In the spirit of Thanksgiving, friends and family gathered to share stories, eat well and take a moment to be grateful for the people in their lives.

Sometimes the people we’re grateful for aren’t even people we’ve met.

They are our better angels, those who have created lasting goodwill through the sweat of their brow or simply their time and patience. Some of them act in a moment, while others live their acts out every day.

MaineToday Media would like to introduce you to some of the Mainers who have set examples of selflessness and kindness that would make anyone proud. And thankful.

Debi Hubbard

Believe it or not, Debi Hubbard has selfish reasons for cooking Thanksgiving dinner for more than 200 people each year at the VFW hall in South Portland.

Hubbard started the tradition 16 years ago, with her friend Judy Levesque, because she wanted to avoid the challenge of splitting the holiday between her mother’s house and her mother-in-law’s house.

She also enjoys cooking, and she loves serving people who otherwise might not have a traditional turkey dinner, complete with herbed stuffing and homemade pie.

“It warms my heart,” the petite, energetic Hubbard said earlier this week. “I don’t know why I love it the way I love it. It’s better than Christmas.”

Through the years, Hubbard has become an expert at preparing a meal for a large group of people and organizing the legion of volunteers who will help her host the free event from noon to 3 p.m. today. In the beginning, she was unschooled but committed.

“It was scary the first year,” Hubbard said. “Now, it falls together so easily, it’s fantastic. And it’s all made from scratch, right down to the gravy.”

Hubbard, 60, began planning today’s meal weeks ago, seeking cash donations to buy supplies and lining up 35 family members and friends to help her prepare and serve the meal. Her 5-year-old granddaughter Shaylee is eager to help out.

“I can’t wait, Gammy, to go serve pie,” Shaylee said days before the dinner.

The guests of honor typically include residents of local senior housing complexes and homeless shelters, as well as families and others struggling to make ends meet, Hubbard said.

To ensure everyone feels welcome and special, guests are seated and served at tables set with china, silverware, linen tablecloths and holiday centerpieces. Volunteers, including police officers, also deliver meals to home-bound residents.

“The dinner isn’t just for people who can’t afford it,” Fahey said. “A lot of people live alone and they enjoy the fellowship of sharing a meal with others. When we deliver meals, we often stay and chat for a few minutes.”

Hubbard bought the turkeys on Tuesday afternoon. Her son, Tedd Hubbard, loaded the heavy cartons into his pickup truck.

She made a final shopping trip on Wednesday morning and started preparing the meal at the VFW in the afternoon.

Hubbard admits that it’s a lot of work, but she can’t imagine celebrating Thanksgiving any other way. She plans to host the annual dinner as long as she can.

“Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t,” she said.

— Kelley Bouchard

Jack Gibson

Every Sunday, Jack Gibson visits patients at the cancer treatment center at Maine Medical Center that’s named for his first wife, Susan, who died of lung cancer in 1989.

He stops and chats and hands out packages of Scottish shortbread, which she showed him how to make back in 1953 from an old family recipe.

It’s one of the smaller, but important, things that the South Portland businessman and philanthropist does regularly for people across Maine.

“If I meet a patient lacking in family visitors — sometimes they come from Aroostook County and it’s a hardship to get here — I’ll go back Wednesday and visit them again,” Gibson said. “I have a fairly good sense of humor, and I like to help people feel better a little bit.”

He gave $2 million to establish the 44-bed Gibson Pavilion 11 years ago.

More recently, he set up a charitable program with his second wife, Ruth-Anne, that will give $10,000 to a different Maine municipality each month for the next five years to help meet citizens’ needs. Mapleton officials planned to buy playground equipment. Norway gave property tax discounts to low-income seniors.

The desire to help others is something Gibson picked up from his parents.

“They shared what they had, even though it was during the Depression and they didn’t have much,” he said.

To learn where his money will be most useful, the 82-year-old grandfather counts on contacts he made as owner of Commercial Paving & Recycling Co. for nearly 60 years.

