Blake Ellis/The Independent

The Brooke Central Lunch and Skate is a Christmas tradition in Alvinston.

For the past 40 years, the Alvinston and District Optimist Club has been organizing the event for the students at the local public school. The arena was filled with students Tuesday taking to the ice for some skating and enjoying a Christmas dinner with all the fixings.

“It is a highlight of the school year,” said Brooke Central Public School Principal Adam Townsend, saying students will be talking about it all week until they head off on Christmas break. It shows how supportive this community is to the school and it is a great opportunity to build community within the school, he added.

Two of the longest standing members of the Optimist Club, Frank Nemcek and Doug MacDougall, the club’s current treasurer, remember the early days of the event.

Then the Optimist Club bought all of the teachers at Brooke Central a turkey and they would cook it along with a meal. The students enjoyed it at the school, recalled Nemcek.

The event then moved to the Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Centre a couple of years later, following much of the format it does today.

Nemcek says the Optimist Club prides itself on being a friend of youth and are always looking for ways to improve the lives of young people in the community.

The lunch and skate was started because the club knew there were kids who did not have the opportunity to have a traditional Christmas meal during the holidays.

The best thing during each event is to see all of the happy kids during the annual event, said MacDougall.

“The kids are so polite to us,” said Nemcek, saying one of the best feelings he has is when a kid remembers him from one of the events the Optimist put on.

The Alvinston and District Optimist Club has 71 members and about half of them have been volunteering to make this event a success. Alvinston has always been good when it comes to having people volunteer, said Nemcek. Optimist members were in the kitchen preparing for the meal the day before the lunch and skate.

Nemcek made sure to point out while the Optimist Club provides most of the meal, the teachers at Brooke Central provide the sweets.

The Optimist Club has no plans in quitting, said Nemcek, as the community can expect the lunch and skate to continue on for many years to come.