Advisory Committee Report

Windsor Historical Society - Veterans Memories Project

 

Minutes from Thursday, October 7, 2010

Advisory Committee Meeting

Meeting called to order 10:10 AM by Dann Bouzide, Chair

Attendees: Karl Lovett, Barb Catherine, Dan Beaudoin, Doris Kelly, Bob Kelly, Earl Scofield, Jim Jack, John Neville, Laura McMahon, Stan Scislowski, Tom Abrash, Sophia Linner, Don Doan, Craig Ericson, Harry Major, Shirley Afffleck, Dann Bouzide, Eva Bouzide and Kelsey Prosser

Regrets: Carrie Bouzide, Priscilla Connolly, Bernie Kelly, Helen Minovski, Gale Gagnier, Barry Horrobin, Julie Lawrence, Joyce Cherwak, Wayne Hillman, John White, Kathy Parks, Sandy Szocki

Reports:

Barb Catherine - Spoke on Devonshire Seniors Residences Honour Book Launch, A Tribute To Our WWII Veterans. The book launch will be held at 2PM until 4PM, We therefore will hold our Windsor Historical Society meeting at 12 noon until 2PM. Veterans will be in there Blues and Grays and a light lunch will be served.

Also the video of our presentation at St. Joseph's will be playing all day long for all guests to watch.

Stan Scislowski - On November 7th there will be a banquet in honour of the   Veterans of the Italian Campaign at the Ciociaro Club. There will also be a week long celebration leading up to this event.

Chair spoke about our ads in the Windsor Star, The Biz X Magazine and The Penny Saver. Our ad was in the Windsor Star last Friday and will be put in again this Friday. Both Biz X and The Penny Saver have a relationship with us where we share advertisement's in each others' publications.

Veterans Appreciations Day - There were too many non-veterans last year.

We will be changing the entrance to the far right door, that way coats can be hung and no unexpected guests will be able to enter.

Chair - asked for a show of Veterans hands for those who thought we could eliminate Ditty bags for all Veterans this year. Majority felt we did not need them.

We are looking for volunteers for November 10th to help set up. Laura McMahon offered to rally up some of her workers to volunteer. Barb Catherine offered the same and Dan Beaudoin offered as well. Wine will be in the center pieces and also served to each table.

We will have a singer performing this year, singing songs of the war time era and also 60's and 70's.

Veterans Day Magazine - We discussed for this year, we review our price of $5.00 and possibly replace it with $5.00 Donation Appreciated.

Eva Bouzide suggested we dedicate a page in Veterans Day Magazine to explain all about the Windsor Historical Society.

Chair - We are looking for volunteers to help sell magazines at Wal-Mart around November 11th with Harry Major, Earl Scofield, Wayne Hillman, Bob Kelly and Larry Costello.

Chair - We received our yearly letter from the Mayor, this year's letter is the best yet. We have learned that Eddie Francis will be in office until December 1, 2010 or December 1, 2014 so it is okay for us to publish it.

Refresheverthing.ca - We will be letting go of this for this year, but we have until next year by April 1st to apply, we will begin this when the time comes. We will need to come up with a set system for others to vote for us daily. Example -Schools & Legions.

Christmas Truce - The Christmas Truce will be held at the Armouries, possibly the old Armouries. We are still unsure what the price of each ticket will be.

Amica at Windsor - We were looking to bring some students from Walkerville to put on a little show about the Christmas Truce for the residents at Amica, but because of the poor timing we have decided to have some Veterans present to speak to the residents of Amica at Windsor, on November 15th.

Bob Kelly - He was advised that the Canadian Core Commissioners have taken over the City of Windsor parking and there will be no charge to Veterans who have the poppy license to park anywhere in the city. Also Bob and Shirley have sent a special thanks to VIA RIAL for all they have done for the Windsor Historical Society. This year, they will be notified 30 days before about where the trips will be to.

John Neville & Karl Lovett - Spoke about the Veterans Memorial Services. They both mentioned they are very impressive ceremonies and if you have never been to one, it would be worth your while to view one. If you are looking to get involved with this committee, you can contact Wayne Hillman, President.

Karl, Wayne, Eva & Dann will discus video taping funeral set-ups and ceremonies, or if that is not possible then possibly do a mock-up of the visitation presentation. We would like to do this to show what the Windsor Veterans Memorial Services Committee does for these fallen Veterans.   It is an absolutely phenomenal presentation and we could also display it on our website.

