What is the history of the TVS Thanksgiving?
TVS was formed in 1986. In 1986 or 1987, we apparently had turkeys for Thanksgiving – i.e., live turkeys eating alongside us at a potluck dinner, and made it on national TV. We continued to celebrate Thanksgiving as a potluck dinner for several years at a church meeting room near Duke University in Durham. Around 1994, we decided to try a restaurant Thanksgiving, and ate at Govinda’s in Carrboro. If memory serves, since Govinda’s went out of business, we had our feast at the Regulator Cafe in Hillsborough 1995 and 1996. (Every year from 1996 on, we have made it to the evening news!) Unfortunately, they, too, went out of business, so in 1997 we had our feast at the Irregardless Cafe in Raleigh; we had about 100 guests and were on both channel 5 and FOX TV. We were again on the news, but just for a 20-second spot, in 1998 at Irregardless, and began having a raffle. We made our move to Cafe Parizde in 1999, had 83 people, sold 238 raffle tickets, and had exceptional media coverage (Channe
