STUART — Famed Stuart Attorney Willie Gary this afternoon teamed up with the Big Heart Brigade to provide Thanksgiving dinner to local needy families.

Gary and his sons delivered the turkeys, stuffing, canned goods and other holiday food items to families in the Rio, East Stuart and Port Salerno areas.

“You’d be amazed at how something so little makes such a big difference to these families,” Gary said. “We can’t forget that especially now, in this country, in this economy, we’re all in this together. Those of us who can help should.”

At Sheila Rae’s trailer on Isabelita Street in Port Salerno, the sight of the minivan bringing in the free turkey brought tears to the 54-year-old’s eyes.

Rae, 54, the mother of nine sons and two daughters, is between jobs. Some of her children are now adults and live outside the area, but the gift of a Thanksgiving dinner, she said, means she can now invite them all home for the holidays.

“You don’t know how much this means to me,” she told Gary as the two hugged outside. “If it wasn’t for you all, I wouldn’t have a Thanksgiving.”

The Big Heart Brigade of the Treasure Coast is a nonprofit organization whose signature event each year is a massive effort to provide Thansgiving dinner to needy families. Their goal this year is to deliver more than 30,000 Thanksgiving meals.

Aside from the handful of deliveries, Gary and the Gary firm made a cash donation to the Brigade.

Tags: Thanksgiving, willie gary

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Schools, Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.