After a successful Halloween plundering the purses and pantries of the Colwood community and beyond – all for a good cause – the Bowers family dropped off a huge haul of food donations and over $650 at the Goldstream Food Bank on Nov. 5.
And the timing of their drop-off was impeccable, arriving minutes after the food bank had handed out a record-breaking 135 hampers to West Shore locals struggling to buy food.
“They couldn't have come at a better time,” said Gayle Ireland, president of Goldstream Food Bank.
The previous record for the food bank stood at 125 hampers, handed out in one day last year.
“We had record numbers of people here and today we hit our team best for the amount of hampers given out,” said Ireland. “Some of these families had 10 kids.”
The Bowers’ donations will replenish shelves emptied that day, explained Ireland, helping to feed people in the West Shore area for the remainder of November.
Well-known in the area for their annual Halloween display, the Bowers this year decided to use their pirate-themed attraction to fundraise for the food bank and collect non-perishable food items.
“The response has been amazing,” said Melissa Bowers. “We’ve had people from everywhere – from Duncan down to Victoria … it has just been overwhelming.”
“It just shows how easy it can be to help others when the community comes together like this,” she added.
Now that the scary season is over, the Halloween-obsessed family has taken down the majority of their display, but their 12-foot-tall skeleton, named ‘Skelly’, remains.
The locally famous skeleton, an all-year-round fixture in the Bowers' front yard, is now decorated in honour of Remembrance Day.
“And then there's Christmas too,” said Bowers. “That’s just around the corner, and we’re starting to plan something now.”
