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Winning Charity for November 2021

Hello Ladies,

Thank you to all who attended our meeting.

The Foster Festival will be presenting next meeting as there was a conflict with them meeting last Thursday with us.

Congratulations to this meeting’s winning charity…. Community Crew. Thank you to Bobbie Corcoran for her nomination.

Community Crew started at Edith Cavell school in Western hill, St. Catharines in 2013 when teachers noticed children coming to school without lunches and they wanted to help. Today over 1500 children in 26 schools within the Niagara Region receive a boxed lunch from Community Crew three days a week. Community Crew continues to expand with a Fort Erie branch just opening this month.

Community Crew is run by a volunteer board of directors and employs five staff. Staff are responsible for sourcing and purchasing food, sourcing and working with corporate donors as well as school boards, school principals and teachers. Principals from schools within Niagara identify children in their schools that are in need. The full time staff and volunteers prepare the lunches and volunteers deliver them to the schools. Students within the school sort the lunches by classroom and deliver the lunches to the children in need making them feel special. Extra care is taken to ensure this is a positive experience for the children. One school even has their grade eight students dress in dark pants and a white shirt like a restaurant server to deliver these special meals.
A lunch usually consists of a wrap, a protein like a chicken finger, piece of ham or a hard boiled egg, carrots, cucumber, a piece of fruit and a snack. The lunch is packed in a good grade box that is recycled and no plastics are used. Some food is purchased and some is donated by local farmers or associations like the Canadian Egg producers. Notes of encouragement are made by volunteers and included in the Tuesday lunch packages.
Covid has increased demand with some schools now requiring double to triple the number of lunches pre COVID.
For the past two years the annual fundraising ball has not taken place although a virtual ball was held last year.
Community crew is dedicated to providing nutritious lunches and hope to children that need it the most. Children that go hungry can’t concentrate so they don’t learn and by providing lunch we are helping students get the education they need to establish a successful life.
Currently an anonymous donor is matching all contributions made up to $60k. To date over $12k has been donated so our donations will be matched dollar for dollar. So our donations will be matched!
To make your donation online go to https://www.communitycrew.ca/ and click on the “Make a donation today” button. To track the donations made by 100+ Women enter “100+ Women Who Care” under the company name.
Upcoming meetings will be:
Wednesday, February 23, 2022 (Zoom Meeting)
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 (We are going to try to meet in person and/or by Zoom, whichever you are comfortable doing. Details to follow)
Wednesday, September 28, 2022 (We are going to try to meet in person and/or by Zoom, whichever you are comfortable doing. Details to follow)
Thank you again for all your continued support and bringing new members to join!
Have a safe and joyous holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2022!

 

 

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November 24, 2021 Meeting

Greetings Ladies,
Please join us for our November meeting this Wednesday at 7:00 pm.
I will be opening the meeting up at 6:45 so please grab a coffee/wine and join us. Please feel free to invite your friends and family.
We will be hearing from Foster Festival with an update on what our donations were used for.
Here is the meeting link:
meet.google.com/heu-nztc-gak
Dial-in: (CA) +1 289-348-9468
PIN: 215 561 285#
See you Wednesday.
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September 29th Winning Charity

Thank you to all who joined in our last meeting. It was short and sweet but we heard from two great organizations……

First, thank you to Claire from Red Roof Retreat who gave us an overview on where our support went and how it helped out.

And tonight’s winner was Foster Festival. Thank you Emily who gave us a beautiful overview of what this amazing organization does.

Here is the link that will take everyone to our donation page on our website. Please make sure you note it is from 100+ Women Niagara.

https://fosterfestival.com/support/donate-membership/

Our next online meeting will be Wednesday, November 24, 2021 starting at 6:30 pm. I will send out the reminder email and link closer to the date. If you have a charity you would like to nominate please let me know.

Also, if anyone knows of a place that will give us free space to hold meetings please let me know as I know lots of you would love to come out in person. I can contact them and ask….

Until next time take care and we will see you soon.

