Merry Christmas 2011
Posted by Joan Jackaman on Sunday, December 18, 2011
I apologize for not getting a letter off sooner but
as many of you will know, our Women's Institute branch has taken on a quilt
project for those in Goderich who have suffered great losses due to the tornado
that hit our town in late August. To date we have 86 households on our recipient
list and we plan to distribute sometime in January.
It was with great sadness that myself, Margaret
Ogar and Joan Jackaman, as well as many, many WI friends visited with SOS
secretary Joanne Erickson at the time of her husband's death. We continue to
offer Joanne our support and sympathies as she faces her first Christmas, New
Years, anniversaries, birthdays. Each one is monumental but we know Joanne
to be strong and trust in her family and friends for the necessary support
during these difficult times. Our thoughts continue to be with our friend,
now and always.
For those who have not read the previous messages
on our web site, I encourage you to do so. The graphics of the bookmark
handout mentioned for the 'walk the world' event, in an earlier
posting, has not yet come to be. The friend who is in that line of work who I
had hoped would have a sampling by now, has also been very busy getting her
latest local history book to press and it was released this past Saturday. With
Christmas looming however I find it unlikely that we will see anything before
mid-January. I will pass any and all design samples to the membership via email
as soon as I receive them. We will have an electronic vote on the final
product as time is very short from our annual meeting to the 'walk the
world' event.
I encourage everyone to visit the web site and have
a look at what Joan Jackaman has accomplished. And I thank Joan for her on-going
work on the web site.
Along with the completion of getting a bank account
for our organization (finally), for those who may not have paid their dues as
yet, you can do so by cheque made payable to Southern Ontario Support. During
these first few months and even years, it is vital to our societies survival to
maintain your membership as we get our rather large wheels in motion.
One of those large wheels is our 'not for profit'
status which Margaret and I have almost finished the paper-work for. These many
pages of information will be sent by mid-January. Thank you Margaret for your
work in this difficult area.
Margaret Ogar and Joan Jackaman have offered to
check into a couple of possible venues in London for our 'walk the world'
event. London seems to be pretty central and I trust many of our SOS
members are planning to gather sponsorship and help spread the word of not
only SOS, but of ACWW as well. I have contacted the office in the UK
asking if there is an 'e' version of the sponsorship forms so they could be
emailed to our membership for easy distribution. If available, I will send
it along as soon as I receive it.
For many of us this is a time for family and
friends, food, laughter and layers of memories and promise of memories yet to be
made. For some it is a particularly lonely time, and one not easily suffered
through, when we might linger over memories of those no longer with us.
Regardless of circumstance, I wish you all the best possible time
surrounded by loving family and friends. I wish you all a solid foundation of
memories from which you can draw upon on less festive and easily distracted
days. Merry Christmas everyone. Have a safe and happy holiday.
Debbie Bauer