A law school Thanksgiving

ATHENS — For many students striving tirelessly to earn their law degrees at the University of Georgia, Thanksgiving can be a difficult time to take off and travel home to visit friends and loved ones. But thanks to the generosity of one UGA law school alumnus and his friend, students stuck in Athens for the holiday can still enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

For the past two decades, local attorney and Lee County Commissioner Billy Mathis has joined forces with his friend Russ Bell, owner of Bell’s grocery store in Athens, to make sure that those law students who are too far from home or too busy with school can enjoy a traditional meal of turkey, dressing and other traditional treats.

“Russ has his people in the deli do turkey and dressing and all the fixin’s and, like, some pumpkin pie dessert, you know a traditional Thanksgiving meal,” said Mathis. “And the way the law school does it is they just send an email blast out to all the kids that says the ones that can’t go home, just sign up and you get a free Thanksgiving meal from Bell’s. They go by and pick it up and have a nice Thanksgiving.”

Mathis said he and Bell, who have been friends “for years,” formulated the idea roughly 20 years ago while tailgating before a Bulldog football game. And it has grown ever since.

“We realized a lot of the kids couldn’t go home for Thanksgiving, and we were talking about how Varsity hotdogs are good, but it’s kind of demoralizing on Thanksgiving to eat a hotdog,” Mathis said. “Russ owns grocery stores with delicatessens, and he and I just kind of hatched the idea. You know in law school the kids have so much pressure on them that we just thought that it would be a nice thing to do for them to have a real Thanksgiving dinner at Thanksgiving, even though they couldn’t get home. That kind of lifts their spirits.

“Put yourself in that situation. You’re stuck there at Thanksgiving, you can’t see your family, you don’t have turkey and dressing, you’ve got to go eat a hamburger or hotdog, and it just ruins your Thanksgiving. We thought it was just a just a small thing that we could do to lift their spirits a little bit and take a little pressure off of them.”

According to the information provided by the UGA law school, the Thanksgiving meal program Mathis and Bell sponsor ends up helping quite a few law students each year as there typically are around 600 students enrolled in the school during any given semester.

More than 30 students usually end up taking advantage of the holiday meal, which they qualify for simply by being a student in the law school who wants to enjoy a traditional meal.

UGA Associate Director of Student Affairs Alex Sklut said that most of the students who participate in the Thanksgiving meal program are those studying hard for final exams, which start on Nov. 29, or students who live a great distance from campus.

“I think most students take advantage of it because they are so busy preparing for final exams that they can’t travel home or really ‘do’ Thanksgiving, especially if their family is in a different state or different country. International students sign up for this a lot,” said Sklut. “Plus, not a lot of restaurants are open on Thanksgiving, so if they are stuck here in Athens studying it’s really nice for them to have some really yummy food ready to eat without having to think too much about it or spend time preparing the food themselves.”

Additionally, Sklut said, the free meal also helps many of the students who are living on a tight budget and are looking to stretch their limited funds as best they can.

“A lot of our students live off student loans exclusively, so any free meal, especially an awesome Thanksgiving meal, is something they get super excited about,” she said.

Georgia Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge said he is also a fan of the meal program, adding that it not only provides a needed service for students, it also serves as an example of the type of giving spirit the school hopes to instill in its graduates.

“I’m very grateful to the Bell and Mathis families for their gift that will benefit 35 students this holiday season,” said Rutledge. “Their generosity exemplifies a distinguishing feature of the University of Georgia School of Law – namely authentic support tailored to the individual needs of each student.

“For a variety of reasons, whether demanding work or financial limitations, a segment of our students is unable to be with their families for the holidays. This gift helps send a message that, during what can be a stressful time, people around our students care about them and are here to support them.”