TOLEDO, Ohio — Compassion Toledo church is one of the many groups that stepped up during Thanksgiving to hand out free meals and fed more than 150 people. Bishop Chaz Boes is the leader and has had a love for serving others during Thanksgiving for a long time.
Back in 2005, WTOL 11 interviewed Boes when he was running the same event he did this year.
"I just want to speak to those who want to do something similar to this, some kids, some youth," 13-year-old Boes said.
"It's a full-circle moment, but yet 10 times better," he said Thursday.
Back in 2005, people called him the "pint-sized preacher," and Boes said he wanted to be a preacher for as long as he could remember.
He got started young, by going to different churches and preaching. He got his own church at the age of 5, with the help of his grandmother, Laura Alvarado-Obsorne.
"We decided to turn the garage into a church," Alvarado-Osborne said. "I put stain windows in the garage and pews into the garage. Then he would invite all the neighbors and people would come over and sit down in the pews."
Alvarado-Osborne said while she raised him, it felt more like he raised her.
"He wouldn't even let me watch lifetime," she said. "He wouldn't let me watch anything that had any violence or evil stuff in it, because he said I would bring it into the home, and he was only three years old."
At the time, she was considered herself Catholic, but wasn't very religious.
"It wasn't easy raising him with such knowledge and spiritual knowledge that I didn't have, and I couldn't help him," she said.
Osborne said Boes helped her grow a better relationship with God, being the first of many Boes has helped. Now he has his own church with about 400 members, and no garage in sight.
"I think little five-year-old Chaz is saying you did it, you did it, you did it, but then 31-year-old Chaz is saying, 'You have a long way to go, buddy,'" Boes said.
Boes would like to grow the church even more, with having a home for rehabilitation and a charter school, all while feeding even more people.
Editor's note: The above story has been edited to correct the spelling of Chaz's name.
MORE LOCAL HEADLINES FROM WTOL 11