Walk for Memories 2009

This is a reminder to those who may want to participate in the “Walk for Memories”  for Alzheimer Awareness month.  There will be 2 locations for the walk, Limeridge Mall and Burlington Mall, January 18th starting at 9 a.m.

We have always had a wonderful representation from S.I. DAF and I would be honoured to have you walk with me.  If you can not walk on that day, would you consider sponsoring one of us in the walk?

Barb McCoy, Alzheimer’s Society

Sandy Gray, Weeks of Waterdown

Shirley McCoy, Lucky Day Nursery

Brooke & Steve Lascos

Margaret Kovacs

For the newer members, you may not know that my Mother has had Alzheimer Disease for the past 25 years.  It has been a difficult journey for all of our family.  I am sure all of you know someone who has been affected by this disease and we can only hope that in time we will find a cure.

You can register at www.walkformemories.ca, call 905-529-7030 for a pledge form, or sponsor a registrant (see the links above).  I have booked us as a Team under Soroptimist Dundas/Ancaster /Flamborough for the Limeridge Mall Walk.  You can register under the team and still collect individual pledges. Thank you for all of your kind support in this area.

Barb, SI-DAF President

Giving Back at Christmas

It is funny how everything seems to come together at Christmas time!

Newest SI DAF member, Cheri DeMenna was telling a friend Jane about her joining Soroptimist International. It turns out that her friend had a ‘conflicted’ background and she appreciates the work SI and similar organizations do.  Jane, who wanted to ‘give back’, asked Cheri if she would be able to help her by distributing some Avon product gift bags to women who may otherwise not have a gift on Christmas morning.  So Cheri emailed Sandy about where we could direct these.  Sandy first directed Cheri to Drummond House, a local women’s transitional home in Waterdown.  Executive Director Debbie Tigchelaar gratefully accepted 5 of these for their residents and also gave Cheri a tour of the facility.

The ladies of SI-DAF visit Interval House for a tour

The other place Sandy suggested was Interval House, a crisis shelter for abused women & their children, that serves our communities.  Just so happens that Sandy was needing to visit Clare Freeman, the executive director, with a donation of her own so they decided a visit & tour of that facility was in order.  They were joined by SI DAF member Lynda Switzer who just so happened to have a large number of ‘Franklin the Turtle’  children’s books that needed to be enjoyed by young readers. Clare treated us to a full tour of the facility along with some short informative video’s and we returned the favour by donating $500.00 in cash, 15 gift bags, large number of Franklin books and a number of stuffed animals!

Christmas Get Together

On Thursday December 4th, SI DAF member Pauline Hardcastle opened her home in Ancaster to our club members & guests for our Annual Christmas Dinner meeting. In attendance were 18 ladies including 7 guest: Bev & Sharon who were guests of Nancy, Alice who was a guest of Shirley M, Marilyn was a guest of Jane and Zoie who is Pauline’s daughter.

Also in attendance was Cathie Pead, our guest speaker who was there to bring us up to date on the YWCA’s capital campaign to build the new facility on the Hamilton Mountain. SI DAF has made a $40,000.00 commitment to the Hamilton YWCA for the child care facility that will provide affordable day care to working mothers.  We have completed half of that commitment to them, the other half will follow when construction is underway.

We held a condensed business meeting before dinner with the added highlight of inducting our newest member Cheri DeMenna of Waterdown. Cheri is a friend & co-worker of member Sandy Gray who is also from the Flamborough area. Following the business portion of the meeting we sat down to a delicious turkey dinner that was provided by Jane Riddell Catering. Amazingly Pauline seated everyone at a huge t-shaped dining table complete with linens, Christmas decorations and party crackers.

Thank you again to Pauline for being the hostess for our annual Christmas dinner in your beautiful home!

End Domestic Violence

In 1994, Soroptimist International of the Americas (SIA) made the prevention of domestic violence an organizational focus. Each year, on November 25 (the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women), members participate annual in the Soroptimist Workplace Campaign to End Domestic Violence.

