Christian Wojcinski celebrated his 10th year Friday volunteering for the ‘Seniors Get Stuffed’ event held the day after Thanksgiving each year at the Dexter Senior Center.

The 18-year-old Eagle Scout has been volunteering with his troop since he was a Cub Scout.

“It’s nice to give back,” the Central Michigan University student said. “I saw this as an opportunity to do something for the community, and it’s nice to be able to talk to the seniors.”

In fact, Seniors Get Stuffed has evolved into a family event for the Wojcinski family, who began volunteering for it the year they moved to Dexter from Canada 10 years ago.

Both Wojcinski’s father, Zbig, and his mother, Helen, were on hand to help Friday.

“This has become a part of the Thanksgiving tradition,” Zbig Wojcinski said. “This is family time and we extend it to the community.”

For 84-year-old Adelaide Barbieri, the special event has been a tradition for her since she moved to Dexter from Detroit in 2005.

“Everything is really nice, the food is very good, and they give you plenty,” Barbieri said. “I know these people work very hard to put this on,” she said. “I also met the manager from Busch’s, Dennis Blanchard.”

Busch's grocery store in Dexter donates all the food — including about a dozen turkeys — which are cooked by The Lighthouse Café.

“This was started by Steve Hernandez, the former manager of Busch’s, at least 15 years ago,” said Fred Model, a Dexter Kiwanis member and the chairman of the event.

He said this year they served about 175 dinners, which included turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce and pies.

About 35 volunteers from several Dexter service clubs and churches as well as Boy Scout Troop 477 greeted the seniors and seated them before serving them the meal.

“The Dexter community is very fortunate to have a large number of supportive businesses and top of that list is Busch’s, not only for Seniors Get Stuffed, but also for the other things they sponsor throughout the year,” said Jim Carson, Dexter Senior Center president.

Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lallmendinger@sbcglobal.net. For more Dexter stories, visit our Dexter page.