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St. Pete woman opens her doors to strangers this Thanksgiving

Debbie Bernhard had extra space at her table and wanted to offer a warm meal and conversation to those without family to go to.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Debbie Bernhard realized she would have some extra space at her table. She wanted to offer up seats to anyone in town who might not have anywhere to go for the holiday. 

She never imagined it would blow up in the way it did.

"Do you not have any Thanksgiving plans? Do you not have a place to go for Thanksgiving dinner? Just throwing it out there. I am happy to invite you into my home for thanksgiving," she posted. "I know what it’s like to be without family for the holidays. I can’t accommodate everyone but want to help if I can. Message me and you and your family will be welcome in my home for Thanksgiving dinner." 

Her post has received hundreds of reactions.

“I thought I would just put it out there. That, 'Hey, I’ve got room at my table if anybody wants to come.' I guess I didn’t really think of the magnitude of it,” Bernhard said. “A few people reached out. One woman reached out and said 'I’m from the UK, I don’t have anywhere to go, I’d love to come.' So we connected, she’s coming."

After Bernhard's Facebook post went up, her table grew from six people to 12. But, that wasn’t even the biggest change to come out of it.

“I had people messaging me saying, ‘Look, I can’t believe you did this. And I can’t believe I didn’t think of this, but if you’ve got no more room, I’ve got room. Send them my way,'" Bernhard explained. “I had more people do that then say they actually needed a place to go.”

Those people are opening their homes too.

“At one point, I had 12 or 14, ‘I think we might be coming,’ but they weren’t confirmed. I then got another message from somebody that said ‘I don’t have anywhere to go. My son and I don’t have anywhere to go.’ And I thought, ‘I’m not sure I can accommodate more, so I reached out to one of the women who reached out to me and said, ‘Look I think I’m at capacity, is your offer still open?" Bernhard said. "She said 'absolutely, send her my way.'”

The family is overwhelmed by the snowball effect from this one act of kindness.

“It’s about community. And, it’s about everybody opening their hearts and opening their homes. And, meeting new people and allowing people to celebrate if they don’t have anywhere to go,” Bernhard said. “And, in this time of year, and in this time of life, there’s a lot of bad out there. One little good thing can make a lot of good things.”  

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