Every month SURVIVORS holds a Healing Club for clients to meet one another, engage in a therapeutic activity, and build community. Clients often express their desire to learn about American traditions, including Thanksgiving. SURVIVORS has hosted a Thanksgiving Healing Club for several years, sharing and celebrating the historical account of newcomers being welcomed to this land. For many clients, the Thanksgiving Healing Club is their first time celebrating a traditional American Thanksgiving.

This year, St. Andrews Lutheran Church donated their community center and kitchen to be used by SURVIVORS. Thrivent Financial Action Teams, Trader Joes and NorthGate Market supported the Healing Club.  Several volunteers helped plan activities, drove clients to the event, and prepared food to share. Clients, their children, interpreters, volunteers, and staff all wrote what they were grateful for on a tag and hung it on a tree – now located in SURVIVORS’ office for all to see and add to – and then expressed their gratitude aloud with the group. Many people shared that they were most grateful for their families, SURVIVORS, and the U.S.

Here at SURVIVORS we are grateful to our clients, to our many donors, to our hundreds of volunteers, and to all of you for your tireless efforts and support or the mission.

Thank you and happy Thanksgiving!