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Contents and Highlights:

Mosquitos-Why to Love Them (and

Hate ‘em) Page 1

President’s Message Page 1

15 Years of Giving Page 2

Founders’ Circle Campaign

Page 3 House Tour

Page 4 January

Activities Page 5

History Corner Page 6

Festive Dinner and Silent Auction

Page 7 The Harriet Tubman

Nutrition Program Page 8

CFUW/United Way Hgiene Kits

Page 8 Coldest Night of the

Year Page 9

CFUW Chit-Chat for Newcomers

Page 9 Help for Raft

Page 10 CFUW Regional

News Page 10

CFUW National News

Page 11

http://www.cfuwstcatharines.org

President’s Report

MEETING Tuesday, January 9, 7:30 pm St. John’s Activity Centre 91 Lakeshore Road

SPEAKER: Dr Fiona H. Hunter, PhD, Pro-fessor of Medical and Veterinary Entomol-ogy Department of Biological Sciences Brock University

F iona Hunter is a Professor of Medi-

cal and Veterinary Entomology and Di-rector of the newly established Centre for Vector-Borne Dis-ease Research at Brock University. She is also President of Entomogen Inc., an

entomological consulting company and serves as a Member of the Federal Steering Committee for West Nile Virus. Throughout her academic career Fiona has fo-cused on biting flies - black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies, horseflies, no-see-ums and many of her students (both M.Sc. and Ph.D.) have also

gone on to work in the field of Medical and Vet-erinary Entomology. Her research team has done extensive field research in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and the Do-minican Republic on a variety of mosquito-borne diseases. When West Nile virus first appeared in Ontar-io, there was an urgent need for mosquito identification as well as for viral testing of mosquitoes. Fiona and her stu-dents helped launch a province-wide surveil-lance system in collaboration with Public Health Agency of Canada, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and First Nations Inuit Health Branch. The program is now in its 16th year.

Mosquitoes - Why To Love Them (and Hate ‘em)!

An urgent need for mosquito

identification

“Looking Back Moving Forward” Our 100th Anniversary slogan seems fitting at this time of year. Welcome back from the break in routine that the holiday season affords us. As we turn our attention back to CFUW we are ready to tackle the issues and enjoy the events. The first half of our CFUW season was filled with activity: Welcoming and meeting new members

Getting settled into Interest Groups

The Executive learning their new roles and uniting our team Catching up with mem-bers whom we have not seen for ages Getting immersed in the events and CFUW/GWI business

Nancy Ferris-Hostick

Continued next page

Page 2

15 Years of Giving

Last year we donated to the Community:

$22,700

Scholarships & Bursaries to Brock, Niagara College,

local High Schools $115,000

Registered Charities helping

local women & children $50,000

Books to local Schools & Social Service Agencies

$70,000

Endowment Fund for future scholarships & grants

$23,000

Responding to being a part of an international or-ganization Engaging in events in our community that reflect the impact we have through our membership Listening to and learning from our fabulous monthly speakers Organizing fundraisers and events. And now we have slipped into winter and with the change of the calendar the days will start to get long-er. The second half of our year: Spending even more time with members through Interest groups and at meetings

More fabulous speakers each month The Spring Fling celebration The House Tour event…when we all come together Inspiring events like the Coldest Night and the On-tario Council Speakers Series

The nominating team preparing the new slate to-gether Continuing to be a part of a bigger organization in CFUW/GWI Please come out to the January meeting to share your stories and hear our speaker…we look forward to seeing you. And if you have gone away please stay in touch and we look forward to your return.

Continued from page 1

T he CFUW St. Catharines Community is all about giving—in time, effort, identifying issues in which we can play a posi-

tive role and opening our pocketbooks. This is a summary of our monetary contributions in recent history.

