A College Professor Shares Thanksgiving: ‘Tell Me Something Good’

A college Communication’s Professor, Elizabeth Pearce, sent out an email to her students offering to drop off Thanksgiving meals to those quarantined or who weren't able to go home for Thanksgiving. Thanks to one of her students who shared the email on Twitter and her act of kindness went viral.

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Pearce traditionally has a large Thanksgiving with family and friends, but this year, due to the virus, she was celebrating with just three of her kids. Her oldest daughter is away working in Washington, D.C., and couldn't attend and her oldest son currently has the coronavirus.

“I talked to him through a car window and he’s been lonely and it sort of really broke my heart thinking that anybody could be far away from a parent and not feeling well,” Pearce said.

With her family lacking their traditional Thanksgiving, she asked her kids if they would be willing help her make food for her students. They were immediately onboard...

“I think it really impacted my two youngest, the idea that people can’t go home and see their folks for Thanksgiving, so they were willing to work pretty hard to make dinner for everybody happen,” Pearce said.

On Nov. 19, Pearce sent out an email to all of her students offering to drop off Thanksgiving meals to residence halls on campus and apartments for anyone who was quarantined or couldn’t go home to their family.

“I don’t want anyone to feel alone on Thanksgiving, or to miss out on a home cooked family dinner, so I want to invite you to share my Thanksgiving dinner,” she wrote in her email.

To Leah Blask’s (the student who shared the Tweet) surprise, the tweet went viral and currently has more than 860,000 likes.

“I think that a lot of people were looking for a little bit of light right now … It was just like a shining spot of humanity, where this professor was willing to spend their time and give to others,” Blask said.

To paraphrase Linus in Charlie Brown, a variation on a theme..."That's what Thanksgiving is all about"?

(Daily Iowan)