Canada Day 2010 Celebrations in London

Once again, the Canadian Women's Club said hello to hundreds of people who dropped by our stand at Trafalgar Square on Canada Day.

A huge thank you to Chad Molleken of Rainmaker and of course to the various sponsors who created interest in the day with a fabulous website, and who provided us with a wonderfully positioned stand looking out over Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the distance. As well as gathering up many, many names of women who would like to receive further information about the club and the Maple Leaf Trust, we answered questions about Canada and Canada Day, pointed people in the right direction to find Tim Horton's coffee, Canadian flag tattoos and of course joined in with the Canadian Tenors to sing our national anthem!

If you're finding this blog after having visited us yesterday, thanks for dropping by to say hello or for taking one of our postcards. We have a wonderful club, a superb team of volunteers who organise fabulous events, a great charity to support, and you are very warmly welcomed to join us. Our events kick off again in September - please do get in touch to find out more!

2010 Annual General Meeting

The Canadian Women's Club celebrated a year of more than 100 events for the 2009-2010 season at our AGM held yesterday! The AGM is when we review the events of the past year, take a close look at our financial situation, hear reports about our charitable work, make any changes needed to our rules and constitution, thank activity leaders and members of the executive team who are moving on to new pastures and welcome the new executive team who will lead the club going forward.

CWC 2009-2010 Executive, from left:

Kate Brundage (Vice-President for 2010-2011),

Teresa Howe (Outgoing President),

Patty Bell (President for 2010-2011),

Renee-Marie Vanasse (Outoing Treasurer),

Barbara Richards (Outoing Vice-President)

In addition to all the above, we were very pleased this year to have a presentation from Mark Ball about LIFT 2010, a London-wide International Festival of Theatre that will be taking place from 23 June to 18 July. Mark was introduced by Donna Thomson, CWC Honorary President, and both spoke about their excitement about the range of experiences, performers and adventures that LIFT will be offering this year - with ground-breaking works from Canada, Germany, Tunisia and elsewhere. Mark talked to us about just a few LIFT events that should surprise and enthrall us. You can read more about LIFT 2010 by clicking here!

Mark Ball of LIFT with Teresa Howe

There were many thank you's to various activity leaders for creating such a fantastic programme of events - but the main thank you went to our outgoing President, Teresa Howe who for the past year worked tirelessly on behalf of the club. She put her heart and soul into keeping the club fresh and exciting. We all felt enriched by the fantastic range of events she coordinated and new members were impressed by her warm welcome.

Isabelle Mignault and Teresa Howe

Heartfelt thanks also went to Margaret Wickware, our most recent Past President, who is moving on to new things after acting as Chair of the Maple Leaf Trust for three years. Margaret wasn't able to be with us at the AGM but her report was very graciously given by Fawn White.

Fawn White

And so now we congratulate and welcome Patty Bell as our new President, and take a break for the summer until we recommence activities in September. Enjoy a few pictures from the AGM and see you all in September! And one last event to mention....please come out and say hello to us at our stand on Canada Day, Thursday 1 July - Trafalgar Square...from 10:30am until 6:30pm!

Teresa Howe, receiving a gift from the CWC,

arranged by Anne Van Gieson

Jenny Tripp Black (Chair, Veterans' Support Committee),

Kate Brundage (Vice-President 2010-2011)

Maple Leaf Trust Dinner and Auction 2010

Click image to view larger format.
Photography by David Bradfield

On 13 May, proud members of the Canadian community in the UK and their guests gathered at the High Commissioner’s Official Residence to salute Canadian musicians living or working in the UK and, most importantly, to support other Canadians living in need in this country - the mission of the Maple Leaf Trust.

For this special occasion, the formal living room was transformed into an elegant dining room with seven tables (one more than last year) each beautifully decorated with globes of red and white flowers and accented with flags of Canada and Great Britain. At each place was an Honour Roll - a list of Canadian musicians living or performing in the United Kingdom who had so generously contributed to this wonderful evening by donating their music (CDs and/or tickets to various concerts) in support of the Maple Leaf Trust. We thank you all!

During cocktails, our guests socialized in the library where our super organized, Silent Auction Co-ordinator, Natalie Kirsh had very attractively set out our first ever silent auction. The twenty-two prizes included something for everyone: travel opportunities, fashion items and tickets to at least seven different musical events. Bidding was fierce for several items: the portrait sitting donated by CWC member Phyllis Dupuy and a hockey jersey signed by Russian hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak (Canadian hockey enthusiasts readily recognize the name even if that famous ’72 Russia-Canada series took place before they were born)! A special thank you to Phyllis and Mary Ellen Jenkinson for donating these items and to Natalie for giving of her time and talents so generously.

Following a delightful performance by cellist, Christian Elliott, a 2008 Canadian Centennial Scholarship winner (funded by the Maple Leaf Trust), guests were treated to the melodic voices of the 1607 Ensemble. During their brief presentation, they sang two pieces by Clement Ishmael, a Canadian composer of great acclaim, most notably for his compositions performed on Broadway and in West End. We were delighted to have Clement as our special guest that evening. A very special note of thanks to MLT Trustee and Event Vice Chair, Fawn White who organized the musical portion of the evening and to Karen and John Murphy of Ernest and Young for underwriting this very special facet of the evening.

