By Eliza Ridgeway

A.J. and Gabriel Scott, with their pets, motivated the renewal of their father’s Thanksgiving Build-a-Box program.

Some local families who have never met will make each other’s Thanksgiving special. Two year’s ago, Eva Scott’s husband, Art, passed away. This year, in his memory, Eva and her sons, A.J. and Gabriel, have set the goal of providing Thanksgiving dinners for local families in need.

This week, as part of the Build-a-Box program that Art founded, the Scott family and a host of other dedicated volunteers and donors put together the ingredients for 180 festive meals, which will be hand-delivered to local low-income families. A turkey, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, vegetables, potatoes, dinner rolls and even a pumpkin pie will fill each delivery. Albertson’s provided the food at a discount and stored it for the program free of charge.

“The local communities are suffering so much, because after Katrina and the other natural disasters, people are tapped out right now,” Eva Scott said. Second Harvest, the food bank that serves Santa Clara County, has been scrambling to continue its holiday programming this year.

“There are a lot of families that are just going to go without this season,” said Lynn Crocker, communications manager for Second Harvest. As of last week, the organization had fewer than 200 turkeys to serve more than 1,000 families this Thanksgiving.

A.J., 13, asked his mother why they couldn’t bring his father’s project back to life this year. Art started the Build-a-Box program in 1987, and it fed 2,000 people at its height.

“He was so enthusiastic, just bigger than life,” Eva said of her late husband. “This was his baby.” When Art died in the spring of 2003, the program lapsed without his leadership.

“Then A.J. encouraged me to resurrect this program. I thought: I need to do this for the boys so they understand,” Eva said. “There are more things out there, more than just family. There’s community.”

She found Art’s records for the program and started calling local social services such as the San Jose Family Shelter and Habitat for Humanity. She assembled a list of families who needed help with Thanksgiving dinner and mailed flyers to the 650 names in Art’s donor database and others in the community.

“People are happy to donate - I didn’t realize that,” Eva said. Locals who knew and worked with Art, who was a local realtor with Coldwell Banker, responded enthusiastically to her flyer and handwritten notes. As of last week, more than $6,500 had been donated to the non-profit, inspired by Art’s memory and the chance to fund a family’s meal for $30. Any extra money will go toward next year, when the Scotts plan to continue the program.

“To say yes was easy, but there is so much else involved,” Eva said of resurrecting the project. “I was afraid. I don’t think I’m really a take-charge person.”

With the help of a team of loving friends and volunteers, the quiet woman and her sons have extended their family to include almost 200 others in celebrating the season, and at the same time honoring Art.

“We’ve talked more about Art while doing this than we ever did,” said Martha Regan, a volunteer and friend of the family. Eva said it feels good to work on something that addresses her family’s loss so directly.

“I feel that this helps me to convey to the boys all the goodness that there was in Art,” Eva said.

“He would be so pleased. He would get so excited.”

To give to the Build-a-Box program, call (408) 399-1426 or e-mail

eva.scott@cbnorcal.com. For more information about Second Harvest, visit

www.2ndharvest.net or call 866-234-3663.