In that time, he contracted public road projects in 175 municipalities across Maine. He sold the company in 2004, but continues to work daily as a commercial real estate developer and property owner in southern Maine.

“I couldn’t retire,” Gibson said. “I just can’t sit still.”

— Kelley Bouchard

Elizabeth McLellan

Some people re-use. Many people recycle. But few do as much as Elizabeth McLellan.

McLellan, a nurse at Maine Medical Center, is the founder of Partners for World Health, a nonprofit organization based in Scarborough.

Because of strict government regulations, hospitals and nursing homes throughout Maine must dispose of perfectly usable soap, syringes, surgical tools, IV tubing, gauze, crutches, and hundreds of other medical supplies.

Those supplies used to go to the landfill. Now, McLellan collects and redistributes them to countries in need.

When a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, Partners for World Health sent nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies with the Army National Guard to treat Haitian residents.

When civil war ravaged Libya’s healthcare system, McLellan and other volunteers traveled to Benghazi to deliver supplies and train medical staff.

From Asia to Africa to Latin America, McLellan’s efforts have aided tens of thousands of people, possibly more. She spent much of this month in Bangladesh, building relations so Partners for World Health volunteers can deliver supplies and train medical staff.

“It’s irresponsible to let these supplies go to waste when so many people around the world are in need,” McLellan said earlier this year. “With just a few supplies and a little training, we can save so many lives.”

— Jason Singer

Lester Drisko

Lester Drisko’s 34-foot lobster boat, which hadn’t been named until last year, is now called Bamp’s Hero.

The namesake is Drisko’s grandson, 10-year-old Matthew Drisko of Addison. Matthew was only 5 when he started fishing with his grandfather. At 8, he still wasn’t strong enough to pull the brick-laden lobster traps, but he could bait them and toss them back into the sea. He loved going out on the water with his grandfather.

On a raw day in late May of 2009, the elder Drisko, after initially discouraging Matthew from coming along because of the rough conditions, relented.

After a morning of lobstering, they found themselves near Hardwood Island in Wohoa Bay when a rope snagged Lester’s leg and pulled him overboard, leaving Matthew alone in the boat.

It took the grandfather several terrifying moments in the 44-degree water to disentangle and swim back to the surface. By the time he popped up, the boat had drifted perhaps 100 yards away.

Matthew piloted the boat to his grandfather and tried to pull him aboard using the hood of Lester’s sweatshirt, but to no avail.

Matthew then removed his life jacket and fastened it around Lester’s neck and, at his grandfather’s instruction, set off for another lobster boat a quarter mile away.

“At first, they couldn’t believe why a little boy was driving that big boat,” Drisko told the Bangor Daily News. “And then he hollered, ‘My grandfather is in the water.'”

Lester Faulkingham returned with Matthew, pulled Lester aboard and towed his boat to a dock in Jonesport. Last November, Matthew received a certificate of valor at the Coast Guard station in Jonesport for his actions.

He’s now a fifth grader at D.W. Merritt Elementary School in Addison.

“He doesn’t think he’s a hero,” Drisko said at the ceremony. “He just did what he had to do.”

Nick Masi

It hasn’t been an easy year for Nick Masi of Biddeford.

He lost his boat and his best friend when the vessel capsized during a fishing trip in late September, but Masi and two other buddies are alive today because Masi kept his wits about him when the boat was going down.

Paralyzed from the waist down since a 2007 construction accident, Masi used his radio to call the Coast Guard and give his exact coordinates about five miles off the coast of Cape Porpoise, even as waves were swamping his 24-foot Grady White outfitted for a bluefin tuna-fishing excursion.

A 54-foot motor yacht on its maiden voyage was able to arrive within half an hour and rescue Masi and Richard Werner. A lobster boat, the Miss Conduct, rescued Hunter, who had remained with the overturned fishing boat.

