What do a Kenyan Olympic medalist, a hospitalized Foxfield jockey, two flirting senior citizens and a host of University international students have in common? All have eaten Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Fred and Nancy Damon.
Fred Damon, a University anthropology professor, and his wife Nancy, program director for the Virginia Festival of the Book, have been inviting people into their home to celebrate Thanksgiving with them for the past 30 years. For the past four or five years, the couple has been involved with the Thanksgiving Day Meal Match program, a program organized by the University's Lorna Sundberg International Center.
For most, Thanksgiving offers the chance to commune with family. The holiday, a celebration of the Pilgrims' first year in America, is long awaited for the requisite turkey, pumpkin pie, football and reunion.
Yet for many of the 2,000 international students at the University, Thanksgiving Day traditions are entirely unfamiliar. With family far away, Grounds empty and restaurants closed, the day can appear dauntingly lonely.
Every year many local families open their homes to stranded international students to alleviate such Thanksgiving Day loneliness. They share dinner and conversation, and in doing so, introduce others to this quintessentially American holiday.
The newly renamed Lorna Sundberg International Center has been matching welcoming families with international students for several years.
The aim of the center's Thanksgiving Day Meal Match program is to give students "the opportunity to visit American homes for an American holiday," said Judy Saulle, the center's associate administrator.
The program offers participants a unique experience in American immersion.
"It gives students the chance to do something other than academics," Saulle said. "They get out into the community and get insight into life with an American family."
Both Saulle and Brad Brown, Commerce School professor and president of the International Residential College, agree it is important to delineate between education and insight.
Sharing Thanksgiving dinner is "not an educational opportunity, it's an opportunity for students to have cultural sharing, and it just so happens that all the students are international," Brown said.
Xiefan Lin, a second-year Engineering graduate student from China, said she participated in the program to learn about American culture. What she found was that, while the premise was different, the day's festivities -- including the gathering of family, eating a big meal and playing board games -- were reminiscent of the Chinese Spring Festival, Lin said.
Lin has signed up to share Thanksgiving with another Charlottesville family again this year.
Unlike those who will sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends, the international students matched in the center's program often will share their first Thanksgiving experience with complete strangers.
"It takes a certain kind of adventuresomeness to get involved in the program -- to say 'hey, I'd like to have dinner with someone I've never met before,'" Nancy Damon said.
Yet although the Damons's guests often come together not knowing one another, by evening's end, the company always finds "great connections you wouldn't imagine," Nancy Damon said.
One year, a French-speaking Rwandan student's linguistic discomfort was relieved by another guest -- the mother of the local librarian who in her youth had taught French, Nancy Damon recalled.
This year the Damon couple expects to host two international students for the holiday.
In addition to joining the families taking part in the center's matching program, international students often share Thanksgiving with the families of their friends and roommates, Brown said.
Last year Ning Shen, a second-year College student from Taiwan, was invited to spend the holiday with her roommate's family. Although Shen had experienced some Thanksgiving traditions in school, celebrating with an American family was very different, Shen said.
"I thought Thanksgiving was a family thing and I wasn't sure if I should be going, but they were very open," Shen said.
Like Lin, Shen found similarities between Thanksgiving and celebrations in her own culture.
"The whole family coming together and the whole day spent preparing for dinner was really similar to Chinese New Year," Shen said.
For those who aren't able to travel to spend Thanksgiving with their families, sharing the day with students increases holiday spirit.
"I'm from a big family and here we're only three," Brown explained. "There's not much holiday celebration with only three people, so we invite others. It's kind of nice to share."
Similarly, Nancy Damon said her children complained one year when the Thanksgiving Day guest list fell below 20 attendees. Having a large, diverse group to dinner makes it a lot more fun and interesting, she added.
About two weeks ago, Brown sent an e-mail to all residents of the IRC and all of his Commerce students inviting them to join him and his family for Thanksgiving dinner in his home.
"Students who do come are people who are interested in seeing what it's like, not in getting a free meal," he said.
Last year, Brown and his family shared Thanksgiving with 16 international students from Belgium, Pakistan and India.
In the spirit of giving, the Brown family table is open to all who wish to share in the tradition.
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