NEWS RELEASE
COLLINGWOOD AND DISTRICT KINSMEN CLUB
*************************
2020/2021 has certainly been an interesting year for our club. From having to move from in-person meetings to online meetings to having to cancel out big projects/events to rethink smaller to do our parts to social distance to prevent the spread of the pandemic within Collingwood but continue on to "Serve our Communities Greatest Needs."
One of our achievements this year was welcoming in four new members to our club. Having others still expressing interest in the community is a big achievement for any club during this pandemic. We always look forward to hearing from others who may be interested to learn more about us whether in-person or online, all are welcome to learn. Our club is now standing at ten members. We look forward to expanding that number in the future as more interest comes.
In October we managed to operate our first fundraising campaign of the year through a small community bottle drive. We placed out announcements with directions about our event beforehand to the community we were going to walk through to let them know that we would be there. Then with masks on and social distancing between us, we walk a small suburb community of Collingwood and collected cans and bottles that the neighbourhood contributed to our community cause. This campaign was a big success for us that we continued with a bottle drive the first Saturday of every month in different communities of Collingwood then on. Thank you again to everyone who supported us in our clubs bottle drive. We continue to look forward to receiving your donations. We have two drop-off locations available or we can arrange a pick up at your given location. Please contact us for more details.
By the end of October, our club had adopted a strip of road through the towns ‘Adopt a Road’ program. With reflective safety vests and gloves on along with face masks, we split the team in half to cover both sides of the road of High St. from Sixth St. all the way up to the roundabout of Poplar. At the end of our clean ups, we were feeling pretty proud of our efforts.
November brought our club its first donation made towards to the Collingwood’s Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Campaign. The club gave a $100 contribution to the campaign to help out with its efforts. Other donations had followed throughout the remaining of the year such as Christmas cards to the residents of Sunset Manor in Collingwood and a portable radio for the staff to use. We have also made donations to St. Vincent de Paul Collingwood food bank services, Out of the Cold Collingwood program and to the Georgian Triangle Humane Society.
In February our association celebrated 101 years in Canada. Our club celebrated by offering a random act of Kindness to local bus riders a free pass to their next destination on behalf of the club. We also offered up a hot beverage to those walking around and enjoying the downtown scene.
Our clubs biggest support is to help find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) through Kin Canada. Kin Canada is partnered up with CF Canada. Just recently our association was thrilled to hear the news of Health Canada approving Trikafta to be used in Canada. This means that doctors can now prescribe Trikafta for people aged 12 and up with CF. Cystic Fibrosis Canada and Kin Canada have fought long and hard for this moment and thank all who helped in getting this drug approved.
As our club closes off our Kinsmen year, we now look forward to what we can do come September. We continue to march on forward and will be coming up with other ideas that we can work with now that the pandemic wall of restrictions are slowly coming down and allowing us to expand our ideas.
If you would like to know more or even interested in joining our club/association of Kin Canada or the Collingwood & District Kinsmen Club, visit our website here.
Thank you again Collingwood for all your support. The Collingwood & District Club wishes for everyone to have themselves a safe and enjoyable summer. We will see you again in September. Stay Safe.
***********************
