Bowen Island United Church loves tradition. At some point in the early 1980s, St. Gerard’s Catholic Mission on Bowen began hosting the annual Strawberry Tea and did so for many years. We, at the United Church, took over the helm approximately 10 years ago. Since then we have hosted the annual Strawberry Tea, an event in June that features fresh strawberries, sandwiches, strawberry scones with Devonshire cream, children’s games, sales of gently used clothing and more. We have gathered in our churchyard and visited with neighbours and friends-new and old. Well, although the tradition does continue, this disturbance called COVID-19 has caused us to do things differently last year and this year too.
This year, on Saturday, June 12 from noon until we are sold out, Bowen Island United Church will host the drive-through version of the Strawberry Extravaganza at the Bowen Island Legion. We will serve sandwiches and strawberry shortcake by donation and pre-ordered pies and tarts will be available for pick up as well.
To order your strawberry, strawberry /rhubarb or lemon meringue pie in advance for $15 per pie, or your strawberry tarts (six for $10), please e-transfer Sheila McCall at [email protected] by Sunday, June 6 or call her at 9074.
Two and a half pound baskets of strawberries can also be ordered in advance, through Sheila McCall, for a cost of $15 per container. The strawberries can be picked up at Collins Hall, 1122 Miller Road on Friday, June 11 between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. All orders must be placed by June 6.
We are praying for the best possible strawberry growing and picking weather in the next week while. We hope that you will come out and support Bowen Island United Church and that you will enjoy all the tastes of early summer. We thank you so much for your presence in the life of our faith community. This has been a tough year for us all. We long for the day when we can serve you tea and pie and sandwiches and scones with Devonshire cream in our churchyard – and we know that day will come. Until then, thank you for joining us in the “new normal” configuration of our event and we are delighted that we can at least continue to honour this long-standing tradition of a familiar community gathering. We look forward to seeing your smiling faces in your shiny cars as you drive through our Strawberry Extravaganza.
