Serving up soup for the United Way

United Way Elgin-St. Thomas volunteer Debbie Boersema, right, had some sour cream added to a sample of curry butternut squash soup by Central Family Restaurant’s Marylu Verboom while Aylmer German Canadian Club volunteers Brigitte Schneider, back left, and Rosemary Horeth got ready for their turn to serve at the second annual Supreme Soup Challenge at the Central Family Restaurant in Aylmer on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Mrs. Boersema was bringing the two plates of four soup samples each to Terrace Lodge residents who came to the event for lunch. The Soup Challenge also served as the official launch of the Aylmer United Way fundraising campaign for 2015-16. The goal in Aylmer for the United Way this year is $40,000, the same as last year. The Aylmer United Way campaign raised more than $43,000 in 2014-15. The overall United Way goal for Elgin-St. Thomas for 2015-16, which includes the Aylmer effort, is $475,000. “That’s a 10 percent increase over what we made last year,” Campaign and Communications Coordinator Melissa Schneider said. “We set a higher goal than what we received last year because we figure it is attainable and that it will provide the same level of funding to our agencies.” The 2014-15 fundraising campaign collected $437,497.23, well short of the $600,000 goal. The amount raised in 2013-14 was about $563,000. Defending champion Chartwell was awarded the “People’s Choice Golden Ladle” trophy for their beef barley soup. The other varieties served were pea soup with fennel and either basil or mint garnish made by Terrace Lodge and the German Canadian Club’s beef dumpling soup. The event was attended by 127 soup aficionados and raised $635.