Page 3

Founders’ Circle Campaign Report from Martha Abra, Donations Coordinator, CFUW Charitable Fund

H elping young women go to university—especially those whose family background does not include

higher education— is a primary goal for our Club. We launched the CFUW 100th Anniversary Scholar-ship Endowment Fund in November with a goal of raising at least $15,000. To date donations and pledg-es total $6,060—40% of our goal. We need to raise a total of $30,000 by 2021 (our Club’s 100th Anniversary) in order to fund an annual $1000 scholarship for a female Brock student who is the first in her family to attend university. This award will be inaugurated on the occasion of our 100th An-niversary. In 2016-2017, the Club gave $7,500 toward our goal of $30,000. Hopefully, the Club will be able to give extra donations over the next couple of years, but to support a $1,000 annual scholarship, we also need donations from members and friends. If you make a donation before December 31st, 2017, you will receive a 2017 tax receipt. To donate online, please click or tap here and click or tap on the “Donate Now” button on the screen. To make a donation by cheque, please make it paya-ble to “Niagara Community Foundation” with a note saying “CFUW St. Catharines 100th Anniversary Schol-arship”, and mail it (postmarked before December 31st, 2017 for a 2017 tax receipt) to:

Niagara Community Foundation 8 Church Street, Suite 301 St. Catharines, ON, L2R 3B3

Thank you so much for helping young women to achieve their educational goals!

We have reached 40% of our goal!

Page 4

February 1: National Day of Action (Girls Action Foundation) February 6: International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation First Week of February: Eating Disorders Awareness Week

I t was shopping Night at The Post Office on Novem-ber 22nd.

Thank you to all members, friends and family who attended the Shopping Night. Some serious shopping took place as we sipped wine and enjoyed goodies! The pictures tak-en by Elma Kimpel showed our lovely mem-bers model-ing fashions from the store. Nice

choices ladies! The amount of money raised that even-ing in support of the House Tour was $461.53 and the House Tour team is appreciative of your support for our club’s Scholarship Program. The House Tour committee met November 13. Now that all five houses have been toured, everything is in full motion. The focus of the committee is on getting sponsors, marketing and selling tickets. Many great

ideas were exchanged and all members are working hard as we prepare for this very exciting Port Dal-housie/North St. Catharines House Tour. A very posi-tive sign is that the ticket coupons (vouchers for tick-ets) are being sold already and interest is high. We call on all CFUW members to continue to talk to everyone you know about this fundraising event and to ask any business you use to consider being a sponsor for our scholarship house tour. Together we can do this! Getting to Know Our House Tour Scholars This month’s featured scholarship recipient is Filda (Mercy) Achan, a recent graduate of Laura Secord Secondary School. Not only has Mercy been a high achiever receiving this Math award, but she is also highly motivated to contribute to humani-tarian aid efforts in coun-tries of strife to help those in need. She is be-ginning by attending McMaster University tak-ing Medical Radiation Sci-ences. “My goal is to become a radiologist and my dream is to work with Doctors Without Borders.” Mer-cy finished her correspondence saying, “thank you for your generosity. I am very blessed”. We wish her suc-cess in realizing her dream.

CFUW 44th Annual House Tour Sunday, May 6, 2018

Report from Sharon Lawler & Jean Tonogai

Filda (Mercy) Achan

Notable Dates related to Women’s Issues

Page 5

Monthly Activities

Movie Night – January Wednesday, Jan 3rd, 2018 Movie: TBA Friday, Dec. 29th usually 7:00 p.m. @ Landmark Theatre, Pen Centre Dinner: approx. 5:30pm

Contact: Pat Paulin Everyone WELCOME.

Jaunters – January Thursday, Jan 18th, 2018

9 a.m. Music History & Concert – Featuring our CFUW St. Catharines baby grand piano donation to the public library

Mills Room, St Catharines Public Library, 54 Church Street

Cost: TBD; Lunch: Bistro Mirepoix, 64 Court Street (Park across the street in the Giant Tiger

parking lot). Individual bills. Contact: Caroline Nolan or Judy Sewell

Stitch-to-Stitch – January Monday, Jan 22nd, 2018

1:30 p.m. Knitters, Sewers, Quilters and

Needlecrafters welcome Location: Anne Marie Brady’s

home Contact: Anne Marie Brady or Chris McColeman

Everyone WELCOME.

