Volunteers serve 1,300 at Millbourne Laundromat Thanksgiving dinner event JANET FRENCH
Twenty years ago, Shahid Bhinder was washing clothes at the Millbourne Laundromat in southeast Edmonton when he noticed a sign for the businesses’ annual free Thanksgiving dinner. He thought it could be a good way to meet new people.
Since then, he’s missed the annual autumn event only once, and tells his wife not to make any other plans that day.
“It’s an escape from our everyday lives,” Bhinder said Monday after munching on the vegetarian and Halal options offered at the Leefield Community Hall. “Some of us cannot afford a lot of things.”
An Edmonton calendar staple, the Millbourne Laundromat annual community Thanksgiving dinner tradition began in 1993 when then-laundromat owners Shirley and Don Tripp heard some of their regular clients say they didn’t have any family to eat with during the holiday.
Some of the young men who frequented the laundromat were from Newfoundland, and called Shirley “mom,” and she said, “This mom’s going to cook you a dinner.”
‘I LOVED EVERY MINUTE’
On Monday, Shirley Tripp, now 74, reminisced about that first year when she made hundreds of pumpkin tarts and cooked three turkeys in her kitchen before feeding 40 people in the laundromat.
Clients used to call her The Slipper Lady because she sported more than 40 pairs of goofy animal slippers at the laundromat to make people smile.
By the time the Tripps sold the business in 2005, about 1,000 people were lining up each year for a turkey supper.
“Oh my God, we did a lot of hard work,” Tripp said. “I loved every minute of it.”
Jane Hwang now owns the laundromat, and has carried on the tradition. The demand became overwhelming and the Rotary Club of Edmonton Southeast stepped in six years ago to rustle up food donations and help cook, club administrator Victoria Ewert said.
In 2017, when the crowd outgrew the laundromat, organizers moved the event a couple of blocks west to the Leefield Community Hall.
As they grow older, the Tripps say its an honour to see others keep the dinner going. Shirley Tripp never imagined it would carry on this long.
“Seriously, you make me smile every time I see you. You’re just so beautiful,” she told Hwang Monday.
The Rotarians make dinner happen by asking businesses and individuals for donations, and they receive bread, discounted turkey, samosas and much more. About 18 volunteers worked on Sunday to prepare for the event and another 28 cooked and served food Monday, she said.
On the menu were 32 eight-kilogram turkeys, 40 pumpkin pies, baked macaroni, garlic sausages, salads, fruits and vegetables, cookies, juice and coffee.
Ewert also collected winter clothes and blankets, which guests could pick up at the hall.
“I see so much poverty,” Ewert said. “They don’t have a place to enjoy a decent, really good meal.”
TRADITIONS NEW AND OLD
The dinner still attracts new guests, including Kimberley Joe, who heard about it from her sister and daughter.
“It’s a very good event. I’m grateful and thankful they invited us, ” she said.
In downtown Edmonton Saturday, the annual Thanksgiving feast hosted at Boyle Street Community Services fed about 1,600 people, with the meal prepared by NAIT students and served by Rotary Club Edmonton West volunteers.
“Everyone really appreciates the support and the opportunity to enjoy a meal with some close friends,” Boyle Street development manager Brent Guidinger said.
Holidays are tough for the homeless population, Guidinger said, so it is important to Boyle Street to open its doors and provide a Thanksgiving meal for those who wouldn’t have one otherwise.