Hello everyone! It's Great to welcome you to a new year with our East York Kiwanis club!  I know I can count on all of you to pitch in and help out with our many projects over the coming year and hope you will find Fun and Friendship with fellow  Kiwanians.

Wow, time is flying ! It's late Nov and we have had a great turnout for the Oct. 26th Tree Planting in Don Valley with over 70 Volunteers helped. Special Thanks to 40 + Key Clubbers from AY Jackson, who helped improve our environment by Planting # trees and #Shrubs!! Thank you to all those who helped on this effort.

The Annual Kiwanis-Staples School Supply Drive Partnership underway  with the Kiwanis Club of East York working with 7 Staples locations who helped to raise Donations for the school supply Drive of $5000 plus.. Please a private donor has added an additional 50 fully packed Back Packs to distribution to over 20 various recipients .

I want to especially thank our Key clubbers from  AY Jackson and  Marc Garneau for their role in co-hosting the Remembrance service to honour and Thank our Vets for their service to Canada, especially to so many who never made it home .We often take  our security, Freedom, and Comfortable lives for  granted, but we must Honour the sacrifice of our  Vets , by acting with integrity, compassion and respect for all in our Society, in our Daily activities.

We are forever grateful and will honour our  serving  forces by striving to help each other and build a better Canada.

We look ahead to upcoming events.

Selling Christmas treats at several locations;

The wonderful Robbie Burns dinner sat Jan25, and Valentine’s Dinner meeting in  Feb,

St. Patrick’s Dinner  Meeting in March,possibly a summer BBQ, and Golf Tournament.

There are Three Key Goals for  our Club in 2024/2025

1)      We need to grow our  membership

2)     We need to raise our profile in East York,

3)     We really need to support the 4 Food Banks  we currently assist

I want to close with a quote by Jack Layton,

, “My friends , Love is  Better than Anger. Hope is better than  Fear. Optimism is better than Despair. So let us  be  Loving, Hopeful, and Optimistic. And we’ll Change the World!”  Jack Layton  letter to Canadians, Aug 22, 2011

Our actions do Make a Difference. 

Thank you for all you do for the Children of the World.

Roger Touw

President

Kiwanis Club of East York