Occasionally, probably more often than any of us realize, something happens here on Vashon that is worth noting, spreading the word about, and celebrating. The cycle of generosity in the following story is truly what I love about living on this island.

In a nutshell, here’s the tale: local grocery store offers a three-minute shopping spree to local radio station as a raffle prize for their annual fundraiser. Local business owner wins said prize and decides to use his shopping spree to gather food for a community cookout with cookout donations benefitting the local food bank. Let me get a little more specific about the characters of this story.

This year’s Voice of Vashon’s (VoV) raffle winner was Gravy co-owner and chef, Dre Neeley. What does a chef do with a three-minute shopping spree? Dre and his wife, Gravy co-owner Pepa Brower, decided to pay their luck forward. Together they hatched a plan to have a community cookout on a Sunday afternoon (their day off) and suggest a donation with those proceeds benefitting the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank. (Dre also serves on the Food Bank’s board of directors.)

There was only one small problem; to host a cookout for the community Dre would need large cuts of meat, not the family-size portions available in the Thriftway meat department. Problem? No problem, not for Pepa, who is a consummate problem solver. She simply picked up the phone and contacted Clay Gleb, Vice President of Thriftway, and explained her and Dre’s plan and their dilemma.

True to the spirit with which the shopping spree was initially intended, Clay not only agreed to Pepa and Dre’s idea, but bent the contest rules and invited Chef Dre to submit a list of the meat cuts he needed ahead of time.

There was only one last detail: where to stage the cookout. Dre and Country Store owner, Jan Staehli, had been thinking for a while about some sort of event at the Country Store. When Dre told her about the cookout, she jumped at the chance to host and offered to add cider pressing to the day as well.

Vashon is a small island. It’s not easy to be a small business owner here, margins are thin and the customer base limited. Neither is it easy to thrive as a nonprofit organization for many of the same reasons. Our nonprofits can’t make it without the support of our local businesses. Our local businesses can’t make it without the patronage of loyal customers.

When a nonprofit asks you to thank their sponsors, do it. The gratitude of your patronage keeps the cycle of generosity turning.

Yes, we are a small island; we are also truly neighbors who care about and for one another. Perhaps that fact is the real star of this “loaves and fishes” story.

Come to the Community cookout from 1-6 p.m. Suunday, Sept. 29, at the Country Store. Enjoy delicious food, support the Food Bank so they can in turn feed more neighbors, and take a moment to thank Dre and Pepa. Gratitude and generosity really do keep the wheels of community turning.

Catherine Johnson lives, writes, and farms with her wife of more than 30 years on Vashon.