At Exceptional Academy, “thank you” is said with a full course Thanksgiving meal.

Thursday afternoon, students at the academy hosted the fourth “Friendsgiving,” a feast to offer their gratitude to local first responders.

Exceptional Academy is an Oak Harbor Public Schools program that helps high school graduates with disabilities develop skills to live more independently and land a job.

Each course at Friendsgiving was prepared by students who, in the kitchen of the district office’s building, worked in teams with the help of career coaches to prepare deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, turkey and other traditional meals.

Susan Armstrong, who works as a coordinator at the academy, said the feast creates many learning opportunities for the 25 students enrolled, who may never have had the opportunity to assist in preparing a full Thanksgiving meal.

There is much more that goes into this event than just prepping and cooking. Students choose what food to serve, find the recipes, make the shopping lists and buy the ingredients within a specific budget, choosing items on sale. In the kitchen, students also get to use knives, food graters, ovens and stoves.

Raiden Milliron, 19, helped prepare the green bean casserole. In his first Friendsgiving, he wanted to show appreciation to first responders for taking risks to protect people.

Gus Messersmith, 20, is in his third year at Exceptional Academy. His role consisted of flipping the turkey in the water and adding the pumpkin pie filling to the crust.

To him, Friendsgiving is an opportunity to thank first responders for often sacrificing time with family and loved ones to respond to an emergency.

“First responders have a very difficult job,” he said. “We need to give them a family-like connection to other people through a simple, planned and wholesome feast.”

Ian Tiessen, a 20-year-old Anacortes resident, was one of the students in charge of preparing the green bean casserole and the turkey stuffing. Cooking is one of his interests, and he dreams of creating cooking and gaming content on YouTube one day.

While he pursues this goal, Tiessen works as an intern at the Whidbey News Group, where he helps the editorial team with uploading posts on the Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record websites and Facebook accounts. He also took some photos to document the feast, an event he said he enjoys because he gets to meet new people.

So far, Armstrong said, the feast has averaged 15 to 20 guests every year. Because they are on duty, it’s hard to predict how many first responders are able to take a break and stop by, she said.

Still, by showing up, first responders become familiar faces to the students, who may be less scared in an emergency situation if they recognize a friendly first responder, Armstrong said.

“We appreciate our local first responders spending their meal breaks with us,” she said. “It is a joyful time we look forward to sharing with the community every year.”

(Photo by Luisa Loi) Gus Messersmith carefully adds pumpkin pie filling to the crust.

(Photo by Luisa Loi) Devon Grau, in the foreground, cuts onions with fellow student Raiden Milliron.

(Photo by Luisa Loi) Zoe Castillo fills the deviled eggs.

Ian Tiessen, a new intern at the Whidbey News Group, took this photo at the Friendsgiving feast. For the next few months, Tiessen will help the editorial team with the website and social media accounts.