By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
Friendsgiving at The Wilson Hotel has grown from 200 people to 1,200 people since the free community Thanksgiving gathering started six years ago.
On Nov. 26, The Wilson Hotel ballroom will smell of Thanksgiving dinner and all the fixings, welcoming any and all community members to enjoy the sixth year of Big Sky’s Friendsgiving. The gathering runs from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., and will close out with an afterparty at Tips Up from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Lindsey Foote, director of sales and marketing at The Wilson, and Christine Lugo-Yergensen, owner of Sweet Buns Catering, started the event together as a way to unite the community ahead of holiday craziness. Attendance numbers have grown each year.
“We did not expect it to go that big but it’s really good to see,” Foote told EBS on the phone. “It is open to anybody in the Big Sky community, from seasonal workers to people that live here year-round.”
The event will partner with the Big Sky Community Food Bank, and anyone who wishes to donate money or food can drop off their donations during Friendsgiving.
While Lugo-Yergensen typically cooked up the turkeys in past years, since she moved from Big Sky, the event this time around will have two different types of turkey.
“We’re deep frying turkeys as well this year,” Foote said. Both fried and smoked turkey will be available for attendees to try.
“This year we have really pulled together with the community to help with cooking all the turkeys. So we’re, you know, we’ve got the Yellowstone Club helping with letting us use their smoker,” Foote said.
The staff at the Big Sky Fire Department, Big Sky Medical Center and Gallatin County Sheriff’s Department will receive deliveries of meals.
Foote said that this event means a lot to her and that many people make new friends in Big Sky through the meal.
“It’s exactly what we wanted it to be, which is really something that just brings the community together,” she said.
Foote thanked The Wilson, Block 3 Kitchen & Bar, Tips Up, Thorn and Apple Baking Co., Lone Mountain Land Company, LMNT, Scoop, Big Sky Scoops, Moonlight Basin, Yellowstone Club Community Foundation, the Yellowstone Club, Big Sky Community Food Bank, Big Sky Rotary, Big Sky SNO, Big Sky Resort, Sweetbuns Catering, Visit Big Sky/ Big Sky Chamber of Commerce, Hungry Moose and local community members for their contributions to the event.
