Alkmaarders 1.5 hours in line for döner, 17,000 euros collected for Turkish home village

Her husband’s home village of Elbistan was completely destroyed by the earthquakes last week. “His mother was in the flat and had to flee outside,” she said earlier. The Bodrum eatery decided to take action.

The whole day they voluntarily toiled with twelve men in the small tent at Zevenhuizen. “The guys who work for us also had a great experience. It was really full,” Reyhan says over the phone.

Local suppliers donated food and hundreds of people from Alkmaar and the surrounding area queued, some for an hour and a half. “The line went over the bridge, up to the zebra crossing.” Kebab sandwiches, Turkish pizzas and hair salon were ordered, but enough people only gave money. She remembers that one customer donated a very large amount.

“An elderly lady. She ordered two small things and then pressed three new €50 notes into my hand. I said: ma’am, this is way too much, this is €150. But she said: “no, this is for you ‘. Heart warming.”

A small customer also came to the diner with a self-made drawing. “With the Turkish flag on it, our shop and the park with the trees.” How is their family in Turkey?

“It’s okay. You don’t want to constantly call and talk about the same thing. They have to process this. But they have lost everything. The money collected therefore goes entirely to the local population. Every little bit helps. The children, for example, also have no school supplies more, laptops were already hard to get, especially now.”

And, after twelve hours of hard selfless work yesterday, it sounds like the diner is already being prepared for a new working day in the background. “We already cleaned a lot yesterday, so now we have to prepare and then we will open again. We are so grateful to everyone! It is a huge amount and this means something to us. So many lovely people. Yesterday was a beautiful day.”