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Scouts Canada Challenge News
Cake Auction and Dinner, Oct 16, 2010
The event started off at around noon, with volunteers arriving at Grace Lutheran Church haphazardly between then and 5:00, with a sort of clumping at around 3:00 when we were all told to arrive. From there, we quickly worked out an arrangement for the tables and did our best to make it all look pretty. Through a series of people grabbing things and putting them where they needed to go, switching between putting forks on the tables and arranging tablecloths whenever the fancy struck them. It was through this sort of arrangement that we were able to set up the hall in a nice enough manner, with some of those fun cartoonish Mexican figures dotting the walls with maracas and sombreros.
As we got closer to the 5:30 door opening, there was some concern due to missing cakes. Some had promised to bring them at certain times, but we pretty much just brought them when we could have. Oh, what cakes there were! There were some decorated, others not, some extremely chocolatey, others shaped like spaghetti (2, in fact), some professional, others baked with love, and even more; there were 41 cakes in all!!
At some point before people started arriving, a few of us slid off to the side to try to figure out what the heck we were going to do for songs, and we threw together some harmonies and made sure that everyone knew what to play, and then we all flew off to do more work.
At this point, our guests arrived and we started the evening. With a short speech from our unofficial MC and those songs that we mentioned, all of the youth rushed into the kitchen as the food preparation experts worked out an assembly line system to plate the food that had been previously cooked by the students at Kildonan East Collegiate. With floor directors Andrew and Elizabeth, everyone got their food fairly quickly, despite the last-minute change in table locations. Then we ate. That bit is fairly self-explanatory, except for the fact that the food was really good (the potatoes, particularly, were salty but nonetheless very tasty).
Once everyone was done, we began auctioning off the cakes. We had great success with this, raising $1500 with the highest-selling cake going for $100! As various tables munched happily upon their newly-purchased cakes and reflected upon their lighter wallets, we were delightfully entertained by our award-winning magician Patrick Gregoire. After he had finished dazzling us, we began to thank our guests with some of those delightful door prizes. I would call them SWAG (Stuff We All Get) except not everyone got some. You could call the tickets SWAG, but it’s not quite the same. In any case, those lucky people who won got a lovely mug from Sharon Romanow that had been etched with our logo and filled with Hershey’s Kisses. This, I imagine, would have tasted quite good. Then we continued with the optional Silent Auction, led by that fabulous MC Jean-Marc Haché, who announced that people had won some pretty sweet prizes.
In all, we raised more than $5000 for our cause. If you see a specific name in this write-up, it’s because we wanna thank them. Mainly because they did something awesome for us.
- Jean-Marc Haché
Water Softener Salt Drive
We've finished selling salt in East St. Paul again.
See our photos of the delivery day.
Luvey's Fundraiser
Our fundraiser with Lovey's BBQ was successful. Lovey's donated 15% of their sales where their customers mentioned us. We received $260 from this fundraiser. By the way, the food was excellent; give them a try! Thanks to Lovey's.
The event started off at around noon, with volunteers arriving at Grace Lutheran Church haphazardly between then and 5:00, with a sort of clumping at around 3:00 when we were all told to arrive. From there, we quickly worked out an arrangement for the tables and did our best to make it all look pretty. Through a series of people grabbing things and putting them where they needed to go, switching between putting forks on the tables and arranging tablecloths whenever the fancy struck them. It was through this sort of arrangement that we were able to set up the hall in a nice enough manner, with some of those fun cartoonish Mexican figures dotting the walls with maracas and sombreros.
As we got closer to the 5:30 door opening, there was some concern due to missing cakes. Some had promised to bring them at certain times, but we pretty much just brought them when we could have. Oh, what cakes there were! There were some decorated, others not, some extremely chocolatey, others shaped like spaghetti (2, in fact), some professional, others baked with love, and even more; there were 41 cakes in all!!
At some point before people started arriving, a few of us slid off to the side to try to figure out what the heck we were going to do for songs, and we threw together some harmonies and made sure that everyone knew what to play, and then we all flew off to do more work.
At this point, our guests arrived and we started the evening. With a short speech from our unofficial MC and those songs that we mentioned, all of the youth rushed into the kitchen as the food preparation experts worked out an assembly line system to plate the food that had been previously cooked by the students at Kildonan East Collegiate. With floor directors Andrew and Elizabeth, everyone got their food fairly quickly, despite the last-minute change in table locations. Then we ate. That bit is fairly self-explanatory, except for the fact that the food was really good (the potatoes, particularly, were salty but nonetheless very tasty).
