The Warburton Bowls Club made the best of a bad situation when quick improvisation saw a tub full of food donated to the Warburton CFA.
After its Tradge Woods bowls tournament was cancelled the night before due to the catastrophic fire risk on Saturday 10 January, the Warburton Bowls Club donated freshly cooked meals to the Warburton CFA, keeping the volunteers fed while they waited amid the scorching hot weather.
Red Relish Cafe made 60 serves of lasagne to cater for the 50 bowlers expected to compete in the tournament but due to a power outage the club couldn’t store the food.
Warburton Bowls Club president Tony Van Meurs said the Warburton CFA members were “rapt” at the donation.
A life CFA member himself, Mr Van Meurs said he knew how it felt to be waiting around on call during a high fire risk day.
“We’ve had times where the township was virtually evacuated and there’s nowhere to get any food so you know, food was hard to come by.
“So that’s the reason why we thought that’s good for them to have something in their fridge because they get into the same predicament.”
The Warburton CFA gave a huge thanks to the bowls club on social media and said it was a much appreciated donation “during some tough days”.
Mr Van Meurs said it was an easy decision to donate the food to the Warburton CFA.
“We didn’t have to debate it at all.”
Initially, the bowls club planned to deliver the food to one of the staging areas up north.
“There were actually plans to take it up to the staging areas, because at the time, there was quite a big fire heading this way and got as far as Yea and Yarck.
“But there was no way for us to get it up there, because you can’t really go into a fire ground and risk yourself. So if there was an opportunity to get it to a staging area, we would have, but yeah, it wasn’t feasible to do that,” Mr Van Meurs said.
But the Warburton CFA were also quick to pay it forward, giving the Wesburn-Millgrove CFA a portion of the lasagna too.
And in the end, the Warburton Bowls Club were able to save a few slices of lasagna for their own lunch, which Mr Van Meurs confirmed, was “really quite tasty”.
