Pancake Breakfast has also returned !!! : )

 

WHOOT!!! 

February once again brings out the Pannekoeken at Calvin : ) 

Pannekoken - Defenition = A form of Dutch pancake, being thin and wide and optionally made with apples or a variety of other ingredients.

After a 2-year break thanks to COVID, we are BACK! 

This year we raised funds for 7 of us going on a Spring Break Mission Trip (a.k.a Learning Opportunity)with Calvary CRC to Plymouth North Carolina, as well as to bolster our Refugee Fund as we are expecting them to arrive soon. 

Those going on the Learning Opportunity from Calvin are:

Pastor Craig

Pastor Ron

Ryne

Sam

Mitchell

Lennea

Lewis

So, this past Friday night we gathered together to prepare our fruit salad.  

Lots of chopping. 

Hi Ryne : ) 

The end result

And then some : ) 

This year I decided, hey, "why get up so early in the morning on Saturday to set up?  Why not do it on the Friday night?" So that's what we did.  

And before you knew it, it was Saturday morning. 

We arrived at 6:45 a.m. 

Lennea is hard at work filling the margarine containers and Jam containers for the tables.  

The rest of the crew is in the kitchen. 

It was interesting....I simply yelled, "smile" and Pastor Craig and his two boys instinctively looked at me.  The others just ignored me.  : ) 

Time to get the OJ ready to go.  

They were frozen like bricks of ice : ) 

It took a while to thaw them out, but Megan and Rebecca did a fine job.  

John once again headed up the kitchen crew.  

Cute.... : ) 

Sam on batter preparation.  

And we are pretty much ready to gooooo. 

Oh, and I recruited the refugee committee members as well for this event, since funds were being raised for them.  

Left to right:  Eric, Mike and Rebecca.  

The standard pic I get of John starting off the pannekoeken.  This is bittersweet as John will be moving to Southern Ontario in May of this year.  

He will be missed.  

Mitchell handling the blueberry pancakes.  

Lewis on Blueberry batter mix.  

Now, this was funny. 

This picture shows Ryne and Sam working hard on preparing the Whipped Cream. 

But this was actually the first picture I took : ) 

Ryne just standing there wondering if Sam was ever gonna start whipping up the Whipped Cream. : ) 

The Table is set and ready for guests.  

Once again, The tradition continues with Nathan and Margaret's family being the first to arrive..., minus Nathan and Margaret : ) 

Evert and Annet stood in : ) 

Ryne assumed THE MOST IMPORTANT task of the event.  Making sure everyone had enough Whipped Cream for their pannekoeken.  

He was a natural.  

Our first seating was at 8 a.m. 

About 49 people for that one.  Below are some pics of those in attendance. 

The food was good, as was the fellowship.  

John taught Lennea how to perfect making pannekoeken.  I think she did pretty good.  

Busy busy.  

We use warmers to keep them warm until needed.  

Next shift was at 9:15 a.m. 

A bit of a changeover of plates, etc, and away we went.  

More pics of this shift's participants.  

About 65 for the second shift.  

Had to set up another table even.  

My family with Jonah and Miranda.  

It was loud, but it was fun : ) 

Clean up time. 

Mike did a masterful job. : ) 

John showing his new home to Eric : )

And these three just hanging out as we cleaned up around them : ) 

If you pay, you can stay as loooonnnngggg as you want :) 

And this was cute. 

Someone paid in coins. 

Whoot!!!  

We don't ask for a set amount, we just ask that you donate. 

In the end we raised, before expenses a total of $4624.00

After Expenses = $4118.82

Of that 51.28 % went to our trip = $2112.00

and 48.72 % went to the refugee fund = $2006.82

THANK YOU to all who came out and donated, and enjoyed the morning.  

It was AWESOME!!! 

 

Care Packages are BACK!!! : )

After doing a couple of years of internal care packages for the Calvin's youth and Young Adults - see previous posts - it was time once again to bless University Students with care packages. 

