Lakeport >> All Lake County employees, past and present, are invited to an after-work appreciation dinner on Friday celebrating 25 years of food drive participation.
In November 1990, former Lake County employee Phil Smoley provided donuts to every department at the county courthouse in Lakeport, asking them for donations for local food cupboards on behalf of the Realtor CanTree food drive. He put the departments in competition with each other, and that year building and grounds gave the highest per capita in donations and won the first lunch party for the department.
Now, 25 years and the equivalent in 115,000 cans later, all county employees have been deemed winners and are invited along with one guest to the Friday dinner party after 5 p.m. at TNT on the Lake, located at 2599 Lakeshore Blvd. in Lakport. Music will be provided by David Neft.
“By providing about 10,000 donuts to county employees over 25 years, they have responded with enough donations that if all were converted to cans and placed end to end they would go from the courthouse in Lakeport all the way to the old school house in Lower Lake,” according to Smoley, the event coordinator since its inception. “It’s helped a lot of people in our community, and we have had fun doing it.”
Past department winners include building and grounds (three times), tax collector (four times), auditor (five times), personnel (three times), elections (three times), farm adviser, public works, air quality, information technology, county counsel, and most recently, engineering (twice).
“Seems like when one department slows down on donations, one or two others pick it up,” Smoley said. “Some never won outright, but the steady contributions place them near the top of total donations. No one gets rich working for the county, yet they have been very gracious in what they give. It is for all of these contributions in both food and money that we want to recognize. These folks make the backbone of our community and make it work, and they deserve our recognition.”
Smoley worked in the auditor-controllers office from 1982 to 1984 prior to entering real estate with Country Air Properties.
“I made a lot of friends while I was there, and some of them are still there nearing retirement,” Smoley stated.
RSVP to Ruby Martinez at 264-4904 or by email at ruby@countryair.com.
