Club creates community calendar

Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, Advertiser
http://gfwadvertiser.ca/index.cfm?sid=173492&sc=291

Planning is the key to the success of any organization, and the Kiwanis Club of Grand Falls-Windsor does a lot of it.

The group is perhaps best known for its involvement in the music festival held every spring in the town, which gives musicians and singers from across the Exploits Valley a venue to perform and receive constructive criticism from exert adjudicators.

In order to fund this event and support many other groups and initiatives, the membership is constantly looking ahead.

In doing that, they are now gearing up for one of their biggest fundraisers of the year, the development of a calendar to help keep residents on top of birthdays, anniversaries, and other important days throughout 2009.

Sara Sheehan is heading up the Kiwanians’ Community Spirit Calendar project, which she hopes will be successful again this year.

“The thing is that when most people hear Kiwanis, that is what most people think of, the music festival,” she said. “That is one of our major fundraising opportunities, but we do other fundraisers for other things. We have a TV auction, a Christmas turkey raffle, and this one, the calendar. This is the one we use to start off our year.”

Sheehan said even though the festival is the most visible event the club supports in the community, it is not the only one.

School breakfast programs, the 1916 Beaumont Hamel army cadets, Special Olympics, and the pediatric unit of the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Care Centre are all supported, at least in part, by Kiwanis.

The calendar is unique, in that people are encouraged to submit dates of landmark days in the year to be included.

Birthdays, anniversaries, memorials, and other dates of interest are recorded.

This is the 28th year for the calendar, which helps significantly with the club’s costs, especially for the music festival.

“Our budget last year for the music festival was $44,000,” Sheehan said. “I was shaking my head selling tickets (at the festival) last year, because I was selling tickets for $2 and what people were getting in terms of entertainment and talent was more than what you would get for, say, $36, if someone from outside the community came into the Arts and Culture Centre.”

The deadline for orders of the calendar is Sept. 30, and purchases can be made by contacting Sheehan, committee members Don Hodder, Hilary Blackwood, Shirley Clarke, or any member of the Grand Falls-Windsor Kiwanis club.