Reporter for The Canyon Weekly
When a truck and trailer loaded down with two new picnic tables pulled into the parking lot of the Trio Tavern in Mill City, owner Beth Kelley was blown away.
“It was a huge surprise,” Kelley said, admitting that, while she had heard a rumor that there was something in the works, she “had no idea how grand the scale.”
That’s because even the woman who started it all, regular customer Brenda Stokes, didn’t know how extravagant the gift was going to be.
“Some of the patio furniture had seen better days,” Kelley said. “Brenda Stokes was out on the patio one day and said we’ve got to do something. So, she called Freres Lumber and…she just asked for some wood.”
Unbeknownst to Stokes, that phone call put her in touch with Freres Lumber’s vice president of operations, Kyle Freres, who – as a regular of the Trio Tavern himself – decided there was more he could do than donate a few pieces of lumber.
“We have various remnants or pieces left over from jobs we do, and I was thinking this would work pretty well for picnic tables,” he recalled.
And so, he called the company’s CNC Team together – Jason Pilgrim and Robert Rumplik – and asked them to create a couple of prototypes.
“Those guys did all the work on the tables,” Freres said. “They did a great job.”
But there was still more work to do.
“It was just a whole community,” Kelley confirmed. A team of people joined together to apply putty and stain then lift, haul and finally unload the new tables onto the Trio Tavern patio.
“It was a humbling experience,” Kelley said.
And one she sorely needed.
“These past two years…I’m not going to pretend they haven’t been difficult,” Kelley said, referring to the sudden loss of her sister – former Trio Tavern owner Sara Kelley.
That was followed by her own difficult transition from working as a rescue ministry social worker in Salem to running a restaurant in Mill City.
“The loss, not only for my family but the community, it’s been an uphill climb,” Kelley said.
“But these moments and this community…it just puts things into perspective that all the effort and struggle has been worth it.”
