Mt. Kisco Thanksgiving Dinner Honors Martin Brancroft

More than a year after Martin Bancroft died, his memory is being honored with a Thanksgiving dinner in his name.

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day from noon to 3 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal Church will be open to the community for the dinner, which will be staffed by volunteers. The dinner, which is an annual event, has added the posthumous honor for Bancroft to its routine.

Paula Maiorano, who is secretary to Mount Kisco Village Manager James Palmer, has volunteered for the dinner in the past and remembers Brancroft helping out with the food.

"He just got involved," she said, also noting that the dinner has "really turned into a community event.

In addition, Maiorano said, people will be driving around the area to deliver meals to folks rangs from senior citizens and those in group homes. Volunteers, who will include Mount Kisco firefighters, will be visited people in Mount Kisco, Chappaqua, Millwood, Bedford Hills and Katonah. The drive itself will last from 12:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Maiorano said

Bancroft has had an outpouring of community support since his sudden death last November. In an honorary proclaimation, Mayor Michael Cindrich noted the many milestones of his life, including more than 40 years as a volunteer firefighter in the Union Hook and Ladder fire company, giving his time to the St. Mark's Thankgiving Dinner for about 15 years, serving as a Chappaqua Transportation bus driver and in operating his own business, MarGraphics. Brancroft could also be spotted at Village Board of Trustees meetings, which he filmed for the village's public access cable channel.

Palmer fondly recalls Brancroft, saying that he was someone who makes Mount Kisco special.

"He was a good person," he said. Palmer said he plans to help out at the St. Mark's dinner, along with his family.

Bancroft was also honored last spring by the Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce as a Citizen of the Year. In her remarks for Brancoft at the chamber's dinner, Maiorano recalled how he got her interested in helping out at the Thanksgiving dinner.

"Being involved in this yearly community dinner has been such an amazing and rewarding experience for me and I have my dear friend Marty to thank for that," she wrote.