Broadview -
On October 18, hundreds of people showed up at the Broadview Community Centre to raise money for a worthy cause, and stuff themselves silly at the same time.
Broadview's annual Community Fall Supper went off without a hitch, featuring close to 500 guests who enjoyed freshly made ham, roast beef and a myriad of desserts, including a diabetic section.
The event, the twelfth of its kind, is a fundraiser that goes towards various projects within the community of Broadview.
Organizer Shirley Larter is pleased with the continuing support of the community towards the annual event.
"When you're preparing supper for 500 people, that's really good," Larter said. "I'm very happy with it - we had lots of food and everyone seemed to think it was good - I haven't heard any complaints so far."
The meat products are purchased through the Community Supper Fund, but the rest, including veggies, dessert and cooking, requires the support of Broadview as a whole.
"We contact pretty much all of the community, and say to them, 'Would you make us a dessert?' or 'Would you cook us ten pounds of potatoes?' and they do - they're all very co-operative," Larter said.
"I can't say it's any particular organization, other than the Broadview Community Supper Committee - and that involves the whole town," she laughed.
The profits for this year's events have yet to be tallied, but usually run somewhere around $2,500 to $3,000 per year. The funds go towards a variety of different projects, which sometimes cost more than the event brings in. One such investment was a $5,000 food table purchased recently for the Community Hall.
"So although we want to tell people where it's going to go, sometimes you have to save up a little, too," Larter said. "Then if there's something bigger that we have to do in the hall, and it takes more than one year's profit, than we have a little bit of a cushion there to do that with."
Past funds have gone towards the purchase of new drapes, kitchen appliances and utensils, and paving the Community Centre parking lot.
The 2008 profits went towards the purchase of an additional 50 chairs for the Community Centre, as well as a 100 cup coffee pot and utensils.
Larter took a moment before the supper to show her appreciation to everyone who showed their support this year.
"Thank you to all of you for your donations of money, cooking and baking, working and supporting, even just by attending and being here tonight, because you are the ones that make all of this possible."
The supper has come a long way since its first year, which was largely experimental. Organizers thought that it might be a total loss when, just two days before the supper, only 48 tickets had been sold. The group was wondering what on earth they were going to do with the twenty or so turkeys they had thawed out for the day.
"I thought, 'Well, I guess we have no choice, we'll have to go ahead and prepare it anyway,' and I think it was 525 people that we served," Larter laughed. "So in the twelve years, people have learned to buy their advance tickets."
This year, only 20 guests purchased their tickets at the door.
Although many of the initial kinks have been worked out over the years, Larter says she and the rest of the planners are still open to new ideas. "You can't do anything perfectly, and there are always new ways to do things - so we never mind suggestions, that's for sure.
"What we try to do is get together and have what we call an evaluation meeting. If we've heard of different suggestions, or something went terribly wrong, or ways we can improve, we make notes and then say, 'Okay, we'll do this next year.'"
The Fall Supper has raised money not only for the Community Centre, but for numerous Broadview projects including $1,000 to the skating rink, $1,000 to the curling club, $1,000 to the transit bus, $500 to the Centennial Committee and $1,000 to the library.
Overall, Larter is happy with the way things have gone.
"It was another successful event, and we look forward to next year."
