In 2005, Thanksgiving dinner changed for a number of local residents.

Instead of spending the day alone or feeling blue, they discovered a warm welcome at a friendly gathering at Safety Village in downtown Lemont.

Arranged by Terry O’Neill when her family was grieving the death of her father, the event welcomed any guests. All participated as a family would and created a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with many helping to prepare, bring and share the food and the evening.

Since then the Thanksgiving meal has become a tradition and O’Neill has found her mission: Hope and Friendship, a group founded in memory of her father.

The event grew quickly, and soon home-cooked Christmas dinners were being delivered on Christmas Day, fun-filled events were being organized for youth, household necessities were being donated for the financially strapped and even more undertakings have been added to the scope of Hope and Friendship.

Now, as the 2008 holiday season approaches, O’Neill is coordinating a fundraiser to help with holiday meal expenses and to generate donations for another charity as well.

“Splitting the funds with a favorite organization of mine, World Vision, shines light and awareness that we can tend to the needs in our community and the needs of our friends in other parts of the world,” she said. “We just need to be creative.”

Show Me the Love Household Needs Resale, O’Neill’s fundraiser, is planned from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at Calvery Church, 1375 State St. O’Neill is now requesting donations and volunteers to help before and during the resale.

“The underlying purpose of this resale is threefold,” she said. “It is to provide an opportunity for us to remove an item just taking up space in our home, provide an opportunity to hold a neighborhood sale that might help us find treasures and, most important, to assist those in need.”

Donations may be placed in drop-off bins through Wednesday, Oct. 22, at Chipains Finer Foods, Christ Community Church, First Church of the Nazerene, Starbucks in Lemont, and outside the side door at 721 Hickory St. On the morning of Friday, Oct. 24, they may also be dropped off at Calvary Church, as volunteers are pricing and organizing.

Recalling the Thanksgiving dinner last year, Tanya Nieciag, a single mother with a 2-year-old son, said the experience was wonderful and she hopes to go again this year.

“We all came and sat down as a family. It was the coolest thing!” Nieciag said. “I’ve never been so welcomed in my entire life. It had a homey feeling, and I think everybody there was happy to be with everybody else. I didn’t know there was so much love to go around.”

Noting that many help out — including her children, friends and others throughout the community — O’Neill said, “The wonderful meals are all prepared by caring neighbors. What I have been blessed to do in my spare time is to coordinate efforts to offer small acts of kindness to our friends who struggle financially, physically or emotionally.

“Hope and Friendship is a channel of assistance from those who have to those who need,” she added. “And yes, yes, yes — new people are welcome. It’s not a mission or shelter — it is friends sharing a holiday meal. The Thanksgiving dinner is a gathering of friends.”

During the event, guests all eat together and play cards. The kids also get to make a craft. Anyone is welcome to attend.

To learn more about joining in for the meals, donating for the resale or volunteering, e-mail O’Neill at hopeandfriendship@comcast.net.