Theatre Sarnia is honouring the life of a longtime member and former employee of The Inn of the Good Shepherd, with a community food drive Wednesday, June 17.
Anthony Fracalanza passed away peacefully at Bluewater Health on May 5.
Theatre member Ryan Metzler said they're holding the drive-by food drive outside the Imperial Theatre on what would have been Fracalanza's 32nd birthday.
"This is something we wanted to do, and with Anthony's name on it, it means a lot more to us now. So we're going to set up some tables and some signage so that we can have people actually drive-by, and it'll be located at the theatre downtown. We're going to do kind of a drop-off this year just due to the social guidelines and everything going on with the pandemic."
Metzler said losing Fracalanza has certainly left a hole in their little theatre family.
"If you didn't see him at the Inn doing all of his volunteer work and working helping out those in need, he was pretty much always found at the theatre. He was a youth group leader for the senior kids, he was part of so many different shows in so many aspects, he was kind of the go-to ringer -- anytime you needed something, it was usually 'let's go find Anthony,' because he'll do it."
Metzler said if Fracalanza was still around today, he would've been a big part of helping the community through the COVID pandemic.
"He would've been in the middle of it. When the Inn did their first drive, delivering Tim Horton's to frontline workers, there's dozens of pictures [of him] masked-up and you can see the smile on his face, like it shot through."
Fracalanza was hired by the Inn after completing his social worker program at Lambton College and was most recently in charge of the Inn's client services reception.
Anthony's H.O.P.E (Helping Other People Eat) Theatre Sarnia Food Drive goes from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/ImperialTheatreSarnia/photos/a.678438122189128/3357747370924843/?type=3&theater