Victims of sexual assault find themselves at the worst point in their life, searching for answers and often struggling with the trauma of their assault which can change their life permanently. The Niagara Sexual Assault Centre operates across the Niagara Region providing emergency services for reporting, 24-hour crisis telephone supports, counselling services, and more to support victims of sexual assault in our community when they need it the most. The Port Dalhousie Lions Club is proud to be able to help them in their mission with a donation of $500.
Donation to Westview Centre for Women
The Westview Centre for Women provides a safe and accepting resource centre for women in our community where women are free to be themselves in an accepting and affirming environment. Their drop-in services help anyone who identifies as a women with critical supports including classes, support groups, and more from their location at 17 Gale Crescent. With the unfortunate rise in the numbers of women who are facing the challenge of being unhoused or under-housed in our community, these classes and support groups are critical to creating and fostering a community which will help these women to get back on their feet and soar. The Port Dalhousie Lions Club is very happy to support this important organization with a donation of $1,000.
Donation to Port Dalhousie Schools
The Port Dalhousie community has two amazing schools that support education of our local children. St. Ann’s School represents the Niagara Catholic School Board and Gracefield Public School represents the District School Board of Niagara. Both schools are smaller than average, and Gracefield is very small, housing only ~135 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8. The Port Dalhousie Lions Club reached out to both schools to understand better how we might be able to help out financially for some of the school’s biggest needs. At Gracefield, the parents have started a healthy snack program and they are looking to continue that great work as well as potentially add hot meals for children who go regularly go hungry. Though their snack program, they are able to ensure that local children who may suffer from food insecurity at home are able to have a healthy snack at school, which has been proven to have a significant impact on learning. At St. Ann’s school, the focus of need was more around technology which enables the teachers to better engage the students and which has shown remarkable improvements in the EQAO results at the school. Through the introduction of new learning programs, St. Ann’s has been able to significantly improve the literacy and math skills of their students, but they require additional technology supports to continue to make this happen. The Port Dalhousie Lions Club was thrilled to be able to learn about these important programs, and we have made donations of $2,000 each to both St. Ann’s and Gracefield School to help them continue the important work they highlighted for us! We got this awesome video from the Gracefield kids thanking us for our donation!
Walk A Mile In Her Shoes for Gillian’s Place
On Saturday October 19, Lion Tim represented the Port Dalhousie Lions Club in this important event in support of Gillian’s Place. The Port Dalhousie Lions Club are proud to have been able to provide a donation of $2,000 to Gillian’s Place in support of the important work they do in our community. In addition to their secure emergency shelter for women and children who are the victims of gender-based violence, they provide counselling and legal services, advocacy, and second stage housing to help victims of violence get back on their feet. Thanks to Lion Tim for strapping on the high heels for this event, and thanks to everyone at Gillian’s Place for the important work that you do every day.
Donation to Community Care
As a result of our incredible Labour Day Celebration and all of our generous neighbours who contributed to the Community Care Food Drive, the Port Dalhousie Lions Club was thrilled to fill several food donation bins with non-perishable goods to restock the shelves at the food bank, and we have also been able to make a $2,000 cash donation to help feed the community during this very difficult time. Thank you to everyone who came out to support this important event!
Donation to YMCA of Niagara
The YMCA of Niagara runs important summer camps throughout the summer for kids across the Region. As part of these important programs, the YMCA provides 1:1 support for kids with physical and/or mental disabilities, mental health, or behavioural considerations to ensure all children get the opportunity to enjoy a positive camp experience with their peers. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to enjoy these important camps and the enrichment that a week of YMCA summer camp can provide for kids. The Port Dalhousie Lions Club is proud to be able to send 6 kids to enjoy a week of YMCA Summer Camp with our donation of $1,500 to this important program!
Donation to Niagara Health Foundation
Every year the Niagara Health Foundation hosts the Kids Ultimate Challenge as a fundraiser to help with their important programming in Niagara. The Kids Ultimate Challenge is a “Mud Run” type cross country event where kids get to race through obstacles at Burgoyne Woods Park to challenge themselves to finish! There were lots of great vendors and activities for the kids to participate in after the event was over, including our very own Port Dalhousie Lions Club BBQ where we helped provide nourishment for the competitors and their families. It was great to be a part of this incredible event, and more importantly to be able to sell out completely by the end of the event, raising $2,000 which has been donated to Niagara Health Foundation to support the Children’s Health Unit at Niagara Health and our local hospitals!
Thank You from Dalewood School
We received a lovely thank you video from the students at Dalewood School for our donation to help support their snack bin program to ensure that all of the children could learn with food in their stomach. Have a look:
Donation to Dalewood School Lunch Program
Dalewood French Immersion Public School is the local french immersion school for the Port Dalhousie catchment area. They run a healthy lunch program to support students in the school who do not have access to regular food at home. This program feeds almost 415 students daily across the school, and while they are supported by Niagara Nutritional Partners, the money to provide healthy food starts to run out by the late part of the year. The Port Dalhousie Lions Club is proud to make a donation of $2,500 to support this important program to ensure that these young students can learn with food in their stomach through the remainder of this school year.
Coldest Night of the Year Results
The Port Dalhousie Lions Club was a major sponsor of this year’s Coldest Night of the Year campaign supporting Start Me Up Niagara in St. Catharines. We are proud that our support helped Start Me Up Niagara raise over $168,000 this year! We were thrilled to be able to welcome Laura (Executive Director) and Samantha (Communications Liaison) to join us at our regular dinner meeting on Tuesday March 26 to share more information about the great work they do and how this money is used in our community. You can learn more about Start Me Up Niagara from their website at: https://www.startmeupniagara.ca/site/home Our membership was proud to receive a plaque for our participation and support of the Coldest Night of the Year campaign this year. Thank you to Laura and Samantha for joining us to present this plaque!