The island community mobilized on Thanksgiving morning to pull together a holiday feast for a group of visiting State Police Troopers, Secret Service agents, and government personnel who are on the island providing security for President Joe Biden.
Sconset homeowners Jill and Scott Kelley are in Florida, but they have opened their home on Baxter Road for the meal today, and have been helping to coordinate the effort from hundreds of miles away with a team of volunteer island residents on the ground in Sconset.
“Everyone is coming together last minute,” Jill Kelley said. “When I found out about these guys, I thought they’re away from their families and Nantucket is kind of closed.”
While most of the Secret Service contingent is having Thanksgiving meals prepared by Faregrounds restaurant, the State Police Troopers and a smaller group of Secret Service agents are dining at the Kelleys’ home, just steps away from the Sankaty Head Lighthouse, or driving by to pick-up food.
At the house today, island resident Jamie Howarth was playing piano for the Troopers as they dined on traditional Thanksgiving dishes. Other volunteers, including Susan Yerkes Cary and Mark Burlingham, were helping serve the food and drinks.
Kelley managed to secure dozens of turkeys from Stop & Shop, then enlisted the help of Chef Joseph Keller, from Company of the Cauldron, along with Patrick Ridge, owner of Island Kitchen, and chef Devon Francis, from Bartlett’s Farm, to help prepare the meals and packaging. She also put out a call for volunteers in the Sconset neighborhood on the Nextdoor app.
Nantucket State Police Trooper Kevin Bates was among those dining at the house on Thursday, and said he appreciated the efforts of the Kelley family and so many islanders that came together to make it happen.
“Basically our guys got down here and started to try to line up meals for the week, but a lot of these places were saying we’re not open for Thanksgiving,” Bates said. “So this is making sure the people who are committed to being here on this day are not eating sandwiches.”
