What a great Town we live in
Dear Editor:
What a great community we live in! Winthrop, where everyone feels safe, comfortable, and gets along so well. People in this town are always reaching out to give a helping hand without asking for any reward. They go the extra mile for others because its the right thing to do, not because they are wondering what is in it for them. It is because of these sentiments that Winthrop By The Sea is the hidden jewel of the North Shore.
To illustrate just how amazing we are as a community, there is a special story that I would like to share with you that happened this Thanksgiving. This year as we have done in the past 15 years at the Winthrop Marketplace, we provided fully cooked turkey dinners for our wonderful customers. These ordered dinners, which include all the sides, have been rising in number every year and usually there are no problems that occur.
This year we took a major hit!!  As custom, we started cooking the turkey dinners around 9pm on Tuesday night with plans to cook throughout the night and into Wednesday morning. This practice of ours is only possible due to the sacrifices of several of our employees that are willing spend their night cooking dinners and organizing them into boxes to be picked up the following day. Soon after getting the first batch of turkeys cooked, our brand new oven began leaking lots of smoke out of the top of it. The smoke kept coming and coming and because of the volume of smoke, the fire alarm was set off.  At 11:30pm, the fire department was at the store and informed us that we would have to stop cooking for safety reasons until we could fix the problem.
After learning about this situation, I immediately called the company where I purchased the oven and got there 24 hour service line. Unfortunately, this company informed me that they do not handle this type of issue and that there was nothing that they could do for us. So here we are around midnight, with a vast majority of the turkey dinners yet to be cooked.
I didn’t know where to turn.  Should I call everyone that works for me and ask if they could cook turkeys? Call the school and see if we could use their kitchen? I was running out of options and time so I called my closest friend, Russ Sanford, and told him the situation.  Actually I texted him and asked him if he was awake!!!  I figured that if Russ couldn’t help fix the problem, he would at least know someone that could fix it. Remember it is now around 12:15am. Luckily for me and our customers, he was awake and he was with a good friend, Gary Berwick, visiting from the west coast.
Russ and Gary listened to my worries and concerns and confidently told me that they would be right down to the store and everything would be alright. Now I refer to them as my #1 and #1a Thanksgiving Day Savers. In the middle of the night, they cleaned and fixed my oven all the while keeping a smile on their faces. With the oven back in order, our turkey dinners were back in the works.
As you know Russ is the owner of Level Line Construction and a Town Councilor. Gary Berwick, just in from the west coast, is a vice president of a real estate company. Who would have imagined this? A guy at his best with hammer and nails and a guy that excels in selling property saving Thanksgiving for the Winthrop Marketplace and its customers. Well that is exactly what happened. And that is why Winthrop is such an amazing community. People helping people and friends helping friends. Not because they have to, but because they want to and because they can.
I am so fortunate and thankful to have a such great staff and to have friends like Russ and Gary. And I am proud of this town of Winthrop for once again proving to be the hidden jewel of the North Shore.
Marc Wallerce,
 Winthrop Marketplace
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