This year we prepared 175 boxes. 

Pics are below but before you get to that some fun facts. 

Contents of Each Box was: 

• New Testament Bibles - Book of John  1 / box
• Mr. Noodle  1 / box
• Highlighters - 1 / box
• Microwave popcorn   2 / box
• Gum packets   1 per box 
• Oatmeal packages  3 / box
• Small tissue packets  1 / box
• Granola Bars   - 2 / box
• Hot Chocolate  2 / box
• Fruitsations  2 / box
• Earl Grey Tea packets 3 / box 
• Small post-it notes - 1 /box
• Rice Crispy Square -  1 / box
• Mini Ritz cheese   1/ box
• Werther's originals  2 / box
• Celebration Mini Chocolate Chips - 1 / box
• Paper mate pens - 1 / box
• Swiss milk chocolate start with 10  / box 
• $5 tim's cards - 1 / box
• Hand Made Card  1 / box

Total pieces purchased

put into the boxes was 6650 - give or take a couple of hundred more : ) 

Total donated amount

This year generous donators gave as $3,065 which allowed all the above items to be purchased.  I was able to spend it all, going over by $1.15 : ) 

Parcels will be given out to: 

• 5 to Redeemer U students away
• 8 to persons just needing a pick me up
• 13 to people attending Calvin and are students
• 10 in reserve in case someone needs one :  ) 
• 139 to U of Ottawa Students via Ottawa Campus Chaplaincy. 

Thanks to all from Calvin who donated items or funds to make this possible. 

So, Once again, here's all the before work. 

I spend a bit of time at various stores gathering the goods.  

Then I do a test box to make sure it will all fit.  

Here's a pictorial view of what goes into a box. 

Then, I wait till Tuesday so these wonderful youth and adults can put everything together. 

After a brief explanation, it was time to bring all the items downstairs. 

And begin to tape the bottom of the boxes.  

I helped with that while some young people folded them for me first.  

Others also taped, but it was a learning curve for Ethan.  He cut himself on the tape dispenser.  I think a couple of others did as well.  

Lewis is fast at work taping, with Joshua helping. 

Megan and Miranda headed up the card-making department.  

Leanne put the number "5" on each of the 175 Tim's cards that were going into the box. 

And let the fun begin. 

Scott starts directing what goes in the boxes.  

There is (well there was) a system to this : ). 

We were a bit out of practice after a 2-year absence.  

While the box stuffing was, how shall I say it, 

energetic : ), the card makers were calm and collected : ) 

The boxes are lined up and ready for stuffing.  

And the stuff is ready to be unpacked and stuffed.  

The next batch of pics is just of all of us stuffing the boxes with lots and lots of items.  

Oh, and Grant wanted to destroy all the empty boxes, so we let him have at it. : ) 

Like a well-oiled machine. 

Haha - wellllllllll

Boxes are pretty much full now.  

Still cold Elijah?  

Wow : ) 

oh, and my finger must have gotten in this pic.  Oops. 

Finished box.  Ready to be taped shut.  

Grant, you are falling behind : ) 

We added more card makers to get done on time.  

And Scott gave Grant a hand.  

And Leanne and I taped the finished boxes shut.  

Lots and lots of boxes....

With a few needing to be reopened because we forgot to include a card. 

Silly us. : ) 

Organized Chaos : ) 

Thanks for looking up Joshua and Lewis : ) 

It doesn't look like the pile is getting any smaller : ) 

I asked Ethan to take some of the pics and he wanted credit for that.  So here is his selfie. 

I told him it would go on the blog if he did it. 

So here it is : ) 

After we finished, everyone was treated to cheesecake and chocolate cake and then the traditional group pic. 

THANK YOU to all who helped make this possible again this year. 

May those who receive these gifts of love be blessed.  

Till NEXT YEAR!!!  D.V.  

The goal is 225.  

Well that was Scott's suggestion : ) 

We shall seeeeeee...........