 The incomparable Fillmore Sisters: Doreen and Linda Vegas Meets Regina
at the Fillmore Family’s
Fowl Fête
Walking into the Hellenic Community Centre on
Vancouver’s Westside on the evening of November 12, 2005 there’s a
possibility you could have seen a cow in ballet slippers playing a saw with a
violin bow. You might have heard the crowd cheering wildly for a troupe of talented tap dancers—while most of the audience were secretly imagining themselves tapping on the stage.
You could have caught a glimpse of Rhinestone cowboys strutting in
Vegas-meets-Regina style or perhaps you would have witnessed the longest
cowboy mambo line that would have brought even Buster Pointdexter to
tears. But no matter what time you arrived, you would have seen Linda and
Doreen Fillmore of the Fillmore Family Foundation presiding over the
6th annual Prairie Fairies Fowl Supper, their
signature fundraiser for three AIDS organizations: A Loving Spoonful, Dr.
Peter Centre and McLaren Housing Society. This years theme? Viva Las Fillmore!
Even with a larger venue for 2005, advance tickets sold out in record time. Over 600 guests packed the hall and crippled the bar with
their requests for red wine. Bus loads of Saskatchewan ex-pats and
neophyte guests from as far away as Australia reveled in the warmth of this
Prairie tradition with a Vancouver twist.
Their Work is Never Done: Doreen Fillmore auctions off a Commemorative Fillmore Sisters Plate for Charity. This one sold for $600. 
For anyone unfamiliar with the ‘fowl supper’, it originates in the Canadian prairies and is a seasonal circuit of dinners hosted in church basements and Legion Halls. Like any fowl supper the Fillmore Family Foundation’s November gala unfolded right on script; every bottle uncorked with guests tying their shirts up to expose their midriff while swaying erratically to Abba’s Dancing Queen.
Linda and Doreen were—as always—in fine form and looking ravishing in sequined gowns, Chiquita banana head
gear and bedazzling sweaters. The matriarchs of the Fillmore Family
Foundation electrified the guests with a performance worthy of the MGM grand
while eliciting bids for their latest edition of commemorative plates and
presenting the award for that staple of Fowl Suppers everywhere: the Molded Jello Salad Contest.
Divine Bovine: Oh, we weren’t kidding about the cow. Doug Cameron donned the udders for his hilariously surreal barnyard performance. 
After all the turkey was eaten and the balloons dropped, everyone
left with big prairie smiles and helped the Foundation raise over $24,000
for charities that provide housing and nourishment for those suffering with
HIV/AIDS.
By giving Vancouver the Prairie Fairies Fowl Supper, the
Fillmore Family Foundation has, once a year, given displaced Prairie folk a
taste of home as comforting as basement wood paneling and shelves littered
with curling trophies from the community bonspiel. By making McLaren
Housing one of the benefactors of the money raised, the Fillmore Family
Foundation gives McLaren clients the same opportunity all year long.  |
