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Soar: the enewsletter for DUC volunteers: Issue 5, January 2022

A special video message from DUC’s National Manager Volunteer Fundraising, Tim Binch:

Volunteer Opportunities

Innovation has been our best defense against the pandemic. Committees have been finding their own opportunities to get together and plan ways to safely raise funds and host events, raffles, auctions and more to keep Ducks Unlimited Canada at the top of people’s minds within their communities. There are many volunteer opportunities to continue to support DUC with non-traditional events and we want your help.

Here is a list of opportunities:

Plan a special raffle or auction within your community
Join or help plan the next provincial conservation calendar raffle (or help start one)
Reach out to potential sponsors to get cash donations or items that can be used as raffle prizes or auctioned off at an event
Peer to Peer(P2P) fundraising events that could include anything your imagination can come up with (golf tournament, paint night, walk/run/bike).
Hosting a Facebook Birthday Fundraiser
Lead an Outdoor Series Event. DUC has launched a new series geared toward people who have an interest in outdoor activities and learning new skills. Are you a subject matter expert?  Would you consider leading a group in waterfowling, hunting, ATVing, boating or other outdoor activities? Email your provincial MVCF or volunteer@ducks.ca to get started.

Volunteer Innovation Award

This is a reminder to submit nominations for the 1st annual Volunteer Innovation Award. The deadline date has been extended to February 1, 2022. Please considering nominating a fellow volunteer or committee who has demonstrated outstanding performance and achievement through innovative and creative approaches, resulting in new or improved events, sponsorships, fundraising ideas or volunteer recruitment.

Use the below forms to nominate yourself, a fellow volunteer or a committee who you feel deserves this award.

Video Compilation | Virtual Volunteer Listening Tour with DUC CEO Larry Kaumeyer

Thank you to all the volunteers that attended the virtual listening tour with Larry as he got to know our amazing volunteers and learned more about the activities you’re leading in your communities. If you were not able to attend the East or West events, we have compiled both of them here for your viewing pleasure.

Video Compilation | 2021 DUC Fundraising Events

A huge thank you to all the supporters, volunteers, hosts and sponsors that were involved in 2021 DUC fundraising events. While last year proved to be a challenging year for hosting in-person events, we did manage to get together and have some good ol’ fashioned DUC fun. Enjoy.

British Columbia

Our BC volunteers were hard at work throughout November and December putting on two raffles and a silent auction. A huge thank–you goes out to our volunteers for their success with the second Annual Kamloops Mega Raffle, the Burns Lake VIP Raffle, and the Dawson Creek Silent Auction, all of which saw great engagement from DUC supporters and community members alike and raised important funds for wetland conservation. A huge thank you to everyone who registered, bought tickets, and otherwise supported these great events!

Kamloops Fundraiser

Congratulations to the Kamloops Chapter Volunteers on the success of December’s Mega Fall Raffle. When in-person events were again postponed, these dedicated volunteers led by Chair Glenn Dreger, decided to host another high-end raffle that raised $14,000 for DUC! The chapter received great support from the Kamloops community in the form of donated prizes and ticket purchases. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make this raffle a big success for conservation.

2022 is already off to a great start. Ducks Unlimited Canada partnered with BC AdventureSmart to put on BC’s second Outdoor Event Series workshop, “Snow Safety-Backcountry.” The virtual workshop took place on January 16 with attendees learning winter safety and survival tips. The workshop was designed to reduce the frequency and severity of search and rescue calls in BC’s backcountry this season.

Committees are already ramping up for spring and summer events, so stay tuned for upcoming events in your area!

Saskatchewan

Happy New Year to all Saskatchewan DUC volunteers and supporters! We are very excited to put 2021 behind us and look forward to some great events and initiatives in 2022. We closed out 2021 with a lot of success despite the pandemic. The conservation calendar raffle was a big success again in its third year, as was our first-ever quad raffle in the spring. We had strong participation with our virtual events, the Chase the Ace in Yorkton, and held a couple Outdoor Series events as well. We even saw a couple “duck drops” from our Regina volunteers. Great work all around. 

