By Jack Hutton
The total number of Meals on Wheels prepared by the Bala Bay Takeaway Restaurant in the past year seems staggering. Ken and Tiffany Bol and their hard-working team prepared over 1,400 meals that were delivered by the ten volunteer drivers to Bala, Torrance, Port Sandfield, the Port Carling area and Walker’s Point in 2021.
The exact total delivered during the year, including burgers on one day, was one thousand, four hundred and fifty-seven meals!
If lined up one after the other at the roadside, the white plastic bags would extend from the Takeaway Restaurant all the way up River Street to Bala’s Museum.
It is only when we look back at a full year that we realize the significance of what Bala and area Meals on Wheels means to families looking for our support.
It was an honour to deliver to every family and individual on our list, but we felt especially honoured when Andy’s House asked to be included. The first deliveries were for family members who were allowed to visit their kin at the hospice centre and needed a meal while they were there. More recently one of the patients called with a request to be included. That had never happened before.
At the beginning of the year we extended our delivery to Port Carling after a hand-out to every mail box in the village revealed a real need for Meals on Wheels. That was made possible through generous support from the Harry Debes Family Foundation. We would like to thank them and also convey our sympathies for the passing of Harry Debes on August 25th.
We would also like to thank the Trinity All-Saints Anglican Church in Bala for generously paying for all the meals delivered on the anniversary date of the first delivering of Bala Meals on Wheels in June, 1984.
This overview would be incomplete without also paying tribute to a Bala resident who made the first delivering of our Meals on Wheels possible in 1984 by donating more than $3,000 to our program. Ed Nation, who died on December 2nd, was the co-owner of Roselawn Lodge in 1984 and donated the entire profits from a prime rib roast of beef dinner at his dining lodge to make the first MOW delivery possible.
The first provincial grants to support Bala Meals on Wheels were late in arriving, and we shall always be grateful to Ed and his wife Beverley for coming to our rescue.
Finally, we must say thank you to all those who delivered 1,457 meals during the past year through sun, rain, snow and sleet. Listed alphabetically: they are Ron Algate, Brad Burgess, Marg Durnford, Sandra Ford, Jack Hutton, Linda Hutton, Dave Macintosh, Ruth Nishikawa, John Robus, Allan Turnbull.
Contact Bala Meals on Wheels on Facebook to donate or volunteer.