One cadre of project volunteers makes sure no one goes hungry on the job

By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times business editor

“Is that going to be enough salad?” asks Wendi Bracken. “This bowl right here?”

It’s no idle question. Bracken and the four other women staffing the food trailer at Wildcat Park on Friday are expecting guests for lunch — about 200 of them.

Fortunately, Karen Bramblett is prepared.

“Actually,” she says, checking the fridge, “I have another bowl right here.”

They say an army runs on its stomach, and that’s certainly true of the army of volunteer construction workers building the new Wildcat Park on the grounds of Wilson Elementary School this week.

Keeping all those hungry workers fed is Bramblett’s responsibility. Like many of the other volunteers working to build the new Wildcat Park, Bramblett has strong ties to the original playground.

“I helped build the first one back in ’89,” she said. “This is a project I felt strongly about because my kids went to school here. Now I have grandchildren who use this park — in fact, my two granddaughters are coming this weekend to build.”

Working out of a compact but well-equipped kitchen trailer on loan from the Corvallis Lions Club, Bramblett and her team of volunteer cooks prepare lunch and dinner for the toiling masses. Snacks and cold drinks are available throughout the day.

There are two sittings of each meal in the Wilson Elementary gym — one for the construction crews and one for the children of volunteers, who go to the on-site day care center while their parents are building the new playground. (You have to be at least 10 to work on the construction project.)

All the food is donated. Friday’s lunch, for instance, included hot dogs from Costco, salad greens from Denison Farms, cookies from McDonald’s and bottled water from Pepsi Bottling Co. In all, more than 40 area businesses and restaurants have contributed food and beverages.

Nothing goes to waste, either.

“I fed over a hundred people last night,” Bramblett said Friday. “We did have some food left over, and we donated it to some of the shelters around here.”

When the lunch bell rang on Friday, scores of workers trooped into the gym, where the food was laid out on a long row of folding tables.

Retired Corvallis Fire Chief Doug Van Pelt and Hewlett-Packard employee Brian Canfield, fresh from a morning’s work in the saw tent, were the first in line. Both men are volunteer captains who have been working on the playground all week, and they clearly know the drill.

The group meals, they said, help reinforce the feeling of camaraderie that infuses the all-volunteer Wildcat Park project.

“There’s a lot of positive energy,” Van Pelt said.

Canfield agreed.

“Everybody wants to help,” he said, “to make a contribution.”

Sitting nearby, volunteer organizer Nason McCullough said the community spirit appears to be contagious.

“There’s a lot of people who signed up for one shift, but they keep coming back day after day,” he said.

Who knows? Maybe it’s the food.

FRIDAY'S NUMBERS

• Volunteers: 362

• Volunteer hours worked: 1,086

• Funds still needed: $10,000

• Bottles of water consumed: 70

• Most urgent needs: Even more volunteers — 200 to 300 per shift; wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, chainsaws

• How to help: Go to www.newwildcatpark.org

Wildcat Park

Wildcat Park was built by volunteers in 1989 at Wilson Elementary School, where the elaborate wooden structure did double duty as a playground for the school and the community. Last year it was dismantled for safety reasons. This week, hundreds of volunteers are building a new Wildcat Park on the same site.

The Corvallis Gazette-Times is chronicling this communitywide effort in the newspaper and on the Internet. Go to www.gazettetimes.com for daily stories, photos, construction updates and Webcam images from the project site.

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.