90 Years in 90 Days: New Thanksgiving Tradition for Cleveland Heights Police

Cleveland Heights officially became a city in 1921. Cleveland Heights Patch is by compiling 90 photos to create an album of the city's past and present. We'll run the feature for 90 days, one photo at a time.

Channah Appel wanted to make sure local police officers and firefighters working on Thanksgiving could somehow celebrate the holiday, too.

She rounded up families from Aish HaTorah, an international organization based in Jerusalem and an adult and family Jewish Education program, and asked them to and deliver them to the and the and University Heights fire departments.

“We thought it would be a great way to build our community of volunteers of parents and kids. There are so few opportunities for families to spend time together volunteering,” Appel said.

The women's auxiliary, known as Aishet Chayil, spent the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving cooking with Chef Dave Frank at the Young Israel of Greater Cleveland in Beachwood, while the little ones decorated place mats and giant banners, she said. Families delivered the food on Thursday.

This is the first year Appel has organized the event, “Put the ‘Thanks’ back into Thanksgiving” and said she was inspired by a similar event her brother in Harrisburg, PA, has been running for years.

The photograph above includes volunteers from the organization and Councilman Jason Stein and his family with Cleveland Heights police.