MONROE — Neil Watkins is accustomed to pleasant surprises. As executive director of the Sky Valley Food Bank, people often call with offers of donations.
Even so, one call was different. He said he vividly remembers his reaction to getting a call two years ago from John Canada, owner of Emerald City Athletic Club.
After putting down the phone, Watkins said he could only smile and think: “Ding! Ding! Ding!”
He drove over to meet Canada and seal the deal. “He’s a special guy,” Watkins said.
What Canada proposed was a different kind of food drive. Every member who brought in a canned item was given a “fitness dollar.”
Meanwhile, Canada solicited donations from area businesses, everything from free haircuts and oil changes to Seahawks and Mariners tickets, TVs and cameras.
At the end of the food drive, there was a party for donors, with the donated prizes auctioned off and paid for with fitness dollars.
“The members get to walk out with cool prizes and we get to give food to people who need some help,” Canada said. “It brings everybody closer together.”
The drive has now been completed two times. The most recent was just before Christmas, and it generated nearly 9,000 pounds of donated food.
“It just grows and grows and you build all this momentum,” Canada said.
Katie Earl, who lives in Monroe, was one of the club members who took a special interest in the food drive. She posted a notice of the food drive on local online garage sale sites.
“People were coming to my house with cans of food, knowing it was going to be given to Sky Valley,” she said. “I met so many people in the community who were helping me do this.”
That included a coffee shop and medical office. Some people met her in Emerald City’s parking lot to make donations. Her husband sometimes would come home to find a box of food at the front door.
Earl figures that all these efforts netted about 1,000 pounds of donated food.
“It was definitely not just me,” she said. “It as the community helping me. It was really very cool.”
At Emerald City, food was stacked so deeply in the lobby that it became a little tough to walk through it, Canada said. Staff members boxed it up and stacked it.
“Fortunately, we’re in the fitness business,” he said.
On Dec. 22 food bank workers came to pick up the food.
“Seeing them filling the trucks just makes you feel good,” Canada said.
Still, Canada’s not quite satisfied. Asked if he had a goal for the coming year, he said he’d like to see double the amount of food collected in December.
“I’d really like to do 20,000 pounds of food,” he said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
