Fundraising is no easy feat, that is for sure.  From the moment I stepped off the plane last March to the moment I stepped on a couple of weeks ago, my mind has been consumed with raising enough funds to do this year projects.  A couple of weeks before the end of the fundraising season, I thought I would never make it but then I always think that.  Low and behold, so many amazing people and organizations stepped up to give us a helping hand.  We did 31 presentations to various Rotary clubs, Lion Clubs and special interest groups.  On top of that, we did a coffee presentation, Jennifer’s Jazz-It-Up Dance Studio did a small fundraiser for us, we again hosted our annual event at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope and did another used book sale.

Some of the highlights included our water filter campaign – 525 Water Filter Systems – these will serve at least 2600 villagers, schools and a couple of rural medical clinics.  I have to thank Barbara Seagram, a true humanitarian in every sense, for her efforts in raising well over $20,000 this year alone.  Another wonderful surprise was Cindy Gering from New Westminster in BC.  She is donating a water filter system for every real estate sale she makes, starting with 65 systems!

Our annual fundraiser was a huge success too.  Mike and I rack our brains every year to come up with something different to bring to our community and this year we presented female celebrity impersonators.  In fact it was so popular we even discovered a couple of guys hiding above the stage so they could watch the show!

The book sale was another great success, we sold over $4700 in used $1 and $2 books – most of them looked brand new but we still had something like 8,000 books left over so after next years book sale, I think we will do a second one elsewhere or the following spring.

Finally, Rotary Clubs plus an Rotary District Grant totalled over $71,000 plus so many individual donations, easily brought the total to over $75,000.  I am just speechless over this.

I really have to thank so many people for helping us achieve this.  Kathy Dennis has been a Godsend with the book sale.  There is no way in a month of Sundays I could have handled this.  Peggy and Tim are there at just about every fundraiser doing whatever they can do to make things go smoothly, as is Jo Druhan who has helped me at just about every fundraiser for over 10 years!  It doesn’t stop there either – there have been so many people, giving of their time, and often their money to assist us in raising money for the respectful villagers that wouldn’t otherwise have a hope for a better life.  Finally, our Board of Directors has been crucial in our decisions, offering advice, and helping with the processing of credit cards, tax receipts, accounting and other things.

THANK YOU!

Now for a much needed projects update!