Doug Isenberg helped Werner swim with Masi between them over to the Lady Ericka, but Isenberg stopped breathing before he could be pulled into the yacht. Attempts at CPR were unsuccessful.

“Me and Douglas were friends since I was in second grade,” said Masi, 45. “I miss the guy a whole lot.”

Masi has also been through a divorce, his house is for sale and he said he’s battling insurance companies for compensation from both boating and construction accidents as well as for an electrical-stimulation stationary bicycle that he says is the only thing that alleviates the pain in his lower body. A final appeal with Maine Medical Center is in the offing.

“I’m crossing my fingers, that maybe there’ll be a Christmas for me,” he said.

Masi’s long-range plan remains to earn his captain’s license and open a charter-fishing business accessible to the handicapped.

“How neat would that be?” Masi said. “You’re in a wheelchair and you’ve always loved to fish? Well, your captain’s in a wheelchair, too.”

— Glenn Jordan

Lucy Gilmore

As a polio survivor, Lucy Gilmore sometimes has a hard time getting around.

But that doesn’t stop her from doing other people’s errands.

A resident of elderly housing complex Bowdoinham Estates in Bowdoinham, Gilmore, 67, can often be found going grocery shopping or picking up pizza for her fellow residents.

If someone has a medical emergency, she’s likely to get in her car and follow the ambulance to the hospital.

“We help each other out,” Gilmore said. Although Gilmore contends that she gets as much as she gives, her friend and downstairs neighbor Sarah Siggins said she does much more than most.

“We call her our guardian angel here,” Siggins said.

Along with giving residents rides and picking up groceries, Siggins said, Gilmore is known for her ability to work wonders on dead and dying plants.

“Bring it to Lucy, she’ll revive it,” she said.

She also steps in as the bingo caller at the complex’s monthly dinners.

“She gets right into it,” Siggins said.

Polio paralyzed Gilmore from the neck down for two weeks when she was 7 years old. It took about a year to recover from the illness, and she still suffers effects including weakness and fatigue.

Gilmore’s three children were under 10 years old when her husband died from cancer and she had to raise them on her own.

Now the grandmother of 12, Gilmore said she doesn’t see her acts of kindness as sacrifices.

“It’s just things I love to do,” she said.

— Leslie Bridgers

Kevin Foster

In the Foster family, giving back seems to be a hereditary trait.

That’s why it’s no surprise Kevin Foster started a holiday toy drive in Cumberland when he was just 16 years old.

Firefighters for Kids started taking applications from needy families this week for its eighth annual collection.

Foster, now 24, doesn’t quite recall how he came to be in charge.

“Just lucky, I guess,” he said.

The toy drive started as an idea floating around the Cumberland Fire Department, where Foster and several of his family members volunteer.

He’s quick to give credit to his wife, parents, brother and sister-in-law for keeping the program going.

Firefighters for Kids started out collecting toys and giving them to Toys for Tots. Every year it got bigger, and eventually it took over the task of connecting the toys with local children.

“It’s really turned into its own program,” Foster said.

This year, Firefighters for Kids is accepting applications through Dec. 23. The paperwork enables the program to match children with toys they would like.

“We don’t turn anybody down,” Foster said.

In its first year, the program collected 750 toys. Foster doesn’t even know how many they handed out last year.

After 3,500, he said, “I think we stopped counting.”

For information about Firefighters for Kids, email [email protected].

— Leslie Bridgers

Laura deDoes

Laura deDoes and her husband, Patrick Mendelsohn, adopted their son Bezabeh from Ethiopia about four years ago.

The adoption created a special place in their hearts for their son’s birthplace. Wanting to do something to celebrate that, and to connect more with their son’s roots, they decided to host an Ethiopian New Year’s party at their home in Cumberland.

So each September they open their home to not only Ethiopians, but to many members of Greater Portland’s African community.

