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Maryville Church of Christ's elders and youth recently collaborated on a project to ensure nearly 100 local families would be receiving a Thanksgiving dinner.

Volunteers provided 15 Thanksgiving dinners to church members and 83 dinners to members of the greater Blount County community. Group members primarily focused their service efforts on Montvale and Lanier elementary schools. They also accepted referrals through church members and the United Way of Blount County.

Every Thanksgiving dinner included an uncooked turkey or ham and all the trimmings.

The service project, which was organized by church elders and the Lads to Leaders & Leaderettes program, was pulled together on short notice.

Maryville Christ of Christ used to do the "Sack the Pulpit" service project for Thanksgiving, but stopped about eight years ago when the church created its year-round benevolence program, said said Resa Byrd, who is one of the coaches for the Lads to Leaders & Leaderettes program.

Many church members donated food for the Thanksgiving dinners, and about 25 people participated in organizing and implementing the service project, Byrd said.

The church's kindergartners through fifth-graders also helped by decorating the bags.

Volunteers unpacked all the donations, sorted, stacked and bagged the Thanksgiving dinners over two days. They hope to organize the service project again next year, Byrd said.