WEST NEWBURY, Vt. — The power was out at West Newbury Hall due to high winds on the night of the 63rd annual West Newbury turkey supper and bake sale last month, but the more than 70 volunteers organizing, cooking, serving and cleaning up afterward did not miss a beat.

Despite a lack of electricity starting at about 6 a.m. on Oct. 12, the volunteers managed to feed over 430 community members in one night, raising about $6,500 for hall maintenance.

“It really didn’t set us back,” said Jan Cole, a member of the supper’s leadership team. “We had backup plans, we always do.”

While many other turkey suppers in the Upper Valley have switched to a fully-take-out model, such as First Universalist Society of Hartland’s annual event, West Newbury returned to in person dining, along with a takeout option last year after a three-year pandemic hiatus.

This year, two generators supplied by community members and an electric car owned by hall committee building manager John Nininger provided enough energy for the West Newbury Hall to have lights and running water.

“People always show up to help, and today it was offering generators,” said long-time supper volunteer and West Newbury resident Cathy Kidder.

Since the kitchen in the hall, located at 214 Tyler Farm Road, is equipped with a gas stove, cooking did not pose an issue. Heating enough water to hand-wash all of the dishes did, but not for long.

Harold Carleton, who owns Tucker Mountain Maple Farm in Newbury, realized his portable sap boiler could heat up a lot of water quickly.

“We’re all improvising to pull this off,” said Carleton, 52, who volunteered as a server at the supper in high school and came back as a kitchen volunteer in 2017.

Carleton’s mother, Julia, 76, attends the West Newbury Congregational Church and volunteered for the supper as a plate scraper.

Many volunteers brought their families along with them, some three generations worth.

The leader of the whole operation, Susan Goodell, had her husband, Jeff, taking tickets, father, David, plating turkey, daughter, Eliza, running plates, son, Carter, mashing potatoes, and Carter’s girlfriend, Becca Ferguson, slicing pies.

Goodell has been on the leadership team since in-person dining returned last year. Before that, she volunteered at the supper on and off for 20 years.

“The only way to get out of these roles is to die and I’m not planning to do that anytime soon,” Goodell, 58, said in a phone interview after the chaos of the supper had ended.

By 4:30 p.m., a line had formed for the 5 p.m. setting, the first of three.

The task of setting, serving and clearing tables largely rested on a team of about 30 kids from the community, the youngest of which was 10.

Four exchange students from Madrid, Spain, who attende d Oxbow for a month got to be a part of the excitement. Sandra Garcia said she was “not nervous,” before the supper began.

Two first-year college students, Maisa Cook, attending the University of Vermont, and Addison Ralphs, attending Colby College in Maine, left school for the weekend to volunteer at the supper alongside their little sisters.

“I wanted to see my family, and I really love the community and wanted to help,” said Ralphs, whose mother and father also volunteered.

At 5 p.m., the upstairs dining room filled up for the first seating of 86, followed by the downstairs seating of an additional 57 diners. Simultaneous to the chaos of in-person dining, volunteers prepared 170 takeout dinners to be picked up throughout the night.

The kids wasted no time serving the completely homemade meal of roast turkey; dressing; potatoes and squash from 4 Corners Farm in Newbury; gravy; coleslaw; cranberry sauce; “Aroline’s famous rolls” (a recipe by Aroline Putnam, 91, a former member of the West Newbury Women’s Fellowship, which used to run the hall and the supper); cider; coffee or tea; and a choice of apple or pumpkin pie for dessert.

All that cost $16 for adults and takeout, and $10 for children.

Leading up to the supper, volunteers opened up their own kitchens to prepare 100 pies and 29 turkeys.

“Once you eat this meal, you come back,” Bradford, Vt., resident Pam Bean said, while attending her fifth annual supper, “and I love seeing the kids.”

The majority of guests seemed to echo Bean’s sentiment.

“The food, all the helpers, it’s amazing,” said Marcia Pettigrew, who moved to the area 22 years ago and hasn’t missed a dinner since.

“The food was only surpassed by the service and the organization,” said Fred Delman, of Warren, N.H.

As diners finished, the kids got to work clearing plates with the hope everyone would be out by 6 p.m. to give the crew about 15 minutes to wash all of the dishes and reset the dining room for the next crowd.

“I like doing the dishes personally,” said self-proclaimed “Director of Dish Washing” Rowe Williams, “it’s a madhouse for a little bit after each seating, but you can just put your head down and wash.”

The volunteers worked like a well-oiled machine. Guests could not even tell the hall was running on creative power sources.

“It’s working amazingly,” said Nininger, the building manager.

Knowing nobody came after them, the 7:15 p.m. diners lingered. Among them were 13 members of one family spanning three generations.

“Me and my sister volunteered here when we were kids,” said Josh Adams surrounded by his mother, father, sister, his sister’s kids, his wife, Kate, and their children.

Bob Gray, owner of 4 Corners Farm, which has provided the vegetables for the dinner every year for the past 45 years, ate with his family.

“We could not farm without them,” he said while gesturing to the team of workers who sat at the table next to him.

A little after 8 p.m., as the final guests filed out, electrician Shannon Young, who owns Newbury-based Young's Electric,  arrived to switch the power back over to the lines, just in time for the moment the volunteers had been waiting for: Eating the meal for themselves.

“Fantastic and hungry,” is how 17-year-old Shane Morse said he felt while taking away the last few dishes.

Before eating, the team gathered in the downstairs kitchen to hear a few words from Susan Goodell.

“This was an amazing day and the fact that we pulled this off without electricity is insane,” she said, “I want to thank all of you, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.”

With that, the volunteers lined up, took a seat, and indulged.

Along with general maintenance, the hall committee plans on using the money raised to make the hall more accessible, to ensure everyone in the community can use the hall as a gathering place.

“After the election it’s even clearer to me, it’s less about making money for the hall and more about bringing people together from all walks of life, both as diners and volunteers,” said Goodell in a phone interview. “It’s the importance of knowing your neighbor, and man, if we don’t have community, we’re really in trouble.”

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.

CORRECTION: Electrician Shannon Young, who owns Young's  Electric in Newbury, Vt., switched the power back over to the lines at West Newbury Hall after the power was restored at the 63rd annual West Newbury turkey supper and bake sale on Oct. 12. A previous version of this story included an incorrect name for the electric company that performed the job.