KEYPORT — The classic idiom “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” is one expression that Indianola resident Dianna Cox doesn’t buy into when it comes to things outside the kitchen.
Cox has seen what cooks — especially those in the North Kitsap School District’s central kitchen — can do together when a co-worker needs a helping hand.
“We’re together more with each other sometimes than we are with our own families,” she said.
Unfortunately, tragedy has befallen this kitchen on multiple occasions in 2004, making it a year Cox and her co-workers are ready to see come to an end.
The latest disaster was an electrical fire that swept through the home of Keyport resident and fellow cook Twayna Woods and her family Dec. 12. It destroyed much of the Woods’ single-wide trailer.
Woods was purchasing a Christmas tree when her son, Paul, and a friend of the family, were at home and the house’s electrical wiring ignited a fire. They tried to extinguish the blaze and quickly called the fire department.
Woods remembered the shock she felt when she came home.
“I said, ‘Wow, look how bright Keyport is,’ and then saw fire trucks all around the trailer,” she said.
It took about a half an hour to put the fire out. No one was injured.
NKSD’s Food and Nutrition Services Department members have had friends or co-workers endure several devastating fires this year — including the Dore family blaze, which at least ended with some Hollywood help — and have mourned the deaths of several colleagues and family members.
“We’ve lost a lot this year,” Cox said. “We’re hoping nothing else happens.”
To make matters worse in Woods’ situation, she doesn’t have insurance to cover the expense. And though she’s received a deal for another manufactured home, the cost of moving it from its existing location on Bainbridge Island will likely cost thousands of dollars.
What Cox does have, though, is friends who have helped her on a moment’s notice. They’ve potentially saved her hundreds of dollars already by taking up sledge-hammers and other tools to help demolish the unsalvagable existing home and assisted to recycle materials. Another friend has donated time with a bulldozer to clear the property.
“I’d do anything for her and she’d do anything for me,” said Cathy Kufahl, another one of the cooks in the PJH kitchen who has worked for the district six years.
“She’s got a good heart and she’ll always try to carry the whole load herself,” added another friend Sharon Brady, who has worked in NK schools 21 years. “If you knew her, you’d want to be down here helping, too.”
A single mother, Woods has worked for North Kitsap School District for 10 years. After she works a full shift in the kitchen starting at 5 a.m., she is a recess supervisor at the junior high school until the end of the day. Then, she goes to West Sound Academy where she is a custodian.
“I couldn’t have done it without these guys,” Woods said of the traumatic experience.
Woods is currently staying with her sister Rita Myrick in Poulsbo while her children are at their father’s residence in Suquamish. She said she hopes to find the time and money necessary to move into the new house and begin rebuilding her life.
“We just want the best for her,” said Erin Henry, another six year employee of North Kitsap’s Central Kitchen. “She could use a break — she really could.”