ALL HANDS ON DECK
Needless to say, to do all these things we need to raise quite a bit of money. It takes a lot of planning and hard work for all the members of the club. There are the times when we need “all hands on deck.” Often we need the help of our families, friends and volunteers to be successful. As much as we can we try to make sure our fundraising projects give value for money and also serve the community.
What is probably not as obvious is that in working our shifts adds to the strength of the club as we meet and work together. We are also aware that there are times when Murphy’s law comes into play and everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Torrential rains are hard to manage when you are running an outdoor beer garden in a park or a RibFest in a parking lot. No matter what, rain or shine, some best memories and closest friendships are cemented as we work together. It helps to keep in mind all the good that will be possible with the money raised.
 Bruce Heslip (president 2000-01) came up with the idea that selling maple syrup would be a good fundraiser. So he (we) ordered a truck load of syrup from Quebec. There were cases and cases of syrup. It took years to sell, ‘get rid’ of it all. For years, whenever we inducted a new member we presented them with a case of syrup to sell. |
As the years have moved by the club has found many new fund raising projects to meet the changing demographics of Oakville, to increase our revenue, and to replace programs that have, for one reason or another, run their course. We’ve had Art Auctions, Sport Celebrity Dinners, a Trip of the Month lottery, ran Bingos, sold Roses for Thanksgiving, ran the beer concession at the Waterfront Festival, mounted Dragon Boat Races, and a TV Auction that morphed in time to be an Internet Auction, and manage The Annual Oakville Family Ribfest. That’s only a partial list, but, as you can see, we always need to plan for the future.
One night Bill Kerr was an auctioneer on camera when an electric lawnmower donated by Oakville Hydro was up for bidding. The bids on the mower were low so Bill, to promote interest on the mower, said Ron Noonan, manager of Hydro, a fellow Rotarian, would cut the winning bidder’s lawn. It failed to get a higher bid; it went at bargain price. Ron Noonan saw an opportunity to tease Bill. At the next club’s next meeting he generated much laughter castigating Bill for failing to get a proper price for the mower. For the next two or three years, no matter what the topic was being discussed, he managed to remind the club and Bill about the mower. |
All of which brings another memory of Ron Noonan. One year when the TV Auction ended there was a picture of a nude woman painted on velvet that was unsold! It was outstandingly ugly. Ron decided we should auction it off at one of our meetings. Before the meeting that day he took Dave Meyers aside and told him it was going to be hard to sell the painting and would Dave open the bidding at $25.00? He agreed. When Ron called for bids Dave said $25.00. Instantly Ron said SOLD. |
Quite often what seems simple ideas turn out to be very complicated. The TV auction was a case in point. We needed a truck to run from the warehouse to the studio, many items were photographed and had to be keyed in at the right moment, all the while shifts of amateur Rotarian auctioneers were on camera promoting bids on the products and in the back room bids were coming in by telephone and winning bidders were being notified. It was hectic but it was fun. The secret of our success is that we have in the club people with a wide range of skills and talents who are willing to take on something new. Joe Vet, who used to own a florist shop downtown, led the club in packing and selling Roses. Bill and Lisa Dodd, who were art dealers down town, got us connected with the people who organized art auctions.
One of the biggest and most complicated is the Oakville Family Ribfest. After three years of investigation and planning the first RibFest was held in June, 2011. Calm, cool and collected Trish Peden, (President 1998-99) chaired the committee for years through all the challenges. Sheridan College’s parking lot facing Trafalgar Road was a perfect location, sponsors were recruited, site plans were made, advertising plans developed, permits of all kinds were gathered, music groups needed to be booked, and major plans for recruiting volunteers and recycling were created, 24 hour security set up… A Ribfest is an “all hands on deck” event. From setting up to taking down it is essentially a week on the ground, with three hectic days on the weekend.
The photo below show the Ribfest site in June 2016.
There is no doubt that fundraising is important in Rotary. We also hope that, in our fundraising endeavours, we provide the citizens of our Town with quality enjoyable events and our sponsors and contributors with exposure that benefits them.
For us, in the end, it is not about money, it is about what the money can do. It lets us present a handicapped person with a wheel chair, to gives a student a financial boost starting college, it lets us send young people to summer camp and others to programs that train in leadership and how business works. It means we can support libraries in India and run community dinners at the Kerr St. Mission. It means that there are hosts of children worldwide, who, because they were vaccinated, will not be crippled for life by polio.
And so, most years, we usually have around three different fundraising programs on the go and we are always looking at other ways of earning money.
It is not magic, it is hard work that produces magical results.