Small Town News

Crab-stuffed fundraiser raises $4,000

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The North Mason Coalition of Churches and Community's third annual crab feed fundraiser on Saturday was a success, drawing more than 190 people to the Community at the Farm at Water's Edge in Belfair.

The event reached its fundraising goal of $4,000 to help pay for the coalition's community meals and its Food for Kids backpack program.

Kathy Davis, who co-chaired the event with Liz Corliss-Clark, experienced her first coalition crab feed this weekend.

"I just started in November attending and participating," she said. "It's been a really rewarding experience. It's a marvelous cause."

Coalition President Lynn Coffman said the group serves between 60,000 and 70,000 meals annually in the North Mason area.

The coalition does two different meal programs. First, the coalition offers its Wednesday Free Lunch every Wednesday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of the Belfair Community Baptist Church.

The coalition also hosts its Sunday Supper from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the last Sunday of every month at the The-ler Community Center in Belfair.

The crab feed also helps support the coalition's Food for Kids program.

"We have two parts of that, one is our weekend backpack program," Coffman said. "We have 115 kids who get the equivalent of four meals."

The program provides backpacks full of food for qualifying students for weekends. Students can also qualify for breakfast and lunch during school vacations for the hundreds of North Mason students signed up for free or reduced breakfast and lunch.

"Our goal is to try and replace those meals on the days that they're not in schools," Coffman said. "It's for a whole week, but it's the equivalent at least of 14 meals."

Both Coffman and Davis said the event was a major success for the coalition.

"We had a full house and were scrambling for chairs," Coffman said. "People had a wonderful time they came early, they stayed late, they enjoyed the crab."

Davis said the coalition purchased 255 large crabs for the event.

The Selah Inn donated macaroni and cheese to the event, Bremerton's Airport Diner donated coleslaw dressing and the Belfair Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints donated 400 dinner rolls to the event, she said.

In addition to the food, the event also included a silent auction, with many items donated to the community.

Davis said she was encouraged by how many people turned out to support the event.

"The people and the women are just great," she said. "Just the experience of doing this and meeting the people from our community and how they embrace us ... and how supportive they are. It gives you a good feeling all over."



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