Meetings - Beginning in the new year we will having a meeting every second month. Also we would like everyone to be aware of the fire hydrant that is in front of Devonshire Seniors Residence, we would not like to see anyone getting tickets because of this.  

 

Meeting adjourned at 11:27am

Respectfully Submitted by: Kelsey Prosser

 

 

Minutes from Thursday, September 02, 2010

Advisory Committee Meeting 

Meeting called to order 10:02 AM by Dann Bouzide, Chair

Attendance: Dann Bouzide, Eva Bouzide, Larry Costello, Wayne Hillman , Kelsey Prosser, Nikki Wanklin, Brianne Tousignant, Barb Catherine, Percy Hatfield, Dan Beaudoin, Karl Lovett, Lorraine Wanklin, Bill Vivian, Art Anderson, Bernie Kelly, Doris Kelly, Earl Scofield, Jim Jack, John Neville, Shirley Neville, John White, Kathy Parks, Joyce Cherwak, Julie Lawrence, Laura McMahon, Stan Scislowski, Tom Abrash, Sophia Linner

Regrets: Harry Major, Barry Horrobin, Sandy Szocki, Paul Laforet, Helen Minovski, Lauren Hayward, Gale Gagnier, Carrie Bouzide

 

Reports:

Military Muster

Lack of co-ordination was a big issue as well as the busload not being on film like they were last year. Breakfast had mix ups with the price. Larry having to ask for donations on the bus ride home was not good. Mickey Moulder gave a generous donation to defray the costs.

Larry Costello talked about how great the Military Muster was and that it was the best thing that he had attended in months better yet years. Larry also commented on the fact that too many people cancelled at the last minute and that in the future people need to confirm and stick to their commitment to that event. He also said that something needs to be done about getting more financial support for these events.

Dieppe Monument II

It was fantastic with great attendance. Everything seem to be well organized. Donations to the HCMS

Comments were made that there must be more support by the Windsor Star covering these events and the rest of the media outlets as well. The public had a difficult time finding information regarding this event anywhere so that they could attend.

Air Show

  The Chair welcomed Dan Beaudoin to the meeting. Dan commented on how happy he was being here and then he offered to help out any time that he could. Dann suggested Dan's service for helping people to and from their vehicles at events & meetings.

   Air Show side comment was that anyone who has no email please come into the office and Kelsey or Nikki will help you with that. George Mock was given recognition for his photos covering the air show. Comments that the media (photos) that were taken at this event was not nearly good enough. There should have been much more.

     Wayne Hillman agreed that the rain was terrible and that fact that golf carts had to be used to escort the veterans to the tented area was definitely not a positive thing.

Julie Lawrence explained that the reason the golf carts had to be used was that the ground was much too soft for the buses to drive on. That the food vendors had to cart everything there too.

The Chair then commented that the entrance that they used last year was much better because it was a much more direct route. That it was much to confusing and that they should open a direct route to the tarmac.

The Chair commented that Harry Major was rained on and now he has pneumonia which is a great concern. Car pooling could be an option instead of the buses.

The Chair also reported the management of the Air Show suffered from problems because of actions of a very few and said that next year, we should work closer together with Keith Baxter.

In the News

Percy Hatfield was introduced and he graciously accepted the task of emceeing our Veterans Appreciation Day Event.

Dan Beaudoin was recognized for being in the Windsor Star. Dann commented that the article should have been on the front page.

The Chair praised George Mock for the photos on the website for the Air show. It was then mentioned that Jenny, the wing walker, contacted George for photos from the air show that she'd seen at WindsorHistoricalSociety.com.   The office sent Jenny the requested pictures plus a number of others.

George Mock graciously stated he was proud to be invited to the meeting and expressed his desire to have more and more people view the albums available on line.

Larry Costello mentioned that he struck up a good relationship with the pilot and that he and his wife have invited Larry and his wife to Florida. Larry commented on how proud the pilot was to have been part of everything going on here in Windsor and that he was very pleased with us as a city.

Newsletter

The Chair reported 590 copies were mailed out costing $400 in postage and $380.00 for printing. 188 were emailed out to members. He commented on how thankful he was for Helen Minovski and Barb Catherine for putting their ads in the newsletter.

Volunteers are needed to make phone calls, make surveys and lists of people who may be interested in advertising with us.

Laura McMahon from Wal-Mart was introduced and she expressed her thanks for being here.

