Jessica Osborne is being trained by her father Scott Williston to take over leading the food packing operation for the Chatham Goodfellows. They are seen here with hundreds of large food boxes that were packed at the Spirit & Life Centre in Chatham, Ont. on Tuesday December 18, 2018. Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News/Postmedia Network
Calling on volunteers to pack 1,400 boxes of food might sound like a daunting task, but it goes pretty smoothly for the Chatham Goodfellows.
The local service organization was once again operating like a well-oiled machine on Tuesday on the final day of the campaign as the boxes, filled with food for Christmas dinner and more, were completed by 11:30 a.m.
Another team of volunteers began delivering the food boxes before noon.
For the last 50 years, Scott Williston has been involved in the food packing operation, having been taught by his father Phil, who led the project for several years.
Scott took over for his father in 2002 and now he’s ready to turn the reins over to his daughter Jessica Osborne.
“She’s been trained well, she doesn’t have a choice,” he laughed.
Osborne cautions it’s not going to happen overnight.
“Not soon, he’s going to slowly teach me,” she laughed.
The food packing has been a labour of love for the Williston family as well as a tradition.
“The best thing is all our kids come out, a lot of the grandkids are here, it’s a family affair for us,” Williston said.
“It’s not really Christmas until we do this,” Osborne said.
And her two children, 19 and 16, are already veterans of the food packing, with Osborne stating she used to bring them in their playpen as babies.
“It is definitely a family affair,” she said.
Tim Mifflin, a long-time Goodfellow and past-president, said this year’s No Child Without A Christmas campaign has gone very well.
“The toys went wonderfully,” he said of the 600 boxes that were delivered between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday.
He said the campaign continues to receive great support from the community.
He added a team of dedicated volunteers help not only pack and deliver toys and food, they also come out to take part in the annual porchlight and street sales fundraisers.
“We’re really blessed, everybody comes out and they make it a great event,” Mifflin said.
More than $75,000 in cash was raised this year through the porchlight and street sales campaigns, along with numerous donations of toys.
“This is the 64th year we’ve operated and we’ve never set a budget,” Mifflin said. “We rely upon everyone to be generous and to give what you can, of course, and it’s worked out very well for us.”
Goodfellows president Tim Haskell was sporting a huge smile as the food packing was nearly wrapped up.
“I love it, it’s been a great campaign,” he said.
He added there has been incredible community support once again with the 2,000 or so people who have volunteered their time over the campaign and those who provide donations.
“Everything’s gone very well this year,” Haskell said.
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