No 50/50 this week but over $600 was raised from the auction. John Jonas served as auctioneer for the evening. Interestingly enough, in the year that I've been a member, I've seen John do a fabulous AND highly entertaining job as auctioneer in Lederhosen AND in Santahosen. I'm seeing a trend that leaves me feeling very excited about Easter ... Brian and Paul T were neck-in-neck over the bidding for the Gingerbread House. Apparently there were more gingerbread houses made but they mysteriously disappeared in a basement, or something like that. Brian reigned victorious by $1 and a few marshmallows. Chris outbid everyone for 2 tickets to a Jays game and a 'stray' (new friend of Sandy's) came in and shamelessly outbid all of our members for a custom made gold ring. He later commented that he had planned on coming to The Mill for just a cocktail(!). Linda's hubby, Guy, had the top bid for the massage AND the two tickets to the Sanderson Centre. He actually outbid Linda by $5 for the latter but, as it happens, mistakenly did so by raising his hand to lean up against the wall. Lesson learned .....
Noah announced that he came back from New York and found out his wife is pregnant.
Matt M is back from Grey Cup and with cataract surgery is now definitely legal to drive.
Dee keeps on winning.
I'm not sure this was announced but I thought it was interesting. After your married time flies . Tony can't believe he has been married 21/2 years. Dr. Cynthia has been married 2 years and its still great. Not to be undone Past Prez Katie just celebrated her second marriage First wedding anniversary last weekend. Time has flown for her.
Next meeting on the 17th is our Christmas party and gift exchange. President Cayley will be sending an email out to everyone with the details. Check your mailboxes!
As mentioned, nine members served meals at The Bridges, located at 26 Simcoe Street. For those of you who aren't familiar with the shelter, The Bridges is an expansion of the "Out of the Cold" program run by the Cambridge Shelter Corporation. They provide a year round emergency shelter, a drop-in centre, and 20 affordable, transitional, bachelor apartments. They also offer housing services and programs to help clients address the issues facing them to move forward. They have forty emergency shelter beds for men and women sixteen years of age and older, and three family shelter units.
We were told that numbers are down to about 65-75 meals served in the evenings, compared to almost 90 meals a few months ago. The menu of the day was salad, ribs, baked potato and purple cauliflower (yes, purple!) followed by fruit and cookies. John Jonas arrived on the scene as Santa with his elf, George, at his side. John kept calling me a "Ho" over and over again, but I didn't take it personally. I preferred to think he was just doing his Santa job. Chocolate and candy canes were handed out as was some good Christmas cheer.
The cheer and a good deal of spirit(s) carried over in to The Mill. I'd say a good time was had by all, although I left at 9pm when John was down to a t-shirt and his Santa pants. I'm not sure what happened after I left but I like to think that what happens at The Mill stays at The Mill.
Special thanks go out to those who donated items for our auction: Enikio of EnikoKallay Fine Jewellery (14K yellow "Lava Collection" gold ring), Rena Hawkins of H-Four Logistics (Jays tickets), Dave Taylor of Renaissance Executive Forums (Sanderson tickets) and Denise Smith (a very impressive last minute gingerbread house!).
