Hi Triwood,
Welcome to 2022! 2021 was another up and down year for all of us, with rolling restrictions changing the way we could do business from one month to the next. I hugely appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we worked our hardest to offer what we could in a safe, professional, and engaging way!
To start off with, I want to formally welcome Mark Whiteman into his new role as Triwood President and thank our outgoing President, Toni Pilkey for her years of service. Toni joins a long line of highly committed alumni who have served their community in our most important position. She continues to be a part of Triwood through participation on several committees – her dedication is a model for how we can all work together to make a difference in our neighbourhoods at a grassroots level. I am hoping that in 2022 Triwood can attract other volunteers that will go on to make similar impacts! Now that we have our feet under us and feel more confident operating through any variations the pandemic may throw our way, we are eager to re-engage the community on important projects such as our Community Centre expansion and our 60th Anniversary celebration planning. On that note, I want to reiterate our huge need for skilled individuals to offer some of their time and knowledge to committees such as: Planning and Development, Expansion, 60th Anniversary Planning, and Building and Maintenance.
Volunteering in the 2020s will never be the same as it was in 1961 when the Community Association was first founded. Several of the volunteers of the 60s centered their social and extracurricular lives solely around the Community Centre and Arena. I know that the modern dynamics of work and family don’t necessarily allow most individuals the time and energy to engage at the level of our founders, who made Triwood such a big part of their lives. Nevertheless, there are several highly efficient ways for you to step forward in small increments, offering your professional expertise, for only a few nights a year, to make sure we can do incredible things together that will benefit all of Triwood.
You can help us to serve food to thousands of people at our Stampede Breakfast, Burger nights, and Christmas Dinner; you can save your community tens of thousands of dollars by simply offering your trade expertise and knowledge in an advisory capacity; you can coach your favourite sport; bring new ideas for youth and community programming based around your passions; help us to earn critical capital from our Casinos and Bingos by spending one night a year volunteering to do a shift. The ways in which you can be a part of a better community are many, and the commitment doesn’t have to be large, or endless. If you are a tradesperson or professional with skills and knowledge that can help us, an organizer, someone with a huge heart for the community, or just someone with a night to spare and a willingness to help, please let us know this year!
You can contact me directly at [email protected]. We will find a way for you to contribute. Let’s make an amazing 2022 together Triwood!
Stephan Horbay
