Miss Butler County Samantha Roth, center, helped serve Thanksgiving dinner to hospitalized leukemia patients at UPMC Shadyside. Others who helped provide the dinner are, from left, volunteers Micah Fisher, Clyde Moore, Pete Fisher, Roth, My Brother’s Keeper founder Tom Rovito and volunteer Jonathan Peske. Volunteers not pictured are Kim Moore, Arlene Roth, Mary Beth Somerville and Cindy Lewis. Submitted Photo

Miss Butler County Samantha Roth joined volunteers from My Brother’s Keeper, a Butler-based nonprofit organization that assists cancer patients in the Pittsburgh area, in dishing up a delicious Thanksgiving dinner for leukemia patients.

The collaboration occurred on Sunday, Nov. 26, at UPMC Shadyside in Pittsburgh, where Roth and My Brother’s Keeper volunteers served turkey and all the trimmings to leukemia patients who were hospitalized there.

Serving the Thanksgiving dinner to the patients is the brainchild of My Brother’s Keeper founder Tom Rovito.

Rovito came up with the idea after spending time in the hospital in 2014 as a leukemia patient and being less than impressed with the holiday meal he was served.

Rovito pledged that if he survived his leukemia, he would provide a homestyle Thanksgiving meal each year to hospitalized leukemia patients at UPMC Shadyside.

He and his volunteers have served the dinner each November for eight of the past nine years, missing only 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

When Roth heard about the Thanksgiving meal that is prepared, delivered and served by Rovito and his family, she asked Rovito if she could help serve the patients.

“This was an emotional and very special experience for everyone involved,” said Roth, who wore her sash and tiara to the hospital. “Serving my community and Western Pennsylvania was a fantastic way to celebrate and honor this family-oriented holiday.”

Rovito said he enjoyed having Roth on the team.

“She did a great job and is welcome back any time,” he said. “It is always nice to have new people experience the joy of what we do.

“No one can ever explain the feeling that we get from serving those wonderful people.”