The program connected more than 100 international students with about 50 local families and organizations that hosted the students for Thanksgiving dinner Thursday.

Risner said he previously has hosted international students without using an organization. He said his mother was disappointed when he originally didn’t have plans to bring guests to the family’s meal.

“She said it would be a boring old Thanksgiving,” Risner said. “I’ve been like this my whole life, so she expects it now.”

The Gillespie Group came up with the Thanksgiving exchange after it thought up the China Creative Space, a future development aimed to connect Chinese students with entrepreneurial resources and the surrounding community, said Dan Redford, a recent MSU alumnus and the project’s director. Redford graduated from MSU in August with degrees in Chinese and international relations.

Many Chinese and other international students have trouble integrating into American society, he said.

“To exchange in a real American setting is an opportunity that is really exciting to everybody I’ve talked to,” Redford said.

Redford welcomed two international students to his family’s Thanksgiving dinner, who bet turkey legs with him on the Detroit Lions game and helped bring his grandma’s Christmas tree upstairs from the basement.

Chun-yi Peng, an MSU graduate student from Taiwan and a guest at Redford’s dinner, said he knew the history behind the holiday, although he’d never experienced it.

“It’s a lot about food and football,” he said. “We don’t have anything like Thanksgiving in Taiwan.”

Although he has heard a lot about the holiday, it is more valuable actually to participate in the culture, Peng said.

Students often do not get the chance to go out into the Lansing and East Lansing area and interact with Americans, he said.

“Usually we are in school all the time, so we don’t really have the chance to reach out to the local community,” Peng said.

Risner said his co-workers provided enough money and food for about half of the meal. He had to clear out his living and dining rooms to put banquet tables up.

After the students warmed up to the family and surroundings, the group got along well, Risner said.

“After that, they were just like family,” he said.

“I would absolutely do it again.”

International students at MSU often feel unwelcomed by the surrounding community, Redford said. Gillespie Group’s development and future host programs aim to remedy their unease, he said.

“Perception is everything and sometimes the perception is they are not welcome here,” Redford said.

“All it takes is a little innovative thinking to get people to sign up for something.”