Friday, May 18, 2012
KINGSTON BRANCH NEWS
Kingston, the Limestone City has so many wonderful features; we know you would enjoy spending time in this beautiful part of eastern Ontario.
Our branch presently has 64 members and we were very pleased that the Membership Matters Grant helped us welcome four new members!
Each spring and fall, we have a general meeting followed by a luncheon and guest speaker. In past years, we have had speakers from a number of organizations including the Children’s Aid Society, the Military Family Resource Centre, and the Katarokwi Native Friendship Centre. Also, two of our members presented an enjoyable workshop on scrapbooking.
This September we were delighted to have Provincial President Annette Rhodes as our guest speaker. Our Area 8 Director, Annalee Ladouceur also joined us for this time of caring and sharing. During the luncheon our members were able to discuss branch and provincial matters with both Annette and Annalee. We all enjoyed hearing Annette speak about RWTO/OERO as “the best kept secret”. She encouraged us to spread the word about our wonderful organization.
After the luncheon everyone waited eagerly to see which prize they had won from our “treasure table”. These items are donated by our members and funds are directed to our outreach Bags Plus Programme.
 We are very proud of our Bags Plus Programme. Three times a year, a number of our members gather to pack a large number of cloth bags with toiletries, books and magazines, school supplies and other seasonal items for social service agencies in our area. We also pack 30 Christmas bags for residents of a rural retirement home. After the bags are packed and placed in delivery boxes, we have a short meeting while enjoying a pot luck lunch.
Our other outreach programme involves voluntary donations to the Afghanistan fund. One of our members uses this fund to purchase goodies to send to our troops in Afghanistan. She was delighted to receive personal thanks from one of the soldiers!
The executive meets three times a year to exchange ideas and plan events for the following months. All pertinent information is relayed in the President’s newsletters, which are sent out electronically or by mail in the early spring and fall before the luncheon meetings. These newsletters also include a profile of one of our members. We look forward to a busy year of caring and sharing in the Kingston Branch.
|