The campaign targets domestic abuse as a workplace concern. Domestic violence is a workplace issue because it affects both women and business, as most women work and they do not leave abuse behind while at the workplace. Abusers often harass their partners at work. In worse case scenarios, abusers come to the workplace and threaten their partners and their co-workers.

As business and professional women, Soroptimists are in a position to educate people in the workplace that women have the right to live free from violence. This year, our club members will distribute flyers at their workplace provided by the Neighbours, Friends and Family program of Ontario. There were safety cards and three brochures: How You can Identify and Help Women at Risk of Abuse; Safety Planning for Women Who are Abused; How to Talk to Men Who are Abusive.

For more information, we recommend you read the SIA whitepaper on Domestic Violence as a Workplace Concern »

Loonie-Toonie Auction

With 106 auction items available for a loonie or a toonie per bid, we raised over $8,500 on November 12 at our annual Christmas Auction.

“We are thankful for the support of the community to make our event such a success”, from the Chair of Fundraising, Kerry Jarvi, who was our MC for the evening and assisted by past governor of the Soroptimist International of the Americas (SIA) Eastern Canada Region, Shirley McCoy. The grand prize, called Pearls & Passion, included a weekend getaway, theatre tickets, a gift basket to set the mood and an 18″ strand of pearls. There were over 200 attendees at the new venue, St Thomas parish hall in Waterdown, jockeying for the winning numbers. One of the first time attendees, a local resident of Waterdown, said that she had the best time in ages. “I had no idea what to expect and I didn’t quite get it until we got started but count me in for next year. I didn’t realize how much I had needed a fun night out and definitely want to come again.”

Thank you to the troop of extremely polite and enthusiastic young boys who volunteered from the local high school to hand out door prizes and sell last minute tickets for a Wheel Barrow of Wine, also known as Santa’s Sleigh of Sippin’ Sauce, which contained 24 bottles of white and red wine plus a shiny red wheelbarrow donated by Weeks of Waterdown. The winning ticket was drawn by Past Governor, Margaret MacRea. Congratulations to the winner – our very own Nancy Davidson of SI-DAF. 

We would especially like to thank all of Our Generous Donors and we encourage you to ‘Support the Businesses that support our Community’ (listed in alphabetical order):

Flamborough: Blanca’ Aesthetics, Bonnets & Bags, Boston Pizza, Curves, The Cutting Edge, Flamboro Mix & Brew House, Flamboro Springs, Kathy Holmes, PartyLite Gifts by Randi Warner, Polar Bay Wines, Runners Den, Vintage Performance & Restoration, Weeks Home Hardware
Dundas: Collins Brewhouse
Ancaster: J. Oulton & Associates, Nancy Davidson – Freedom 55 Financial, Renew You, The Spa at Ancaster, Village Tree House Child Care
Hamilton: A Clean Break, Bloom N Gales, Curves, Lucky Day Nursery, La Petite Spa, Tourism Hamilton, Hamilton Police Services, Hamilton Fire Services, H2H Entertainment
Burlington: The Natural Way, Women Who Excel
Brantford: Sanderson Centre, Bodega Inn
Mississauga: Tree of Life Canada
Personal donor: Margaret Robertson, K.T.- a Red Hat Enthusiast, Helen Bradley, Kim Gordon and all the Ladies of Soroptimist International of Dundas Ancaster Flamborough!

Wrapping Fiesta

9am sharp the coffee was ready, the garage was open for cars to back-in and unload, and helping hands were ready and waiting. Sandy was kind enough to lend us her basement and the morning was spent sorting and assembling with ribbons, do-dads and cellophane wrap.

