Fun Seekers, Clue #4

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AN ACT OF KINDNESS FINDS FRIENDSHIP AND MEMBERSHIP

The Fun Seekers Team faced a challenge with meeting up for the scavenger hunt this August-Sept 2022. One member with a broken wrist and not driving, another with a recent knee operation and not driving and another member with a full calendar preparing for the fall fair.
But on September 1st, 3 team members, Jane, Adele and Pam heading out to celebrate Adele's 79th birthday, decided that, if possible, we would look to find and seize the opportunity to 'Play and Pay it Forward'.

We discussed what area and what venue might provide a better chance of finding a candidate/recipient who might be interested and want to play. Our 1st choice, in urban Kanata, Via Marzo, we chose it for the great coffee and decadent desserts which would meet the birthday part of our outing, but would we find someone willing to play? The day was young and the weather beautiful and we decided to take a chance. No luck because 1st choice venue was closed and so unto the 2nd and we headed to the rural village of Carp to Alice's Café. We were more confident that the clientele was more likely the type who might be willing to play and may even be familiar with WI, after all this was in our backyard.

Mulling over different scenarios as to how we would execute the game, we arrived at Alice's café to find that it had closed 10 minutes earlier. At this point we all burst into laughter. Could you believe this? should we look for a black cloud? We decided that 3rd would be the charm and headed to The Carp Bakery one street over. Parked the car in front of the bakery and soon realized that it looked rather quiet. There was a notice on the door advising that they were closed for holidays. Oh, my goodness, 3 stops, the afternoon was passing, and we still did not get a coffee let alone a piece of cake. What to do now? We figured that we had exhausted the village's list of eateries.
Well, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So, we decided that the main drag on March Road where we started surely would have a café open or as a last resort a Tim's. And as we headed out of town, we suddenly noticed a café-like establishment with benches on the veranda, more important to note that there were people sitting on the benches and the door to the café was open. Quickly turning around and hurrying to get into the café before the doors might close, the 4th was the charm - Eldon's Pantry was exactly what we had wished to find. And so, the Play began.

Wonderful assortment of baked goods, variety of coffee and tea, great deli, and the sweetest servers at the counter. So we ordered and as we waited, we mentioned to the girl called Nat what we were about today, we were on a mission, we were celebrating Adele's birthday and participating in a WI province wide Scavenger Hunt. And so took out our Bookmarks, showed them to her explain that we were members of Dunrobin District WI and as part of the province wide Scavenger Hunt, we had a game to play. We had to get together for coffee and find an individual for whom we would pay forward for their beverage. and ask if they would like to participate in our game, merely a conversation about WI and ask if they were familiar with WI. As the pantry was quiet, we asked whether she would accept the bookmark, have her photo taken with us and we would explain to her what "WI" was about and how our Dunrobin District WI was involved in the community. She agreed, we gave her a sum of money and a bookmark, and she was to use her own discretion as to whom she chose to pay it forward, we simply asked that she explain that it was courtesy of Dunrobin District WI and share the bookmark. What a find, Eldon's Pantry was the perfect venue.
It had ambiance, sweet, wonderful staff, and wonderful food.

As we enjoyed our goodies and chatted with Nat, we found that she is a local girl from McLaren's landing and knows Jane's brother's family.
Small world it is. We spoke of the role of WI from local, national to international. We gave her a synopsis of WI's advocacy mentioning pasteurization of milk, yellow lines on the highways and safety arm on the school buses, legislation that is in place because of WI. We mentioned Dunrobin WI's connections to Community through support for the foodbank, our greening project of the corner garden in Dunrobin and making strawberry shortcake at Dunrobin's Canada Day celebration.
We explained that all our projects are funded through fundraising by members. We hold garage sales, compete in the Domestic science of the Carp Fair and lately the selling of strawberry shortcake on Canada Day which was a big hit and another source of fundraising. However, more important, our contribution to the 1st Canada Day post-Covid.
celebration we felt that it provided us an opportunity to connect with the community once again in person. We connected through food and laughter, a win -win scenario, and very typically rural. Making homemade strawberry shortcake was especially satisfying from the picking the berries at a local farm, making the 14 dozen scones, whipping 7 liters of cream was hard work but fun. We set up our table with a display of many of our former interactions. We were able to showcase what we WI members do to best, look to find a way to contribute and provide support where it is needed, sometimes responding to tragedy and other times celebrating the good. Canada Day was one of the good times and we are hoping it will be a project that we can continue in the future,

Nat in turn said that she may know some locals who might be interested in WI. We invited her to attend a meeting. In fact, as we sat and chatted, Nat continued to work behind the counter, and we were amazed at her organization as she prepped the ingredients for next day's sandwiches etc. So much so that we suggested that if she was interested, she could do a presentation at a meeting and describe a typical day at Eldon's Pantry. Nat said she would be interested and if we wanted, she could also give a 'Creative Writing Workshop' for us.
Bravo, we had found what we were looking for. We felt that our Act of Kindness found Friendship and we hope Membership.

September 1, 2022, truly a wonderful day celebrating Adele's birthday, Playing & Pay Forward at Eldon's Pantry in Carp. Natalie (Nat) Oates was the recipient of the WI Bookmark and is 2nd from the left in the attached pic along with 3 of The Fun Seekers Team. In the picture, left to right, Pam Smith-Hlady, Nat Oates, Jane Hillary, and Adele Muldoon. Jean Sullivan, our non-member participant for the WISH Scavenger Hunt was not available on Sept 1 due to work commitments and this time supports us behind the scenes. She will again, do the editing, compiling, and posting of our WI Scavenger Hunt Clue #4. Thank You.

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