On June 15, hundreds of Pontiac residents gathered at the St. Joseph’s Manor in Campbell’s Bay for the oganization’s seventh annual barbecue and bake sale in support of their most recent initiative.

With a plan in place to add 10 new rooms to the building, the event served as a fundraiser for the project, which requires a $250,000 share on the organization’s behalf.

According to the retirement home’s President, Denis Larivière, this year was the first time the event was forced inside due to inclement weather. However, it didn’t keep the folks from having a good time filling the space making the event a huge success.

Despite the gloomy weather, over 200 people attended and the event raised over $4,200 for the manor, making it significantly more successful than it’s been in previous years, according to St. Joseph’s employee Kathy Bretzlaff.

A highly coveted event among locals annually raising over $2,000 per year, tickets were sold in advance and in high demand with some people even buying tickets with the sole purpose of donating money to the non-profit organization.

For St. Joseph’s Director General, Colleen Larivière, the event is an important one for residents and one that provides plenty of excitement every year.

“It means a lot [to the community],” she said. “The dining room is full. It’s quite well attended. The residents look forward to it, every year. Tomorrow they’ll be exhausted because of all the excitement.”

With three jewelry, houseware and baked good vendors on site along with live music in the dining room, volunteers worked the bar serving anything from beer, wine and soda while others cooked up hundreds of fresh burgers and hotdogs on the barbecues set up on the deck out back.

Volunteers also sold tickets at the entrance for a 50/50 draw and were raffling off a huge wagon filled with all sorts of awesome goodies, including food, gardening supplies and outdoor active gear among a bunch of other cool stuff.

During the event, the Larivières briefly interrupted the show with an important announcement.

With a human-sized billboard illustrating their financial progress on a large thermometer in Colleen’s arms, Denis announced that the manor had officially surpassed their goal and have reached upwards of $296,000.

“I guess $300,000 is our new goal,” said Denis.

While the Larivières are still struggling to pin down a contractor to take on the project at a reasonable price, they’re optimistic that shovels will at least hit the ground by the time the fall rolls around.

“We’re pretty well 100 per cent confident that [the construction] is starting in September,” said Colleen.

With so many people attending the event every year, Denis felt enthralled when asked about the constant support of local residents.

From those making up the manor’s volunteer committee, to its residents or the people who buy tickets to the event in advance knowing they can’t make it simply to support the organization, he can’t thank them enough.

“People are great,” he said. “Fantastic. It warms the heart, whenever you see that they’re so giving and so kind.”

Most of the food on hand including the hamburgers, salads and dessert were provided by local donors and the coordination of all festivities was made possible by the manor’s unrelenting volunteer committee, according to Colleen.

“They are awesome people,” she said. “Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

All the funds raised from the event will go back to the manor to help pay for the new addition to their building, Denis said.

Volunteer Raymond Shea cooks up the meat at the barbecue station

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