The Foster Festival is the very first theatre festival in Canada celebrating the work of a living Canadian playwright. Norm Foster.
September 29 Winninig Charity
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September 29, 2021 Meeting

Greetings Ladies and welcome to a new year of 100+ Women Who Care Niagara. I hope you all had a safe and happy summer. But welcome Fall!

We still need to continue to grow our numbers this year. We are still below 50 donations each meeting. Please ask and share with your family, friends and colleagues. I know we can increase our numbers if we all work together. WE NEED EVERYONE’S HELP TO SUCCEED!

Our next Zoom Meeting will be Wednesday, September 29, 2021. Please email me your nominations asap. I will be sending the reminder email to everyone. Then on Wednesday the link will be sent for the meeting.

Looking forward to seeing everyone.

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Winning Charity – May 26

Thank you to everyone who attended our last meeting. What a great night we had. 
 
We welcomed some new members and heard about some more amazing charities in our Region.
 
Thank you to Cheryl Keddy Scott from the Village of Hope who recapped where your donations from last meeting went.
 
Thank you to Bobbie Corcoran who presented Red Roof Retreat and Emily Oriold who presented Foster Festival. 
 
Our winner is Red Roof Retreat.

Red Roof Retreat is an organization that provides quality recreational and respite services to children, youth and young adults with special needs.  They currently support 212 families from within the Niagara Region. Red Roof has a support staff of between 25-30 people depending on the activities they are providing. They do not receive any government funding and are 100% supported through private donations and fundraising. And of course most fund raising events have had to be cancelled due to COVID.

 

 They have two locations in Niagara on the Lake where they provide specialized summer camps and adult day programs. At the Ranch which is an 11 acre hobby farm complete with farm animals and they have an accessible trail and playground for those clients in walkers and wheelchairs. They provide weekend adult respite services at the one location and childrens weekend respite services at the other location to give special needs families a much needed break. Specialized programs and staffing are provided for the children and adults using the respite services and are usually booked out a year in advance. As well Red Roof Retreat uses the community centre inside the Ina Graften Village to provide summer camps, teen nights, family swim nights and many other programs utilizing the therapeutic pool, five pin bowling alley and multiple activity rooms. 

 

COVID has caused Red Roof Retreat to temporarily close due to the vulnerability of their clients. Many of their young adults live in group homes and have been shut in since the pandemic started. Others have been living at home with no social interaction which can be a struggle for them under normal circumstances. In some cases their clients have been traumatized by COVID and will require special attention and focus to get them back into a socially interactive environment. 
 
Now that vaccinations have started and there is light at the end of the tunnel Red Roof Retreat will hopefully be reopening this summer with day camps and will then reopen their respite services once they have a better understanding of the new social distancing requirements. Increased costs associated with the government mandated salary increase for Personal Support Workers as well as increased cleaning supplies, PPE and other COVID related requirements will put a financial strain on Red Roof Retreat. The donations Red Roof Retreat will receive from being our chosen charity will be of great help in getting this organization back to providing a wonderful and much needed service to this vulnerable part of our community.

 

 Here is the link to send your donation to and please reference 100+ Women Niagara in the message area so we know it came from our group. 
Our next ZOOM meeting is set for September 29, 2021 starting at 6:45 for registration.
I wish you all the very best over these summer months, and we will see you in September.
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Charity Nominations for May Meeting

Hello Ladies. Please email me your nominations for next week’s meeting. Our meeting is on May 26, 2021 at 7 pm. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Zoom meeting and welcoming some new members! Enjoy this glorious sunshine!

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February 24, 2021 Meeting

Greetings Ladies and welcome to a new year of 100+ Women Who Care Niagara.

We need to grow our numbers this year. We have fallen below 50 donations for the last 4 meetings. Please ask and share with your family, friends and colleagues. I know we can increase our numbers if we all work together.

WE NEED EVERYONE’S HELP TO SUCCEED!

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 24, 2021. It will be a Zoom Meeting and the link will be emailed to all members just prior to the date. We will start registration at 6:45 pm with the meeting starting at 7:00 pm. You will be hearing from the Education Foundation of Niagara, our recipient from last meeting.  Please mark your calendars and join us!

I hope to see you all there!