The night chill was anywhere but inside the Gleason Family YMCA Tuesday night at the Y’s first turkey dinner for its members.

Volunteer and Y member Dennis Pucello put on the dinner with the YMCA, in part because he was unable to lead the crockpot cooking class for kids he taught last year.

“Circumstances happen, but I am going to walk around the tables tonight, and see if I can resurrect it again for next year,” Pucello said. “That’s where my interest is – teaching kids to do some simple crockpot cooking, where it doesn’t cost a lot of money.”

But it was also an effort to give back to the community, especially those who may have a hard time getting hot meals this time year, YMCA Director Debbie Fringuelli said.

“That was our point,” Fringuelli said. “We wanted to make sure some folks had the opportunity to have a good Thanksgiving meal. That was really important to us.”

Pucello said they had about 60 servings ready to go for the expected 50 people who RSVP’d.

The dinner came together from a variety of local sources, Pucello said. The funds for the dinner came from Walmart, who gave him a $1,000 grant to spend on food and other dinner trappings. The turkeys were donated by Shaw’s, and the fresh fruit and vegetables by Mazzilli’s Farm Stand and Deli; and St. Patrick’s Church allowed the group to use its large kitchens to prepare everything.

“We don’t have kitchen facilities here to do this sort of thing,” Pucello said.

Pucello said there was about $500 left over from the original Walmart grant money. He and Fringuelli said they weren’t sure exactly how they would spend the money, but “we’ll figure it out.”

“We’ll do another program,” Pucello said.