by Kenneth Armstrong, Sootoday
In an effort to support local food security, Denis Beaulieu has constructed an enormous wooden table — one six-foot section at a time — that now stretches over 100 feet.
A 108-foot-long picnic table built as a fundraiser in support of Harvest Algoma could get even longer if enough donations are made.
This summer, Harvest Algoma allowed retiree Denis Beaulieu to use part of its parking lot to build six-foot-long picnic tables from scratch and sell them, with a portion of the sales going to the food security agency.
After making a number of sales, Beaulieu asked if he could roll his portion of the sales into a new fundraiser by building Algoma’s longest picnic table.
“The folks at Harvest Algoma were really gracious and let me set up operations here and I shared some of the profits with them as I went along. I thought a way of giving back would be to help them with a fundraiser idea,” Beaulieu said.
“Since I was building picnic tables, it occurred to me that it would be fun to see if I could build Algoma’s longest picnic table.”
Beaulieu spent 30 years working for Algoma Family Services before retirement.
“One of my roles was to event plan and recruit foster parents and organizing projects such as this. So I thought, ‘let’s do some fundraising again.'”
In appreciation of his efforts, Beaulieu was recently added to Harvest Algoma’s fundraising committee.
So far, 18 six-foot sections have been built, totalling 108 feet end-to-end. The table was built as one continuous piece but can be divided into multiple tables later.
Each donation of $20 through the Harvest Algoma website will fund one foot of the table. If more than 108 donations are received, additional funds will go toward extending the table.
Jeff Socchia, operations coordinator for Harvest Algoma, said Beaulieu’s woodworking and Harvest Algoma’s mission are a perfect fit.
“Even the symbolism of the table with us providing food — it kind of all comes together,” Socchia said.
Lauren Moran, community enterprise manager at Harvest Algoma, said the fundraiser will continue until the organization holds its annual barbecue on Sept. 19.
On that day, the picnic table will be used by people supporting the organization who can purchase hamburgers or hot dogs.
“Then at the actual barbecue, people can purchase a six-foot section of the table to take home by donation, with a minimum recommended donation of around $120 — then we’ll lop it off there live,” Moran said.
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