The Chatham Goodfellows held their 66th Annual General Meeting on Thursday evening. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the abbreviated Annual General meeting was held virtually on Zoom.
Highlights of the meeting:
Chatham Goodfellows Board of Directors Executive 2021-2022 pursuant to article 26 subsection b;
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President – Tim Haskell
Vice President – Craig Williston
Secretary Treasurer – Kathy O’Neill
Chatham Goodfellows Board of Directors 2020-2021 pursuant to article 17 subsection c and article 26 subsection a;
Judy Bagley, Greg Cranston, Calvin Denure, Linda Haskell, Tim Haskell, Calvin McCabe, Kathy O’Neill, Jessica Osborne, Fred Osmon, Bonnie Regnier, Rocky Schram, Kevin Shaw, Mary Ann Wieringa, and Craig Williston.
The Chatham Goodfellows President’s Award, Life Time Achievement Award and Certificates of appreciation were not awarded this year. However the coveted Mrs./Mr. Goodfellow was awarded this year.
2020 Mrs. and Mr. Goodfellow:
This year’s Mrs. Goodfellow has been involved with Chatham Goodfellows since she was “knee high to a grasshopper”.
She had family expectations to uphold. First and foremost, her first introduction to Chatham Goodfellows occurred when she accompanied her grandmother Mary to organize and pack toys. During those times Mrs. Goodfellow was called “Goffer legs”. She would look among the toys for a teddy bear and other gifts to complete a toy basket. Packing toys was an annual event for Mrs. Goodfellow, and when she had her own family, her 3 year old son became a “Goffer legs”. Now her son is 21 years old he remains involved, as does her adult daughter. The second expectation remains a “must”, show up for porch light night. This was directed by her grandfather, Phil Williston. In fact, she became so efficient she now organizes multiple canvas teams each year. During the last few years, as a member of the Chatham Goodfellows board, Mrs Goodfellow organizes the food, setting up the large food box line and supervising the packing. Each year Mrs. Goodfellow takes several days off from work to complete this monumental job to ensure precise coordination of volunteers for packing and delivering, packing logistics, and often the most significant challenge during the day of delivery of organizing the delivery routes. “Not many people use their valuable time off for volunteering for a community project, but Mrs Goodfellow loves volunteering, it is expected in the Williston family”. Mrs. Goodfellows can be found every year at food packing with her reindeer antlers on, and a huge smile.
This year Chatham Goodfellows has also chosen a Mr. Goodfellow. Mr. Goodfellow has been married to Mrs. Goodfellow for 22 years. Mr Goodfellow has worked tirelessly along side of Mrs. Goodfellows for well over 22 years.
Mr. Goodfellow leads a team on porchlight night, he organizes the cash collected, as well as the groceries and toys. Then he loads the food and toys on trucks and then unloads the trucks at the food and toy storage. Mr Goodfellow can be found standing in the cold and often in the snow on street corners during street sales. a few days after street sales, Mr. Goodfellow can be found packing and delivering toys. Mr. Goodfellow is described as the gentle strong man. He assists Mrs. Goodfellow organizing food packing and deliver. On the day before food packing, Mr. Goodfellow assists setting up the food packing lines as well as laying out non-perishable food. At 5 am on the day of food packing Mr. Goodfellow unloads perishable food deliveries, frozen turkeys, potatoes, milk, cookies and fruit. In addition, Mr. Goodfellow follows all the directions given by Mrs. Goodfellow.
Mrs. and Mr. Goodfellow introduced a fourth generation of the extended Williston family to Chatham Goodfellows, and now the fourth generation have introduced a fifth generation of the extended Williston family to Chatham Goodfellows.
It is with great pleasure that on behalf of the Chatham Goodfellows Board of Directors, Mary Williston introduces her granddaughter and her husband, Jessica and Chris Osborne, as the 2020 Mrs. and Mr. Goodfellow. (the photograph Chris and Jessica Osborne displaying the coveted award).
Key Information for the 2020 Chatham Goodfellows Campaign:
Chatham Goodfellows new location is 715 Richmond Street (the former National Grocers Cash and Carry entrance).
For 2020 Chatham Goodfellows will provide toys, hygiene packs and boot and shoe vouchers for children up to and including age 15.
This year, applications who resided in the former Townships of Dover, Chatham, Harwich as well as the former City of Chatham can apply online by going to chathamgoodfellows.ca.
Food and Toy baskets can be picked up during the week of December 14. For those unable to pick up their food and toy baskets, deliveries will occur as in years past. A specific schedule will be published in the near future.