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The after-school program at Fairview Hills housing project served a turkey dinner Thursday for Thanksgiving.

But Wednesday evening was more the heart of it, said Toni Bilik, director of the Gloria Gates Foundation, which runs the program.

On Wednesday, the kids helped the staff fix mashed potatoes and stuffing, while making placemats and setting tables.

Growing up poor, they tend to be on the receiving end of good works, but Wednesday they learned how it feels to give, Bilik said.

It's a critical lesson for breaking the cycle of poverty, she said.

It's one her boss, Dr. Zane Gates, lives: He started the foundation to run the after-school program at Evergreen Manors family housing project, where he grew up, setting up a system that would give others the benefits he got accidentally when wealthier families showed him kindness and guidance.

This year, Gates, who runs a pair of health clinics, expanded the program to Fairview Hills and next year hopes to expand it to Logan Hills, another family project.

When Gates was young, the concept of public housing was new, and life in a project was bare-bones, especially when it came to academics.

The foundation's after-school programs help kids with homework and teach them crafts - as well as the sports that were part of Gates' life as a kid.

Two Penn State Altoona human development and family studies students who intern with the after-school program and helped serve the dinner Thursday are also living the concept that animates Gates.

"Pay it forward," said Amanda Neff, a junior and the cousin of fellow junior Christina Frantz.

Neff and Frantz are leaders in Perseverance Ambition and the Will to Success, a campus-based organization that helps people in families without a history of post-secondary education to give it a try.

It's a goal that meshes nicely with their work in the after-school program.

Both are the first members of their families to attend college, so they're familiar with the dynamic that they're trying to influence.

Recent Penn State Altoona grad Shannon Beaver founded PAWS, and with the help of staffers like Neff and Frantz and volunteers, the group has shepherded 16 area people into higher education.

They get clients by knocking on doors in places like Fairview Hills - introducing themselves, convincing people they can better their lives, explaining application procedures, touting scholarships, making referrals and nudging, prodding and cheerleading.

They take inspiration from Christina's grandmother - Amanda's aunt - Norma Kenawell of the Altoona area, who took in 32 foster children during her life.

The originator of it all was Norma's mom, Annabelle Neff, a legendary exemplar of community activism, they said.

They want to expand PAWS, make it county-wide, even statewide and nationwide.

They've got younger family members in their orbit already: cousins Allyce, Bailie and Noelle Oakes, who live at Fairview Hills and are participants in the after-school program.

The Oakeses were at Thursday's feast.

So was Eyere Anabui, who moved into Fairview Hills in February, after a fire in her West Chestnut Avenue residence.

Anabui likes the effect of the after-school program on her kids, ages 7 months to 10 years. It keeps the older ones from running the streets, she said. Eight-year-old Terrence likes school better, and his twin sister, Ambiance, reads more, she said.

The feast was nice, said Stephen James, 18, who moved to Fairview Hills from a housing project in Worcester, Mass., several months ago and now attends Penn State Altoona.

It's quiet at Fairview Hills, he said. The Worcester project was "busier," he said.

Not "good" busy, either, he said.