Club Updates: 

• Earned 4 new patches from DCON in Kennewick, WA
• Soup kitchen on September 9 - Dennis is cooking 
• Meals on Wheels service beginning in September, Cec will have more details
• Super Reader invitations are going out this week

We are in the 9th inning of summer! Our last week before all the kids head back to school and everyone needs to make note of the school zones! We were lucky today welcome Tony and Brendan from Chilliwack Search and Rescue and Mike Bugner from the Chilliwack Historic Society as our guests! 
Mike spoke about the Historical Society and it's beginnings from when CFB Chilliwack closed. They are opening a new exhibit for the fall called "Canada Remembers" and they hope to increase visitors by bringing in more school aged children. We have supported the Chilliwack Historical Society since their inception and we are honoured to present them with a cheque for $1000 to help keep up the displays and keep their educational efforts alive. 
Next up was Chilliwack Search and Rescue! We have supported this organization for as long as I can remember, and even longer! We learned that they have brought in some individuals as resource personnel to help with the specialties as CSAR is getting so big. This of course comes from the fact that our CSAR is #2 in the province for call volume. 
A pretty fun meeting with laughter and awesomeness everywhere! 
Don't forget your bubbles and stickers for the POW and soaps, etc for Anne Davis! 

Talk to you all soon! 
​Michelle 

This morning was another perfect summer morning, except I forgot the cheque book (I know Ken, you left me one job, and I forgot) so I had to run home and get it. Thank goodness for my VP and partner in crime Peter for bailing me out there! On the positive I was only 4 minutes late!
This morning we had Mike Ayers from the Ann Davis Transition Society as our guest speaker. We have been avid supporters of the Ann Davis House and Society since we came to be as a club! The Ann Davis gardens I have come to learn was one of our very first projects we took on as the Kiwanis Club of Sardis. This service in Chilliwack is critical, and we so lucky to be able to support them with monetary donations every year. We learned today that they have hired a child counselor to help with their backlog of over 100 children on their wait list. Mike also outlined some of their additional services that the Ann Davis provides. You can check out their website (Ann Davis Transition Society) to learn about all of these different services. As you all may remember, we have been collecting soaps and basic toiletry items for Ann Davis since late May. I currently have a dozen or more shoe boxes full of soaps, shampoos, brushes, wash cloths, dental hygiene products and all the other essentials waiting for us to sort into kits. Mike informed us that we do not need to make hundreds of kits but rather just a few 'family packs' and then they will take all of the rest of our donation and distribute them as they need. This is wonderful news, so we will get the family kits packed up and I will deliver our donation in the next few weeks.
That means if you have any more soaps, etc, please bring it in sooner, rather than later!
Other club updates that were shared included:

• A wrap up report on the 9th Annual Pig Roast and Installation, Abbotsford, Clearbrook, Bellingham, Chilliwack, Sardis and Golden Ears were all in attendance, a lovely night full of laughter, fun and good times. Check out Facebook for pictures including our own Dennis being Installed as the new Lt.Gov!
• Hogan Park car show was a success, sounds like it was a great time! Thank you to all those who were there.
• Do not forget to bring you Bubbles and Stickers for the Pediatric Observation Unit to next meeting so we can make a special delivery to Jessica and the nurses up there to bring a little extra cheerfulness to the ward!
  

We wrapped up with a good round of Happy Bucks and wishes of safe travels to all our members heading to Kennewick, WA for the Kiwanis conference.

Yours In Service,
Michelle

"The idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the young and inflame their intellects."
~R.Hutchins

We had a full house this morning, which was great considering it is the middle of summer! We had a lot of guests this morning too! We welcomed Ron and Lyle from the Road Warriors. Jessica Boldt from the Chilliwack Hospital Foundation. Greg Weigrich our Lt. Governor and Jerry Deas Candidate for Governor Elect for the PNW District. Warm welcomes to all our guests and thank you for sharing your morning with us!
Just a few club updates:

• Pig Roast is on August 19 at 2pm at Gwynne Vaughan Park $10 to Dennis
  
• Soup Kitchen on Saturday we supported 101 clients
  
• Car Show August 20 at 8:30am at Hogan Park for trailer support - talk to George if you are available
  

After our updates and reminders, Jerry Deas spoke about his platform, the importance of the 4 Is of Kiwanis (Investment, Image, Inspiration and Invent) and the role Kiwanis has played in his life- for 47 years! We are very fortunate to have a Governor Elect come visit us personally, so thank you Jerry for your time!