Karl Lovett was then asked to announce his idea regarding jugs in the schools to gather donations. It was suggested that the schools use this as a challenge against each other to see who can raise more money. That a video could be produced and shown to the students as to why this is important.

Doris Kelly let us know that from now until thanksgiving they are in the schools for the poster and literary contests. They are meeting on September 11th and that maybe bringing up this jug idea to the chair people would be good at this time.

Joyce Cherwak then responded to Doris' idea stating that being the main educator for the Humane Society she has found out that you must approach the Boards of Education before proceeding with any kind of fundraising in the schools.

Jim Jack suggested that we form a committee for things such as these. Dann suggested that Doris, Lorraine & Julie would be great candidates for this.

Doris Kelly asked that a business plan be put together to send to the Boards of Education. Volunteers were asked for this.

Julie Lawrence suggested that "this committee" work on getting these funds between January and June so that everything would be done for Nov. 11th next year.

The Christmas Truce

The Chair introduced this new project, Walkerville Collegiate High School will be putting this play on. Funds could be brought in by the students.

     Brianne Tousignant suggested that the Catholic schools have a contest against each other with a reward being a dress down day. For the public schools possibly they could compete against for a pizza day. The students need incentive to get this task done.

Dan Beaudoin asked if he could place the jugs that were talked about in bars so that people could put their spare change in. Dann commented that that would be a great idea!

Kathy Parks asked which schools would be included in this competition will it be Windsor only or the entire Windsor Essex County area? It will be all of Essex County.

Kelsey Prosser announced that the car wash was a success and that 25% of all funds raised by Spectra Solutions Car Wash are being donated to the Windsor Historical Society.

Side note: we need to let people know that it is the Windsor Historical Society that is putting on these functions especially the Veterans Appreciation Day at the Serbian Center.

Veterans Speak to Students Project

Eva Bouzide the past speaking engagements have been great at St. Joe's and Catholic Central and she suggested we get some additional Veterans up to speak and tell their stories. The Veterans that we have speaking now are great but we should spice it up a bit by adding some new faces in there.

Larry Costello attested to this commenting that last year he spoke to 11 schools. Central Public School in particular sent him a stack of letters coming from each student thanking him for the education that they received from him telling his story.

Other Comments/News

Jim Jack told how the Korean Veterans Association had to give up their charter and that these Veterans should be approached to be more involved with us and to participate in these new committees.   Jim also took this opportunity to ask us to be their major sponsor for their calendar. That he believes that with the reach that WHS has we could   have them distributed in no time. Dann agreed to discuss this with other coordinators and meet with Jim.

Barb Catherine announced that the Devonshire Seniors Residence along with it's parent company, Chartwell Seniors Housing Reit, will be launching a new book entitled "Honour" commemorating the veterans. The book includes 35 stories from veterans. The books will be delivered the first week of November to the Devonshire Seniors Residence and that on November 04th their will be a book launch @ 2:30 p.m. in the Crawford building. The books are being sold for $10.00 each.

Julie Lawrence suggested that since we meet on the first Thursday of the month she suggested that we move November's meeting to a later time that way the attendees can go straight from our meeting to the book launch.   Barb agreed to look into this possibility.

Phil Alexander, a Veteran was as a Devonshire Seniors Residence resident. He recommended that other veterans within the building be invited to attend the meetings.

Julie Lawrence referred back to the confusion at the Military Muster. She explained that she was in contact with Mikey Moulder and that he gave assurances that the veterans will be taken better care of next year. She would like to concentrate on becoming a member of their committee to ensure the events success next year.

Larry Costello then addressed the fact that he is finding that the volunteers at these events are not having enough respect for the veterans. That some were man-handled and spoken to in a derogatory manner. He would like to see them being addressed prior to events on how to approach and treat the veterans. It was suggested that tour maps be made available to everyone at each and every event. That way attendees will know where they are or where they need to be brining the confusion levels down.

Jim Jack stated that he was unaware until a few years ago that the Windsor Historical Society even had a Veterans Appreciation Day (dinner), and after he did get invited he was still unclear that it was us that was putting the event on.

Bill Vivian let us know that there are very few bricks still available. That if anyone is interested they need to contact him and get going on it soon. Bill also announced that the "Battle of Britain" is Sept 19th @ 2:00 p.m. in Jackson Park. Contact Bill @ 519-945-6146 for further information.

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

Minutes respectfully submitted by: Nikki Wanklin and Brianne Tousignant

 

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