Reflections For 2024 and Starting Off 2025
Happy New Year to all our Ranchlands residents and families. Our wish from your Board of Directors is for a safe and prosperous year ahead. Our community vision is that Ranchlands fosters a welcoming, vibrant, and inclusive community where you belong. Our board is committed to aligning our plans and governance with this vision.
We sure hope that the postal strike is behind us and that you have a copy of the January Roundup in your mailbox. Certainly, the effects of a postal disruption were felt in many small, medium, and big ways and had large impacts for people relying on the postal system for their livelihood. In the business of the association, we felt it in small but manageable ways, but impacted, nonetheless.
As I reflect on the past year, I see a strong community. Our Food Pantry program is great evidence of the caring and supportive neighbourhood we have. We saw a steady increase in the number of people reaching out for assistance. However, we also saw individuals making donations of food and money, businesses contributing, and the schools embracing this vision of an inclusive community, that help each other out.
Successes that we enjoyed included our Bee Hunt in May and Witch Hat Hunt in October. We hosted a Neighbour Day event in June. Very significantly, our mural was completed and unveiled in October. November started with a lively AGM with many people attending and finished with a very successful Winter Market. We will have a more detailed report of how our Holiday Light Contest evolved for the February edition of the Roundup.
For the year ahead, we will be focusing on ensuring that our Food Pantry is adequately stocked by having a food and donation drive to keep us operating with full cupboards. We will be hosting tax preparation opportunities for people in conjunction with the Canada Revenue Agency volunteer program and want to find ways to reduce vandalism and engage youth who may not have a good sense of community.
Finally, we have a chairperson for our Casino (June 6 and 7)! That is a big relief to have our main funding event underway and in hand. If you wish to volunteer, please email [email protected]. If you have never volunteered at a casino before and are wondering what is involved, please reach out. We are anticipating a significant amount of money from that event to support our ongoing operations and programs costs.
We welcome your input and ideas for the year ahead.
Kathy Ervin
President, Ranchlands Community Association
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