We are busy planning events for the new year, and we are starting with the Thirsty Mallard banquet on February 4 at the Saskatoon Wildlife Federation. This event is quite popular with our younger demographic as it features a carnival-like atmosphere with 10 interactive raffles. Some participants will jump on a bus to the venue and get to enjoy the evening full of good food, drinks, prizes and more. Please reach out to us if you can help support this event or want to attend. Everyone is welcome to attend. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.  

The DUC Saskatchewan Provincial Council is also very active in planning our annual volunteer workshop and banquet. It’s been a couple years since we’ve been able to get together, so we are looking forward to seeing many of you. This year’s event will be February 19 at the Western Development Museum. We hold this event mainly to show our appreciation for all the work and dedication our volunteers provide DUC, but we also have this event to bring everyone together to learn the latest on what DUC is doing in fundraising and in conservation. However, the best part of this event, is the FUN! We will have food, drink, and a party in the evening. We look forward to seeing you there and don’t forget to book your room at the Sandman Signature South Hotel which is just right across the street from the museum. 

Look for more events in the coming weeks and months, and please don’t hesitate to start having the conversation about doing an in-person event in your community. We are always eager to hear from you and what ideas you might have for fundraising. 

Our next big raffle is the quad raffle that will feature an Argo Xplorer XR 700 LE 4×4. We are selling just 2,500 tickets for this quad. Tickets will be $20 each and sales start April 1 and run until June 15. 

Manitoba

The great work of the Manitoba volunteers continues on the heels of another amazingly successful conservation calendar. The MB Provincial Council along with our volunteers did a fantastic job again this year coming within a whisker of a complete sellout for the 2022 calendar. Thank you to all who supported. During these difficult times to get together in person, the great efforts and initiatives of a few of the Manitoba chapters are getting noticed. The U of M Wetlanders ran two external raffles recently. A 50/50 Duck Dump, along with a cooler/booze raffle (just before Christmas) has netted DUC just under $2000 for their efforts. They are also planning a Valentines raffle scheduled to start in a few weeks! The Beausejour and Area chapter has also been busy outside of their banquet this year. They ran an external gun raffle this fall and are currently selling another one with the draw to be made in March 2022. Way to go Tammy, Ken, Darren and the whole crew!

PVC hasn’t stopped either and the gang is hard at it again with planning for our spring “Provincial Raffle”. Stay tuned to what’s in store with DUC’s latest outdoor powersports sponsor ARGO Canada. Stay safe and stay active.

Ontario

South Eastern

2021 has erased many of the events that we look forward to on our calendars. The need for social distancing sidelined many fine plans. Some committees did find a way to pivot, like Rob Harmon and the 613 Committee who took it outside with a summertime Poker Run in beautiful Eastern Ontario. Local business support was fantastic and a shout-out is well deserved for Kingston sponsors Spearhead Brewing Company, Atkinson Home Hardware, Ontario Archery Supplies and Smoke N’ Barrel restaurant. The 613 Committee, and many others, have found that local businesses continue to offer their generous support, even in this uncertain time.

North

5 Years Running – Another Sell-Out! Ontario’s 2022 Conservation Calendar Raffle – the 5th annual offering of a firearm a week for the entire year – sold-out yet again! Kudos to all of the Ontario Volunteer Committees who worked so hard to sell these calendars in the midst of the pandemic. Their efforts helped secure over $120,000 in net income for wetland conservation. With in-person events being a challenge, their (the volunteers) efforts on behalf of DUC have been even more important and appreciated. 

Slipped THAT One Through – Phew! The luck of the Duck was with the Thunder Bay Volunteer Committee in 2021 as they managed – just prior to the latest surge of the pandemic – to host an exceptionally successful in-person event in mid-November. Over 240 DUC supporters enjoyed a night out in true DUC style at the Mearl Rooney Memorial DUC Dinner and Auction. The support of local donors and sponsors was exceptional! To cap it all off, Thunder Bay Volunteer and Northern Ontario District Chair, Terry Olsen, was awarded his hand-carved and painted Larry Fell Black Duck Decoy, for 35 Years of Service! Congratulations to the Thunder Bay Volunteers for their dedication and commitment to the cause. Photo below shows me (Rob Watson), Roy Lough (founding member of Thunder Bay DUC Chapter) and Terry Olsen.   

