2017-12-05 Monthly Meeting

Dec. 5, 2017 – Lee Valley Halifax

32 members and guests

Call to order by chair, Stephen Parsons, at 6:45

Business & Reminders

Welcome guests.  Review of agenda.  Review of Minutes

• Business Arising
• Presentation from Kevin Hurst, Lee Valley
• Show and tell, Toy drive
• Raffle / door prizes

MOTION:  Accept agenda as presented

MOVED:  Brad Holley                              SECONDED: Gary Dumas                  MOTION CARRIED

Business Arising

• Announcement that Hands on Halifax has found new owners will continue to operate as an ongoing operation. Good news and good opportunity for more members to become involved
• Will have a panel for January on making money from woodworking with a range of experiences

Presentation

Kevin Hurst introduced us to some fun new products in the  Lee Valley line for this year.  As always, it was fun and interesting to get a heads up on updates and changes.  Once again, Kevin made a generous donation on behalf of Lee Valley.  Their contribution included both toys for the toy drive and a selection of prizes for our raffle draw.  Much thanks to Lee Valley for hosting and for their contribution to our Salvation Army donation.  And, of course, thanks again to Kevin for another entertaining and informative  presentation.

Show and Share 

This month, our challenge was toys for the toy drive and our members didn’t disappoint. 

• Guy was unable to make the meeting but sent along a collection of dinosaurs on wheels
• Mary Elizabeth shared her bag of hardwood blocks and a couple of Jacob’s Ladders (tumbling blocks
• Stephen made a dump truck with a variety of hardwoods
• Gary reached 248 pine trucks this year – and would have reached 250 but his shipment of supplies was 8 axels short
• Walt produced 9 kits of oil trucks made from repurposed wood including table legs and curtain rods.  Walt had help from fellow member, Scott, and another neighbour.  They also made a series of u-racer kits
• Phil made an American doll bed and Gene’s wife made blankets
• Gene contributed a cradle and bed, with more blankets by his wife (special thanks to Mrs. Nurse) and several trucks with painted cabs
• Doug finished 3 collections of blocks, that were in bags made by his son, George, who learned his sewing skills in making bag pipes
• Trevor showed his flying fish puzzles as well as Star Wars ornaments
• Darrell was unable to join us at the meeting but sent along his contribution of miniature helicopters that he modelled after some toys that he had seen at Walmart
• Bill Howe was inspired by Darrell’s idea and recreated some tractors, which he filled with ‘trees’ from branches. Some of the tractors were painted by his grandkids

 

 

Break – raffle tickets

After the show and share, there was opportunity to socialize and share some potluck goodies and, of course, Gary was busy selling the raffle tickets trying to top our previous record.

In lieu of a 50/50 draw this month, all funds were donated to the Salvation Army Christmas Fund.

We had a wide variety of prizes including 2 $25 gift cards (purchased by AWA),  and donations from Lee Valley and several of our members.  That added extra incentive for members to be very generous in their donations.  Winners of each draw got to select a prize from the selections.  There were so many prizes that I didn’t record all the winners.  Congratulations to all winners!

 

A number of people also made cash donations without wanting tickets.  These were added to our funds and we were able to make a total donation of $630. 

Thanks so much to everyone for the toys and cash.  The Salvation Army representatives were overwhelmed at the variety and quality of the toys and by the amount of money a group of our size could raise in a short amount of time.

 

Next Meeting / Challenge

Tuesday,  January 9, 2018

CHALLENGE:  Finish work in progress.