Happy New Year to all of you.  I don’t know where 2012 has gone.  The last thing I remember it was August and now we have a brand new year ahead of us.  Darlene Borowski did such a wonderful job of President last year - she deserves a huge round of applause.  Thank you Darlene from all the Ladies for a very successful year and always having a smile on your face even though you went through some tough family times.  I appreciated your council during the last year as well.  
 
I would like to thank Past Presidents Joyce Houston and Faye Hooper for the great job they did in installing the Officers at our January 21st meeting.  They installed Vice-President – Cathy Kabernick, Treasurer – Vera Malczewski, Secretary – Hope Rosenbaum, and Membership – Carolyn Haslewood.  I am so glad you Ladies accepted these positions and are keeping up your efforts for our great organization.  Cathy, Vera and Carolyn have been around for a few years so hopefully they can impart enough wisdom to keep the newcomers "Hope and I" out of trouble !!

January 1st Anne Simpson and I attended the Lieutenant Governors Levee at the Parliament Building on behalf of Darlene and were introduced to him and his wife.  We enjoyed the entertainment after in the entranceway along with many other people who attended.  They had sleigh rides outside and it seemed everyone had a nice time.  The activities are open to the general public so keep that in mind for next year.   

January 12th I attended the Masonic Family Meeting at MMC.  I think it’s important to keep our connection with the other concordant bodies and hopefully we can support one
another.  Not many other jurisdictions have the good relationship that we have developed over the past few years. 

Our next meeting is February 4th at the Rehab Centre so hopefully you will be able to
come out and enjoy our Guest Speaker.  Check out our Newsletter and Calendar for other activities coming up.

Stay tuned.....

June

I hope everyone has enjoyed our hot summer and is looking forward to getting back into routine. I know that I am. I thought it was going to be a relaxing summer but it turned out to be busier than expected.   
  
I have put the CTV interview on a DVD as well as the two previous KLA interviews and hope to show them at our September meeting. Be sure to try and come out as we have Bernice Blakeman speaking on "Therapeutic Clowning".
 
I was invited to be in the ring to open the Winnipeg Shrine Circus on May 19th. As far as I know, that is a first for the KLA so I was proud to represent you there.
 
It was a priviledge to attend the Grand Lodge of Manitoba's Annual Communication and brag about your ladies. I do that at every available opportunity!
 
On June 6th, I listened in on a Shrine conference call that was very informative. It was entertaining as well as someone (I'm sure it was a man) snored all the way through the call! I will talk a little more about it at our September meeting (the information, not the snoring).
 
Our ladies were there for the annual "Cruzin Down the Cres" put on by the ReHab Centre on June 10th. I was in PEI, so unable to attend, but Marg Kelly, Ruth McCorrie, Cathy Kabernick and Gerry Sanderson were there to hand out T shirts to everyone participating. Check out the pictures in our photo section!
 
You could find me practising my "royal wave", Aug 6th on  the Masonic Family Float in the Gimli parade. It was a beautiful day and the parade route was packed.
 
I've got the wave down pat now so watch for me again in Morden on Aug 25th.
 
Please bring your children and grandchildren to the Masonic Family Fun Day on August 26th at Shrine House (3-6pm). There are lots of fun activities for the kids and our ladies will be selling the food tickets. I will be there selling our raffle tickets and maybe in the "dunk tank" as well (although not if I can get out of it). I love the Auxiliary but I'm not sure if I love it enough to be "dunked" for it!
 
Plans are coming along for our "Oktoberfest" evening on October 25th. Please bring your friends out for an evening of german music and help to make this event a success.
 
Hope to see you at our next meeting...

Darlene

On April 12th, the ReHab had it's annual Wine & Cheese to honour their volunteers during volunteer week. Vera, June & Marge attended and said it was a lovely event.

April 27th, Darryl Gill represented the KLA at the Ceremonial Opening of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in my place.  After her speaking she was told by one man that he enjoyed hearing about KLA as "He  had no idea what we do".  I hear this time and time again, so we must be diligent about talking about the KLA whenever we have the opportunity. 
 
Our April 26th Annual Dinner was a huge sucess thanks to our wonderful chair, Bernice Blakeman.  Bernice had gone to such a lot of work to create beautiful table decorations and instead of entertainment, we entertained ourselves with a old fashioned sing along.  It was such fun and you could tell that lots of the ladies were very enthusiastic!  Need I say more? It was a blast and thoroughly enjoyed by all.  This year we had two ladies receiving their 50 year certificates, Mae Booden and Kay Brooks.  The 25 year recepiants were Kay Fournier, Jean McIntosh and Jean Mccaulay.  Unfortunately only Jean Mccaulay was in attendance but Bernice will deliver the pins to the others.  We also honoured Aimee Ibbott for 69 years of membership.

