by Sarah Ferguson
Hello McKenzie Towne!
Welcome to October! How quickly this year has gone by, and here we are already heading into Halloween. I can’t wait to see what it will bring this year. With so much COVID uncertainty, it encourages us to be more creative in how we celebrate these fun holidays. Send us your photos on how you chose to celebrate – [email protected]!
We were finally able to hold our Annual General Meeting in September. It was nice to see our board members and city representatives in person again. We had a decent attendance and handed out some great prizes: Calgary Farmyard donated a family pass, Trico donated a ten-pass, and Shane Keating’s office donated a beautiful City of Calgary bag. Calgary Police brought some colouring books and toys, and we had some items like water bottles and coffee cups to give out as well. The AGM isn’t always our most interesting meeting because it needs to be “all business”, but I enjoy how it signals the start of our new board and fresh energy for the year to come. Our next open meeting will be Wednesday, December 9, where we will have prizes, guest speakers, and the in-person ability to get a membership for the following year. There will be more details on this meeting in November’s newsletter and on our Facebook page.
Our most exciting news coming out of the AGM is that we have a new president: please welcome Kyla Petkau to the position! Kyla has been on the MTCA board for three years and will excel in her new duties. Thank you for doing so much for our community! I’m excited to be stepping down from the executive positions after four years and focusing on the newsletter and social media. If you or your local business is interested in contributing or being involved with the CA, please reach out. This month, I will be including an article on mental health, a recipe, and a knitting pattern in the newsletter. What would you like to see in our community newsletter? Suggestions are always welcome.
As part of the AGM, the president writes a report on what we’ve accomplished over the past year. This year, the MTCA is celebrating 15 years. It’s been a treat to have been a part of this group for four of them. In this short time, I’ve seen the MTCA grow and change into a wonderful team that organizes events and community outreach programs. We have been working hard to foster great relationships in our community and love working with other local groups, especially our amazing friends at the McKenzie Towne Council. We are a small group of faces that come and go, but are always fun to be around. Thank you to everyone who has ever been on the board, and to everyone who has supported us.
This year we have tried new techniques to make our meetings more engaging. We are now hosting “open meetings” every few months where we invite our community to attend. Although all our meetings are open to everyone, we encourage people to come to these meetings by having our city representatives in attendance, and having prizes and other giveaways. We have had three open meetings since our last AGM: September, December, and our last pre-COVID meeting in March. We typically have had a few extra people at each meeting, so hopefully we can continue our momentum. We also introduced “groups” at our meetings to involve more community members and allow them to focus on what they are interested in, such as: Events, Community Outreach, or Business. We do need more people to come to our meetings for the groups to be a proper success, so I encourage our community members to come out and participate.
Sadly, our Easter Egg Hunt and Fall Fair for 2020 were both cancelled due to Covid-19 but we did have our 2019 Fall Fair on September 14th. We had good weather and a decent turn out! Dogzilla came with their hotdog truck and we had many local businesses providing activities for the community. We also had a small vendor market which was a success and brought in some funds for the CA. There were draws for various prizes and the community enjoyed receiving the giveaways. The MTC graciously allowed us to use their tables and tents again.
Our community outreach this past year included:
– Attending the McKenzie Highlands Carnival: They arranged the prizes and planning, while a few of our board members manned the table and gave away prizes.
- We gave away two micro grants for Neighbour Day in June 2019 to encourage smaller parties within the community.
- A few board members attended the McKenzie Towne Council Christmas party where we hosted a craft. The City of Calgary donated wooden decorations and paint for the children to decorate.
- The YMCA donated tickets for two plays to our board members and as prizes for us to give away to community members.
- Mike Burton and Tim LaCroix have started a Facebook Live each week to discuss what’s happening in our community. I was on it in July and September to discuss the CA and will be doing more shows going forward. Follow the Living in McKenzie Towne Facebook page for more information.
The MTCA has accomplished 3 things to make our community’s roads safer: One was getting a stop sign at the east corner of Elgin Ave and Elgin Meadows Way, another was a flashing-lights crosswalk at the Prestwick Blvd and Prestwick Circle intersection, and we were able to get safety barriers out front of McKenzie Towne School. We are working on more concerns that have been brought to us and we appreciate all the help we get from the City and the Ward 12 office.
Our meetings are fun and informative. We often have guest speakers attending from the Calgary Police Service, Shane Keating’s office, the City of Calgary, and other organizations. The main focus of the MTCA is to bring our community together by being the liaison between these organizations and also by planning community events. PLEASE NOTE: We are the MTCA, not the MTC. The McKenzie Towne Council (MTC) is the board that is in control of our annual Home Owner Association (HOA) fees and they are in charge of maintaining the environment and physical amenities in McKenzie Towne. MTCA meetings do not address these issues, although we often have discussions about the traffic circle.
Memberships for 2021 are now on sale. For $10 a year, you can help support our community outreach. Please visit our website www.mckenzietowneca.com/memberships for more information. Feel free to reach out to our board at [email protected] or to me directly at [email protected]. You can also find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MCKTCA) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/mckenzietowneca).
