| You can help us raise awareness about the #1 cancer in men by visiting the Prostate Cancer Support Canada Awareness Month website. It’s a quick guide for what anyone can do to learn more about prostate cancer and raise awareness including: social media posts you can share, profile picture frames you can use on Twitter or Facebook, links to send a free Reef Knot Kit to anyone in need – anywhere in Canada, and more. We hope you and your friends will take advantage of this fantastic resource to raise awareness about the cancer closest to all of our hearts. Together, we can put the #1 cancer in men behind us. |
Hello Windsor/Essex Members,
September 13th Monthly Meeting at Legion Branch 594 (5030 Howard Ave., Oldcastle, ON):
Please be aware that, unfortunately, the Hospice venue will NOT be available to us for this upcoming September meeting, due to an unforeseen staff issue. As an alternative, Legion Branch 594 has kindly offered one of their halls for us to use at no charge. This venue is great, with the added bonus of access to a cash bar. Also, the kitchen closes at 7pm, for those who want to show up early for a meal.
Mental health is one of our major themes for this fall. Several Steering Committee (SC) members have taken the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) Peer Facilitator Training, and Nancy Hannon, the Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) Cancer Program Social Worker, will be our presenter coming up in November. In keeping with this mental health theme, we are pleased to have Ed Kolar give a presentation on grief counselling for our September meeting, This should hopefully directly benefit anyone attending the meeting, but equally important, should equip us with some tools and techniques when providing Peer Support to the newly diagnosed and their loved ones.
Ed Kolar is a retired teacher and retired Pastor with decades of real world experience having helped hundreds dealing with grief. He is an exceptional speaker with a very dynamic style; his presentations are well received and always prove to be interesting, very relevant, and entertaining. On a side note, Ed is also a “Mad Scientist,” although not relevant to grief counselling, it speaks to his charismatic flair.
Please join us Tuesday, September 13th at 7:00pm
Remaining Fall Program – If you have ideas for presentations for October or the winter months, please let us know. It is our current thought to again have our 13 December Xmas Party at Legion 594, which coincides with their spaghetti night. This worked out well last year, where we also engaged a small band.
Please mark that in your calendars and let us know your thoughts.
In Other News:
We hope all of you have had a healthy and happy summer. While you have been frolicking on beaches and sipping on local wines, your Steering Committee has been very hard at work behind the scenes. Our main efforts have focused on networking with our stakeholders and partners with a view to expanding our community visibility. We deem this to be our main priority, to get the word out locally about our existence, in order to:
Make sure the newly diagnosed and their families can access our support, which is our primary raison d’etre;
Attract new members to enable us to achieve our goals, including providing peer support, as well as promoting awareness to the community; and
Positioning ourselves to get in the face of the community, by attending events, and briefing companies and organizations.
The following summarizes some of the fruits of our labour:
We have new brochures and a “marketing” banner stand for use with an awareness booth at sports events, company health and wellness fairs, fundraising campaigns, and other community events, etc.;
We have been briefing organizations such as Legion 594 and the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), etc. We plan to brief many more;
We met with senior UNIFOR management to help promote our group to employees of large companies;
We connected with Windsor Spitfires, LaSalle Vipers, and the Lakeshore Canadiens, who are happy to have us man an awareness booth at hockey games this fall; and
We met with key Windsor Regional Hospital Directors and Urologists, who plan to make sure our promotional material is distributed to Urologists’ offices, and make our existence known to all newly diagnosed.
Spring Get-Together at the Legion Branch 594 – The spring get-together was well attended and enjoyed by all. Since then, Legion 594 has engaged a new caterer with a much improved menu. If all agree, we would hope to repeat the event in the spring 2023.
Hockey Game Visibility – As mentioned above, we will be manning an awareness booth at Windsor Spitfires, LaSalle Vipers, and Lakeshore Canadiens hockey games this fall. If you are interested in participating, please let us know.
Vista Wellness Fair Visibility – We will be manning an information and awareness booth at the Vista Wellness Fair, a day long event for the Team Members of the Vista Windsor printing plant on Advance Blvd. on Friday, September 23rd.
We would appreciate some help, as this is an all day event covering three shifts, 4:30am-6:30am; 9:00am-1:30pm; and 5:00pm-8:00pm. If you are interested in participating, please let us know as soon as possible.
More Community Awareness Events – Please let us know if you have ideas for us to promote ourselves at other sports events, company health and wellness fairs, fundraising campaigns, and other community events, etc. We need to get the word out and we need your help!!!
Golf Shirts and Baseball Caps – We are ordering Golf Shirts and Baseball Caps embroidered with our new logo. If you are interested in buying shirts or caps, please let us know. Shirts will cost approx. $25-$30 and hats $15-$20
Financial Manager and Webmaster – We are still looking for a financial manager and a Webmaster to relieve some workload off current SC members. If you are interested, please let us know.
Membership and Volunteers – If you are aware of other potential new members, please let us know. We would also welcome women and others who are not survivors but who want to help. If there are other areas that you would like to volunteer for, please let us know. As our networking campaign gains momentum, we will need more horsepower. These are exciting times as we emerge from COVID stagnation!!!! Please get involved!!!!
Garry
