ERIN – If you’ve been to the Erin Santa Claus parade in the past decade, chances are you know there’s usually a hold up. It’s often several minutes long, and there’s one local resident responsible: John McHenry.
Every year upwards of 100 people gather for a mini winter block party of sorts out front of McHenry’s 241 Main Street address to watch the parade and warm up with a winter barbecue.
But there’s a catch. To attend, you must come bearing gifts of the non-perishable food sort that end up feeding neighbours in the community who need an extra leg up putting food on the table.
The delay experienced farther down the line is for a good cause—the result of Erin firefighters loading up a pickup truck bed with the donated food.
“When it started, he used to have a few people that just showed up … then he decided, as more and more people like us were showing up, why not have people bring food and donate to the food bank?” explained his friend Judy Parker.
“It’s pretty cool because the whole parade stops for a good 10 minutes or more as we’re trying to load all this food.”
Loading up all the food can get “very emotional,” McHenry’s partner Shelley Weston said.
“We’re hoping to do even better this year with the amount of food,” Parker said.
“Even during the snowstorms it’s a full house,” remarked Weston, adding, “It’s just a good time for a good cause.”
Food donations to East Wellington Community Services—the community’s food bank—made from the most recent parade, in 2019, amounted to 796 pounds collected solely from HcHenry’s porch.
“We’re well over a tonne over the years,” McHenry said.
But as the Erin Lions Club gears back up after a season thwarted by the pandemic, McHenry is gearing down, making way for the east coast a mere two days after the parade winds its way past his house, as though a final hurrah.
“We have convinced him that he has to do this food collection one more time,” Parker said.
McHenry admits it took some “spurring on” for his last parade here and assures the grub won’t be grilled on his barbecue—it’ll be packed up.
Instead, next door neighbour Nicole Valentine is stepping in. She’s been living next to McHenry for the past 15 years at 239 Main Street and will have food sizzling on her barbecue with a fire in the backyard for friends and neighbours stopping by.
“She’s always eager to get a party going,” McHenry said of Valentine.
“If people would like to still keep coming, then I’ll have it available every year,” Valentine said of her space, although she wishes for a larger porch, like McHenry’s, to accommodate the donations.
“I’m looking forward to it this year, it’s going to be great,” she said.
Erin firefighters run a food drive each year and have already driven through the community collecting donations in a “driveway drop-off” format on Nov. 20.
But Erin Fire and Emergency Services chief Jim Sawkins says the department collects a large haul during the Christmas parade, providing another chance to get in donations ahead of the Christmas crunch.
Donations have been “exceeding previous years’ total thanks to generosity of Erin’s residents,” Sawkins said.
The department will have two new light rescue vehicles in this year’s parade which haven’t yet been outfitted with gear, leaving all the compartments empty and ready to be stuffed with donated food.
“My challenge to the community is: let’s load ‘er up,” Sawkins said, adding “it’s neighbours helping neighbours.”
Stephanie Conway, East Wellington Community Services manager of food bank and fund development, said donations collected from McHenry’s residence have always been considerable and without the effort, there would “definitely be a void” on how much is collected through the holidays.
“We’ve always been very appreciative of him bringing such awareness to the food bank,” Conway said. “With him doing it … we sort of reach people in the community who have not heard of us or don’t know who we are.”
This year, Conway says the food bank is in need of turkeys and suggested gift card donations to McHenry’s collection so the food bank can purchase turkeys or empower clients to purchase their own.
McHenry said people will likely begin dropping food off later in the week and it “just sort of piles up on the front porch” until the parade.
Erin Fire and Emergency Services will take the collected food to the food bank in the first week of December.
