The Morning News corrects Thanksgiving story on Yvonne Richardson Center dinner

The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas

For Many, Thanksgiving Is About Helping Others
By Skip Descant
THE MORNING NEWS
Correction: A Thursday report about the Yvonne Richard Center's Thanksgiving meal in Fayetteville misidentified City Council member Nancy Allen.
FAYETTEVILLE -- Thanksgiving is sometimes about action. And at the Yvonne Richardson Center in south Fayetteville on Wednesday night, several volunteers were stepping forward to help out with the Thanksgiving community meal.
"We do our best to help the community," said Tony Johnson, 28, and a logistics manager for Wal-Mart. Johnson is a regular volunteer at the center.
"I have a little girl on the way, and I want to do my part to be a good role model," Johnson said, wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt.
What community centers -- and Thanksgiving meals like this one -- often illuminate, say volunteers, is the need for programs and facilities to help out those who find themselves in lower socio-economic conditions.
"I lot of people, they look at this place, and they just don't know," said Justin Dickson, 25, of Fayetteville, an AmeriCorps volunteer who spends at least 40 hours a week at the center.
As about 50 people made their way through the a buffet line weighted down with potatoes and gravy from AQ Chicken or Cornish hens from Tyson Foods, Dickson explained how important it is for everyone to understand the need is real.
"If you're here on the last Monday of every month for our Food Basket, you'd see that we serve over 400 people," Dickson said.
"We have to fight poverty with passion," he urged.
The Yvonne Richardson Center, operated by Fayetteville Parks and Recreation, serves at least 200 kids in summer programs, said Dickson. And about 1,000 people use the center's five computers every month.
"I think the Yvonne Richardson Center is doing good work and, if the city would give them another employee, they could really make a difference to young people who are at risk," said Nancy Allen, a member of the Fayetteville City Council.
Allen has petitioned the council to provide the center an extra $40,000 a year to fund another staff person.
"I would just feel remiss to go off the council and not do more for them," Jordan said at a recent city council agenda session. "I just want us to do right by them."
But to give time and love is the ultimate gift, said Dickson.
"I feel passionate about this," Dickson said. "It's blessed my life more than I've blessed them."