Once everyone was done, we began auctioning off the cakes. We had great success with this, raising $1500 with the highest-selling cake going for $100! As various tables munched happily upon their newly-purchased cakes and reflected upon their lighter wallets, we were delightfully entertained by our award-winning magician Patrick Gregoire. After he had finished dazzling us, we began to thank our guests with some of those delightful door prizes. I would call them SWAG (Stuff We All Get) except not everyone got some. You could call the tickets SWAG, but it’s not quite the same. In any case, those lucky people who won got a lovely mug from Sharon Romanow that had been etched with our logo and filled with Hershey’s Kisses. This, I imagine, would have tasted quite good. Then we continued with the optional Silent Auction, led by that fabulous MC Jean-Marc Haché, who announced that people had won some pretty sweet prizes.
In all, we raised more than $5000 for our cause. If you see a specific name in this write-up, it’s because we wanna thank them. Mainly because they did something awesome for us.
- Jean-Marc Haché
Water Softener Salt Drive
We've finished selling salt in East St. Paul again.
See our photos of the delivery day.
Luvey's Fundraiser
Our fundraiser with Lovey's BBQ was successful. Lovey's donated 15% of their sales where their customers mentioned us. We received $260 from this fundraiser. By the way, the food was excellent; give them a try! Thanks to Lovey's.
Lorette Optimist Halloween Family Dance, Oct 30, 2010
A large crowd of children and parents dressed in their finest Halloween costumes, were at the Dawson trail School to take part in the Lorette Optimist Halloween party on Saturday.
Members of the 1st Lorette and 1st John de Graff Scouting Group were on hand to help make it a BOO-tiful night. Gilbert wielding his Viking axe and the lovely bewitching Julia controlled the line of people waiting to enter the Haunted Maze. Two shifty looking thugs, David and Tyler along with the murdered milkmaid Yvonne had a lot of fun scaring the kids in the Haunted Maze while 'SCAREcrow' Sean gave them their final scream as they exited.
A ghostly Shannon and a grim reaper Leo also helped to entertain the youth in the gym. 'Mad Cow' Glen was in charge of the Bobbing for Apples game while Cindy tried not to be too squeamish Digging for Brains, a game that had youngsters burrowing their hands repeatedly into the cauldron of oiled spaghetti in search of human organs... EEWWEE (thought this should have been called 'Pick your Brain' ha ha).
What a great night for the young and young at heart... I'm glad the officers who stopped us at the police check stop on our way back to Winnipeg got a chuckle when our window rolled down and the light came on to reveal our costumes.
- Yvonne Vincent
A large crowd of children and parents dressed in their finest Halloween costumes, were at the Dawson trail School to take part in the Lorette Optimist Halloween party on Saturday.
Members of the 1st Lorette and 1st John de Graff Scouting Group were on hand to help make it a BOO-tiful night. Gilbert wielding his Viking axe and the lovely bewitching Julia controlled the line of people waiting to enter the Haunted Maze. Two shifty looking thugs, David and Tyler along with the murdered milkmaid Yvonne had a lot of fun scaring the kids in the Haunted Maze while 'SCAREcrow' Sean gave them their final scream as they exited.
A ghostly Shannon and a grim reaper Leo also helped to entertain the youth in the gym. 'Mad Cow' Glen was in charge of the Bobbing for Apples game while Cindy tried not to be too squeamish Digging for Brains, a game that had youngsters burrowing their hands repeatedly into the cauldron of oiled spaghetti in search of human organs... EEWWEE (thought this should have been called 'Pick your Brain' ha ha).
What a great night for the young and young at heart... I'm glad the officers who stopped us at the police check stop on our way back to Winnipeg got a chuckle when our window rolled down and the light came on to reveal our costumes.
- Yvonne Vincent
Family Day of Magic, May 16, 2010
Phone Book Delivery, Nov 6, 2010
After our initial meeting at the Chicken Chef in St. Adolphe at 9 am
where we emptied Gilbert's trailer into various vehicles, we scattered
to the winds and rarely crossed paths. The people of Niverville and St.
Adolphe were very pleasant as we traipsed from house to apartment to
business delivering 1800 phone books in 6 hours. The new phone books
are here! The new phone books are here! Sometimes it was hard to tell
where we had delivered because the phone books disappeared from the door
step almost as fast as we could put them out. It sure was great
exercise!