“We get maybe 100 to 140 people,” said deDoes, who works as an X-ray technician at Maine Medical Center in Portland. “I feel a very close connection to Ethiopia, and I’ve become very close to a couple (African immigrant) families.” deDoes has also become active in working to help African immigrant families settling in the area, from looking for housing to finding furniture and cookware. The couple also has an older son, Dane, who is eight.

The couple’s outreach to the African community is an extension of their natures, neighbors say. After Halloween, for instance, deDoes asked people to give her unused candy. She figured lots of people don’t want the temptation of having all that extra candy around. She then donated it to local homeless shelters to be used for holiday parties.

Last summer deDoes mentioned to Mendelsohn — who works as a paramedic/firefighter in South Portland — that their neighbor Nancy MacDonald could use some help installing a new mailbox post. Mendelsohn saw the post in MacDonald’s yard so he decided to install it, while she was out.

MacDonald said she was “stunned by this neighborly act of kindness.”

— Ray Routhier

Nicole Thibodeau

Nicole Thibodeau of North Yarmouth knows how important help and support is in raising a special needs child.

Her 13-year-old son, Michael, has Down syndrome, and doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to socialize with or play with peers.

Thibodeau figured she wasn’t the only one lamenting the lack of social interaction and recreational opportunities for her son, that there were probably other parents of special needs children doing the same thing.

So she and and other like-minded moms decided to create a very special Saturday morning recreation program in Cumberland called “Root for ME!”

The open gym session allows kids with special needs and their families to participate in activities at their own speed and within their own comfort zone. It’s also a chance for families in similar situations to socialize, and kids without special needs are welcome, too.

“I met other mothers (of special needs children) and we all started to realize we needed something for the kids to do, something they could take part in and feel good about,” said Thibodeau, 33. “We’re getting donations, volunteers, and kids who just come to play. The support from the community has been great.”

The program has been running at the Mabel I. Wilson School in Cumberland since early fall, and is a program of the Cumberland/North Yarmouth recreation department. About 20 to 30 people show up each week. Thibodeau and two other North Yarmouth moms — Jodie Hall and Sarah McIntyre — are there every Saturday as organizers. They also work to spread the word about the unique program (there’s a “Root for ME” Facebook page) and they look for donations of mats, tunnels, balls and other recreation equipment. They also have a resource table as a place to share information about various services.

Thibodeau is a single parent who also has a 9-year-old son, and is studying social and behavioral science at the University of

Southern Maine. She hopes to eventually get a job working with families dealing with medical challenges.

She is gratified that the “Root for ME!” program has taken off, and that so many people and families have come together to help each other. She’s hoping that more people with special needs children will get involved.

“We definitely want to get the word out and let more people know about this,” said Thibodeau.

— Ray Routhier

Hamza Haadoow

Many Portland residents first heard of Hamza Haadoow during this year’s Portland mayoral race. But he’s been a public servant — in the literal sense — for much longer.

Since moving to Portland in 2000, Haadoow has helped members of Portland’s large immigrant community assimilate into the city.

Haadoow, who has an accounting degree, teaches basic bookkeeping and how to file taxes to immigrants who want to start businesses.

He has also helped immigrant families get hard-to-find products from their home countries.

According to those who know him, Haadoow has a legendary work ethic. He holds two jobs — in addition to his consulting and accounting work for immigrant businesses, he also works full time as assistant sustainability and recycling manager for Goodwill Industries of Northern New England. He is also raising a large family and pursing a master’s degree in organization leadership.

He often works 24 hours straight, and sometimes more if he has a lot of accounting and consulting work.

In December, Haadoow plans to unveil Future Portland Voices, a public forum where residents can meet bimonthly, brainstorm ideas to improve the city, come up with implementation strategies and present them to city leaders. It will also provide basic services such as helping people register to vote and teaching residents how to get their voices heard.

During this year’s mayor’s race, Haadoow said that win or lose, it wouldn’t change his attempt to try to improve the city and help its citizens.

“I will serve the people of Portland no matter what happens,” Haadoow said. “I have to serve. It’s my duty.”

— Jason Singer