By Aileen Petrozzi

Great food, great speaker and great company! We couldn’t have asked for anything else.

November 16th our members and non members enjoyed our Annual Dinner and Auction at St Mary’s Hall in Maidstone.  We celebrated our 40th Anniversary as a club with speaker, Adam Shoalts.  He discussed his book “Where the Falcon flies”.

The Auction was a success producing over $2300 for the Heritage fund.  We would like to thank all the volunteers and donors. Without them this would not have been possible.

Donors to the Auction:
Viewpoint Winery Lakeside Bakery Jones & Co. Ken Lapain &Sons Ltd
A.J. Matte Electric Blackburn media Jack Miners Cerebral Escape Creations

Joan Murphy-Walker, Karen MacDougall, Peter Kathmann, Laura Foy, Carl Maiolani, Janet Tuite, Kory Renaud, Howard Williams, Eleanor Mazzara, Anne Barbour, Dave Kraus, Linda Menard Watt, Catherine Hogg, Lou Anne Meloche, Shirley Grondin, Joann Grondin, Mary and Pierre Masse, Kelly Morrissey, Dan Loncke, Claire McAllister, John Balga, and many anonymous.

Volunteers:
Cathy Lapain, Joann Grondin, Shirley Grondin, Megan Irwin, LeeAnn Meloche, Vicki Rees, Janice Boussey (PowerPoint presentation)

I will be conducting a survey in the New Year to see how we did and how we can improve. I will be re-establishing the Heritage Committee in March to go over the survey and how we can fundraise.  Hope you will join the committee.

Thank you again for coming out and enjoying our Annual Dinner.

Happy Holidays
Aileen Petrozzi

The Club would also like to congratulate Cathy Lapain as this year’s recipient of the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club Outstanding Achievement Award.

Cathy is a long time member of the Club and has been the Treasurer since 2013. She is a very active member of the Executive Board and the Heritage Committee. Cathy has helped to organize and carry out many key Club events, including the Annual Dinner, and our Bake sales on Earth Day at Malden Park and at the Holiday Beach Hawk Fest. Congrats Cathy and well deserved.

MP Windsor-Tecumseh Irek Kusmierczyk, Guest speaker Adam Shoalts, and Club President (and dinner MC) Kory Renaud