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Saturday, January 27, 2024 Past President Barb Ginsberg (see below), 1st Vice President Maureen Hardy, with several other KLA members attended the 2024 Installation of Darrell Rostek and his Divan. KLA wishes them a successful year.   Hi Ladies and Welcome to 2024!
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” …Coretta Scott King It is with anticipation as your newly installed President, that I am looking forward to the coming year. Successfully working throughout the pandemic indicates the resolve and dedication of our members. Our continued commitment of our members to the Shriners Hospital for Children, the Khartum Patient Transportation Fund and the Rehabilitation Centre for Children is amazing and heartwarming. We are a family with diverse backgrounds and interests that come together and make good things happen. Thank you to Faye Hooper, PP for being the Installation Officer of our 2024 Executive. We appreciate all of the kind words and how you personalized it for each incumbent. Thank you also for taking the time to recognize some of our very dedicated members! Ladies, I invite you to visit our Photos page to view several photos of the Installation of the 2024 Executive. All for now! Best wishes to all! Lillian Allan President KLA 2024 2023 has been a year of change and transition – neither of which is new to KLA – there has been more than one move over the years (incidentally 99 years and counting- we are looking at our centenary in 2025). We have survived and adjusted after each and it has proven each time that where we meet does not affect who we are.
In January last year, we learned that the Shrine House sale was finalized, with new owner possession date May 31. The hunt for new meeting space was intense. The ultimate decision was reached in favour of moving to MMC with the Shriners. The decision reached was not unanimous, but once made it was supported. In the meantime, we continued the work we do so well – raising funds to support Shriner’s Hospitals, the Khartum Patient Transportation Fund, and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center. We contemplated a repeat Morden’s Chocolate fundraiser in the spring but decided to leave that for pre-Christmas and opted for a Bothwell Cheese fundraiser which was very successful- kudos to Bonnie Davies & Sharon Adamson for spearheading this campaign and their crew who put the orders together. Through attending Masonic Family meetings and events we strengthened our connection with other organizations also working to support Masonic goals- we have all benefited from mutual support and ideas. Lillian Allan and myself began attending meetings together and KLA (I think) is increasingly thought of as an active partner. We contributed a gift basket for last year’s Float the Float fundraiser which was well received and acknowledged. I attended multiple functions & brought greetings from KLA. I can see a difference from my perspective in KLA being recognized as existing by other organizations. We made a return to volunteering for CRF at their Cruisin’ fundraiser event in June. We capped our spring session with the presentation of a cheque to CRF which essentially fulfilled their wish list. We had some fun along the way. We had the traditional Divan Tea after our March meeting – a full on reception that was the envy of many. We had a couple of interesting speakers- one from Victoria Lifeline with very helpful information and resources to help us live safely while being as active and independent as possible. The other was from Sagehill Stables on horses as therapy animals, albeit not one you can take on the plane. We finished spring session with a lovely lunch in place of our annual dinner, at which time we acknowledged and presented 3 members with 25 year service pins. It was our last event at Shrine House and we departed with good memories of our time there. Summer was not nearly as quiet as I had hoped and anticipated. In addition to preparing for fall session and arranging meeting space at MMC, we needed to find a new Webmaster as Carol Hadley was installed as OES Grand Matron of Manitoba. We are blessed that Janet Lewis Anderson agreed to take us on (again). She has refreshed and revamped our website, which is proving to be a point of pride and a very useful tool. From September to now has been busy with transitioning to MMC in addition to our regular duties. End of October saw us participate in the Shriner’s Gala Event. KLA presented & was acknowledged for 2 cheques presented – one to Shriners Hospitals Canada Donor Relations Programme and one to the Patient Transportation Fund. Noble Don Thompson presented his hospital report to members at our November meeting and expressed his appreciation for our support- financial and otherwise. We helped send 10 children for treatment appointments this year. As planned, we had our pre-Christmas Morden’s Chocolate Sales fundraiser which was a huge success, due largely to the work of June Krochenski almost singlehandedly orchestrating ordering and pick up and organizing the assembly of individual orders. Kudos to all who helped and there were many of you. We finished off the year with our Christmas lunch – our first event at MMC. I believe a good time was had by all. Which brings us to today- a new beginning in 2024 with a new Executive about to be installed. We anticipate a good year, kicking off with our Pancake Breakfast fundraiser Feb. 3. In conclusion, I want to thank the Executive, the committee chairs and each and every one of the ladies for your support in the decisions that were made this year. We made it because we worked together and we worked together because that’s who we are. Thank You ! Respectfully Submitted, Barb Ginsberg President KLA 2023 #1 President Barb Ginsberg attended the Khartum Shriners Potentate’s Gala Ball on October 28, 2023 #2 Presentation of cheque for $ 1,000 to Shriner’s Hospitals for Children Canada Donor Relations Programme in memory of Khartum Ladies Auxiliiary members who passed away in 2023. #3 & 4 Presentation of cheque for $ 5,000 t0 Khartum Patient Transportation Fund Hello Masonic Family!!
