Given that the Kenyon Presbyterian Church in Dunvegan has one planned for just around the corner, I decided to start this week’s column day by Googling “history of church fundraising suppers.” As I scrolled down the list of 1,600,000 search results, a book entitled The History of the Willow United Methodist Church: 1860-2010 caught my eye. In 1926, after much discussion about biblical Money Lenders and WWJD, they organized a Fall Festival, with an auction held on the church steps, of items donated by the congregation. The festival also included a sit-down fried chicken luncheon with mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed peas, cabbage salad, buns & butter and pie… all for a 35¢; children 20¢.
In the case of Willow United, the Fried Chicken meal began to supplant the other fall festival activities. By 1946, the festival was cancelled for good and the fundraiser morphed into a “church supper.” The event mushroomed in popularity until, in 1965, over five inches of rain fell the day before the event and flooded the church basement where it was being held. While the firefighters pumped out what they could, the subterranean hall was still inundated with water. But this didn’t prevent 500 diners showing up for fried chicken, which the Ladies Aid Society stoically served while wearing rubber boots.
However, this soggy church supper proved to be the end of Willow United’s Fried Chicken fundraiser. The event was too popular and the volunteers were burned out. The church did try introducing a “foodless” supper where folks were asked to contribute what they would have spent on the meal. But I gather it went over like a lead balloon as it was discontinued after just two years.
Luckily for us, community suppers are still going strong in Dunvegan. Although, before the Dunvegan church hall was completed in 1990, the Kenyon Women’s Association, (formerly called the Ladies’ Aid) had a tougher time hosting them than today. They had to use the Orange Hall (now known as the DRA Hall) where, at the time, no dishes or cutlery were kept. Everything had to be brought in. The Orange Hall was also used for any other church functions that included food, such as minister inductions and post-funeral refreshments. However, luncheons after funerals were few and far between, because they were usually held in the home of the bereaved family.
Like Willow United, in the early years Dunvegan’s Ladies’ Aid group started off hosting chicken suppers, usually held in the fall. The food for the meal would be canvassed for within the church’s districts. And each family would bring the supplies they had signed up for — chickens, vegetables, pies, dishes, and cutlery — to the Orange Hall. In later years, before the church hall was built, turkey took the place of chicken. Those are the suppers I remember with such fondness. (They rounded out the turkey-triumvirate perfectly: Church Supper, Thanksgiving and Christmas.)
Luckily for us, the ladies of the Kenyon Presbyterian Church Women’s Association continue to hold their serving ladles high… bringing us their Spring Breakfast and the upcoming old-fashioned Ham Supper year in and year out.
The 2016 Ham Supper is scheduled for next Saturday, May 14th from 4:30 to 7:00 PM. The cost for the impressive buffet is only $15 per person. Tickets for children ages 5 to 12 are just $6 and youngsters under 5 are free. Have a shut-in friend or relative? Take-out meals will be available.
What’s for dinner? I’m told the buffet will feature: heaps of ham, scalloped potatoes, vegetables, baked beans, jelly salads, fresh rolls, an assortment of homemade desserts, tea and coffee. The food and fellowship is worth every penny. Moreover, the proceeds go to a very good cause. The Kenyon Women’s Association plays a key role in the upkeep and repair of church buildings, as well as related church and community activities. So please show your support. The event’s organizers wanted me to remind you that everyone is welcome to attend this community-building event.
Tale with a “tail”
I really enjoy it when readers take the time to respond to my column… if for no other reason than as proof there are still at least one or two folks out there who read it. For example, on April 27th, the Dunvegan column included a story about itinerant carpenter and stone mason, Allen Prebble from Moose Creek.
Lo and behold, a few days later I received an e-mail from Will Robertson of Martintown. While home from university, Will had the pleasure of working for Allen during the summer of 1968. I’ll let Will tell you the rest, in his own words…
“The crew — Sheldon Robertson (my cousin), Ed McDonald, Frank (don’t recall Frank’s last name), and I — spent most of that summer re-building a barn on the Surprenant farm between Moose Creek and Casselman. Thanks to Allen, I learned carpentry and how to mix cement. All for $50 a week.”
Always curious, I asked Will for a few more details. He told me that, back then, he and his cousin were in their early 20s and were going into their second year of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Algonquin College. Frank and Ed, on the other hand, were middle-aged at the time. “Allen didn’t have a driver’s license. So we all piled into Ed’s truck to go to work,” recalls Will. (Seatbelts be damned.) Allen was always one for finding work-around solutions.
Bridge & Euchre Reminder
Please don’t forget that this coming Saturday, May 14th the Martintown Goodtimers are hosting a “Bridge Luncheon” fundraiser in the Martintown Community Centre, 4850 Apple Hill Road.
Lunch will get underway at 11:30 and the card games beginning at 12:30. In addition to Duplicate Bridge organized by the Martintown Bridge Club, there will also be tables for Party Bridge and Euchre. Tickets are only $10.00 per person and are available in advance by contacting Jane at 613-932-7019 or Denise at 613-361-7775… or by making a reservation on-line at the group’s web site: martintowngoodtimers.wordpress.com.
My wife, Terry, and a number of her friends are members. And, this month, they will be the ones preparing the food and serving the tea and coffee at the bridge luncheon event. So I urge you to support them.
DRA Euchre on the 20th
If you can’t make it to Martintown for Euchre, I sure hope you’ll make it out to the Dunvegan Euchre Luncheon. In just ten days from now, on May 20th, we’ll be hosting a euchre luncheon and tournament of our own. Admission is only $5 and includes one of the best light lunch buffets in the euchre-sphere. As an added bonus, Linda Burgess, assisted by yours truly, will serve the luncheon. A 50/50 draw is also part of the fun. Held in the DRA Hall at 19053 County Road 24, the event starts at 12:00 noon and wraps up around 3:00 PM. Everyone is welcome.
A “Historic” Countdown
The Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s official opening on the Victoria Day long weekend is only a week or so away. I’ll give you a much more in-depth look at what’s in store next week, but I wanted to urge you to set aside some time to drop in. The museum will be open from Saturday through Monday, 10 AM – 5 PM each day and will feature a new exhibit in the Orange Lodge called “Cultivating the Wilds of Glengarry.” It features primitive agricultural tools from their collection and give visitors an overview of the backbreaking work to clear and cultivate the land, right through to harvest time. For more information, visit GlengarryPioneerMuseum.ca.
Tourists… Push vs. Pull
I always had reservations about the Counties support of the Cornwall & Counties Tourism agency and if a recent story in the Seaway News is any indication (Tourism Agency Could Disappear — April 28, 2016) the Counties may be coming around to my way of thinking. SD&G’s contribution is now up to $80,000. And I doubt few, if any, tourists that pass through Cornwall ever venture north of the 401. Heck, I’ve done mother-in-law surveys of Cornwall residents and a scant number of them have been able to tell me where Maxville is… let alone Dunvegan. And this has included Cornwall merchants. You’d think they would take the time to learn a bit about the region from where their paying customers come.
In my opinion this $80,000 would be much better spent at a LOCAL level. In our case, priority one might be to move the Invisible Tourist Booth from the middle of Maxville to a much more prominent location… at the north entrance to the 417 Esso outlet, for example. Done as a joint venture between Maxville and the Glengarry Pioneer Museum, it would be interesting to see if this location, with its high traffic flow, would help “push” tourists down the road to Dunvegan and Maxville… as opposed to trying to “pull” people into Maxville to visit a tourist information booth that they didn’t even know existed, until they drove past it.
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