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Soar: the enewsletter for DUC volunteers: Issue 10, December 2022

British Columbia

Our BC volunteers held their first in-person events this fall, and the enthusiasm from our supporters was apparent!

Vanderhoof Fundraising Banquet:

Congratulations to the Vanderhoof Chapter Volunteers on hosting a very successful banquet at the Community Event Centre. The volunteers, led by Cara Kells, received great support from the local community. The hall was packed with DUC supporters who were excited to be back, and many of the local businesses provided unique items for the raffles and auctions.

Prior to the banquet, friends and family of former DUC volunteers and Director Bob and June Clark, attended the unveiling of the permanent cairn at the Redmond Flats DUC project. A day that was filled with emotions for two very dedicated and caring individuals and volunteers.

Kamloops Banquet:

What an event! It’s been 3 years since the Kamloops chapter hosted their annual fall fundraising event, and you could feel the energy in the room! The hall was filled to capacity, the auctions had some one-of-a-kind donated merchandise, and the raffles added to the fun. Thank you, Kamloops chapter volunteers, for making the return to in-person fundraising a great success for DUC!

Burns Lake Banquet:

Craig and Candace Little, our new Chair and Treasurer, together with the Burns Lake volunteers, hosted a banquet that was filled with fun and excitement! It was apparent that the local Burns Lake community was ready to return and show their support for Ducks. The venue was packed, and the support from the business community was evident in the auctions and raffles. Congratulations to all the volunteers who helped make this event the talk of the town!

Dawson Creek Banquet:

Amazing! Energetic! Exciting! Fun! These are only a few words that describe what took place at the Dawson Creek banquet. The event was sold out weeks in advance, the business community showed their incredible support in donations and sponsorships, and the volunteers led by Don Bourassa, helped to make Dawson Creek a top 3 event in all of Canada! A big thank you to all the Dawson Creek volunteers! Your commitment to bringing a special night of fun and excitement to the community is inspiring.

A special thank you goes out to all of our hard-working volunteers in B.C. who help support wetland conservation, we wouldn’t be successful without you!

Manda Hanson
Volunteer Fundraising and Corporate Coordinator

Alberta

Since slowly moving into my new role as Manager of Volunteer & Corporate Fundraising, I have had the chance to connect with many of our committees across Alberta.

Several of our volunteers have expressed the interest in planning events in 2023! Amongst those are Airdrie, Coaldale, Lethbridge, Jasper, Beaumont, Pincher Creek and Verdigris.

We also have the following committees with secured event dates for 2023:

Lethbridge College Banquet in February, Fort Saskatchewan Banquet in March, Edmonton Sporting Clay Shoot in May, Chinook Drakes Banquet in May. For details on these and other upcoming DUC events, please visit ducks.ca/events

I am also very excited & happy to share that we now have a Calgary Ladies Committee! With the help of our incoming volunteer applications, I was able to build a group of 5 enthusiastic ladies that are very eager to start hosting events for DUC! We have had our first meet & greet and the ladies are looking at Feb/March 2023 to host their first event.

A very special Thank You goes out to Pamela Sooley and the Edmonton Ladies Committee! Pamela has led this committee for many years and her dedication and hard work is so valued and appreciated! The committee hosted their very first Co-ed banquet on November 5^th and reported that it was a successful and fun evening. The guests enjoyed the masquerade themed evening and the event raised around $10,000.

As this year comes to an end, I would like to express a heartfelt Thank You to you all for everything you do for DUC! Looking forward to working with you all in the coming year!

Elke DuBois
Manager of Volunteer & Corporate Fundraising

Saskatchewan

Season’s Greetings from Saskatchewan!

Wow! We had quite a fall run of in-person banquets, and I credit our amazing volunteers for making this fall fundraising season highly successful. All events were well attended and successful. It was so good to see people come together again to raise money for wetland conservation in Saskatchewan. All told, we had nine in-person events from September to the beginning of November. Events that were held included, Hanley Sporting Clay Shoot, Maple Creek, Sask Valley, Kindersley, Spiritwood, Meadow Lake Ladies, Melfort, East Central Flyway and Tisdale. The Regina and District chapter is also running a 12 Days of Christmas event.

