Each tiny seed planted becomes a tree that nourishes us all.
A White Christmas With BluesShore/Beem
This snowy Christmas Eve ROCKS held a special holiday event, complete with pretty decorations, ugly Christmas sweaters, trivia, games, prizes, and a kids craft table. Guests who braved the storm enjoyed a festive evening, as did the volunteers. Six guest-competitors won $25 supermarket gift cards, which were happily received. Most guests came back for seconds of our almost-traditional Christmas dinner of BBQ chicken with mashed potatoes, squash, brussels sprouts, salads and a cranberry apple relish.
Many lingered at communal tables into the evening to chat and enjoy the desserts of pumpkin pie danishes, cheesecake, candy canes, cookies and egg nog. Everyone left with a little more sweetness before heading back out into the winter wonderland with takeaway containers of leftovers.
A shout out to our local credit union BlueShore Financial who are now Beem Credit Union, who sponsored the celebration by choosing ROCKS to receive the proceeds of their annual Gift of Giving campaign. A special thank you to ROCKStar Leana for suggesting the Christmas Eve event, then stepping up as head chef and bringing friends to volunteer. And a big thanks to the 21 ROCKStars volunteers who gave up their usual Christmas Eve activities to prepare and serve hot meals to those who need them. It’s the kindness of our unique community that allows us to succeed.
71 people turned up, and when we asked some how they’d heard about us:
37 – Friends / Word of Mouth
11 – Returning from last time
12 – Social media
7 – Other: Ski club, emails, Pique.
The event would have cost us around $2,574, including all the operational overheads (and prizes!) but with the generous community contributions from BBQ Bob/Wildwood, Independent, Stewardship Pemberton Society, Moguls, Laughing Crow Organics, WMSC, Slope Side Supply, and Whistler Cooks, it cost $1,539. Then we had $370 in donations on the night. So overall, our spend was $1,169 against our sponsorship budget of $1,500 for the evening. Any extra funds will be put towards additional meals.
Next Dinner – January 19
At our next meal is on January 19 and will be Shepherd’s Pie with a mixed green salad, prepared by none other than Portobello’s chef Zack and our team of ROCKStars. We have two seatings of 6pm and 7pm – reserve your spot here or forward this email to someone who may need a hot meal in this drizzly wet winter. We want to serve well over 100 people and give head chef Zack an extra challenge!
ROCKS Meets Town Council
On January 20 at 5:30 pm, ROCKS will be making a delegation to Town Council to talk about who ROCKS is, what we do, what challenges we face, and how we see our future. It’s a public meeting, and we encourage ROCKS’ supporters to attend. They are held at Maury Young Arts Centre (4335 Blackcomb Way) in the Franz Wilhelmsen Theatre. We REALLY would love to fill that theatre to show Council how important our endeavour is to our community.
Call for Volunteer Head Chefs
Creating a great meal for a crowd on a budget is among life’s big creative challenges – and it’s as rewarding as only a big challenge can be. If you’re up to it, we’d love to have you as our volunteer head chef, on any of the following dates: Mar 30, April 13, April 27, May 11 & May 25. Just drop us an email and we’ll work with you to support you through the process.
Looking for 2026 Sponsors
Sponsoring a ROCKS community dinner -either through cash or food donation- can be a great way to raise your business’ profile in the community. We recognize our sponsors in our newsletters, on our website, on social media and at the community dinners themselves. As a registered charity, we can also issue a tax receipt for the full amount of your donation. Email us for a sponsorship package today.
We wish you all a fantastic 2026 and we can’t wait to see what it brings us. We’ll be busy applying for grants, hosting meals and looking for our ‘forever’ home so we can keep doing what we do best!
The Whistler ROCKS team