For more information contact Noreen Vida

Lively Arts – January Saturday, Jan 20th, 2018 12:30 p.m. Follies, by Sondheim, simulcast of National Theatre, London, UK @ Cineplex Odeon, Niagara Square, 7555 Montrose Rd, NF Brunch: 10:30 a.m. Sunset Grill,

7905 McLeod Rd, NF next to Lowes Cost: $20; $19 Seniors; RSVP with payment by Jan 9th to Pat Paulin Organizers: Pat, Marg Thibeault, Liz Dejong, Marion Cross

Lively Arts – February Sunday, Feb 25, 2018 2:00 p.m. Our Lady of Delicias, by ECT @ Robertson Theatre, Performing Arts Centre, 250 St Paul St., St Catharines

Lunch: noon, TBD Cost: $35.00; RSVP with payment by Feb 10th to Myrna Kroeker or Jean Armitage Organizers: Myrna, Jean, Sandra Watson, Rosalba Martino

Games Night – January Thursday, Jan 25th, 2018 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Location: Jennifer Matsushita’s home Contact: Julie Dennis

Breakfast Club – January

Tuesday, Jan 30th, 2018

9:00 a.m. Cora’s, 210 Glendale

Ave, St Catharines Contact: Joan Clancy

Everyone WELCOME.

Page 6

History Corner

† denotes deceased

1921-1922 1922-1923 1923-1924 1924-1925 1925-1926 1926-1927 1927-1928 1928-1929 1929-1930 1930-1931 1931-1932 1932-1933 1933-1934 1934-1935 1935-1936 1936-1937 1937-1938 1938-1939 1939-1940 1940-1941 1941-1942 1942-1943 1943-1944 1944-1945 1945-1946 1946-1947 1947-1948 1948-1949 1949-1950 1950-1951 1951-1952 1952-1953 1953-1954 1954-1955 1955-1956 1956-1957 1957-1958 1958-1959 1959-1960 1960-1961 1961-1962 1962-1963 1963-1964 1964-1965 1965-1966 1966-1967 1967-1968 1968-1969 1969-1970

Laura Newman Laura Newman † Mary Louise Greenwood † Mrs. J.G. Schiller †Beatrice Lauder † M. Lutman † Phyllis Haultain † Louise Cloney † Mrs. J.V. Mcintyre † Kathleen Bray † Mrs. Alvin Townshend † Jean Scott † Jessie Ekins † Mabel MacLellan (Mabel Underhill) † Noreen Wiley (Noreen Hynes) Noreen Wiley † Madeline Shannon † Jessie Warren Jessie Warren † Grace Wallis (Grace Hacker) Grace Wallis † Dorothy CalderDorothy Calder † Iva Everson (Iva Salter)Iva Everson †Merna DalesMerna Dales † Ruth Sheahan Ruth Sheahan †Mervol MeikleMeryol Meikle †Viola Dawson † Betty Potter Betty Potter † Laura Sabia Laura Sabia † Joan Nixon Joan Nixon †Edra Thompson Edra Thompson Mary Love Mary Love Lynne Silver

1970-1971 1971-1972 1972-1973 1973-1974 1974-1975 1975-1976 1976-1977 1977-1978 1978-1979 1979-1980 1980-1981 1981-1982 1982-1983 1983-1984 1984-1985 1985-1986 1986-1987 1987-1988 1988-1989 1989-1990 1990-1991 1991-1992 1992-1993 1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018

Beverley Boudreau Martha Abra Barbara Legg Susan Hughes Jean Armitage Jean Armitage Mary Jane Waszynski Marilyn Wallace Heather Hall Nancy Ferris-Hostick

Laura Newman 1921-1923

Laura Sabia 1955-1957

Nancy Ferris-Hostick

2017-today

CLUB PRESIDENTS 1921-TODAY

Page 7

A big congratulations to the Silent Auction Team and the Program Committee for a fabulous meeting on

December 10th. It was a sold out crowd and members love these kinds of events given the amount of excite-ment and mingling. The results were even better than

expected—Proceeds came to $4663.00 including $385.00 for the mitten tree. Thanks to all who were involved and especially Pat Paulin and Marg Thibeault...awesome job.

The auction set-up team: “Whew, we finished in time!” What a feat of logistics!

The “Heathery Club”: Heather Sloan, Heather Foss, and Heather Hall in search of bargains.

