One of the Foothills’ community fall staples is back.
The table is being set for Davisburg Community Hall’s largest fundraising event of the year -- the Davisburg Turkey Supper on Oct. 3.
“It’s really heartwarming to see how people come back to the event and to help out year after year,” said event co-ordinator Diana Froc.
“It’s nice to still have a sense of community. Even though it’s not like normal, it’s still an opportunity to have a common goal and a reason to work together as a community.”
The 2021 supper, similar to last year, will be a tailgate model, with patrons receiving a whole turkey dinner in a box, complete with pie.
“You enter the yard, drive through and get your nicely packaged Thanksgiving meal in a box,” said Froc. “Then you get to decide whether you take it home to enjoy or eat it in the Davisburg yard in your own tailgate area.
“We’re going to have a drive-thru stage so you can enjoy the music, and if you stay at the tailgate you can enjoy the live entertainment.”
In addition to the meal will be a raffle, silent auction, and pie sales.
There will be an increased cap of 600 guests this year.
“(Last year) we sold out quite a bit in advance, and we’ve got the model down pat with the takeaway tailgates, so we know we can handle the additional guests in that different format,” she said.
The event provides a crucial injection of capital for the community hall, which had most of its other bookings stripped away with the pandemic.
“Like all community and rec centres, it’s a tough environment considering our main revenue source is rental income,” Froc said. “So certainly the turkey supper is really important to us to generate some revenue so we can at least almost keep on the neutral side of the balance sheet and keep ahead of operational costs.”
Harry Wiegele, owner of Hansel and Gretel Catering, will be once again donating his time to cook the dinners.
“The turkey dinner is just awesome because people in the community can come out,” Wiegele said. “With all the guidelines and stuff people can follow them and still support it.
“It’s just awesome to be part of it and people still have that small town feel, supporting a little hall like that.”
The pandemic bringing his catering business to a standstill didn’t stop Wiegele from wanting to contribute.
“We’ve been dead since March 14 of last year and couldn’t do any caterings, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to help out in the community," he said.
The caterer, who resides near Davisburg, sees the importance of those little halls.
“We do a lot of weddings and events in those little halls, and it’s just cool, that feeling of how things used to be,” he said.
“We’re fortunate enough to live in the community, and to be able to give back.”
Tickets are $25 per dinner and the event takes place from 1:30-4:30 p.m. Oct. 3. For tickets and info visit davisburg.ca
