For the first time in its 64-year history, the Juneau Ski Sale will also function as a food drive.
For about a decade Malou Peabody has helped plan the annual ski sale, and for just as long she has marveled at the crowd the event draws.
“Sometimes the line wraps all the way around Centennial Hall,” Peabody said, noting that skiers will often stand in line from about 6:30 a.m. till the sale opens at 10 a.m.
While planning the event this year, she came up with an idea to capitalize on this “captive audience.” Each person who brings a nonperishable food item — particularly Thanksgiving items, such as instant mashed potatoes, canned green beans or cranberry sauce — will get a cup of coffee courtesy of Heritage.
Hundreds of Juneau residents pack the convention center each year, looking for new pairs of skis or snowboards. It’s Peabody’s hope that while they prepare for a winter on the slopes, they also think about those who are preparing for a winter on the streets.
“It’s a great time of year,” she said. “Everybody is thinking about their winter needs, but some people’s needs are very basic.”
The food collected at this year’s Ski Sale, which is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 5, will go to the Glory Hole, downtown Juneau’s homeless shelter. From there, the food will be packaged into Thanksgiving dinner boxes and given to those in need.
Because the sale will take place in early November, Peabody thinks the food drive will help raise awareness for the Glory Hole’s project, and that’s crucial if it is to succeed, according to homeless shelter’s director Mariya Lovishchuk.
“Awareness is super important,” she told the Empire in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “I can’t emphasize how important it is because winter is so hard here. Each year people die on the streets in Juneau.”
In the past, the Glory Hole has struggled to get enough turkeys for its Thanksgiving dinner boxes. Typically, the homeless shelter produces about 300 of these packaged to prepare meals each year, which is the goal this year, too.
“To connect people to each other this way, I think, is really beautiful,” Lovishchuk said.
• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.
List of items needed:
instant mashed potatoes
gravy mix
sparkling cider
stuffing
whipped cream
canned green beans
canned corn
cranberry sauce
canned fruit
canned peas
