By-Town Heritage Club

Our July lunch will be our annual picnic and, just to shake things up, it will be held on Wednesday, July 10 (rain date – Friday, July 12)! Not the usual first Thursday of the month so, if that’s the reason why you can’t join us for lunch, no excuses not to join us for a picnic! We’ll gather at Vincent Massey Park, see the picnic location on the map below.
 
We’ll have members bring their own food and drink, and chairs, but the club will supply individually packaged snacks (chips, pretzels, popcorn, etc.) and desserts. And, of course, there will be door prizes! Please note, it is paid parking ($1 per half hour (max. 8$ per day)).
 
One of the complaints about our lunches is that the restaurant setting really isn’t geared for “mingling” with each other in a quieter setting. We think our picnic provides that opportunity, and hope many of you will join us. Please send an email to register your attendance.
 
We’ll also use the picnic as an opportunity to get to know each other a little better. When you register your attendance, you will be asked to answer a few questions about yourself. At the picnic you will be given a sheet asking you to find “the person who has met Celine Dion” or “the person who has slept in an igloo” or “the person who was born in Glasgow, Scotland”, etc. No obligation to play, of course, but if you do and you complete your card, you will receive a special prize!

PARKING LOT IN RED
PICNIC LOCATION ON BLUE (AREA J)
WASHROOM IN GREEN

Continuing our theme of shaking things up this summer, our August Lunch will be a breakfast! Join us on Thursday, August 8 (also not the first Thursday of the month – aren’t we rebels!) for breakfast at Allô! mon Coco in Billings Bridge Mall. We will gather at 10:00 a.m. If you plan to join us for breakfast, please send an email to register your attendance.

We will be holding our AGM on Thursday, September 5. Details about guest speakers, elections and the location in the August newsletter.

Each year we ask our members to nominate registered charities that are important to them to receive $500 from the chapter. The chapter supports a minimum of two charities annually. If you have a favourite charity you’d like us to support, please send a note sharing a few words why you’d like us to help that group and if you have any involvement with them (not a requirement). Please send an email, by August 10, nominating your charity and perhaps you can be a Heritage Club hero to them! Members in good standing, for the current and past year, may submit organizations for consideration. Learn more about our Community Involvement work, and nominating a charity, here.

A reminder that your Heritage Club membership qualifies you preferred membership pricing (which includes extending the discount to two family members once you have joined!) at GoodLife Fitness clubs across Canada. Learn more about this discount here. 

The deadline is fast approaching for your children and grandchildren to apply for scholarships for the Heritage Club or BelairDirect. Details are here.

We had a great gathering for our June lunch at Bella Vista. Here’s a few smiling faces from that fun gathering…

A hearty “hello” to new members Randy Wood, Rosemary Tennian, John Tennian and Darcia Kmet and a “welcome back” to reinstated members Carole Tremblay-Smith and Joanne Larose. Welcome!

We discovered many wineries in Prince Edward County don’t open until May so we’re still working out details for the wine tour (October 15-17). Details in the next newsletter!  
 
Also, check next month’s newsletter for information about our annual golf day, being held in July this year.

There are two scholarship programs available to the children and grandchildren of Heritage Club members.
 
HERITAGE CLUB SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM 2024
The Heritage Club is planning to award three scholarships to children or grandchildren of Heritage Club members who have paid dues for the past two years (2024 and 2023). The scholarships are valued at $2,000 each for university or college studies. The scholarships will be awarded to students starting, for the first time, their first year of full-time studies. Eligible recipients include dependent children, including adopted and stepchildren, grandchildren, and wards in legal guardianship of active members.
 
These scholarships apply to all Canadian educational institutions which have provincial degree granting powers or their affiliates and at Canadian Colleges or CEGEPs. Learn more about this opportunity here. To be considered all applications must be received or postmarked on or before June 30, 2024.
 
BELAIRDIRECT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM 2024
Belairdirect scholarships are available to the children and grandchildren of Heritage Club members who have MEDOC travel insurance, or home or auto insurance with Johnson Insurance. Applicants must be a resident of Canada, completing High School in 2024 and enrolled in an undergraduate program for the 2024/25 academic year at a recognized publicly funded Canadian post-secondary institution or CEGEP. Applications must be submitted by July 27, 2024. Learn more here.

We’re looking to organize a late-fall volunteer day for our members. Something like a day at Toy Mountain or helping with the city food bank drive or ???? If you have any ideas and/or connections, please send them our way! Thanks…

Your club continues to manage a chapter website. Most other chapters rely only on the national website (for newsletter posting) and/or social media accounts for public information and, of course, newsletters to provide information to members. There is a cost to keeping the website active and, quite honestly, while we ‘kinda know what we’re doing with it’ we ‘don’t really know what we’re doing with it’, and it is another thing we need to manage. It has also been hacked more than a few times which poses no security risk but is a bit embarrassing… So, we’re wondering if you would have any great sense of loss if the website were shut down? Or, if you are website savvy and would like to help out with the site, we’d welcome that as well! If you have any thoughts about this subject, please share them! Thanks!

A hearty By-Town welcome to the new members who have joined this year: Kimberley Fraser, Guy Abel, Brian Wale, Stefan Ginder, Louise Brunet Stooke, Caroline Garrioch, James Wadley, Alfred Patry, Donald Chartrand, Heinrich Teworte, Luc Lalonde and Eldon Hum. Welcome to the club and we hope to see you at a lunch or event soon!

PLEASE NOTE, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT…

Join us on Thursday, June 20, 2024 for a Perfect Wedding at Upper Canada Theatre in Morrisburg! Our bus will leave Riverside United Church at 12:30 p.m. and travel to Morrisburg for the 2:00 p.m. show. After the show we’ll take a little detour to Mallorytown and tour ArBru brewery – Canada’s first solar brewery. The brewery is 100% powered by the sun! We’ll have a tour at the brewery and then stay for dinner from their woodfired pizza menu.
 
Thankfully your day will be a lot cheaper than an actual wedding… With our group purchase at the theatre and your club sponsoring the bus, your ticket is only $35. You will pay for your own drinks (tasting flights available) and dinner at the brewery.
 
Registration for this event is limited to 30 people. Please register via email and note the payment information at the end of the newsletter. Your ticket(s) will only be confirmed when payment is received. The physical requirements for this trip are that you need to be able to get on and off the bus several times and walk short distances to the theatre and brewery. Though we are not on a specific timetable at the brewery, we are expected to arrive back in Ottawa around 8:30 p.m.

After a three-year hiatus, we are pleased to announce that we will have a wine tour this fall! Details are still being worked out but, save the date on your calendar now – October 15 – 17. We’re easing back into the wine tour world, with a two-night, three-day tour in Prince Edward County. This will allow us to keep costs lower and see if the interest will be the same as it was pre-COVID. More details in the next newsletter but – mark your calendars! We are sure – SURE – it will be a great time!

As a reminder of the fun we have on a wine tour…