On Saturday morning members and friends of Squamish Rotary were on the avenues, streets, lanes, and trails of Downtown Squamish picking up litter and rubbish for Pitch-In Week. Two truckloads of garbage were collected and taken to the dump.
Our guest speaker today was Michelle Balch, Volunteer Coordinator at Squamish Helping Hands Society.
She gave us an overview of all the programs and services run by the Squamish Helping Hands Society and the Under One Roof facility.
She gave us an overview of all the programs and services run by the Squamish Helping Hands Society and the Under One Roof facility.
After her presentation, the club presented Michelle with a cheque for $5,000 which are funds raised at a Bingo night and a personal donation.
This will be added to the amount raised by the club at the Coldest Night of the Year event and will bring our total to over $23,000 for this very worthy cause.
Sea to Sky Community Services Society, helps thousands of children, youth and adults through more than 40 community services and programs in BC’s Sea to Sky corridor. It has replaced the condemned Youth Resource Centre in Squamish with a new $2.2 million, 5,000 sq ft youth centre where young people aged 12-24 can access mental health, primary care, substance use intervention, peer support, and social services, all under one roof. The Rotary Club of Squamish provided $30,000.00 in funding to furnish the Squamish Youth Hub at the centre, providing technology equipment, a pool table, and other recreational equipment including a $10,000 District Grant from The Rotary Foundation.
Editor Jennifer Thuncher and Publisher Sarah Strother from The Squamish Chief joined us to talk about the challenges facing local news media. Some of the main comments were:
• the Squamish Chief has a great team of dedicated and hard-working staff.
• readership is the key; readership drives advertising which is almost 100% of the paper's revenue.
• the paper version Chief went free to expand readership.
• currently 5500-6000 copies are printed weekly and distributed around town.
• most of the readership is now online with 350,000 articles viewed per month.
• the Meta ban on Canadian news has meant even more effort is being made to drive readership to the Squamish Chief website.
• the daily newsletter email has been very successful in keeping people up to date with what's happening in our community.
On February 24th the Squamish community turned out for the Coldest Night of the Year fundraising walk to support the Squamish Helping Hands Society.
The event takes place in communities across Canada in support of local charities serving people experiencing hurt, hunger, and homelessness.
In Squamish, 54 teams and over 200 walkers participated.
The event has raised almost $80,000 so far with the proceeds going to Squamish Helping Hands.
The Rotary Cub of Squamish joined in with with 4 teams and has raised close to $18,000 for this important cause with more to come.
At the live auction during last October's Gala, the Sea to Sky Gondola bid $5,000 and won the original painting by local artist Andy Anissimoff.
On Feb 13th, representatives from the the Sea to Sea Gondola donated the painting to Hilltop House. We thank everyone at the Sea to Sky Gondola for your generosity and community spirit.
Proceeds from the October Gala will support several projects that the Rotary Club of Squamish is working on this year, including the Playground at the Oceanfront Park, the John Gullo Home for Children in Mexico, and the Centre of Hope in the Philippines.
At our regular meeting on February 1st, Squamish Rotary presented a $5,000 grant to Squamish CAN for projects in the next stage of development at the Downtown School Farm.
One of these will be the construction of a "Kids Zone", which will be a gathering space for younger children featuring opportunities to explore the environment using all the senses.
Krystle tenBrink, Executive Director of Squamish CAN accepted the grant from President Kevin Haberl and Eddie Carter, Commumiity Service Chair.
Squamish Rotary has supported the Farm with a past grant and also in-kind donations and some volunteer labour.
Read MORE.
What would you do if you didn't have a warm place to go home to tonight? What if you didn't have enough food to fuel your body and were cold all of the time?
On February 24, 2024 the community of Squamish will be walking to raise money for Squamish Helping Hands in our first Coldest Night of the Year event.
The Rotary Club of Squamish is participating as team Captains, walkers & fundraisers.
We are asking for you to join us and help those less fortunate in our community.
Sign up to walk & fundraise, or donate now at: Squamish (Squamish Helping Hands Society) - CNOY 2024 Canada
It was a fun evening at Howe Sound Inn on Thursday December 21st for our annual Christmas party. Delicious food was accompanied my laughter, fellowship and good cheer, followed by some lively games. Thank you to Lynda for organising everything and to Howe Sound for hosting us.
More photos HERE.
ed: Apologies for the photo quality -
the photographer blames it on the lighting conditions!We send a big THANK YOU to all the volunteers who helped prepare and deliver 375+ hampers for Squamish Community Christmas Care on December 19th. By coming together, over 1000 people in our community will be supported this holiday season which will make the occasion so much more meaningful and enjoyable for them and their families.
As the dawn broke over Stan Clarke Park last Saturday, a jolly band of Rotary Pumpkineers joined Squamish BIA members and a crew from Sea to Sky Couriers to create the Pumpkin Patch in the Park.
500 pumpkins were spread around the park, tents were erected, games were set up, and the BBQ was lit.
All was ready for 10am when the kids and adults arrived, many in costume, to select their pumpkin(s) by donation, have faces painted, dance to the music, go on the trick-or-treat adventure, do some Halloween crafts and play the games.
And for the hungry, the hot dog crew was busy cooking and serving up the Rotary Dog-in-a-Bun.
The proceeds will be going to the Squamish Welcome Centre and the Rotary Club of Squamish’s Oceanfront Playground fund.
For more pictures, go HERE.
On Saturday evening, over 90 Rotarians and guests braved the wind and rain to celebrate Rotary and fundraise for three projects. With over $20K in auction items, there was something available to bid on for everyone......
Please read Lynda Rocha's perspective of the evening HERE.
Ross Dickson writes:
It was a full house at the golf club Saturday night as Squamish Rotarians, friends and family members enjoyed a gala evening in support of our three local and international projects.
The food was delicious and the bidding came fast and furious as guests bid on a variety of items, all donated to help raise funds for the worthy causes. It was also an opportunity for people to break out their best outfits and shake off the covid blues on the dance floor while visiting with colleagues and friends.
Many thanks to our generous supporters for donating so many prizes and congratulations to all the organisers, and to the participants for their attendance.
The food was delicious and the bidding came fast and furious as guests bid on a variety of items, all donated to help raise funds for the worthy causes. It was also an opportunity for people to break out their best outfits and shake off the covid blues on the dance floor while visiting with colleagues and friends.
Many thanks to our generous supporters for donating so many prizes and congratulations to all the organisers, and to the participants for their attendance.
Although the final tally is still to come, it is anticipated that the funds raised will exceed expectations.
You are invited!
GALA & AUCTION fundraiser.
In support of our Community & International projects.
► The playground at the Sp’akw’us Feather Park on the Squamish Oceanfront.
► The John Gullo Home for Children in Mexico.
► The Center of Hope Refuge for Girls in the Philippines.
There will be over $17,000 in auction items for you to bid on.
Saturday October 14th @ 6:00pm.
Squamish Valley Golf Club.
For tickets email to squamishrotaryevents@gmail.com.
Carlos Zavarce, member and Mathews West Development Manager, gave us the opportunity to visit the Sp’akw’us Feather Park, part of the Squamish Oceanfront project. He led us on a tour of the plaza, the beach frontages, and the site of the future playground. Then we had the opportunity to go inside the Presentation Centre and Brew Pub which is an all mass timber building currently under construction. As a teaser, Carlos showed us the area which could be the future home for Rotary meetings. It was exciting to see the progress finally being made on this huge project after so many years in the planning and negotiation stages.
contact@squamishrotary.com
Squamish, BC
Canada