Southwestern GTA

In late fall the Grimsby chapter held a very successful event. They hosted 150 eager attendees that couldn’t wait to get back to our in-person events and had a fantastic night. Here’s to kicking off our other events in the late spring once restrictions are lifted and we are back to some semblance of normalcy.

Coming up this spring, we will once again be hosting our Kubota RTV raffle in Southwestern Ontario. Last year, the Aylmer and St. Thomas committee launched the very first raffle which was a huge success, and they are once again ready to give away one amazing machine. They would like to extend an invitation to all our chapters and volunteers to help sell tickets and help raise some bucks for the ducks!

As the rest of this year unfolds, I look forward to getting us all back together in planning our in-person events and seeing all our supporters having fun at all the amazing banquets across the province!

Atlantic provinces

In December, we had two Atlantic committees host raffles. I would like to send out a big thank-you to the Labrador West chapter for hosting their second annual gun banner raffle, but with a twist this year!  The committee sold 600 tickets at $20 each or 3 for $50, giving away 6 choices from the banner. The twist was anyone that gave a donation for the local food bank would be entered into a special 7th draw! Congratulations to the committee on raising $1,000 in cash for the local food bank, especially fantastic during the holiday season!

I would also like to send a big shout out and thank you to the Montague chapter in PEI. They secured a Benelli Super Vinci at The Gun Dealer and sold 125 tickets at $50 each, and had two draws on New Years Eve, one for the Benelli and one for a print! Thank you for the help and support in all fundraising efforts.

Looking ahead to the summer, we are hoping to host a ride to the lake style event this year.  If you are a cyclist and would like to help create this outdoor fundraising event, please contact Jamie at j_young@ducks.ca, I would truly appreciate the help and support in getting this up and running.

I would like to share the results of the Atlantic Conservation Calendar with you all, and together we sold 2,118 calendars! Thank you all so much for the help and support! With the ticket sales and the cash sponsors we successfully raised over $100,000 in gross revenue for conservation.

The draw results will be shared weekly on the Ducks Unlimited Atlantic Facebook and on our website.

As we move into 2022, we are starting to plan our next calendar. We will be hosting a photo contest again this year and are hoping to have submissions from all four Atlantic Provinces. Please stay tuned for more details.

I am looking for your help and ideas with prizes for our next calendar. Our supporters have told us they would like us to stick with the conservation theme and will be looking to come up with 52 unique prizes to give away in 2023. The prizes should be of a size that we can ship them anywhere in Atlantic Canada. Please share your ideas with me and if you are interested in being involved in planning the calendar, please let me know – I would appreciate the help!

We have had many committees asking about planning in-person events, and I am so excited to see us return to these in 2022! In order to be successful, we are looking at planning a few months out from now potentially in April, May and June, when we are hoping we will see a sharp decline in Covid numbers, and a safe return to getting together again. I have also had volunteers talk about hosting their event outside. I think this is a fantastic summer idea and a way to have lots of fun! Please share your unique ideas in hosting an event, we would love the ability to share with volunteers right across the country.

Congratulations to Vivian Kierstead from the Kent County Committee, she was the winner of the DUC shoulder bag and lantern — her reward for completing our Duck & Run survey. Vivian was randomly chosen from the roster of completed surveys. We appreciate you taking the time to register and fundraise for the virtual Duck & Run event. This goes over and above your already incredible support as a DUC volunteer and donor in your community. Vivian is a 31 years of service volunteer and continues to support in so many ways.  

In closing, I would like to thank you for your help and support over the past year and for the tremendous help with our conservation calendars. I look forward to working with you in 2022 on our second annual conservation calendar and a return to in-person events. Thank you in advance for sharing your ideas.