Darrington restaurant serves 150 free Thanksgiving Day meals

Published 1:30 am Thursday, November 24, 2016

DARRINGTON — The town has been good to the Hawks Nest since it opened in April.

So the owners of the sports-themed restaurant and bar showed their gratitude to the people of Darrington with a free Thanksgiving meal.

“They have been supporting the restaurant really well and they’re real salt-of-the-earth-type people,” Ron Newman said. “It’s our chance to give back to them.”

His business partner, Dave North, greeted patrons Thursday.

“Whatever you want today, it’s all on us,” North said.

About 150 people stopped in. Among them were two retired couples who settled in a booth over plates of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing. They were all planning family get-togethers later in the week, having opted to wait out the traffic.

“Our family lives down in Sumner,” said Joan Kastning, a former swim teacher and school-bus driver. “Some of them have to work on Friday. So we’re going to join them on Saturday. We’re going to join our friends we’ve had for 50 years. They have the same circumstances, with their family hither, thither and yon.”

For her husband, retired Darrington High School art teacher Marvin Kastning, the meal was “a sign of how this community really works together.”

Sitting across from them were long-time friends Sandi and Merle McCaulley: she’s a Methodist pastor who worked in human resources and he’s a former logger who used to be the town’s water specialist.

Doug and Martina Peterson, after their meal, said they love their home in Darrington, where each window looks out toward a different mountain. It’s been three years since the retirees arrived from Arlington.

“I’m thankful that we’re living up here, and not down in the rat race or the grind, however you want to put it,” he said.

Randy Orsborn, the kitchen manager at the Hawks Nest, didn’t hesitate to work Thanksgiving, even if it meant his wife and daughter would have to visit him at work for the holiday. Big and bearded with multiple piercings, Orsborn was eager to serve a community that had embraced him as a newcomer when he wasn’t sure he’d fit in. In high school, others made sure he had money to play sports, knowing his family was struggling financially.

“Like I said, the community did a lot for me,” he said. “They looked after me, they accepted me. This is an opportunity to give back the love.”

Julie DeYoung’s father, Kermit Cook, built the restaurant back in the 1980s. The business has changed hands several times since.

DeYoung remembered when, as a teen, she had to work for her dad on Thanksgiving and Christmas days, serving free meals in the restaurant much as the Hawks Nest was doing Thursday. She resisted at first, then came to cherish the experience as she witnessed its impact.

“We did that every year,” she said. “We watched people who had no family, who were very downtrodden.”

The pull of nostalgia wasn’t the only reason she came. DeYoung lost her husband in February. Bob DeYoung, who died of a heart attack at age 50, is regarded as a hero in town. He volunteered countless hours of labor as well as logging equipment to help with search efforts in the aftermath of the deadly mudslide near Oso in 2014.

“This is a hard time of year for a lot of people,” she said.

DeYoung wasn’t teary as she enjoyed the day with her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend, who had driven up from Gig Harbor. She felt strong.

“I’m thankful to God for the strength to keep going every day and be happy,” she said. “I’m not just going, I’m at peace. Every day, I choose joy.”

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.