"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

We had two speaking groups this morning, both super important!
Our first group of speakers were the inspiring Betty, Melinda and Dorothy from Special Olympics. They came in preparation of July 1st and our Pancake Breakfast. The Chilliwack region plays host to approximately 90 athletes and 32 coaches. Bonnie and Melinda came showing off a small bit of their hardware and to update us on all the accomplishments of local athletes are achieving at Regionals, Provincials, Nationals and Worlds!
They also came in celebrating the Sardis Kiwanis Clubs 36 year relationship with Special Olympics in Chilliwack! A special shout out from our lovely ladies went out to Jacques and Brian!
We are super excited to see everyone again on Saturday for the annual Canada Day Pancake Breakfast! Keep up the awesome ladies!
Our second guest of the morning was Sue Attrill, City of Chilliwack counsellor and Executive Director of the Chilliwack Hospice Society!
Sue's first update to us was about the events and going-ons with Hospice. They have purchased a new building as they have outgrown their current residence. Hospice has also been working hard to make sure grief counselling and supports are in place for all age demographics. Sue reminded us of the Hospice's gala event on Spetember 16 at the old Ag Rec and she hopes to see some of us there. Sue was then extra awesome and gave us a quick update about the City and it's workings as well as taking questions. Things like the Garrison development, homelessness, Vedder expansion, and the new bridge were all discussed. Without a doubt, Chilliwack is growing!

From there we had our club updates which included:

• A brief update from Arley about Super Reader
• A reminder the Board Meeting is this Tuesday at 7pm
• Peter had thank you letters and cards from our scholarhip receipents
• Ev brought a beautiful, thoughtful card from Sardis Doorway to share
• Canada Day events- Friday set-up 6pm at the Evergreen Hall, 6:30am Saturday for the main event at Evergreen Hall, and all day with the trailer at Townsend
• Do't forget that our Conference is coming up in Kennewick! Register now!
  

We wrapped it all up with Happy Bucks!

Happy Birthday to Fran H. this week and Happy Anniversary to the Brelands this week too!

Till next week!
Michelle

Happy Birthday for Ken and Greg! And Happy Anniversary to the Sawatskys this week!
And a big Sardis Kiwanis welcome back to Elizabeth Bennett!

Today is the day!

Elections all around!

Our provincial election is today so be sure to take the time to get out and vote! 
We also had our club elections for the 2017/2018 Kiwanis year.

And all business today!

 We Your incoming Board Members are:
President - Michelle S.
Vice President - Peter B.
Secretary - Courtney B.
Treasurer - Ken S.
1 Year Director - Bill W.
1 Year Director - Al P.
1 Year Director - Kiefer M.
2 Year Director - Doug H.
2 Year Director - Barry D.
2 Year Director - Sheila S.
Past President - Dennis S.

Congratulations and Thank you to everyone!
We are still in need of a 1st Vice President, so please talk to Peter, Ernie or Michelle if you are interested. We would love for you to join us on the Board!

Updates and Communications

• Board Meeting tonight 7pm Chilliwack Public Library
• Soup Kitchen coming up this Saturday, talk to Sheila S. 
• Clothing Sale- In support of Chilliwack Kiwanis and their Super Reader hot dog days we have vouchers available, please support. Sheila has the vouchers
• Run for Mom - coming this weekend, May 13, set up starts at 8am! Hope to see everyone out, contact Pete S for more detials. 
• McHappy Days were a huge success! Thank you to all our members who made it out and thank you to Arley for organizing us this year.
• Knock and Walk - 27 boxes of food were collected for the Food Bank. Huge shout out to the newly formed Sardis Key Club for the extra hands and support! We are all looking forward to working with you in the future!
• Dennis S is getting a group together to attend the Clearbrook celebration on Thursday, contact him with details.
• Inside Ride at W.J. Mouat and Abbotsford Senior raised $14,500 for Kiwanis Children's Cancer Program, thank you to all our riders who attended.
  

Lastly, Elizabeth gave us an update on the Pacific North West Foundation and shared all the unreal things they do and support. More importantly though she came delivering gifts.
Our own Dennis S. received his coveted Red Jacket as our incoming Lientenant Governor for the upcoming year!
Congratulations Dennis!

And just like that we are done and off to a busy weekend all around! Hope to see you all out!
Till then, get out and vote and have a wondeful week,

Michelle

Our program today was Matthew Francis from the Chilliwack Museum, and he came fully prepared, just ask Erwin who won a beautiful copy of "The Chilliwack Story". We also all got passes to the museum (share it with your family) and learned about all their educational programs they offer to the schools and to the public. Matthew also told stories about Chilliwack and some little snippets of her glorious history. We also learned that Mr. Parker is a archive volunteer.
Who knew the Chilliwack Museum was so action packed! It was great to hear how the Chilliwack Museum also secured some of the Canada 150 grant money to begin the process of getting proper museum showcases. Clearly, there is a little gem sitting in down town Chilliwack! Hopefully, we can work on some partnerships and help share the wonderful history of our town!

We wrapped with Happy Bucks, and unitl next week!

Make it an awesome one!

Michelle

A typical chilly, wet, grey type of Chilliwack morning!

It was a calm in house meeting was up for this morning. Dennis had a slideshow from his trip to Panama, which looked incredible and warm! And we did updates and enjoyed a few good laughs!

Updates include:

• Trailer is out for the first time this season April 1st for the plowing match, there was a sign up sheet that went around, if you can help out, contact George.
• Arley handed out a whole list of new Super Reader dates for the month of April. If you are available, let Arley know.
• Barry D. informed us that the Planning Committee for Canada Day has started meeting, so details about the Pancake breakfast and our involvement will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.
• Michelle invited everyone to come watch a field hockey game with her senior girls playing a team from Alberta on Sunday April 9 at 10:30am (ish) at Townsend Turf
• Sheila got the final numbers from Santa Shuffle (the Salvation Army food bank Christmas fundraiser) a total of $3308.50 was raised in its first year, so very promising for this coming year.
• Regional Conference is April 8 in Mount Vernon, there are 3 of us going, let Michelle know if you are interested in attending.
• April Board Meeting is set for April 4, 7pm at the Chilliwack Public library.
• The Golden Ears 150th Birthday Bash was a great night for all who attended, we even heard that Barry and Mary won stuff!
• Also GW Graham Key Club is still taking bottle donations at the Sardis Bottle Depot under account #123, so if you able to help their efforts, it is greatly appreciated

We wrapped it all together with Happy Bucks and we are off to make the week great again! Be sure to check out our Instagram feed!

Yours in Kiwanis,

Michelle