An anonymous donor recently walked into Harvest Market and gave $10,000 to the Fort Bragg Food Bank. Harvest owner Tom Honer delivered the check last week.
At the Christmas season, this kind of amazing gift does happen, but never ceases to impress and surprise the receivers.
“The absolute beauty of the “spontaneous things” as you call them is that they are so personal and heartfelt. And they all add up to make a difference,” said Food Bank Executive Director Nancy Severy.
This year one big surprise was a spontaneous event- a walk/run on the Haul Road.
Every year for the past 20 years, a group of family and friends from the Sierra Nevada foothills has made a trip to the Mendocino Coast to enjoy Thanksgiving at MacKerricher State Park. Like many others, they need to work off dinner and the group takes a big walk-run on the Haul Road every year.
This year, they turned family event into fun and funds for their annually adopted hometown. Attorney Kevin Wooden, who joined the annual group sojurn when he got married six years ago, read about all the good the Fort Bragg Food Bank does. He was impressed by the Food Bank’s website, which contains extensive e financial information about where the money goes.
Thus, the first annual Turkey Trot was born. The event was a fun run/walk with both a 5K and 10K distance along the old Haul Road starting out from Lake Cleone in MacKerricher Park. More than 100 runners participated and the first Turkey Trot brought 207 pounds of food donations and $500 dollars, which was all delivered to the Fort Bragg Food Bank last week.
“Our reasons for starting the Turkey Trot are pretty simple. We come to Fort Bragg every year for Thanksgiving and really enjoy our time here and we thought this would be a great way for our group to have fun and give back to the community. We usually get together a group of family for a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving but this year decided to try to make it a community event and also use it as an opportunity to support the Local Food Bank,” said Wooden, of Penryn.
“We come with a group of friends – consisting of several different large families, some of which have been coming to Fort Bragg for Thanksgiving for even longer and some are new to the tradition…. This year we had a bigger group than average – I would guess somewhere around 30 people and a bunch of kids as well,” said Wooden.
“I thought that an event on Thanksgiving would make good use of the spirit of giving of this time of year and help Fort Bragg Food Bank collect needed food for the holiday season,” he said.
The joy of spontaneous and organized giving at the Christmas season involves lots of people, businesses and organizations. There are dozens of people who show up and drop by and leave off donations of food, toys or money at the Food Bank, often anonymously.
Every year a very fancy event is held by the Mendocino Do Gooders club, with invites going out to those who have been generous in the past. The group almost never seeks any publicity and in fact turned this reporter away one year.
A decade ago, Carpet Cleaner Dwain Ray started the Turkey Challenge, in which he would buy a turkey to match those purchased by the community. This year the matching funders are: Team Insurance and Financial Service, Mendocino Coast European Auto, Paul & Barbara Clark (Century 21 Real Estate), Savings Bank of Mendocino County and Hawthorne Global. Together they put up $6,000 in matching funds.
“So far the donations to be matched have been coming in at a good rate, and while the season isn’t over yet, we anticipate all the matching funds to be used up. This is such a totally wonderful community endeavor, the generosity just multiplies,” Severy said.
The giving is great but the need continues to grow.. The Fort Bragg Food Bank served 779 client families Thanksgiving week – the greatest number ever served. Clients had a choice of a whole turkey, a ham or chicken. “Thanks to warehouse manager, Jim DiMauro, everything ran smoothly and the waiting line never got too long. Lots of cheerful faces – lots of thanks!” said Severy.
Season of Sharing
Since the 1996 holiday season, the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon have raised $322,484 for the Food Bank through the Season of Sharing fund drive. Since 1999, the nonprofit Community Foundation of Mendocino County has administered the drive as a courtesy to the newspapers, which means that every penny donated to the Season of Sharing goes directly to the Food Bank.
“There are many dozens of nonprofit organizations in our area, all very worthy of support, but the Food Bank addresses the most basic problem facing hundreds of individuals and families — hunger,” said Publisher Sharon DiMauro. “The goal is to give the Food Bank money it can use year-round, not just during the holidays. It doesn’t matter a bit whether a person contributes through our fundraiser or directly to the Food Bank, the main thing is to contribute — and if you’re able, to give year-round.”
How to donate
• By check: Make check payable to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC) and mail or deliver to the Advocate-News, 450 N. Franklin St., Fort Bragg 95437.
• By credit card: Pay via CFMC’s website, www.communityfound.org, and click on the Season of Sharing image.
The names of donors who contribute through the newspapers will be printed each week, unless they ask to remain anonymous. The drive runs through Dec. 31.
The total raised so far is $851, thanks to this week’s donors: Anonymous, Mendocino Coast Gem and Mineral Society, Barbara Prichard, Marion Nelson, Patricia Sinkay and J.I. Gertler.
If you have any questions, please call the newspaper at 707-964-5642.
