Chuck Doucette, owner of Top Gun Restaurant, is busy organizing a Christmas Eve dinner for those in the Fallon area who may need a bit of extra cheer and support this holiday season.
Chuck moved to Fallon from Reno, originally from the New England area, seven years ago. He opened Top Gun Restaurant, and that first year, he offered a Thanksgiving dinner for the community. But, as time went on, Chuck realized that there were other organizations that did Thanksgiving dinners, but no one was doing a dinner on Christmas Eve.
Since its inception, this event has been supported by various merchants from the area, some of Chuck’s customers, and different community organizations. Donations of food items, dinner utensils, or money are greatly appreciated and can be dropped off at the restaurant up until the day before the event. It’s an everyone pitches-in event. “Fallon is a beautiful community…We have troubles…we obey the rules…but we still do what we’ve got to do.” As owner of his own restaurant, Chuck will be filling in any of the items still needed to complete dinners after all donations have been used.
This year Chuck has 28 volunteers, and he gave COVID as part of the reason for the increase in volunteers. “There is an opportunity right now for people to be kind to people. I want the opportunity to be there for other people. To enjoy giving to others…Even if you only have a little part, it makes people feel good and that’s what we need to do right now. We need that more than anything.”
Chuck proudly said, “I have a restaurant. We do deliveries. I can tell you I’m pretty good at this. We have enough volunteers that I can guarantee that from the oven, we can get them right to their homes in 20 minutes.” Part of what makes this possible is the support from the Wolf Center, Epworth Church, and Ron and Barbara Evans who have donated the kitchen for the cooking of the meals. The size of the kitchen at their facility allows for much more efficient baking and preparing of the dinners. Chuck thanked them for always have been supportive of events that support the community.
So far there are 275 meals on the list for dinners and names for meals will be taken until December 23rd, he last day before the dinner is delivered. Chuck expects this list to double. The last time Chuck served dinners was 2018 and they served 500 + meals.
To add names to the list, send an email to [email protected] and let them know how many meals will be needed Christmas Eve evening, the address to deliver meals to, and a phone number to contact once routes have been set. It is also nice to know ages as often there are kids in the homes. One year a local organization donated toys for every one of the kids. Though he is not sure if that will happen this year, as donations vary yearly, but just in case, Chuck asks for ages of children in the home.
As the holiday season rolls in, Chuck and his crew will be rolling out on Christmas Eve with hot meals for welcoming tummies.
Comment
Comments