The annual Habitat for Humanity fundraiser “Blue Crabs and Blue Prints” usually takes place at Walker's Overlook, with hundreds gathering to feast on crabs and raise money for the nonprofit’s upcoming projects.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic, a gathering of that sort was outside the realm of possibility. Instead, the feast took place Saturday as a drive-thru where people who had pre-ordered crab feasts came to the Walkersville Volunteer Fire Station to pick up their orders at a designated time.
Board member Jessie Doyle said planning took a lot of foresight, which was difficult when it was impossible to know what kinds of regulations would be in place by the time the event actually took place.
“We definitely have to roll with the punches, that's for sure. Thankfully, it's not a new overall event, it's just we had to work with what we had,” Doyle said. “So this was just a great opportunity to still have a fundraising event and still have crabs.”
The nonprofit received about 70 orders for crabs this year, Chris Vandergrift, who co-chaired the fundraiser, said. In addition to crabs, attendees could choose from a variety of add-ons including corn, corn bread, local wine and local beer.
Several of the corporate sponsors for the event donated items that made it possible to produce a take-away crab feast such as crab boxes and local produce.
“As they do every year, the community stepped up and helped us to make sure we were able to execute this in a really great way and give people what they need for a wonderful crab feast,” Vandergrift said.
Not holding the event was not an option, since Habitat for Humanity’s work building and maintaining housing for those who are housing insecure does not stop during a pandemic, Vandergrift said. In fact, it’s more important than ever when many people have found themselves unemployed.
“So for us as a committee it was really vital to say, ‘OK, what bandwidth do we have within the guidelines that we're currently operating under to make sure that we're still serving Frederick County in the way that we would regardless of a pandemic?’” Vandergrift said.
The group is currently working on a build in Middletown and has several other projects in the pipeline.
Mark Mead, owner of Ken’s Automotive, said his company always sponsors the event, and normally bring all of their employees and their families to the feast. This year, he’s just going to eat crab at home, but he still wanted to support the organization.
“I know all the people that put it on and they do such a fine job of doing this, and they do so much for the community,” Mead said.
August 09, 2020 at 09:45AM
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Habitat for Humanity holds annual crab feast drive-thru style - Frederick News Post
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