The success of this organization and fundraising hinges on the dedication of our valued and passionate volunteers. Thank you!!!

I can’t wait to share the successes we had this fall at our annual Volunteer Appreciation Day and Workshop on Feb. 11, 2023 at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon.

We are also very excited to announce we will be offering a chance to win an Alumarine boat and Mercury outboard motor package when the Saskatchewan Provincial Council launches a boat raffle slated to begin in January. This boat package comes directly to us from Alumarine right here in Saskatchewan. The entire package is worth more than $22,000. We are selling 4,000 tickets at $20 each. Look for emails and notification about this raffle in the coming weeks.

Once again, thank you to the Saskatchewan volunteers for everything you do in making DUC the leading conservation organization in Canada.

Happy holidays to all and to all a good Quack!

Travis Behning
Manager of Volunteers & Corporate Fundraising

Manitoba

It was an absolute pleasure to be back with the volunteers running “In Person” events again this fall!

With over 90% of the “Pre-Pandemic” event schedule all stepping up to get back involved again this fall, it was a little busy to say the least. So proud of all the events that took place, and very understanding of the few that were still a little hesitant. The greatest reward for myself was the number of long-time service awards that we were able to hand out! Multiple 30, 35, and 40 year awards are a rarity with any organization, let alone having these amazing people continue their journey with Ducks Unlimited Canada during a pandemic makes them even more special!! Thank you to all the volunteers that made this return to events this fall the most special in my 35 years involved with DUCKS. Thank you!!

The pictures say it all, THANK YOU!

Cheers,

Brad Porath
Manager of Volunteers & Corporate Fundraising

Ontario

Northern Ontario

It’s been a great Fall in the North and the Muskoka’s for our Volunteer Committees!  A big shout-out especially to the Haliburton Committee who hosted their largest event ever, and the Thunder Bay Committee for hosting what is certain to be one of the top DUC events nationwide!

Provincially, at the time of this email we will once again have sold-out the Firearm Calendars thanks to the efforts of Volunteer Committees province wide.  Our hats off to the hard work and dedication of our volunteer sellers, especially considering they did not receive calendars until early October!

Looking forward to the New Year, many committees are booking their March, April, and May events, and we will see a return to in-person Northwest and Northeast Volunteer Appreciation Events (dates and locations forthcoming).

On behalf of DUC, thank you and Happy Holidays to all of our Volunteers!

Robert Watson
Manager of Volunteers & Corporate Fundraising

South-central Ontario

It has been one amazing fall season for all of us in SW Ontario, and we saw some fantastic events return to all their glory they were so well known for before the pandemic. The Long Point Men’s committee returned as the 1st ever chapter in Canada to continued their event for the 48th year and attendees and volunteers sure came to party. The Long Point Ladies committee blew the roof off the venue with their most successful event in the committees history. They enjoyed an absolutely packed house with some rowdy ladies that all came together for wetlands conservation.
The Aylmer/St.Thomas committee came together to once again host a very successful RTV raffle which was drawn and awarded at the annual Aylmer banquet this fall. Who doesn’t love a huge giveaway at one of the most famous events in Ontario? As we wind down for the season and look forward to a little holiday break, we are eagerly awaiting the spring event season and looking forward to connecting with old friends and new!

Marco Cunha
Manager of Volunteers & Corporate Fundraising

Eastern Ontario & Quebec

Hello and bonjour from Eastern Ontario and Quebec!