We listened to an unbelievable story from Gertrude Hambira at our May 7th meeting that she calls "Out of Africia".  Gertrude had produced a documentary on the human rights violations by the government of her country.  Her life was threatened as a result of this and she had to leave the country immediately AND LEAVE HER THREE CHILDREN BEHIND.  A Mother's worst nightmare!  The Rotary Club in Charleswood worked very hard to bring Gertrude here and after 2 years she was finally safely reunited with her 
children here in Winnipeg.  It has been an amazing and frightening journey for her and she is working hard to get the story out so that people in her country should not suffer any longer.  If you are interested just google  "Gertrude Hambira" to read more of her story.

Gerry Sanderson called me awhile ago as she had heard somthing on CTV about contacting them if you were involved with a non-profit charitable organization and she asked me to look into it.  I did, and Eleanor Coopsamy came out to interview us on May 8th. June, Vera, Marge, Gerry and myself were there representing the KLA and Chris Schollenberg, little Waverley (from our March meeting) and her Mother were there to be interviewed as well. It will be on CTV Morning Live at 8:26am on Tuesday, May 15th.  Be sure to check us out!

Have a great summer ladies, watch for our summer  newsletter coming out in August!

My love affair with the KLA began in 2003 when Doreen  McGuff asked if I wanted to join. She shared her passion of the Auxiliary with  me and I will always be grateful to her for that. I found the ladies to be so very welcoming and dedicated to the cause. What is really great is that we never loose sight of the goal, to help kids living with disabilities. Next thing I knew, I was 3rd Vice-President and going up the line to President in 2007. I'm not sure if I knew what I was getting into but everyone was very patient and helped me through that year. I hope that I am a little more prepared to serve as your President this year.

2012 is off to a great start. Eve-Anne Kristjanson and Ruth McCorrie did a beautiful job of installing all of the new officers. I followed Eve-Anne as President in 2007 and Ruth was a dear friend of Doreen McGuff so I felt it appropriate to ask them to do this  task. We managed to rope in June Krochenski to serve as our Vice-President with  the promise that we will all help her (and I am confident that we all  will). We will never let go of  Vera as Treasurer, Cathy is doing  a great job of her second year as Secretary, Carolyn is so organized at  Membership and Marj does a wonderful job in charge of our Charitable Giving.  Darryl Gill will watch over us all as immediate Past President. What a  team!

I missed the February meeting, as I was off chasing my grandchildren through Disney World, but I understand Craig Houston brought us up to date on Shrine Information and also invited along a patient for the ladies to  meet.

March is always a favorite meeting where the ReHab brings us all to tears by showing us what our hard work has accomplished. There is  always a little person in attendance who has benefited from some of the equipment that we have bought. We all leave with a lovely flower as a thank you (mine lasted about a month). 
 
Our first fundraiser of the year was on March 17th.  Irene Campbell and her team put together an evening of Irish Music that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. I was standing by the door at the end of the evening to thank everyone for coming and was greeted with miles and miles of  smiles.  Every single person really enjoyed the event and it was a total sellout.  Have a look  at the pictures and write up in our photo section. 
  
On March 24th I represented the KLA at the Daughters of the Nile Installation of Queen Patti Hillier. It was a lovely evening and I loved seeing all of the creative ideas she had for her installation. It's obvious that shoes are her thing!

The April 2nd meeting at Shrine House is when the Divan honor the KLA and it is such fun to see those men pouring tea! Not to mention those wonderful sandwiches and dainties that they make especially for us. Okay, I think we have to thank the ladies of the Divan for the wonderful food!

April 12th was our Annual Bridge & Card party chaired by Ruth McCorrie and Eve-Anne Kristjanson. This event is almost sold out before the tickets even arrive at a KLA meeting. There is such a following of Bridge enthusiasts and I can understand why - those fabulous dainty  sandwiches, delicious deserts (made by our ladies) and great prizes!  What more
can you ask  for?

I have really thought it beneficial, as President, to attend the Masonic Family meetings, so far on Jan 14th & Mar 3rd. It is there that we have representatives from all of the Masonic Family groups getting together to share information, get to know each other and support  each other's events.  So far this year I have enjoyed a Masonic Grand Lodge Dinner  Theatre, a Spaghetti Dinner, an Eastern Star lunch, and an Eastern Star dinner & fashion show.  It has been lots of fun and opened my eyes to what each of  the groups does.  I think it is very valuable for us to be represented at  these things if we want people to know who KLA is.

Our Annual Dinner is coming up on April 26th and I'm looking forward to our May 7th meeting where Gertrude Hambira will be speaking of her experience "Out of Africia". Hope to see lots of ladies out!

Stay tuned....

Darlene

Welcome to my blog.  I look forward to sharing with you my thoughts, experiences and passion as they relate to the Khartum Ladies' Auxiliary and the wonderful work they do for children with special needs.  I hope you come back and visit this site often and read about our activities and fellowship.