A full house but there were plenty of items on which to bid.

Laura Revell-Grant accompanied by Doug Mundy provided beautiful music for

our listening pleasure. You can hear a sample here.

Festive Dinner and Silent Auction 2017

Photo Bank If you are involved in a CFUW or community activity,

please send us your photos with a brief comment on

your activities. We will publish appropriate shots in the

newsletter, on the website or on Facebook. Send your

photos to Pat Paulin or Barbara Leslie.

Page 8

T he Harriet Tubman School Nu-trition Program has a new vol-

unteer. Denise Bradden has joined the group. We now have four vol-unteers supporting the Breakfast program. Our CFUW group re-ceived a thank you letter from the Niagara Nutrition Partners thanking us for our support of the Nutrition program. Many thanks to our own eight CFUW “elves” who joined with the teachers, their families and friends of Harriet Tubman School—who made up an-

other group of “elves” - to fill Christmas baskets and make sure that over 124 children have a positive Christmas. Deb McLean, a teacher at the school, and organizer of the program was very, very grateful for our involvement.

The Harriet Tubman Nutrition Program

The Harriet Tubman Nutrition Program is now in urgent need for lunch time volunteers to serve lunch between 12:40 and 1:15. If you are interested contact Heather at hksloan@bell.net

Report from Heather Sloan

CFUW/United Way Hygiene Kits

F or women experiencing homelessness or living in poverty, affording every day essentials can be a real

challenge and hygiene products are often overlooked as donations to shelters, food banks and other organi-zations. Working with the United Way, CFUW is help-ing provide kits containing shampoo, conditioner,

soap, wash cloth, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant etc., for women living in shelters. Over the past few months, Hygiene Kit committee members have met to sew and assemble 100 kits. Another packing party is planned for the new year.

Sewing and assembling Hygiene kits. Watch for an announcement about the next “packing party.”

Report from Karen Mackay

Page 9

Coldest Night of the Year—February 24, 2018 Save the Date: February 24, 2018 The CFUW Streetwalkers are banding together again to repeat their successful walk of 2017. Brenda

Dolha, a new member, has jumped at the chance to be captain this time around and is looking for com-panions to join her on the walk.

It’s a fun, family friendly fundraiser to help the home-less. Last year the various St. Catharines teams raised a total of $100,000 which enabled Start Me Up to re-locate and modernize. Start Me Up provides pro-grams such as housing, meal assistance, counselling and support to individuals in need. CFUW’s goal is $1500. You can sign up at the January meeting, or speak with Brenda to get more information. You can also sign up on line here (click on the donate button to find our team)

E verything was a little tentative in the fall when we launched our new Interest Group at Folk Arts –

“English Conversation for Newcomers”, but for five-weeks our members had a lot of fun doing it, and the Newcomers LOVED it!

What they told us was that even though they live in Niagara and are tak-ing English classes every day at Folk

Arts, they get almost no chance to converse with Ca-nadians in English. They really appreciate our mem-bers taking the time to help them feel comfortable speaking English and living in Niagara. Our members (thanks so much to Jane Barnet, Yvonne Stevenson, Liina Veer, Sandra Watson and Olga Zwozda), were surprised and delighted with the

Newcomers’ ability to speak English, and also with their fun-loving con-versations, de-spite the many challenges the newcomers face as immigrants to Canada. In 2018, our group will continue every Wednesday afternoon, starting Jan. 17th. We arrive before 1:00 p.m. at the Folk Arts building (85 Church St – free parking behind the building), and talk about a pre-pared topic with two Newcomers for an hour. The room is filled with laughter, and there are many in-sights into the differences between our lives and those of new Niagarans. One change we have made is the name of our group. It is now the “CFUW Chit-Chat” group, and really this is much more reflective of the fun and informal at-mosphere of our sessions. Several of our members will be away for a lot of the winter, and so we are hoping more CFUW members will be able to join us. Heather Hall and Denise Brad-den have already indicated interest. If anyone else can help on any Wednesday afternoon (participation is flexible with different members coming each week), please contact Martha Abra.

CFUW “Chit-Chat” for Newcomers Report from Martha Abra, Convenor of CFUW English Conversation for Newcomers Group

We are hoping more CFUW members will be able to join us.

