Volunteers help others enjoy Thanksgiving Day

PORTLAND – For the last nine years, Randy Mondor has spent Thanksgiving with his family … and hundreds of others.

“His parents gave up trying to get him to come home for Thanksgiving,” said Dorothy Grannell, volunteer coordinator for the United Way of Greater Portland. “They go with him where he’s volunteering and then they go home and collapse together.”

For the ninth year, Mondor was the “maestro” of the annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the Pavilion in Portland, serving dinner Thursday to anyone who would otherwise be eating alone. His mother cut pie for 500 people, his father took care of the drinks and Mondor handled everything else.

Mondor, 34, assistant director for student life at the University of Southern Maine, wanted to make sure people can share Thanksgiving with someone else.

“No matter who walks in the door, they get a smile, they get a friendly hello, they’re taken to a table and receive a hot meal,” he said before Thanksgiving. “We have no idea who’s there and why. We treat them the same and make no assumptions.”

Across Maine, volunteers at soup kitchens and homeless shelters served meals to those in need on Thursday.