MORRISBURG – One hundred and nine men brought $100 donations to the Morrisburg Legion November 6th for the second annual 100 Men Who Care South Dundas meeting.
When the meeting wrapped up, it was Winchester District Memorial Hospital’s Foundation and the local waterfront committees that left with their money.
Seven community charitable projects were pitched to the group who then voted to decide which projects would be the beneficiaries of the pooled resources of $10,900.
Winning the favour of the majority was the WDMH Foundation request for $7,600 to fund half of of the cost of a transportable patient lift. The hospital is currently doing without this type of lift because the old one was deemed unsafe for use.
Without this lift staff are manually lifting people multiple times a day, explained Cindy Peters and Kristen Casselman who made the presentation on behalf of the Foundation. “This is one of our highest priority needs,” said Peters.
Casselman is thankful for the 100 Men’s contribution and for choosing their project. “Now we will get to work on raising the other half of the funds we need to make this purchase,” she said.
After the Foundation received the full amount it was requesting, the remaining $3,300 was given to the second highest vote getter – the Morrisburg and Iroquois Waterfront Advisory Committees.
Chair of the Morrisburg Waterfront Advisory Committee Michael Burton was pleased to be delivering the presentation on behalf of the entire South Dundas community requesting $5,000 for water-bottle refilling-station fountains in both Morrisburg for the splash pad and Iroquois for the beach.
The audience was very supportive of his plea to bring free potable water to both of these locations.
“It’s humbling to be selected to receive this donation,” said Burton. “These were all wonderful causes.”
“I’m proud of our community and how we take care of each other,” he said.
While the $3,300 received by the waterfront committees falls short of the $5,000 requested, Burton said that they will simply have to fundraise the remainder to ensure that both projects happen. He is confident they will find a way to get the money needed.
Recipients of last year’s funds were at the meeting to tell the group how their previous donations were used.
Last year’s winning group Wheels of Hope used the $5,200 they received to recruit several new drivers to the program which provides transportation to treatments for cancer patients. That made possible 133 trips for South Dundas residents.
Last year’s second place group which received $10,000 for the renovation of Seaway District High School’s Learning Commons, went on to also receive $10,000 from the 100 Women Who Care About South Dundas.
With that they have been able to purchase dozens of new furnishing, a large instructional screen and 25 desktop computers for the space. The renovation is on track to be completed in December of this year.
The number of men attending this year’s event was down slightly from the previous year, which was not the direction that the organizing committee had hoped this would go.
Scott Cordon, who was emcee for the event said that the committee wants to hear feedback from its members and others in the interest of sustaining and growing this group for years to come.
