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Posted Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Fall Leadership Convention 2022
In early November each year, right before deer season, members of District 1 Kin gather for a highly anticipated weekend of Kin fellowship and education known as Fall Leadership Conference (FLC). The St Thomas Kinsmen were slated to host in 2020, and have been patiently waiting for the world to get its act together so they could finally take us to the movies with their “Here’s Looking at you, Kin” theme.
When it came to planning the educational components of the weekend, rather than organize the typical breakout sessions in the hotel, Governors Karen & Dutch decided to take everyone on the road in an Amazing Race style event. Members were divided into teams of four, and volunteer drivers navigated the streets of St Thomas in search of knowledge and opportunity.
At the Salvation Army Thrift Store, manager Sarah put teams to work putting the store to rights – cleaning & sorting donations. From there, teams were off to the Elgin County Railway Museum to learn about the Kin Canada Foundation and how clubs can work with them.
Teams could wander up to the Kinsmen sunshade in the St Thomas Elevated Park for a picture before arriving at the Elgin County Military Museum, where they were given a random budget to create a project proposal for Kin Kindness Day.
No visit to St Thomas is complete without taking a selfie with Jumbo, so teams did that on their way to the St Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre. While there, team members gave a brief speech on a Kin highlight to practice their impromptu speaking skills.
Everyone’s favourite stop was at Freshco, though. When teams arrived there and spoke to the Kin marshalls on site, they were given $100 and a shopping list that included everything that the St. Thomas - Elgin Food Bank needs for their clients. There were 13 teams participating in the race; when all of the receipts were tallied up, members had purchased over $1450 worth of food – taking money out of their own pockets to help.
St. Thomas - Elgin Food Bank Manager Karen McDade came and spoke to the delegates after the race, sharing how the need for food banks has increased tremendously in the past couple of years. She was thrilled accept the food purchased, but then we surprised her again. After adding in the extra $200 in the district budget (in case we had more teams), the $90 donated by members of the public (and not including the food items they gave), and the $1000 cheque presented by the St. Thomas Kinsmen Club, we contributed almost $2800 to the food bank.
Kin Education Fellowship Conventions
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