PLEASED, impassioned and perhaps most of all proud of the Coffs Harbour community’s willingness to give in support of others, Doris (Cowan) and David Wake who organised the Community Christmas Luncheon are saying a huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone who made it all happen.

Numerous people across Coffs Harbour donated food, money, their time, gifts, equipment and locations for others to have a companionable Christmas Day.

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For some, Christmas Day can be a bit of a struggle for whatever reason and Doris and David have experienced how the local community cares for these people, making sure they have a cheery, festive get-together.

Multiple fundraisers throughout the year made the event possible, kicking off with a Christmas In July event for businesses of the Coffs Coast who spent well at the silent auction.

The gifts for this were donated by the community, both individuals and businesses.

Fundraising appearances at Harbourside Markets were made possible through the stalls being kindly provided by Kim Downer from The Happy Frog cafe, who helped continuously throughout the year and provided the vegetarian meals for the Community Christmas Luncheon.

There were raffles, networking and media coverage to promote and support the event.

Held at the Cavanbah Hall, the hire fees were kindly paid for through City of Coffs Harbour funds.

In the last few weeks leading up to the event Doris and David were overwhelmed by the response from both donors and volunteers.

“People came out of the woodwork to make sure participants were able to put aside their worries from the hardships faced throughout the year and enjoy a nice Christmas gathering,” Doris told News Of The Area.

There was ample food, including starters of pizza on arrival that were kindly donated and delivered by Toormina Domino’s Pizza.

Coffs’ Big Country Meats made the generous donation of 25kg of pork which they cooked and sliced ready for pick-up on Christmas Eve.

The hams were once again donated by Coffs Ex-Services Club and also Baringa Hospital thanks to Jo Brown.
Most of the fresh produce was donated by Fresco.

Bananacoast Hotbake donated the bread rolls as they did in 2021 and the accompanying butter portions plus other accoutrements were supplied by Provedores thanks to connections through Spare Chef Catering, who also helped with storage and refrigeration of deliveries.

These connections also pointed Doris in the right direction to obtain a cool room on wheels from Ric Gianoli’s son via the Seaview Tavern in Woolgoolga.

For the desserts a local disability group home cooked with carers as their contribution for the attendance of residents and their clients.

This was close to Doris’ heart as she previously worked with some of these clients as their personal trainer and was excited to see them attend.

This amazing donation of food supplies meant that Doris then had to conduct a search for volunteers to give up their Christmas Eve day to prepare not only for the 180-plus guests on Christmas Day, but also for an order of 50 takeaway meals on Christmas Eve for New Horizons clients.

The New Horizons team read the article in News Of The Area for the Christmas In July event and rang Doris to donate all the children’s Christmas presents and also non-perishable foods so Doris was more than happy to give back to the wonderful service who assisted her when she faced her own mental illness issues only a few years ago.

A dozen volunteers from all walks of life came together to help Doris with the mammoth task on Christmas Eve including chef’s, visitors to Coffs, last year’s volunteers, the Newling brothers added a new recruit, Lindsay and assisted on both days to coordinate the kitchen duties.

“Nikola McWilliam, a mother and her three amazing children, Olivia, Lachlan and Alexander were eager to help with both the take-away meal packing and decorating the lids of the meals with beautiful messages to brighten the day of the clients who received the front door deliveries,” said Doris.

While busy preparing in the Community Village kindly donated by Co-ordinator at Coffs Harbour Neighbourhood Centre, Anna Joy, who also supplied this venue for fundraising events throughout the year, Phillipa Smith, a former co-worker of Doris’ arrived with many gift packs for both male and female adults as well as children and infants.

“When I spoke to Phillipa Smith’s partner about the time spent on these gifts he informed me that Phillipa started these packs back in May and decided to then donate them to my event.

“What an amazing lady,” said Doris.

In the spirit of unconditional giving, the Coffs Harbour community gave its all on Christmas Day and are thanked from the bottom of Doris and David Wake’s hearts.

By Andrea FERRARI