By mid afternoon the Eagles Hall in Campbell River was set to host a Christmas dinner for 100, but back in the kitchen volunteers were still busy carving turkey after turkey to make it a special night.
“I think this is number five. I lost track in all the excitement here,” said volunteer Rob Grant.
And the turkeys kept on coming, four at a time out of the hall’s large ovens, 19 turkeys in total.
It was all part of a big effort to serve 100 Christmas dinners at the hall Thursday evening and to make another 100 meals for delivery in the community.
“A big, big piece that’s missing in a lot of communities is that the people who need it most are often house-bound,” said Caremongering Campbell River founder Tara Jordan. “They have mobility struggles, they have transportation barriers and so one of the things we’ve done over the last few months is do our best to get those meals right to those people’s homes.”
Caremongering is organizing the dinner, and all the food is being donated by another local group called Women for Women.
The hall and kitchen were donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles #3097.
“Yesterday we had four people come in and all they did was peel potatoes and carrots, enough for 200 people,” said Marlene Jordan who is a member of the Eagles and a Caremongering volunteer.
“This is like a big family. We make the food and prep the food and pack the food and a lot of us deliver the food out to some families and there’s a lot of gratitude,” said Eagles member and Caremongering volunteer Jennifer Antonic.
Henry and Michelle Albrecht delivered many of the meals this evening.
“People are so gracious, they just can’t thank you enough,” said Henry. “It means so much to them and in light of the recent lay off at Myra Falls here I think we’re going to have more expectations on our community for this kind of stuff and services. We actually had to turn a few people away today.”
Many hands makes light work and that’s what happened Thursday to give Christmas to dozens of people who wouldn’t have one otherwise.
“At this time of year and every time of year there are families in our community, every community that have more struggles and difficulties than some people can even imagine so we’re doing what we can, when we can, how we can just to help out,” added Jordan.
Dean Stoltz
