Even with all the craziness Chilliwack deals with we are so lucky to have our first responders and other groups that are all about making Chilliwack a better place. Thank you to all of you!
See you next week,
Michelle

How Did This Happen?

Oh wait, we're awesome!
This morning was another full house! Al brought a guest, and Chilliwack joined us for an Inter-Club, aka 'Social Networking', that of course meant a morning of laughter and fun!
Rod, President of Chilliwack, presented stats and a very thorough update on our Saturday Manna Soup Kitchen we host at the Chilliwack United Church. To date the Soup Kitchen have served 1620 clients this year, that is up from 1430 last year. We have 1170 volunteer hours invested and through generous donations and super savy shopping cost have been decreased to $2.33 a client. Rod outlined some areas for improvement too, hopefully we can put our heads together and problem solve together. That being said, we look forward to continuing the partnership with the Chilliwack club in making sure our Saturday Soup Kitchen continues to be a source of comfort and stability for all our clients.

As for our regular communications:

1. Super Reader: No surprise, still busy, 1969 kids celebrated to date, Arley is fully expecting to hit over 2000 this year.
   
2. Courtney is back from Mexico, even survived the bus ride.
   
3. Thank you for the boxes of soap and other wash stuff for our drive to make wash bags for Anne Davis Transition House. Keep them coming, we will soon make packages up for delivery.
   
4. Nominations for elections can now be made to Ernie, please consider being a member of the Board to make sure our club keeps running smoothly.
   
5. Reminder the Walk and Knock is on May 3, sign up coming next week.
   
6. Also on May 3 is McHappy Day, talk to Arley if you can help.
   
7. Inside Ride, in Abbotsford is May 4, let Dennis know if you can ride for the cause.
   
8. GWG Key Club has they Bottle Drive! If you can help them out, please do.
   
9. Sardis Sec. Key Club held elections, 21 individuals going for positions! It is exciting to see the youth movement be so involved.
   

We wrapped up with Happy Bucks and some Happy Birthday shout outs and celebrations to Brian Cleaver and Al Price! While Happy Anniversary wishes go to the Kalaus this week!

That's all for now, for the good of Kiwanis,

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

"Do not forget, no one else see the world the way you do,
so no one else can tell the stories that you can tell about the world."
~ Anom

Another great morning!

Today we welcome Mike and Cindy from Bowls of Hope as guests, and I was delighted to welcome Doug McLean again this morning, not as a guest though, but as our newest member! Welcome to the team Doug! We look forward to working with you more! We celebrated the birthdays of Courtney, Bill and John! And we welcomed Vic back!
Such an awesome morning!
Some Updates:

• Kiwanis Kurling - March 5 at the Abbotsford Curling Club 1pm to 5pm. COme enjoy an afternoon of throwing rocks!
• IHop Pancake Breakfast, for the Children's Hospital, a sign-up went around for March 7, 7am to 7pm, Dennis has the sign-up if you are interested 
• Sheila has Super Reader while Arley is away, she has a few assemblies so thank you to everyone who is helping out.
• Our District Council Meeting (DCM) is March 13, in Sumas at 7pm, SIGN meeting takes place at 5pm. All are welcome to attend and get an inside scoop about what's happening around the district.
• Last night we held our Budget meeting- great turnout, looking forward to supporting Sardis Secondary and their Key Club starting soon! Another great opportunity to work with kids of our community!
• Also we got invited to Kiwanis Golden Ears' Canada 150th Birthday Bash - March 25 6:15pm, dinner at 7:30pm $25. I have more information if you would like it.

We had two programs on deck today as Program. Bowls of Hope. and Operation Red Nose.
We are blessed to present a cheque to Bowls of Hope to help continue their amazing contribution to our community schools. We learned that they now serve 20/31 schools and have the Chilliwack School District as a partner! These are fabulous developments since we last saw them about 6 months ago! They also have their Annual Dinner Auction coming up on May 5 (click the title to visit the link). Maybe we can get a table together and attend?
We also had a recap from Ken and Derek, who shared the final Operation Red Nose presentation with us! As a club we need to begin thinking about taking on this fundraiser again. It's such an amazing program, and it does so much good around the holiday season. Discussions will be happening over the next few weeks and I will let you know when we have our club vote about continuing on with this program.
A reminder, if you have anything, please let me know, so I can share with everyone!
We wrapped the whole thing up with Happy Bucks, and off we go to make another week amazing!
See you all soon,

Michelle

Communications:

• A reminder of the Valerie Tunbridge memorial tea this week.
• Canadian Diabetes, St. Mary's School, and SIGN all sent us some mail, which was circulated for review
• Super Reader- Arley is always looking for help and volunteers for assemblies, so please let him know if you are interested in helping or can help
• Do not forget the Key Club Bottle Drive account at the Sardis Bottle Depot, help them attend their Portland Conference, account number #123
• ORN we are coming up on the end, thank you to everyone who helped and participated, please send your thoughts and reflections to Derek
• February 14 - Key Club will be attending to have a Inter-Club
• Students of the Month are January 31 and February 6, it will be a full house!
  
• IHop Pancake Day is March 7, watch for more information coming soon!
  
• Vic continues to recover and same for Courtney's dad, so we continue to give our wishes of strength to them both
• Next week you will see some budget/ committee worksheets, please take the time to evaluate the projects we do so we can more forward, and/or be even better

Program:
One of the Kiwanis madates is YCPO, which stands for 'Young Children Priority One', we had the privilege of welcoming Mary Ives from a branch of CYC, and Effective Parenting. She came with a celebration of 20 years of support and partnership with the Kiwanis Club of Sardis and to talk to us about their programs here in Chilliwack. One program that she showcased was the Circle of Security. Circle of Security is relationship based parenting program developed by clinical professionals over a period of 20 years. It provides parents with a roadmap to understanding their children’s needs as well as a guide on how to get there. It is practical, understandable and portioned out in bite-size chunks. The method minimizes the shame and blame cycle and teaches parents reflective functioning. Building on strengths without ignoring the struggles. Circle of Security® trained  facilitators are  leading this series.

The 8 week program will take place 9:00am – 11:00am at Sardis Family Place. Childcare is provided.
Her presentation was followed by some great questions! We are very fortunate to have such a service here in Chilliwack. 

Be sure to check out our Instagram feed, @fvekiwanis to get photos and updates of all we do!
Till next time, all the best, yours in Kiwanis,

Michelle