Team Awesome did it again, Mmmm good!

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Team Awesome served more than 200 people at this year’s free Christmas Dinner Take-out on Cortes Island. That’s 50% less than last year. Given the sub zero temperatures and slippery snow covered roads, the organizers were surprised that so many showed up.

In the thank-you, which Noah Davison and Izabelle Perry posted in the Tideline, “We were so touched by all the neighbours and friends that helped each other pick up and deliver meals. It was such a heartwarming and joyful sight to see!”

The Christmas day take-out was primarily financed by Whaletown Community Club, through a BC Community Gaming Grant, but the special touches are only possible because of donations of time, food and money from members of the community.

The long thank-you list includes:

Billie, Dova, Peter Jackel, Lovena and Ryan Harvey for peeling carrots and potatoes;
De Clarke for the turkey deboning marathon
Kelly for picking 250 beautiful sprigs of rosemary.
Amanda and her family for baking and decorating 405 cookies
Wayne Cruickshanks for stepping in and doing SO many dishes!
Shiva for decorating all the desert bags, help with dishes and setting up the distribution station in Whaletown.
Becky and Scoot Knutsen for donating 50 lbs of potatoes.
Jim Kearney for helping with the delivery and dispensing of meals in Mansons Landing
Wayne Roberts for helping with traffic and meal distribution at the Manson’s Hall.

Davidson and Perry also thanked all their suppliers:
Bill and Tammy, Aynsley, Abi, Joel and all the Gorge Store staff (also the Floathouse Restaurant)
Johnny and the Mainroad crew for plowing the Hall parking lots and road
Sara of Wildflower Produce at Reef Point Farm for the delicious, local produce.
Farhad of Fungisle for the locally grown king oyster and lion’s mane mushrooms for our veg stuffing.

“We would call it a success mostly because we learned from our mistakes last year. And also because we were able to get help from a few volunteers this year at went a lot smoother. We also didn't have to spend a day and a half peeling potatoes because we had people helping us,” Perry told Cortes Currents. “Last year was quite the endeavour. We had more food to prep and we didn't accept any volunteer help because of our plan to have only one household preparing the whole meal.”

In addition to accepting to more volunteer help, this Christmas Team Awesome opted to serve meals cold - which eliminated the stress of trying to get them into people’s hands while still hot.

“This year, we were ready ahead of time and the delivery time was a lot shorter, which meant that there was no traffic jam. Also we benefited from dividing up the pickup locations this year: one at Madisons Hall and one at Gorge Hall,” said Perry.

In the Tideline, she wrote:

“An enormous thank you goes out to Bernice (McGowan) and Howie (Roman) for answering my phone call on Christmas Day! Thank you to Sean (Coyote) for going to collect the Hall keys and saving Christmas Dinner distribution in Whaletown. It’s a minor oversight to let Noah drive away to Manson’s with all the keys and lock us out of the Gorge Hall.”

Returning home after it was all over, she and Noah found an anonymous thank-you hanging from their back gate - a bottle of wine.