Time has flown since Spring, and Summer is here! Khartum Ladies Auxiliary held our last meeting at Shrine House May 1, 2023 and have now officially moved to MMC with the Khartum Shriners. May and June seemed to fly by in a blur of social functions and Installations. Children’s Rehab Foundation held their “ Cruisin’ to Change Lives” (previously known as Cruising Down the Crescent) fundraiser on June 11 at Canadian Mennonite University for the first time since Covid. It is set to resume as an annual event. KLA stepped up to volunteer at the event and manned the ice cream cart, handing out ice cream treats donated by Sargent Sundae to participants. We have already signed up to do it again next year. We should now have a brief respite before we plunge back into regular meetings and planning fall activities. We are looking forward to Fall and before we know it we will be staring down Christmas and all of the associated festivities- for us organizing our pre-Christmas fundraiser of Morden’s Chocolates (stay tuned for details) and thinking Christmas Luncheon. But before I get too far ahead of myself….our first meeting of the fall session will be Monday Sept. 11 at 1:30 pm at MMC in the Boardroom. Now that we have moved, we are looking to move KLA forward. One last piece of news ( OK, I saved the best for last). Like most of Winnipeg, we are under construction. Over the summer our website is being refreshed and updated. www.khartumladiesauxiliary.com Check us out!! In the meantime, enjoy our short but great summer! Barbara Ginsberg President KLA Job’s Daughters Installation of Officers June 23, 2023 at MMC.  Hello From KLA
As I write this in mid April, Spring has sprung (sort of). Snow is melting (slowly), patches of green are appearing , and puddles and potholes are flourishing. While much of our time and energy has been devoted to where our meeting place will be after May 2023, we continue our important work of supporting the children through the Shrine Patient Transportation Fund and through the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation for equipment and devices. Since February, 4 tote bags were provided for children leaving Winnipeg for the first time for appointments/treatment in a Shriner’s Hospital. In addition, a special tote bag was made for Past Potentate Don Thomson, Khartum Shrine Hospital Chair, after his knee surgery and we wish him well in his recovery. Funds were recently allocated to the Children’s Rehab Foundation (CRF) -to assist them in meeting requests for specialized bikes and I-Pads for various children, which will assist greatly in improving the quality of their lives. KLA will be volunteering to assist CRF with their “ Cruisin’ to Change Lives” on Sunday, June 11th After our March regular meeting, we were treated to a lovely Divan Tea Reception served to us by five handsome men in suits led by the Potentate, Illustrious Sir Klaus Knorz- what could be better than that! Also in March, members of KLA enjoyed themselves at the Float the Float fundraising dinner. We contributed a gift basket to the Silent Auction which appeared to be well received. We are currently wrapping up a Bothwell Cheese Fundraiser which was our spring fundraiser. We had considered a Morden's Chocolate fundraiser (think chocolates and toasted marshmallows) but decided to defer it to pre Christmas which we have usually done. We will hold our 98th Annual Dinner (luncheon this year) at Shrine House April 27- presenting 3 members with pins recognizing 25 years of service to the organization. May 1st will be our final meeting at Shrine House and a vote on a new location. We will be leaving Shrine House with many memories and looking forward to making many new memories. Wishing everyone a wonderful summer (It’s Coming!) See You in September !! Barb Ginsberg President KLA  Hello ladies & Welcome to 2023!
