Dear Grands of BC Islands,
May Greetings on our beautiful bountiful Islands.
A few items from the GRL conference call this month are worth noting.
Fabric Sales
The Alberta Gran Groups reported on their astonishing success with their 7th annual Fabric Sales in 4 towns, (Calgary, Edmonton, RedDeer, Medicine Hat) which have raised $60,000 this spring.
Locally the Merville Grand Mothers will hold their 2nd annual Fabulous Fabric Sale in October.
Aeroplan Miles
Note (in the SLF Bulletin) that May 27 & 28 are Aeroplan matching Days for SLF. This means double, (2 miles for the price of 1)!
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Grans
The 22 Grans who went on the March delegation are currently offering their powerful presentations across Canada. Locally Tina Filippino, Paxie and Joan Wenman are in the midst of bringing their stories to all interested groups and communities on our Islands. They continue to inspire and renew our commitment to the Grandmother Campaign, as they pass on the profound ways the African Grandmothers are transforming their communities.
BC Islands Region
New GRL wanted (still)– time to step forward and take on a leadership role in our Region. Contact Sally or Paxie if you’re interested and we’ll talk you into it. It’s only a 2 yr commitment with lots of perks and bonuses.
Updated List of BC Island Groups & Contacts
There’s been a few changes so please take a look at this latest corrected list – sent as an attachment. Huge apologies to Connie Holmes on Salt Spring Island for the confusion rewarding her email address.
***The attachment is for the contact person only. Please delete before sending out to your membership.
Calendar of Events
May 28 – VG4A Joan Wenman is presenting at New Horizons in James Bay 7 pm 234
Menzies Rd see attachment
June 7 – NanGos – African Market – St Paul’s Anglican Church 10 am – 4 pm
Paxie Vreede is giving 2 talks
June 7 – VG4A – Stride Victoria – contact Nelly nelly@woodsworth.ca for details
June 8 – NanGos – Island Soul Choir Concert, Port Theatre, 2:30 pm. tix $22.30
NanGos providing snacks & treats and selling crafts.
July 26- Oceanside G2G will be selling crafts and baking at St Mark’s Fair in Qualicum
Sept 4 – 7 – Island Bike Ride organized by VG4A. Training is underway and plans are being made for the launch in Campbell River on Sept 4 and welcome in Victoria on Sept 7th (Grandparents Day) Stay tuned.
Hello again,
NanGoGrannies had their second African Market on June 7th, which was a
beautiful day and a lively event with an impressive array of items to
sell. Oceanside Grannies participated with their beautiful beach bags. I
did 2 presentations about the African trip, one focusing more on
Ethiopia, the other more on Rwanda and South Africa. The following day
NanGo’s and Oceanside provided refreshments for the Island Soul Choir
concert at the Port Theatre, another successful event. Congratulations
to all, and $6,000.00 will be going to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
At the market, we used a Square reader for the first time to be able to
receive payments via credit card. This is a new way of taking money that
does not require big machines or monthly payments. It had also been
discussed at the latest GRL conference call, for all information go to
http://www.squareup.com/ca or contact me. The square reader is easy to use, and
we gained almost $2,000.00 in sales having it available.
News from the Foundation:
There are grandmothers groups starting up in Australia!
STRIDE: As of June 2, there were 35 walks or events planned with 60
groups participating.
SPEAKERS’ BUREAU: A kit providing a lot of information in very useable
form will soon be available. It will have a package of basic information
‘what all grandmothers in the campaign should know’, this could be
useful for newcomers packages. Then there is a prepared talk with slides
for people doing presentations, and a section on how to train people to
do presentations.
KAZURI: The jewellery imports for SLF are winding down. Other
possibilities to import crafts made by projects that receive funding are
being explored.
TRIBUNAL FILM: Is becoming available in the fall. Ilana will travel with
the film to gatherings that have been scheduled. Vancouver has booked
its gathering for November 22nd, and will have film and Ilana there. I
wonder whether we can schedule some time close to this event for the
island, or if islanders want to attend the Vancouver gathering. I will
send an email to Hannah Diamond to see if this would be possible.
SLF and advocacy: The letter from the foundation that clarified the
degree of separation between SLF and GRAN caused a lot of controversy
and some hurt feelings. The Board of SLF affirmed its approval of the
content of the letter in a response, signed by Stephen Lewis as the
chair, which was sent to all those who had expressed their concerns in a
letter or email to the Board. Grandmothers who have written or emailed
to Graham or other staff members, will get a response but it may take a
bit of time. The Foundation wants to make sure that members of the GM
campaign do not approach their MLA’s as representatives of the Foundation.
Upcoming Events:
June 23: PaGo African Dinner, with Africa presentation by Paxie.
September 5,6,7: Victoria Bicycle Fundraising tour from Campbell River
to Victoria!
Please add to this as needed, and send around a report about you own events!
Happy summer all,
Oceanside Grandmothers to Grandmothers 