Considerable work has been done in the background for the event which successfully ran Saturday. Beside the obvious meals which were packaged we used a new venue, found and organized many more volunteers that in past, handled the logistics of food materials and packaging equipment to the event, cleanup after, and logistics of equipment removal and many pallets of packaged food. I risk missing important people who contributed but from the club, Lyle, David, Vera, Angela were big organizers. Other from the club helped out as well.
Above Bill Gordon from the Fort Saskatchewan Club gave us a cheque for $2000 to help with the cost of supplies to package.
Below President Bob presenting a cheque for food supplies to Lyle (Emmanuel Foundation)
Last Week's Speaker
Gareth Swinnerton, Supervisor of Forestry/Horticulture Recreation, Parks and Culture for the County of Strathcona spoke to us.
He gave us a rundown on the cultural and environmental benefit of trees. We also learned that studies have shown in an urban setting that they can reduce crime in higher density living areas. Property values of landscaped homes in treed neighbourhoods are 5 to 20 percent higher.
The County has an estimated 74,000,000 trees covering approximately 21% of the area. In urban areas of the County there are 37,000 trees. The County actively manages the trees by pruning in the urban areas every 5 years and continuing to plant outside the urban areas. That is where we come in. Gareth is happy to work with our club again in May. He selected an area within Sherwood Park that will probably need planting over the course of several years. Steve and Paul are working with Gareth to set up a date. Stay tuned!
Mark Your Calendars
SATURDAY, February 22 was a BIG day. With lots of help from the Knights of Columbus. OLPH Parish, Girl Guides, hockey teams and many others from the community that I forgot we packaged 60,000 meals. The button for pledges remains below to help pay for the supplies.
On March 18 the Edmonton area clubs will hold the annual Integrity Awards. at the Chateaux Lacombe. The nominating committee have committed to 2 tables at the event. Help the club make a good showing and let David or Allan know if you would like to attend this event.
Mothers' Day Build. Sleep in Heavenly Peace is planning a big build. The date is 9 May from 9AM to 1PM. Neil will provide us more details including location as the date gets closer. Several members have helped already and many more are interested in this upcoming build. Neil's goal is: "No child sleeps on the floor in our community". Let's help him realize it.
It is becoming an annual endeavour - tree planting. Steve and Paul are organizing. Keep a look out for a date in May.
Wednesday 3 June is our annual golf tournament. There is lots of planing going on behind the scenes. Keep the date. We will be calling soon for volunteers to help out on the date.
