The next night I pick up my friend and we head out. Immediately I know that this is going to be a different kind of evening as a group of men walk by heading back to their vehicles after they have been turned away at the doors ...."Sorry, guys. It is ladies only this evening." I am intrigued. We walk up, give our names and are promptly given a bag and a door prize ticket. My friend hits my shoulder and says. " Look! Does that man has a glue gun? " As we sipped our drinks we watched in curious awe as this man did a demonstration on how to make 3D Christmas cards with nothing more than a stencil, paper and a golf tee! Then topped it off by making an envelope out of another glittery designed paper to put the card in. Beside him is a lady painting a table to demonstrate the differences between rollers and brushes. Then we make our way to the other side of the room where the appetizers are being served. I follow along behind my friends when I hear an excited; "They are serving on real plates!" I have to tell you this is turning out to be quite a fun experience. We look through the store to see if there are more demonstrations. Sure enough, they are all through the store. There are people on hand to answer every question you might have about home renovations. In the back of the store is the strategically placed desert table where another group of employees are demonstrating some of the products for sale...there is one lady making sliders on the tiniest grill I have ever seen, and another making cupcake from a cupcake machine. I leave my friends behind at the desert table to explore the store. I ran into alot of people I knew there happily doing some Christmas shopping and reconnecting. Over and over I heard the same responses..."Isn't this great!?"....." Now this is the way to shop."....."I am definitely coming back next year." It took some time to work my way through the throngs of customers, but I finally found who I was looking for.... the organizers of this event. Apparently this is the 6th year this event has been running. There was over 220 women in the store that night and next year the event is going to be bigger yet because Home Hardware is expanding. And to top it off, Home Hardware is donating the money raised that night to the Food Bank.
I am impressed. I know that they are making money that night on sale, and I firmly believe in free enterprise. There is also something more than that happening this night. This local business is doing their bit to give back to the community. I am pretty much sure that my five bucks did not cover the expense of the food, wine and prizes that were walking out the door that night. Even I won a door prize that night.... a Stainless Steel Meat Slicer. I texted my husband about the prize to which I got the response, " Nice." No idea what I am going to do with it, but Ken seems pretty happy with the door prize. Probably because I used the words stainless steel in the description.
This is just one reason why I love this city. It is not for the fabulous door prizes that they gave away, but because we are a community of givers. We live to expand our mandates to include others. We do it better than anywhere else I have lived. This is why I am proud to call Wood Buffalo my home and have such fierce pride in my community. Thank you to all the businesses who do their part to give back and people who get involved. We are a better community in the middle of the woods because if it. And yes.....I really do like my new pink screwdriver. Thanx.
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