If Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess had things their way, I wouldn’t have known about their visit to All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Pontiac Monday evening, just like the rest of the media.

It was quite the covert operation those two put together. It began earlier in the month when they approached the Pistons community relations staff looking for a way to help families put Thanksgiving dinner on the table.

The Pistons CR staff contacted one of their longtime community partners, Lighthouse of Oakland County - which happened to have a two-day distribution of groceries to families in need Monday and Tuesday - and offered their two volunteers.

“How do you say no to that?” said Kris Nord, a Lighthouse seasonal staff member and former coordinator of the Thanksgiving grocery program, which provides all the essentials to a complete Thanksgiving Day meal – including the turkey – to approximately 850 families, or 4,000 individuals, each year.

Nord called about 50 families and seniors to let them know the Pistons would be coming and that they could change their scheduled pick-up time to see them. Nord remembered calling an elderly woman who had trouble breathing and a weakening voice. Nord heard the woman yelling, "Two Pistons are going to be there!" after she thought Nord had hung up the phone.

Outside of Pistons and Lighthouse staff, Lighthouse clients were the only ones who knew. At All Saints’, there was no indication the Pistons would be there except the red, white and blue balloons next to the tables.

Shortly after 5 p.m. the duo arrived. We know NBA athletes make a lot of money and live pretty comfortable lives, but both players had just spent nine days living in a hotel room. And both had suffered injuries that kept them off the court for a while. On an overcast, chilly Michigan evening, I would not have faulted them if they had said they'd come another time. Perhaps after a night in their own bed.

But from the moment they walked through the door, a herd of youngsters, no older than 12, followed. It made it hard for them to actually take the food to the parking lot, but McDyess managed a few trips. “I’ll be back,” he said to one woman as he rolled a dolly with a box of food to someone’s car. The woman remarked at what a nice smile he had.

Deliver a bag of groceries, pose for a picture, sign an autograph – the cycle continued until all the Lighthouse clients had picked up their food. I assumed the forty-minute frenzy was the craziest time during the distribution period. I was corrected. “You should see the place at 9 a.m. Monday,” Nord said. “Everyone thinks we’re going to run out of food.”

Lighthouse clients are approved on need-based criteria and receive a scheduled pick-up time for their groceries, which, Nord said, is meant to give them a chance to make Thanksgiving dinner at home – a self-sufficient alternative to a soup kitchen. It’s likely the same amount of groceries would have been distributed had the Pistons not been there. And yet their impact runs deeper than a few autographs for kids who could never see a Pistons game in person.

“There’s a real opportunity for people to see athletes like this help out, it gets people to think, ‘Maybe I can contribute, too,’” said John Ziraldo, president and CEO of Lighthouse of Oakland County. “It sets a great example.”

You should not have been able to read this article. But now that you have, how do you feel about doing something else?

Check out these related links: Lighthouse of Oakland County | Seats for Soldiers | "Good Hands, Warm Hands" Mitten Drive