On a bright and cheerful Sunday in March, the day suddenly turned nasty for a family new to Sooke. The Warren family had just moved to Sooke a month earlier and settled into a home on Eakin Drive. Sometime between between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. someone came and stole all of the meat from their freezer. They had thought to leave the freezer outside close to the door and hadn’t gotten around to putting on a lock.
The thieves took everything and had even tried to take the whole freezer but it was too heavy.
The Warren family, Jen and Luke and two sons ages seven and nine, moved to Sooke from Kelowna for Luke to work in the construction industry. They chose Sooke because Luke likes to fish and enjoys the outdoors.
“Seems to me it’s kind of a crappy thing to happen,” said local resident Steven Mullen. “To have something like his happen is a bummer. Sooke is better than that, it’s so lame for someone to come and empty their freezer.”
Mullen was angry enough to set up a fund-raiser for the Warren family. He is asking people in Sooke to donate meat to help re-fill their freezer and will be collecting donations on May 3 from 1 to 3 p.m. at 2 For 1 Pizza and Western Foods at Evergreen Centre. Extra donations will be given to the Sooke Food Bank.
Laid off from Telus, Mullen himself is searching for work in marketing and sales.
“I’ve been in Sooke for six years,” said Mullen, “and I have three kids myself. I’m helping out where I can. They (the Warren family) didn’t ask for help – I did.”
Unfortunate as this is for the Warren family, there are many families in the Sooke region who require help from the food bank, and the number continues to grow. The Sooke Food Bank is always in need and non-perishable food donations can be dropped off at the Sooke News Mirror office during regular week day work hours, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
