One week before Thanksgiving, Ayandria Barry sat in a hospital in Virginia receiving chemotherapy treatment.
On Thanksgiving Day, she was in the Stokes Beard Elementary School cafeteria, alongside her mother, helping dozens of volunteers prepare to deliver more than 1,900 meals to elderly and disabled Columbus residents.
The annual Columbus Police Department turkey drive raises money and frozen turkeys for the Thanksgiving Day event that began in Barry’s mother’s kitchen in 1994.
“At that time, we had Meals on Wheels, and we knew that meals wouldn’t be served over the holidays. Just talking to some friends, we got together and, from what we had fixing food for our families, we did enough plates to serve 50 people in our neighborhood,” said Barry’s mother, Annie Barry. “…It has just grown from there.”
Annie said she learned from her mother, who used to do the same thing for neighbors she knew wouldn’t otherwise get a Thanksgiving meal, and she is passing the tradition on to her own daughter and grandchildren in a big way.
“It’s just something we always did — make sure you give back to your community, take care of your neighbors,” Ayandria said.
So when the two women were diagnosed with cancer simultaneously, it never crossed their minds to discontinue the annual event that so many people have come to rely on.
Giving up ‘not an option’
Ayandria was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and again in 2015. Her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2015.
Despite feeling ill, the women continued their tradition of feeding Columbus residents in need.
Rhonda Sanders, CPD community policing officer and organizer for the turkey drive that supplies the Thanksgiving meal, said she coordinates with the women to help put on the event.
Sanders said she has witnessed the women scheduling their chemotherapy treatments around the event so they wouldn’t miss it.
“They didn’t skip a beat…even when they were going through this,” Sanders said. “They are leading examples. They are trailblazers. They are role models. They’re just selfless. They’re fighters — very brave people. It’s important that people know about their courage.”
Annie is now in remission, and Ayandria is still fighting. Both said giving up is not an option.
They said they will continue to serve the community every year — something that was instilled in them from an early age and carried on in their everyday lives.
Ayandria lives in Virginia, close to Washington, D.C., where she works as an AW2 advocate in the U.S. Army Wounded Warrior Program, helping to ensure wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan receive their benefits. Annie retired from the Department of Human Services in Columbus in 2012.
Annie said being involved in the community and organizing the Thanksgiving event is what keeps her going. She said it is her mission to continue the event.
“It helps me to help somebody else,” she said. “I just hope, when I’m gone, that this will be a tradition that somebody will continue. It’s a good thing.”
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