When I accepted VP the position, I said I hoped to contribute to continuing the work of the organization & to continue the feeling of community & connectedness that I see in the group – especially in these times that have turned our world upside down. As president, I commit to furthering those goals. It is shaping up to be another challenging year. In addition to pursuing fund-raising activities and maintaining our all-important social network with gradually decreasing membership, we must for sure find a new “home” as Shrine House has been sold and must be vacated the end of May. Membership, fund raising & location are intertwined. We lost quite a few members in 2022 – and did not gain new members. We are a small group and none of us are getting any younger. There are a few things we can do. We can look within our immediate families and connections to find / identify potential new members and talk with them about KLA and our role in fundraising for the children. Invite them to come out to a meeting to see firsthand what we do. We will be making a concerted effort to raise our profile with posting information to the website. We regrettably missed the Jan. 14 installation of 2023 Khartum Potentate Illustrious Sir Klaus Knorz, but he has forwarded his contact information to me and telephoned me to introduce himself and express appreciation and support for KLA. He spoke of his intent to foster connection between all groups in the Masonic Family and the need to support each other. To that end, I will endeavor to attend Masonic Family events and raise awareness of KLA, starting with IOJD Bethel 9 installation of officers on Jan.26.I will make effort to attend Masonic Family meetings so KLA is represented, and we can promote our activities along with other organizations. Ill Sir Klaus also spoke of our relationship with Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation and stressed that he considers it part of his mandate to foster such relationships that work to benefit the children. He has committed to meeting with me at some point when he is in Winnipeg- he will be here in February for a Nile event. I will follow up with him to arrange to meet. Membership is linked to fundraising. We no longer have the major fundraising raffle due to the pandemic and it simply became impractical for our small group to carry out successfully. We had great success last year with sales fundraisers like Bothwell Cheese and Morden’s Chocolates and will likely look at doing them again. We have become very proficient at order forms and processing orders. These fundraisers can be run by a small group of ladies. We had a VERY successful card party last fall, albeit a huge amount of work related to food. We are contemplating pivoting to a Dessert Card party as opposed to a Luncheon Card party, but we have hit a snag……. Which brings us to location. Shrine House has been sold with possession date end of May. We are secure for meeting dates thru May but April and May for sure will be in smaller room – either 123 or the lounge. The activity room is unavailable as it is being used as the collection center for furniture and other items for sale by Khartum. The significant impact for us is that we do not have use of Shrine House for Annual Dinner or Dessert Card Party. We will be discussing /deciding at February meeting what to do. The Annual Dinner can be at a hotel / alternate venue, but cost will likely increase. The Dessert Party likewise will require consideration of costs – it is counter productive to hold a fundraiser if profits are eaten up by costs. 2023 marks our 98th year. We have a long history of service to the Shrine and are poised to continue to survive and thrive going forward. Stay Tuned!! Barb Ginsberg PRESIDENT KLA 2023  As we enter the year 2022, we are also celebrating the 97th year of the Khartum Ladies Auxiliary. This is also the second year of dealing with the COVID 19 Pandemic. The world has certainly changed in the 97 years since the KLA was established and the last two years have really challenged the purpose and mandate of KLA. However, the Ladies of the KLA have stepped up to the plate and while some of our traditional fundraising activities have been modified or cancelled, we are still making generous donations to the organizations that we support. We are still sending gifts with the children who are attending their first Shriners Hospital for Children appointment. We are still having fun, although we have been restricted in face to face meetings and events. This is because of you, the Ladies of the KLA.
I am humbled and honoured to be your new President this year. While we do not know what lies ahead of us for this year, I am hopeful that we can resume some of our traditional events this year. Foremost, however, is the safety and health of our Ladies. We will continue to have ZOOM meetings when it is not safe to meet face to face. When it is safe to meet face to face, we will use the larger Activity Room so that all the Ladies can safely distance themselves from each other. We will try to bring in guest speakers at meetings to educate and entertain you. Our fundraisers last year were highly successful and so we are planning to continue to have a New Bothwell Cheese Fundraiser in the spring and a Morden’s Chocolate Fundraiser in the fall. If conditions permit, we may go ahead with the Card Party in the spring. This has always been a popular event and has been missed due to cancellations. We will hold the Annual dinner and the Christmas luncheon if conditions permit. Bowling has always been an important event for some ladies and the Bowling Committee is still in place to organize this activity when permitted. I look forward to working with each of you this year and making 2022 another successful year for KLA. Please call me with questions, concerns or ideas. I would love to hear from you! President Brenda |
