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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 23, 2004 Bet bolsters Ashland food bank By Bill Varble For the Tidings What started as bet a between friends turned into a windfall for the hungry Wednesday. The proof is the two food-laden trucks on the bricks of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a festive crowd spilling onto the street and Mayor-elect John Morrison judging a contest. It started when Tom Benoit and Ryan Folkstad made a friendly wager back in October. Each bet his fellow employees could raise more food and cash for the Ashland Emergency Food Bank than the other. Benoit is an assistant technical director at Ashland's Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Folkstad is a purchasing agent at Professional Tool of Ashland, the company that makes the Drill Doctor. "We're basically poker buddies," Folkstad says. "It was just us chewing the fat," Benoit says, "and talking about need in the community." The Food Bank's Nicki Stroo says this is a critical time. She had more than 150 requests for food in November, and since many came from families, the number of people served was higher that that. OSF employees have had an in-house drive to raise food and cash the past two winters, but this is the first time a challenge went out. Benoit and Nancy Zaremski, a supervisor in OSF's costume shop, thought the competition might encourage folks to dig a little deeper. This year, OSF employees not only reached into their own pockets, they held a food drive at an Ashland grocery store. The Pro Tool people enlisted support from 10 other companies. With zero-hour at hand, each group has pulled a truck onto the bricks outside the OSF's Elizabethan Theatre, a Shakespeare flatbed and Pro Tool's enclosed rig. The OSF truck had 150 bags of groceries, the latter 100 bags and a large pallet of food not bagged up. "You can see the difference," Morrison says. "Drill Doctor has a pallet." Drill Doctor raised $400, but the theater people checked in with a check for $2,800. "It's got to go to Shakespeare," Morrison says. "But the winners are the food bank and the citizens of Ashland." Stroo agrees. "This is going to start our winter off with a full bank," she says. For more on the Food Bank and its programs, call 488-3583. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's Slippers men's slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Memory Foam Mattress college loans alternative student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation trillion cut diamonds Currancy Exchange Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams