600 was raised.
With the money, Amy Scott, also a teacher and sponsor of student council, with the help of her family and friends, has been busy preparing the Thanksgiving meal.
"We spent most of the day Wednesday and this morning making everything. We will then set up the food and serve it to residents," Scott said.
She added that without the help of the students, it would have been very difficult to prepare.
"It would have taken several hours to peel all of those potatoes. We like to make everything homemade and without their help this could have taken a while. The students have been wonderful through all of this," Scott said.
This is the second year the student council has provided a Thanksgiving dinner for Niles residents and it's something they hope can continue in years to come.
"It makes us feel very good when we can do things like this," students Brooklyn Kessler and Hannah Montgomery said.
For Chelsea Hamm, it was her first time peeling potatoes and she said it was actually pretty easy. "I liked it," she said.