Having just recently joined the team at DUC as Manager of Volunteer and Corporate Fundraising for Eastern Ontario and Quebec last September, I look forward to meeting and working with our network of dedicated volunteers and committees in both provinces. This being the tail end of the typical fundraising season, I’ve only had the opportunity to meet with a handful of committees thus far but having attended the Wolfe Island, Brockville, Napanee and North Glengarry banquets, I can honestly say that all events were a huge success thanks to everyone’s hard work and dedication! It is so inspiring and rewarding to work alongside volunteers and committees that are dedicated to wetland conservation and the continued success of DUC! To all of you, thank you for everything that you do, and I look forward to meeting and working with every other committee in my territory throughout the new year to come.

With the pandemic now being behind us and the success of our Fall events, it’s obvious that communities and supporters have missed our events and have happily welcomed the return to our in-person events! I believe the time is right to restart our fundraising efforts and rebuild the network of committees and volunteers across the provinces and especially in areas that have suffered a decline during the past few years!

Ontario Firearm Calendar Raffle sales have been outstanding and a by-product through the selling process (telephone) has revealed itself to me as many purchasers have expressed interest in volunteering. I’m new to this but there seems to be a definite wealth of individuals out there willing to join forces with us if given the opportunity!

With that said, in 2023, much effort will be put into recruiting volunteers across and Eastern Ontario and especially in Quebec where our network of volunteers and committees has unfortunately declined over the years but with hard work, persistence and bit of luck, that will soon change! 😊 Quebec has a wealth of potential and opportunities! If our efforts to re-establish a network of volunteers and committees across the province are successful, introducing a Quebec DUC Firearms Calendar Raffle for 2024 would be a great objective.

A small yet new committee has been recently established for a clay shooting event to be held at the Montreal Skeet Club in Les Cèdres, Qc. Hopefully this event (and a few proposed others), in conjunction with our recruitment efforts, will help reignite DUC’s presence across “La belle province” and bring about more conservation dollars towards our mission.

Lastly, I’m very excited to announce that a substantial philanthropic donation opportunity has presented itself in Eastern Ontario. Only in the early stage but very promising. Stay tuned!!!

Season’s greetings to all and wishing everyone a prosperous new year!

Jean Joanette
Manager of Volunteers & Corporate Fundraising

Atlantic provinces

Atlantic Canada saw the return of many fantastic events this fall, and I would like to send a big shout out, and thank you, to all the volunteer chapters that hosted these great events:

Burin Peninsula, Saturday, September 17 – Newfoundland
Charlottetown, PEI – September 22
Shelburne Comedy night, Thursday, September 29 – Nova Scotia
Harvey, Saturday October 16 – New Brunswick
Truro, Saturday October 15 – Nova Scotia
Corner Brook, Friday, October 21 – Newfoundland
Antigonish, Saturday, November 6 – Nova Scotia
Memramcook, Saturday, November 12 – New Brunswick
Goose Bay, Saturday, November 19 – Labrador

Kent County Committee, in New Brunswick, are hosting a Christmas Social on Saturday, December 3 and it is shaping up to be a fun evening!! A special thank you to the Labrador West Chapter, they will be drawing for their raffle “The 12 Winner’s of Christmas” on December 1 and have raised an extra $1,500 for the local food bank, that will go a long way to help families in need this Holiday Season. I would also like to thank this committee for raising funds over $125,000 during this year, the incredible amount of time and effort put in their event, raffles and sourcing sponsor ships will go a long way to help support conservation efforts, well done Labrador West!

Calendar sales are on-going, and we still have some left if you are interest in getting one as a gift for that someone on your list or are able to help us sell a few. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the volunteers and businesses for their help and support of this great initiative!

We have many events booking for late winter/spring of 2023:

Shelburne County, NS – February
East Hants, NS – March
South West Nova, NS – March
Valley, NS – April
Labrador West, NL – April
Amherst, NS – May
Lars Larsen Memorial, NB – May
Goose Bay, NL – May

Please contact me to book your event for 2023!!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the volunteers across Canada for your tremendous efforts in helping conserve Canada’s natural spaces. I would like to wish you and your families a safe and happy holiday season and all the very best for 2023!

Jamie Young
Manager of Volunteer & Corporate Fundraising