HOLLISTER
Hollister’s Bret Borgis volunteered for the Thanksgiving Holte Memorial Dinner this year for the second time. Though he never had a chance to do so under the dinners’ founder himself – because he passed away in September before the 2006 holiday season – Marley Holte and the tradition he created has had a profound effect on Borgis, as it has on many others for more than two decades.
This has, after all, always been an event defined not only by the streams of guests who eat the meals, but also by a loyal bunch of volunteers who make them happen.
Borgis joined the group of volunteers last year. He was at a “low point” at the time while going through a divorce, and his coworker Diane Bedarg, who sits on the board overseeing the dinners, asked him to lend his service.
He said volunteering last year made him realize other people have been at lower points than his. The reward he felt was seeing the dinner’s guests happy.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Borgis, who was back again this year, helping with food preparations Wednesday night at the Community Center.
Next to Borgis as he spoke was Bedarg, stirring butter and flour in a pot, proclaiming herself as the “gravy master.” She, like many of the volunteers Wednesday evening, also planned to show up the next morning to help with the dinner itself.
“I just enjoy it,” said Bedarg, a 15-year veteran of the event. “I love to cook, myself. And if I can cook for everyone else, that’s great.”
Holte’s dinners have continually brought out this crew of volunteers – some who’ve been doing it for a long time, others, like Borgis, who joined in recent years and even some high school students working toward community service credits – and Thanksgiving 2007 was no different.
Around 50 volunteers served about 180 guests at the Thursday dinner, said San Juan Bautista’s Ruben Lopez, who’s volunteered at the Holte dinners for a dozen years.
Lopez, first recruited by Holte himself to join the team of volunteers, was helping with preparations the night before, too.
“It’s a good opportunity to help others,” Lopez said Wednesday night. “That was Marley’s thing.”
Lopez on Friday said all the hard work paid off again this year because organizers and volunteers got the amount of turkey and other food donations they needed.
Of the 50 or so volunteers, Lopez said, “They just worked their butts off.”
Lopez noted that the board is set to vote Monday on whether to hold a Christmas dinner this year.
