Since I saw our hard-working editor and publisher at the Museum’s AGM on Friday evening, I can only assume the occasion will be well-documented elsewhere in today’s paper. Suffice it to say that it was a newsworthy event that drew four members of North Glengarry’s council, included a much welcome, long term commitment of support from our municipality and saw well deserved awards go to Harold MacMillan and Karen Davison-Woods.
As I listened to the various speakers extoll the virtues of volunteerism, aptly represented by the folks being so rightly honoured at Friday’s meeting, my mind wandered to the extensive army of Museum volunteers who are so essential to the institution’s continued existence. These are people who avoid the limelight and quietly go about the tasks they have chosen with enthusiasm and determination.
I’m thinking of people like Heather Bentley and her husband Jim who have completely transformed the Museum’s membership efforts through a generous application of elbow grease and arm-twisting. Or Jim Tilker, a man in an emblazoned yellow truck who takes satisfaction in “puttering” at the Museum grounds when no one is around and taking care of the endless list of odd-jobs that crop up each spring. Or Trevor Stanton who, for years, has been a part of the team charged with the Herculean task of cataloguing and digitizing the Museum’s collection. These, along with over 100 more, are behind-the-scenes people without whom our little Museum at the crossroads would not exist.
I know the Museum has repeatedly tried to acknowledge their contribution; of late, they even put on an annual “Volunteer Thank You” BBQ. And while such efforts are no doubt welcome, I know from having attended a few that only a fraction of the volunteers attend.
So I thought I’d take a few column inches to acknowledge that without their efforts the thousands of visitors who enjoy the Museum’s programs each year would be left high and dry. Thank you.
Scrambled at the Kirk
For those of you who are counting, this coming Saturday, April 25th will be the 4th annual Spring Breakfast at the Kenyon Presbyterian Church in Dunvegan. And the Kenyon Women’s Association has asked me to extend an invitation to one and all to attend this buffet fund-raiser. From 8:00 to 10:00 AM, the men of Kenyon congregation will be doling out fluffy scrambled eggs, crisp bacon and plump sausages, hash browns and hot-buttered toast… heaps of fresh-prepared food that their wives and daughters have been whipping up in the not-overly-spacious kitchen.
There will also be chilled juices, piping hot coffee and tea and, new for this year, fresh fruit. The price is only $8.00 for adults and $5.00 for children aged 5 to 12. (Kids under 5 are free.) And if you have some other commitments Saturday morning and need to eat on the run, take-out meals, complete with cutlery, are available.
If you’ve never been to the Kenyon Presbyterian Church Hall, it’s located just north of the Dunvegan crossroads on County Road 30. And worry not, there’s plenty of free parking.
Please attend this important fundraiser. The event is open to everyone and the Kenyon Women’s Association hopes that the entire community will come out and break bread with them. Not only is it delicious and a great value, the money raised will be used for the on-going maintenance of the church property.
Help wash away winter
I’d like to point out a second Dunvegan event that will take place on Saturday, April 25th: “Spring Cleaning Day” at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum. Interim curator, Renée Homiak e-mailed to say that the annual “cleaning bee” is scheduled for this Saturday from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM.
She’s looking for help opening the buildings and getting them cleaned and ready for the new season. Based on the adage that “many hands make light work”, she hopes to attract 20 to 25 volunteers to help her sweep, vacuum and dust away winter’s fingerprints. She also hopes to talk younger, stronger volunteers into distributing picnic tables around the site and liberating some of the larger artifacts from their storage spots in the Drive Shed.
In past years, a number of families have made it a tradition to start the day off with a hearty breakfast at the Kenyon Church Hall and then head down to the Museum to work off the meal with a bit of lifting and toting. If you and your family are willing to donate a few hours as an official Museum Spring Cleaner, please call Renée at 613-527-5230.
Step dancing teaser
If you’re a step-dancing aficionado, you’ll be excited to learn that the Lori MacMaster Step Dancers will be holding a recital on Friday, May 1st at 7:00 PM in the Laggan School auditorium. It will feature step dancers of all ages from all over Glengarry, including the Dunvegan area. There will be no set admission charge. Lori is simply asking for donations that will be passed along to the Glengarry Memorial Hospital.
Lori is the daughter of René and Sherrill Trottier of Dunvegan East. I will have a few more facts and figures on Lori and her long-running school of highland dancing when we meet back here next week.
Euchre apology
I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for being AWOL at last Friday’s euchre tournament in Dunvegan. We were in Toronto visiting with our daughter, Ursula, and our granddaughter, Maya (who recently celebrated her 8th birthday). We did make it back home in time for the Museum’s AGM, but euchre wasn’t in the cards, schedule-wise.
Luckily, my loyal euchre associate, Linda Burgess, offered to work with euchre-meister, Ann Stewart, and carry on in my absence. As always, the task was made easier by the fact that Robert Campbell sets up and puts away the card table and chairs each month without fail. Another one of those amazing behind-the-scenes volunteers I was referring to earlier.
While I still have to get all the details from Linda, she did send me the results and two items of note… one glad and one sad. The first is that April’s get-together saw the inclusion of two “first timers” and the second is that long-time player, Winston Van Putten, was to start chemo this week. I really hope that all goes well.
Here are Friday’s results. Winners of the 50/50 draw were: Tigger Benson, Norma Robertson, C. Raymond and Cecile Cuerrier. At the card tables, Dytha Dixon took 1st place, Rene Trottier took 2nd and Claire Van Putten claimed 3rd prize. The “Low Score” winner was Lynne Robillard and Margot Landry took home the Door Prize. Last but not least, the “Lone Hand” winner was Dytha Dixon.
Blog address error
My virtual ears are crimson after promising you on-line access to “Dunvegan; now & then” (a web-based repository for my weekly Dunvegan column) and promptly giving you the wrong Internet address. In last week’s column, I left out an all-important hyphen. The correct address is www.Dunvegan-Times.ca.
As I mentioned, there will be a one-week offset in posting the columns. In other words, this column will be available in the Glengarry News exclusively from April 22nd to April 29th. It’s only fair that readers of the News have first dibs.
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