The Thanksgiving Sit-Down Dinner: More than just a meal

By: Mikayla Boyd, Editor-in-Chief

On Thursday, Nov. 20, the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership Development hosted the annual Thanksgiving Sit-Down Dinner. This Canisius tradition runs years deep and is especially loved by students due to faculty and staff involvement. At the dinner, faculty and staff serve the students their meals, giving students the ability to create community and see another side of them. The Thanksgiving Sit-Down Dinner is particularly special to me and The Griffin staff as it is not only a Canisius tradition, but The Griffin’s tradition as well. 

Just about every Thursday, The Griffin holds our publishing night meetings – and just about every Thursday, we get hungry! Most weeks, a mixed bag of us head to the Dining Hall, but it’s only a small number of us. The Thanksgiving Sit-Down is different, though… in the best way possible. 

This year, sixteen of The Griffin’s staff and friends visited the Thanksgiving Sit-Down dinner. After getting a beautiful stamp from Katie Dusza who was checking students in, we were greeted by The Griffin’s cool aunt (and advisor), Dr. Maura Snyder. She diligently waited on us with a smile and her usual quick-witted jokes, which I am personally such a fan of. She was also able to sit down with us for a moment of time and enjoy dinner with us, and it was so special to me to be able to catch up with her, as I unfortunately am not a student in any of her classes (you should be, though). 

When it came to the meal itself, I tried the green beans, stuffing, sweet potatoes, a couple of sweet potato tater tots, mashed potatoes and chicken (I don’t like turkey). I absolutely love sweet potatoes, so naturally, the tater tots were a favorite as well as the regular sweet potato. Of course, I got my favorite dessert – apple pie – which was pretty good, and I appreciated the beautiful dollop of whipped cream by Rachel Lapinski, one of my favorite Canisius staff members and someone I have worked closely with for the past couple years as part of the Model UN club’s annual conference. Dean Yates served me my meal and was incredibly caring, inquiring about how I was doing and how my semester was going. Overall, I really felt the incredible warmth and community of faculty and staff embodied in the event.

As for The Griffin, the same holds true. Although we weren’t able to sit at one table together, that didn’t matter– our energy spanned across our melange of tables and our laughs carried across the entire balcony section of the Social Hall. From Ashley’s turkey hat attracting attention to Kaitlyn Belile trying to climb through the railing, there was not a dull moment. It was even more special to me, given that this was mine (and most of The Griffin staff’s) last

Thanksgiving at Canisius. It was truly a perfect evening full of laughter, catching up with my friends, enjoying (somewhat) good food and making a memory I will cherish as part of my college years for a long time.

Mikayla Boyd and Kaitlyn Belile at Thanksgiving sit-down via Ashley Kurz