Greensmere, WOCRC Christmas cooks

CORKERY – Some spare funds and an assist from the Greensmere Golf and Country Club, and the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre (WOCRC) was able to provide 25 Christmas baskets and dinners to needy senior community members.

The WOCRC’s Heidi Wieler joined Greensmere chief executive officer Debra Griffith and Greensmere executive chef Amanda Beaulieu at the country club Thursday, Dec. 9, day two of two days of cooking a full turkey dinner, putting the baskets together and delivering them with the help of volunteer drivers Kinburn’s Dennis Ladoceur and Vydon Acres’ Peter Shoup.

The WOCRC was granted money to fund food security programs in its very large catchment area. There were funds left over and plans were made.

“Heidi contacted me the week of Thanksgiving, but it was too late to prepare anything,” Griffith told West Carleton Online. “So, we aimed for Christmas, and we did it.”

“We decided to do something special with the funds,” Wieler said. “These will go to seniors who don’t cook. We wanted to spread some cheer and people are really grateful to receive the meals.”

The Greensmere country club has done the cooking for the WOCRC’s West Carleton Diners Club for the last five years and has helped out the WOCRC in a variety of ways.

“We wanted to support our partners and the community, so this is a win-win,” Wieler said.

The diners’ club was felled by COVID-19 in what would have been its 21st year serving the West Carleton senior community, but Wieler hopes the popular seniors outing will return in 2022.