A Day Before Thanksgiving Walk with 300 people shows what community really is: hundreds of footsteps on the same trail, all sharing the same woods, each carrying their own gratitude.
Yesterday marked the 19th Day Before Thanksgiving Walk at Thanksgiving Forest, and as always, it was a success. It is not because it is fancy. It is because it is anchored in the hearts of our community. For 19 years COSS has worked to put on this event with what we call a duct tape and chewing gum budget. What we do not have in fancy signs and banners we make up for with heart and supporters.
We had the new pollinator garden and park introduced to about 300 residents. This is a wonderful new neighborhood green space that will draw many people who want to sit and enjoy nature. This is an ADA-friendly area, so that is another plus. The group that built the garden and spearheaded the rejuvenation of the park spoke about their passion and the garden. They recognized that the land used for the garden once belonged to Native people and read the town proclamation on that.
Just before the walk started, I was stopped by one of the Scout leaders. It seemed they had a major issue with the ability to serve hot chocolate at the rocks. No hot chocolate. This cannot be. When I found out the issue, sometimes the Scout motto Be Prepared is not always 100 percent true, as it seemed none had packed a ladle to serve the hot chocolate. One of the gardeners who lives right next to the park stepped forward and said, I have one; let me get it. So the major crisis was averted, and we did not have the year with no hot chocolate.
People walked and laughed as a gentle walk wound through the woods to the area known as Thanksgiving Rocks. These are large glacial rocks dropped and stacked to provide a natural fireplace and playground for the brave. A warming and inviting fire burned in the natural hearth as people walked by. The official Amazing Decorated Winter Tree Scavenger Hunt tree by Pack 81 was there, kicking off the Tree Hunt for 2025 that runs to January.
People gathered in front of the large tables set up by Troop 75 with 14 Scouts ready to serve hot chocolate (now they had a ladle) and hundreds of cookies. It is important to know that free hot chocolate and cookies do indeed have no calories, so you can eat as many as you want. Or so I keep telling myself.
Then Joanne Stanway, co-founder of COSS, talked about how the idea of the walk came about during a 4 pm coffee at the house with her husband. Becky Warren, who spent decades as a park ranger along with many other accomplishments, gave a short 15-minute talk about fun history for kids. The kids, of course, were grabbing cookies and hot chocolate and climbing all over the rocks. This part scares me, but Chelmsford kids have been doing this since the first days of the town, so it is a right of passage and a lot of fun.
So another Day Before Thanksgiving Walk is in the history books, and it looks like this tradition will continue well into the future. Fifty years from now people will look back on these early days with nostalgia and maybe discuss the year we almost had no hot chocolate.