A big, clean, sparkling kitchen with the latest appliances and plenty of room to work – who doesn’t want that? On Friday night we got to wander through several different but equally stunning working kitchens in the new GCW showroom and plant in St. Thomas.
Our friends at Bethanys Hope (they don’t use an apostrophe) asked The Big Show to emcee GCW’s Grand Opening event. This is a success story all around. GCW is a custom kitchen designer and builder that has grown beyond a handful of employees to now more than 70. Their work is stunning. They built a kitchen for Chef Michael Smith, host of shows on The Food Network, and shipped it to him in PEI where they installed it in his home. He is also friends with Lindey and Dave of Bethanys Hope and their celebrity spokesperson. So when Ron and his fellow owners decided to go big with the opening it was a natural to invite Michael and to make it a benefit for the charity.
They turned the GCW shipping space into a beautiful buffet and theatre. They sold out 500 tickets and GCW opened the entire operation up to tours. It’s a magnificent place. They allow Goodwill to operate part of its business out of a section of the building and they sometimes hire people who go through their work placement program. The boardroom is like something out of a futuristic movie with a massive, oblong, granite table that’s lit down the middle in LED blue. The room is available to local non-profits for free and includes kitchen services. They even restored two of the old, green subway-tiled bathrooms as a nod to the building’s past as a factory that made thermostat components and employed 300.
For Friday’s night’s benefit, five local restaurants prepared chili in a cook-off and there was wine, fresh apple pie, and much more, all from local merchants, farmers and vintners. Michael’s latest cookbook was on sale for the cause and he autographed every single one. He took the stage and told great stories about how he used to write complicated recipes to impress other chefs until one day – long story short – a little kid accused him of not being a real cook because he didn’t make cookies! Now he focuses on family food and includes at least one cookie recipe in every book, including his new one, Family Meals. Then he lit the house on fire with a demonstration of how to make flaming bananas.
Michael and his assistant had been in transit all day, without food or a break, and minutes after they arrived he changed his clothes and started shucking oysters and posing for photos. When we worked out the night’s program with him he was on the ball and never once let on that he was utterly exhausted. He’s very tall, very warm and friendly and when Lindey and Dave presented him with a Team 2018 jersey he not only put it on, he wore it the rest of the night.
Team 2018 refers to the goal Dave and Lindey have for meeting an important goal. Since losing their daughter Bethany in 2000 when she was just seven, the McIntyres have pursued a treatment or cure for MLD – Metachromatic Leukodystrophy. It’s a rare disease, like ALS, but it’s relentless and horrific and it targets little kids. The money they’ve raised has gone directly to a researcher who will begin clinical trials on a treatment in 2018. That’s when they hope to be able to say, job well done.
At Rock the Park, when we’ve visited during “off” hours, whenever we can, this is a place I like to stand: behind Dave and Lindey, as they, their other children and so many supporters, work to conquer MLD.