L-R: Mark Dyck, Merrilee Rasmussen, Ciara Sebastian
As usual, we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into when we thought up our True Friends Birthday contest. We received an overwhelming number of entries and some truly outstanding stories.
Your friendship stories touched us and inspired us. Some even made us laugh out loud -- especially one of our regular customers who nominated his neighbour because "he's too cheap to buy good bread!"
We read every single entry and it was clear early on there was no way to pick a 'Best' story. So we relied on a thoroughly complicated random number process to pick our Grand Prize winner.
Congratulations to Ciara Sebastian and her friend and mom Merrilee Rasmussen. They really are true friends. As Ciara told us how they work together, eat together and tour greenhouses together in the warmer months. She writes: "My mum is an extremely generous person and works hard to help friends, family, and strangers every day. She has also accomplished so much in life. These qualities make her an inspiration to me." We second that!
If you didn't win, don't despair! Cindy and I were so inspired by all the entries that we are cooking up more events throughout the year. Stay tuned!