New Kiwanis Member Instrumental In Helping Local Ukrainian Refugee Families

By Ralph Tweedie, Manotick Kiwanis Club

The work of a service club never ceases. Summer is in full swing, but the need in the community still exists. The club operates on a more social setting during the summer. We meet once a month at a member’s home for a BBQ. But we still receive requests for help, whether financial or for volunteers.

So far this summer we have donated in the amount of $1,500 for the Ukrainian Children’s Camp and to ROSSS to help with the relocation of their food bank. We have also donated $1,000 dollars each to two Ukrainian families settling in Manotick to help give their children a chance for a normal summer.

A new member, Anastasia Bombrys, was instramental in helping us identify the needs of new Ukrainian families settling in our region. In turn we have put her in touch with the “House to Home” project the Manotick Legion participates in so that she can extend her help to more Ukranian families.

Club members volunteer annually at the Canada Day celebrations at Petrie Island to run the BBQ for the Ottawa East Kiwanis Club who organize the event.

A major portion of the funds we receive and distribute in our community comes from our involvement with the OLG Bingos at the Bingoland Gaming Center. Once a week a team of two members volunteer at the Center and each month we receive a share of the profits. We rotate the teams so that no individual team is assigned more than once every six weeks.  

Our Christmas projects also provide a great deal of our funds and we need to start planning for them in the summer. In the weeks leading up to Christmas we sell Christmas trees and Christmas Cakes. The “Tree Team” have already met with their supplier and their order for trees is being finalized.

The “Cake Team” has already indicated numbers required for fruit cakes, chocolate truffles and shortbread cookies. This preliminary order is required because the shortbread cookies come from Scotland and must be ordered well in advance. The final order needs to be confirmed by the end of September.

As we wrap up last years projects, we plan for the next year.

Anastasia Bombrys was recently inducted into the Kiwanis Club of Manotick.