Robin Taberna has manned the same station at the Costa’s annual wild game feed and Christmas party for more than two decades.
He’s the “outdoor In-N-Out guy.”
Taberna, a member of the Manteca Hall of Fame for his extensive community service – most notably offering free karate lessons to Boys and Girls Club of Manteca members for decades – is always one of the first to show up and set up the table that will eventually be used to form burger patties from an extensive variety of wild game.
There are deer burgers, and elk burgers, and even bear burgers – the extra lean meat mixed with a little bit of fatty pork to create right consistency for cooking before they’re thrown on the grill and served up to the nearly 1,000 people that filtered through Manteca Trailer and Motorhome on Friday.
But it’s isn’t the unique fare that keeps Taberna coming back, but the service to the community – helping facilitate an event that raises thousands of dollars to help needy families during the holidays.
“Everybody is out here because it’s a lot of fun, but we’re also doing something good for the community and helping people,” Taberna said. “This is a big party and you get to see a lot of people here that you don’t see during the rest of the year, but they’re all here to help raise money and help the needy during Christmas – that’s what I look forward to.”
The annual gathering was born more than 30 years ago when a worker at Costa’s Automotive Machine found himself alone on Christmas with his children. In order to do something for the employee, the father of Jim and Jesse Costa – who owned the business at the time – called up friends who were hunters and fisherman and asked them to bring down some of their take while the family fixed up some bicycles and put together a Christmas meal that wouldn’t otherwise have been had.
They had no way of knowing that the gathering would become an annual one – and one that has since prompted several location changes as the number of people every year continues to grow – now serving nearly 1,000 people every year and raising upwards of $13,000 that is dispersed to local families so that in the spirit of the original feast they can have a Christmas that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
According to Jesse Costa, the event also serves as somewhat of a reunion – a chance for people who have moved away to come back and share a meal with their old friends and help support families that need it during the holidays.
“A lot of these people here are people that you don’t normally get to see, and that makes it special,” Costa said. “We get donations from so many different people to help make this thing what it is, and it’s that sense of community coming together to help the community.
“We started with 40 people in a garage, and here we are now – we never thought it would be this.”
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