Page 10

Help for Raft Resource Service for Youth (the RAFT)

IMMEDIATE NEEDS:

Shampoo

Deodorant

Feminine hygiene products

Razors and shaving cream

Soap and body wash

Single/twin sized bed sheets and comforters

Pillows and pillow cases

New or gently used clothing in good condition (suitable for ages 16-24)

Socks and underwear

Winter clothing (all types)

Kitchen utensils

Non-perishable food items Please do not bring: Furniture Televisions

Monetary donations are welcome and can be made here.

R yan Barton, Manager of Hostel and Resource Develop-ment at the RAFT, wrote to say, “Thank-you for choos-

ing to donate to us again this year, we really appreciate it. Everything helps, especially during the winter months. We can pretty much accept anything except for larger items like furniture. That being said, I’ve included a list of the items that are most needed right now.”

Long time CFUW member, Pat Waters, has spearhead-

ed the initiative to collect items for RAFT for many

years

Please bring items for the homeless youth shelter to the January meeting.

CFUW Regional Ontario Council Speakers’ Series

CFUW Ontario Council Speaker Series & Workshops

sponsored by the Standing Committees Yorkminster Park Baptist Church

1585 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4T 1Z9 January 20, 2018 9:45am – 3:30pm

Election Readiness, a focus on election issues

PLEASE REGISTER BEFORE JANUARY 10, 2018 SEATING WILL BE LIMITED, REGISTER EARLY! *** We cannot accommodate walk-ins***

Friends, daughters, granddaughters, nieces are most welcome, please invite them!

$35.00 http://cfuwontcouncil.org/

Page 11

CFUW National News

Dues news Below is an excerpt from a letter sent by CFUW Na-tional president Grace Hollett, directed at all CFUW members, and relating to the increase of dues re-sulting from financial problems at Graduate Women International (GWI), formerly CFUW International. “I wish to send you an update on the payment of GWI dues. On January 1, 2018, CFUW and other NFAs will be expected to pay their regular dues to GWI for the GWI 2018 calendar/fiscal year. CFUW’s amount due for that section of the GWI dues will be 15.5 Swiss Francs ($21.70 Canadian) per capita, an amount that was provided for in the CFUW budget and collected when your $70.00 was paid to CFUW this past year. The payment of CFUW’s second amount for 2018, the

GWI dues increase of 6 Swiss Francs ($8.40 Canadian) per capita has not been resolved. As you are aware, Article 15 of our Articles and Bylaws will not allow CFUW to pass a dues increase at an AGM in time to meet the June 30, 2018 deadline for payment of the 6 Swiss Franc increase. A decision was made at the CFUW Board meeting of December 4, 2017 with respect to the payment of this increase of $8.40 – that we invite Clubs to allow their members, who so desire, to submit this in-creased amount of dues increase on a voluntary basis to their treasurer. The Club can forward the money to the CFUW national office as partial payment of the amount GWI asks to be paid by CFUW to GWI on June 30, 2018.” To read the entire letter click or tap here.

Informative news notes The document at this site contains a number of inter-esting articles including one about the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and its upcom-ing meeting as well as a not-to-be-missed video in Item 5, click or tap here You can also read about Secure Sanitation Access for Women, International Women’s Day Project: MATCH, Life Long Learning Scholarship for a CFUW Woman, Sustainable Development Goals Series, Rwanda Study

Group, International Women’s Day Project: MATCH, Life Long Learning Scholarship for a CFUW Woman, CFUW Calgary North and CFUW Calgary South teamed up to discuss 50/50 Day, CFUW Montreal Inc., submitted by President Dr. Saode Savary CFUW Nepean, CFUW Calgary North and CFUW Calgary South teamed up to discuss 50/50 Day, CFUW Mon-treal Inc., submitted by President Dr. Saode Savary, CFUW Nepean, submitted by President, Marlene Syl-vester.

Survey of Rural Women for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) The CFUW delegates to the UNCSW Meeting in New York in March 2018 will use the information gath-ered in this survey to prepare for this meeting. Click or tap here to complete the survey before January 15, 2018.