Volunteer Reception 2019
Our volunteers work hard all year long to make sure our clients are looked after with hot nutritious meals. Especially after this hard, dreadful and long winter, we were happy to celebrate and honour our dedicated volunteers at our annual volunteer reception on April 13th.
There were nearly 115 volunteers in attendance at the volunteer reception which was held at the Good Companions Centre. Volunteers were able to relax and enjoy a wonderful meal prepared by Good Companions chef, Frank Bowie. We enjoyed a Mexican meal of cilantro chicken with enchilada sauce, bean salad, jalapeno peppers, cornbread and to cap it off chocolate cake with cinnamon icing for dessert. It was delicious! Board member Lisa Wilson returned again this year to co-host the reception with her usual flair and charm. Amy-Lyn Aubertin, who has been a committed delivery volunteer for the past five years, co-hosted the event with Lisa in French for our francophone volunteers.
This year we had a number of volunteers earning significant milestones. One that stands out in particular is Olive Newman who reached 35 years of volunteer service this year. Olive has rarely missed a delivery day in the over three decades she has been a volunteer with Meals on Wheels, and has shown up for her regular Wednesday Riverside #1 route regardless of the weather, rain, snow or shine. Meals on Wheels presented her with bouquet of flowers to celebrate this impressive milestone. Thank you Olive! Congratulations to all award winners!
After the success of last year’s auction at our 50th anniversary, we decided to continue with this new feature. We had a silent auction with over 60 items! These were kindly donated from over 40 local organizations, businesses and individuals in the community, including volunteers. Some of the amazing items contributed to this year’s auction included beauty baskets, gift cards to restaurants, movie passes, museum passes, artwork from local artists, roadside service and car detailing packages just to name a few. For the complete list of all the donors for the auction please click here. We are grateful to have such great support from the community and we are thankful to all of those who donated to our event. As a result of all these wonderful items, bidding was quite spirited, with many volunteers revisiting the auction tables to increase their bids!
In addition to the silent auction we had two live auction packages that both featured a night out on the town. Emily Black had the winning bid for an impressive package that included admission to the National Gallery of Canada, 1 Night Stay at the Albert and Bay Suite Hotel and brunch at Fatboy’s Southern Smokehouse. Meanwhile Samantha Bellefeuille walked away with her prize for a weekend Cadillac Rental, admission to the Canadian Museum of History, and a gift card to Les Fougères Restaurant. Congrats to all our auction winners! Overall, the auction earned $2651 which will go towards supporting the Meals on Wheels service. Thank you again for all of you who came out. We’ll see you next year!