The Hospital was our major focus over the last two years, and we have been able to provide a lot of services and space in the Pediatric Observation Unit. Jessica joined us this morning to give us updates from Run for Mom and the Hospital in general.

Run for Mom Update

Hospital Update
We learned today that there are 4 people who fund raise for the four hospitals in the area! impressive results! Although, some of us pointed out that's a 1-to-1 ratio and that is pretty good!
The hospital is always looking at new and better ways to treat children and harbor healthy parent baby relationships. Jessica talked to us about Kangaroo Care, and the importance of skin-to-skin contact, and the evolution of care up in the Maternity Ward. We heard amazing things about our sponsored playroom. Families love it. Kids love it. It is a wonderful distraction and a place where kids can be kids! Always a good focus!
We also got the following update about the Pediatric Observation Unit:

I think we can issue a challenge to our members to continue our support of the Pediatric Observation Unit- I challenge each member to donate 1 bubbles or 1 package of stickers so we can help bolster the "Smile Makers" fund! I will bring a box on Tuesday and we keep it all together, and I will deliver it to Jessica.

We wrapped it all up with a round of Happy Bucks and I hope you all have a wonderful week! See you on Saturday!
Thank you for all your awesome!

Michelle

"When you see an elephant that needs to gain weight you do not keep weighing it- you feed it."
~Unknown

What a treat today! A brand new speaker with a story, and a program for the ages!

This morning we welcomed Mary, and Wings of Hope: Dave Smith, Dave Cook, Russ Airey and David McElroy.
We broke the program up into two sections this morning.
Our first program started with David recounting his flight around the world, in 80 days! He shared amazing images, incredible tales and fascinating facts. You can see from the image above, that was his route. A true sense of adventure and an accomplishment of epic proportions!
We then took a break to enjoy our breakfast and to allow our guests a chance to eat as well. We did a few club updates during this time. Do not forget the Pig Roast is August 19 at 2pm, dinner at 5pm and Installation afterward. Soup kitchen coming up on Saturday, see Sheila for the sign-up. Meals on Wheels starts again for the month of September we will be delivering on Mondays and Wednesdays, more details to follow. We also have the big car sow at Hogan Park on August 20. After the interlude, we headed back for part 2 of our program.
This is where things got really inspiring.

"... to those who are given, much is expected..."

Give Hope Wings
Hope Air (Click on the link above to explore their website) is a national charity that arranges free flights for Canadians in financial need who must travel to healthcare far from home. Since its establishment in 1986, Hope Air has arranged more than 111,000 free flights to healthcare. This has impacted countless Canadian families over the years. They have a volunteer base of 9 and those 9 alone did 11,000 flights for sick kids and their families to get to medical attention. Their tag line is "We're not an airline, we're a lifeline" and have Dr. Roberta Bondar and their patron, they are doing all the right things. These guys certainly are a lifeline. The work they are doing is some of the most unique and thoughtful we have seen yet. Click here for some specific stories about how they gave hope back to some sick kids and their families. They also do public speaking and they believe the biggest limitation in life of youth right now is that they cannot imagine a bigger life for themselves.
I think we can all agree to that, if you dream big the universe is the limit!
Maybe we can look into supporting this group in the future?

We wrapped it all up with Happy Bucks and a resounding celebration for Sheila's birthday this week.
Till next time,

Michelle

"My education was interupted only by my schooling."
~Sir Winston Churchill 

Every now and again, and it does not happen often, we get a little down time. A chance to reconnect with our fellow Kiwanians, have some fun, laugh a little and enjoy each other's company.
That was today for us, as we had a cancellation.
We enjoyed a morning meeting full of laughter and good memories as Barry kicked off O Canada with Happy Birthday and the whole morning continued on.
We had a brief update from the Chilliwack Evacuation Centre and dialogued about the fire situation here in Chilliwack and of course in British Columbia. We had greetings from Phil Matthews get delivered. And Dennis is headed to Ferndale so if you have a chance, road trip with him. Also a pleasant reminder that we have our Board Meeting tonight at 7pm.
We wrapped up the down time with a solid round of happy Bucks.
It was wonderful to relax and enjoy the morning.

Thank you all for all you do.
See you next week,

Michelle