COEUR d'ALENE - Sara Taylor's kitchen was just too small, bare of kitchen table to boot, while Flora Lynn Allen's Post Falls home is an empty nest, so company was what she sought.

Robert and Erma Dunn came, like they do every year, because they're senior citizens on a limited income, so the free Thanksgiving Day meal made the holiday that much easier.

Coeur d'Alene High School senior Nick Peterson?

Well, he volunteered to work as a waiter for the packed event because his girlfriend asked him to.

"I couldn't turn down the girlfriend," he said, taking a break from serving some of the 750 meals dished out Thursday at the Lake City Center 14th annual Thanksgiving Day dinner, his second time helping out at the dinner. "But I actually enjoy it."

While everyone had a reason all their own, attending the community dinner - complete with live music, a children's booth and a visit from Santa Claus - was well worth the trip, they said. From the volunteers who help put it on to rubbing elbows with people happy to be there, everyone said they felt right at home.

"You're definitely not rushed, it's a nice homey feel," said Allen, who attended the event with her longtime friend Dale Peterson. Allen's kids are now out of her house, though she cooked her own holiday meal for the last 25 years, once for 30 friends and family.

So being served was a nice change of pace.

"They did wonderful, all the volunteers," she said.

If it takes a village to put on such a event, a whole village indeed pitched in.

Around 120 volunteers helped dished out food for the nonprofit, plus scores more who donated any and all of the traditional fixings, including 49 turkeys and a mobile kitchen from Rustler's Roost restaurant. The mobile kitchen wasn't the main kitchen, just extra space parked in the parking lot they could use because the main kitchen was so busy.

Canfield Middle School students provided the personally-made place mats, while the Meals on Wheels program drove more than 50 dinners out to people who couldn't make it to the center.

And the food? It was pretty darn good.

"Actually, it was better than I expected," said Taylor, at the event for the first time and whose Coeur d'Alene apartment kitchen was too crammed to cook up a feast. "I thought it was going to be bland!"

Being a part of the upbeat atmosphere was Peterson's favorite part.

His girlfriend's family coaxed him to help out- namely grandmother Shirley Ely, who has waited tables at the free meal for five years. She too enjoyed being a part of everyone's up and up outlook.

"If we get something wrong," she said of mixed-up orders, "They say, That's OK."

Other restaurants provided similar meals around the area, so the 750 served at Lake City Center is just a sample of the holiday cheer. Grandma Zula's restaurant and St. George's Catholic Church in Post Falls and Fedora Pub and Grille and Pepe Caldo Pizzeria in Coeur d'Alene offered up their own free meals.

"I think it speaks volumes about the community," said Mark Harns, who has helped put on the Lake City Center event since the get-go.

Keeping a family feel around the event is the goal, he said, and the fact that others do similar events while their own had to turn away volunteers shows how much everyone wants to help.

Something Erma Dunn said she appreciates every year as a senior citizen on a limited income. With leftovers bundled up to take to her daughter, she said each year is something special to be a part of.

"It's always such fun to share with the other families," she said.