Neither COVID, nor snow, not even a major power outage could stop the team of volunteers from preparing and delivering a record 720 meals to homes across the Comox Valley - the most ever served in the 40 years of the Earl Naswell Community Christmas Dinner.
“Everything that could go wrong did this year, but we still managed to get all the meals out, so we are pretty happy,” said co-ordinator Rob James after the last of the deliveries went out. “We start with COVID, then we had the blizzard, then the power outage; the streets were undriveable for a lot of people so we lost about half of our scheduled volunteers, and even some of our delivery drivers… so we had many complications this year.”
The longstanding Christmas tradition began in 1982, when Earl Naswell went door-to-door to local businesses, asking for help to provide a Christmas dinner for himself and about a dozen friends who were, in Naswell’s words, “a bit down on their luck.”
The Comox Valley business community responded in droves, and a tradition was born. Thirty-nine years later, it’s still going strong, although COVID has forced a few alterations.
The traditional sit-down meal was forced to change last year, due to the pandemic. The delivery-style program, which was adopted in 2020, was used again in 2021, and James said that’s the main reason for the increase in numbers.
“Last year was 625 and we were up almost 20 per cent this year,” said James. “Places like Maple Pool Campground, the Connect Centre, Travelodge, they all took more, as much as 30-40 per cent.”
The kitchen crew has the process down to a science, with the 44 donated turkeys being cooked on Dec. 23, and much of Christmas Eve devoted to prepping the veg - not easy to do in the dark. The power outage put everything back about four hours, and also created a staffing issue, as many of the volunteers who had put aside the morning to help, were not available in the afternoon.
“We just didn’t know what was going to happen,” said James. “We dropped everything off, but we weren’t allowed to stay, so I was just sitting at home, twiddling my thumbs. We got a phone call that we could come back in at 2 p.m., but then it was a mad rush to find volunteers because we had a lot of people who committed to a few hours in the morning, but of course, had other commitments in the afternoon.”
James put the call out on Facebook and a few new faces showed up to help out.
“We were here until 9 p.m. (Dec. 24) just to make sure we had it at a manageable level for today,” he said.
Mark R. Isfeld teacher Jouska Lockquell rallied the students once again to design 700+ bags with Christmas themes, which were used as the delivery bags.
“Jouska was such a great help this year,” said James. “She and her husband and son did so much volunteering and then did three big drop-offs for us as well.”
James said the fact that the dinner came together despite so many complications is a testament to the spirit of the Comox Valley community.
“Everybody helps out so much to make this a success every year,” he said. “Definitely more challenges this year, but we got through it. Thanks to all the businesses and volunteers who helped out once again.”
terry.farrell@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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