By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
More hungry Canadian County residents will be nourished due to the success of an inaugural mystery dinner theater benefit in Yukon. Manna Pantry exceeded expectations by raising $11,000 during a Whodunit murder mystery and auction Sept. 8 inside The Progress Room, 10 W Main.
“We’re helping make the lives of an average of 400 families a month a little bit easier,” Manna Pantry Director Sherri Rogers said.
That’s how many households are now being served by Canadian County’s emergency food pantry, 620 N Cemetery Road.
About 115 people attended the recent show featuring Whodunit OKC, the state’s longest-running murder mystery dinner theater.
“The entertainment and food were outstanding, and we had some great auction and raffle items,” Rogers said. “We were very pleased.”
Whodunit actors entertained an appreciative audience with a hilarious performance of their new skit “Who Shot the Sheriff?”, written by Oklahoma playwright Terri Myers.
“The tip jars were stuffed,” Rogers shared. “Everybody participated and seemed to have a really good time.”
An “excellent” meal was catered by Bad Brad’s BBQ of Yukon, she added.
Among featured auction items was a .22 Derringer pistol, which sold for $400. A four-night vacation stay in Branson, Mo. and a Coach purse and wallet each brought about $300.
Other popular auction prizes were three dozen cinnamon rolls baked by Manna Pantry volunteer Ramona Ritchie’s husband – which netted about $135.
‘GOOD VIBE’
The Progress Room event center proved to be “an excellent venue for what we needed,” Rogers noted.
“It just had a good vibe,” she said.
Manna Pantry officials will consider making the Whodunit dinner theater an annual fall benefit. They are looking at a spaghetti dinner and dessert auction next spring.
The volunteer-driven Manna Pantry has helped about 7,000 people since opening Jan. 18 at the Together We Center on Trinity Baptist Church’s Yukon campus, south of Interstate 40.
Manna Pantry started in 1975 inside a closet at Resurrection Lutheran Church.
For many decades, the pantry served Yukon-area residents in downtown Yukon before moving this year to Trinity Baptist Church’s Together We Center.
Manna Pantry is open Tuesdays from 3-6 p.m., Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon, Thursdays from 5-8 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon.
Learn more at mannapantry@togetherwecenter.com
