Other than the one missing ingredient (winter), our Winter Carnival that your Community Association held on February 12 was a great success; with hundreds of families in attendance to enjoy the many events and activities that a great team of volunteers and staff put on. How successful was it? We probably had over 1,000 people showing up during the day, enjoying the sunshine, and happily, we had no major slips or falls on the little bit of ice we had left. With our skating season over far too early, some quick thinking by our volunteers led to a whole range of fun activities for all. A big thank you goes out to all our many volunteers, staff, and local businesses that supported this great event.
More than one person came up to me during the day and asked how could all this great stuff that we provided (wagon rides, petting zoo, crokicurl, musical bingo, etc.) be free? There are three reasons: 1 – Your volunteer board was on the ball, applying for and obtaining a Warm Up for Winter grant from the Calgary Parks Foundation which covered a large part of our costs; 2 – Many local businesses and vendors provided events, prizes, and other support. 3 – Volunteers and great staff. Lots of planning and organization goes into these events, with our many volunteers (including Pathfinders, board members, community minded folks, Jessica–our U of C Practicum student) and of course our efficient staff of Anna and Dawn who all worked together to set up, run and clean up after the event.
What can you do to say thanks? A few things:
- Say thanks when you see a staff member or board member out and about.
- Support your local businesses who support us.
- Buy a Membership. It is crazy inexpensive and gets you in the loop as to what is going on at WRCA.
- Sign up yourself or your children for the various programs that WRCA or our user groups put on at our hall.
- Building and being part of a community is satisfying, healthy, and makes for a better place for all of us to live together.
You do not need to join the Board to get involved (we are happy to start building up a few active committees so we can do more great things), but we still have vacant positions in our Volunteer and Social coordinator roles!
So please consider volunteering, and/or bring a friend or neighbour to our next great event!
Don Boykiw
President
