|
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 |