After our initial meeting at the Chicken Chef in St. Adolphe at 9 am
where we emptied Gilbert's trailer into various vehicles, we scattered
to the winds and rarely crossed paths. The people of Niverville and St.
Adolphe were very pleasant as we traipsed from house to apartment to
business delivering 1800 phone books in 6 hours. The new phone books
are here! The new phone books are here! Sometimes it was hard to tell
where we had delivered because the phone books disappeared from the door
step almost as fast as we could put them out. It sure was great
exercise!
Coin Counting at Christmas Cheer Board, Dec 15, 2010
This was a lot of fun. One group started sorting out large buckets of
coins into each denomination. Jorge (from Brazil) was fascinated with
the many different designs of our Canadian coins. We even found some
foreign coins from China . Others mastered the skill of filling the
plastic tubes and carefully emptying them into the paper tubes. There
was a trick to using each of the different types of tubes and each
person had their favorite method. As the end of our shift drew near we
all kicked it into high gear and an assembly line formed between tube
fillers and paper fillers to empty the last of our buckets. In the end
we estimate that we rolled about 45,000 pennies! Our grimy hands were
proof that money is DIRTY! Can't wait for next year.
This was a lot of fun. One group started sorting out large buckets of
coins into each denomination. Jorge (from Brazil) was fascinated with
the many different designs of our Canadian coins. We even found some
foreign coins from China . Others mastered the skill of filling the
plastic tubes and carefully emptying them into the paper tubes. There
was a trick to using each of the different types of tubes and each
person had their favorite method. As the end of our shift drew near we
all kicked it into high gear and an assembly line formed between tube
fillers and paper fillers to empty the last of our buckets. In the end
we estimate that we rolled about 45,000 pennies! Our grimy hands were
proof that money is DIRTY! Can't wait for next year.
Vegetable sorting at Winnipeg Harvest, Jan 19th, 2011
When we arrived at Winnipeg Harvest they told us we were going to be sorting potatoes and onions. Our exchange students, (Natalie and Jorge) and some of the Lorette venturers were taken on a tour of the building while the rest of us began sorting. We quickly dissolved into three groups, two for potatoes and one for onions. It didn't take long to notice the smell of rotten vegetables. An instant rivalry was born between the two potato bins, causing a race to start to see who could fill their pallet the fastest. Potatoes and onions were flying in every direction as we began frantically sorting the vegetables. By the end of the two hour session, we had sorted about 4500 pounds of potatoes and onions. The vegetables we sorted are going to needy families and soup kitchens across Winnipeg. (By Sean & Julia Vincent)
When we arrived at Winnipeg Harvest they told us we were going to be sorting potatoes and onions. Our exchange students, (Natalie and Jorge) and some of the Lorette venturers were taken on a tour of the building while the rest of us began sorting. We quickly dissolved into three groups, two for potatoes and one for onions. It didn't take long to notice the smell of rotten vegetables. An instant rivalry was born between the two potato bins, causing a race to start to see who could fill their pallet the fastest. Potatoes and onions were flying in every direction as we began frantically sorting the vegetables. By the end of the two hour session, we had sorted about 4500 pounds of potatoes and onions. The vegetables we sorted are going to needy families and soup kitchens across Winnipeg. (By Sean & Julia Vincent)
Grace Lutheran Baking and Service, Jan 30th, 2011
Just a few days before the service we were panicking after just realizing that we had about a third of the baking we needed. After making some calls and sending some e-mails, people started almost throwing baking at us. Early Sunday morning, some of the venturers left from Scout Amik at Gimli Bible camp at about 7:00 am to make it to the church on time. The early service was small, but as others started to arrive, the crowd grew larger and we started mingling with them and talking about the trip. During the second service, Mike and Emily talked about our trip to those in attendance. As it turns out we had more than enough baking for the two services with plenty left for the parishioners to take home and the rest was donated to a food bank. (by Sean & Julia Vincent)
Just a few days before the service we were panicking after just realizing that we had about a third of the baking we needed. After making some calls and sending some e-mails, people started almost throwing baking at us. Early Sunday morning, some of the venturers left from Scout Amik at Gimli Bible camp at about 7:00 am to make it to the church on time. The early service was small, but as others started to arrive, the crowd grew larger and we started mingling with them and talking about the trip. During the second service, Mike and Emily talked about our trip to those in attendance. As it turns out we had more than enough baking for the two services with plenty left for the parishioners to take home and the rest was donated to a food bank. (by Sean & Julia Vincent)