Friends & Fun Night at Barb’s

Thank you all S.I. DAF members for the wonderful evening last night. Everyone contributed to make the evening quite enjoyable and memorable. A special thanks to Jane for ordering a most delicious (Indian) meal and to Pauline who helped with the delivery. Thanks to all who participated in searching our various S.I. websites for SOLT information to share with the club. A special thanks to all who brought guests to share our club meeting and a special thanks to Kerry and Brooke for fun ice breaker exercises. I am so proud to belong to such a fine organization with such wonderful women that I respect and admire and can truly call my friends. S.I. DAf rocks!
With much heartfelt affection;
Barb

p.s. Governer margaret joined us to talk about the Soroptimist Foundation of Canada and was kind enough to bring chocolate. Below are a copy of the games:

M&Ms game:

Red candy: favorite hobbies
Green candy: favorite foods
Yellow candy: favorite movies
Orange candy: favorite places to travel
Brown candy: most memorable or embarrassing moments
Blue: what interested you in Soroptimist

Sort & Mingle

cheesecake vs chocolate cake (dessert)
underwire vs no wire (underwear)
red vs white (wine)
kids vs no kids (family)
apples vs oranges (fruit)
Sears vs The Bay (shopping)
cruise vs all inclusive (holidays)
standard vs automatic (cars)
open toe vs closed toe (sandles)
thongs vs panties (underwear)
car vs suv (transportation)
vegetables vs meat (food)
purse vs totebag (accessories)
plastic vs reusable (grocery store)
spring vs fall (weather)
cone or cup (ice cream)
pierced vs clip on (earrings)
tea vs coffee (food)
hiking vs swimming (hobbies)
salty vs sweet (food)
Coke vs Pepsi (food)

Rose’s Dish Cloths raised over $200

Rose Bayley is knitting dish cloths! In fact Rose is knitting dish cloths by the dozens and she is doing it so the Soroptimist International club of Dundas/Ancaster/Flamborough (whom her daughter Pauline is a member) can sell them to help less fortunate women & children in our community. The Soroptimist club will not only use the money for that cause; they will also make a contribution to the Alzheimer’s Society in honour of Rose!

You see, Rose; who is from London, England has for some time now been showing signs of the onset of Alzheimer’s. Her family first became aware of Rose’s changing situation about a year ago. Her daughter Pauline and husband David had moved to Ontario with their children several years ago and Pauline could now hear the difference in long distance telephone conversations with her mum. Each time the family visited England they would further notice marked changes in her abilities; but Pauline’s father John, Rose’s husband of 59 years was managing. Sadly in November of 2007 John passed away suddenly and when Pauline and family returned to England for her father’s funeral she realized that her mum could not stay there alone. So they brought Rose to Canada to stay with her only daughter Pauline & her family. In an attempt to help Rose rebuild her life Pauline suggested her mum might like to rekindle her interest in knitting – from that day on she hasn’t stopped!

Now you may be wondering what makes Rose’s dishcloths so famous? It is more how knitting them makes Rose feel; it gives her purpose to her day and a sense of accomplishment that she has been lacking since Alzheimer’s came to call. Even with the controlling effects of Alzheimer’s Rose can do something important to help other women & children here in her new community!

Paul Johnson

Thank you Pauline for inviting Paul Johnson as our guest speaker on September 4. Paul is the Executive Director at the Wesley Urban Ministries in Hamilton. He came to inform our group about the transitional housing project.

The Wesley Youth Housing Program is a collaborative project that offers the street-involved or homeless youth (ranging in age from 16-21 years) access to safe, affordable, one-year housing with on-site support programs to aid the youth in building the skills necessary to reach their ultimate goal.

Find out more >>

DAF-fy Girls Get-Together

Special thanks to our two guests who attended the pot-luck dinner at Sandy’s last night. The food everyone brought was absolutely delicious! Sandy gave the newcomers a tour, we all met Max and she had a slide show from her recent motorcycle trip. Brooke and Nancy had wedding photos to share.

The weather on the patio was beautiful and with drinks in hand, we sat down to business. Barb put together a great annual calendar with colour coding and everything! Our next meeting will be at the usual spot: Fortinos in Westdale.