After a lovely dinner with excellent Ontario wines so kindly donated by Clare Barnett of the Ontario International Marketing Centre, our High Commissioner donned his Habs jersey to begin the centrepiece of the evening: the live auction. This year, the variety of items was exceptional including a highly prized photo by Canadian musician and award winning photographer, Bryan Adams, highly coveted tickets to the upcoming premiere of Sex and City 2, a lovely scarf by Canadian designer (and another Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund scholarship winner), Erdem, tickets to Diana Krall to mention but a few. Prizes were arranged by Canadian community members including CWC members Fawn White, Kate Brundage, Donna Thomson and Lynne Flanagan Thank you ladies!

Besides our very generous bidders with us that evening, I want to thank the team who worked on the online auction. Canadian Affair’s Kathryn Munro and Anette Rayner together with CWC member, Barbara Richards organized our second online auction that concluded the previous evening. Besides travel, online prizes included VIP tickets to the recent Michael Buble and Metric concerts. (Both winners have reported truly amazing evenings!) Barbara not only liaised with Canadian Affair but also designed and produced all of communication materials for this event. My sincerest thanks to Barbara for all her work.

In closing, I would like to mention that over the past several months, I have received dozens of notes of thanks sent to me by veterans and I have read heartfelt thank you notes from our Scholarship winners. A note with a cheque from a veteran now living on a limited fixed income included a £10 cheque for his fellow veterans. I can’t put into words how inspiring these shaky handwritten notes have been to me.

With the exceedingly generous support of our High Commissioner, our fundraising dinner was a huge success - raising record proceeds of in excess of £20,000. The Canadian community stepped forward that evening in a BIG way and I am most grateful. If other CWC members would like to add their support, they are welcome to contact me. As I wrap things up and move on from the CWC and the MLT, I welcome your donations that will be included in disbursements to our two charitable causes on June 15th.

With every good wish,

Margaret Wickware

Chair, Maple Leaf Trust

May Hospitality with Bob Bell

A bandaid is a bandaid, after all, in both Canada and the UK.

Bob Bell, CEO of the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital Foundation Trust and a health care management guru with international experience, gave a very fact-based comparison of the health care sytems of the UK and Canada at our May Hospitalty. He provided historical tables that detailed changes in health care delivery in both countries, for example, from number of CAT scans to number of doctors to availability of long-term care and much more.

There was lively discussion and questions from Canadians, particularly from those who are new to the UK's NHS and those who have been in the UK for some time and are out of touch with the Canadian health care system. Many tabloid myths were dispelled with the Q&A as evidence-based facts clearly illustrated that both systems were delivering care in the good to excellent quality level.

We were left with the thought that the quality of health care in the western world is for the most part very good and it certainly has improved even in the last few decades. Many thanks to Bob for taking time from his busy work life to speak to us about this important topic.

Visit to Hever Castle, Kent

A group of CWC members travelled back to Tudor times with a visit to Hever Castle in Kent, the childhood home to Anne Boleyn in the early 16th century.

Our trip (on Friday May 21st) started off with a leisurely walk from Hever station to the castle where others joined us to explore the magnificent gardens, the yew maze and of course the castle itself.

Lynn Allen organised the day and had prepared fantastic notes and maps for us to follow. She also organised the weather...perfection for a day out in the countryside! Enjoy the slideshow...

Photos courtesy of Lynn and Barbara

The Maple Leaf Trust Online Auction is open for bids!

Please visit our online charity auction to make a bid for some fabulous trips, concert tickets...and more!

Let's Do Lunch: A Day in Grace Kelly's Closet!

Who would have dreamt that we could sift through Grace Kelly's favourite clothes at the V&A? A lucky group of CWC ladies were delighted to view the elegant, classic timeless fashion of a truly unique style icon. We studied her film costumes, wedding trousseau, French haute couture items plus several very glamourous evening gowns.

It was especially good to see the photos of Grace Kelly wearing the clothes displayed. The famous Kelly bag was on prominent display along with many small evening bags - absolutely beautiful! And of course the lovely hats ....why don't we wear hats anymore? They really do complete the outfit! And we learned that it was Grace Kelly that made sunglasses such a fashion item, having several pairs to co-ordinate with her outfits.

Lunch afterwards was at another fashion showcase, the Emporio Armani Cafe on Brompton Road. We seemed to all have gone on a diet after leaving the closet of Grace Kelly and noticing how very slim she was. Everyone ordered only one course and no wine and no dessert! But what we did order was delicious and of course being surrounded by beautiful Armani clothes was quite something. We also had a splendid view of the shoppers passing by on Brompton Road, probably on their way to Harrods.

So a good ladies day out and a good ending for the 'Let's Do Lunch' ladies this year.

Submitted by Patty Bell

PS. To see all our past entries for 'Let's Do Lunch' click on the category in the right hand side of this site.