Thursday 28 April 2016

Breslau in Dialog

Breslau Community Centre, April 24, 2016 - Photo Credit: Sonya Willsher

Township of Woolwich Open House

This past Sunday (April 24) the Township of Woolwich held an open house at the Breslau Community Centre Gym. There were many representatives from the township present including most of Council, the Mayor and senior members of township staff.  I know that I had very good conversations about the parks, Menno Street, soccer, traffic and the potential of a Breslau library branch.  Most importantly, I was interested in how we as a community can work together with the township to improve where we all live.

If you did not have a chance to participate in these discussions the township has posted an online survey that you can use to respond: http://woolwich.survey.esolutionsgroup.ca/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=l8LInp3. I would encourage you to take a few moments to share your thoughts with the township so they can be considered as we all move forward together.

Refugee Sponsorship Fundraising Concert

Deacons of Jazz Concert this Saturday, April 30 at 7:00 at Breslau Mennonite Church. A 6-member band, playing a mix of jazz and pop pieces with their own Deacons’ sound. This is a fundraiser for our Refugee Sponsorship. Freewill offering; receipts given for all donations over $20. Coffee, refreshments and great music!

Youth Fundraising Garage Sale

Breslau Mennonite Church youth fundraiser garage sale will be held on Saturday May 7, 8:00 am-1:00 pm. They will be hosting this sale at the church rain or shine on Saturday, May 7, 2016.  Last year there was lots of big items donated for this sale.  So kick off the garage sale season with this event.  You can help by donating gently used items, dropped off Thursday May 5, 7:00 - 9:00 pm or Friday, May 6 during office hours.  Items at the sale will include: new handcrafted items, baking, perennials as well as various household items. The biggest help you can provide is to come down to the sale and hunt for some bargains, dont forget to bring your neightbours with you.

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Community Gardens, Community Open House, and Community Building


Community Garden

This past weekend you may have had a chance to run into a member of Breslau Mennonite Church handing out post cards like the image above.  In the fall of 2014, a group emerged from Breslau Mennonite Church expressing interest in exploring the possibility of a community garden. After doing some research, they decided to commence with a ‘test’ garden to see how the growing conditions were and to see if a community garden could in fact be something to strive for in the future.  The summer of 2015 proved to be a very bountiful one for the test garden and planning has persisted throughout the winter to prepare for an open community garden for the residents of Breslau to enjoy.

This group is now pursuing interest into the community for people to sign up for a plot.  I know that the number of prepared garden plots are limited but if there is interest there could always be an expansion.  I would encourage you to check out https://breslaugardens.wordpress.com/ if you are interested in more details on this project. We can literally grow as a community with this project.

Breslau Community Open House

The Township of Woolwich wants to hear from you! They are hosting an open house to continue the dialog with the people of Breslau on how we want to grow and develop our community.  This is not a Riverland / Old Breslau / Hopewell event, this is a Breslau event.  I would encourage everyone to make your community a priority and reinforce our resolve to grow and develop into a vibrant neighbourhood.  

The contacts for this event are Mayor Shantz (mayor@woolwich.ca), Councillor Martin (mmartin@woolwich.ca), Councillor Shantz (lshantz@woolwich.ca), and CAO Brenneman (dbrenneman@woolwich.ca).

The township wants to support us as we grow and we need to partner with them for our own success.  Breslau's future can only be realized with an open and honest partnership with the township.  Please make an effort to drop by the community centre from 1:00-4:00 pm on Sunday, April 24th.

Community Splash Pad

We are entering into another spring (when nature realizes it is spring), and the Breslau Lions club are preparing to reinvigorate the splash pad project. This project has received many ups and downs but it has also received a lot of support from the community in the past.  Keep this project in mind as we plan for Breslau's future together. You can check out their facebook page or their website http://www.breslaugrandsplash.ca/ to keep updated on the project.  Jeff and Michelle Barnard along with Joanna Brunnenmeir would be your best bet to contact if you want to get involved.

I "borrowed" this from the Lions facebook page.

Breslau / Bloomindale Refugee Sponsorship Project

Just like any large project worth undertaking things always seem to move slower than you would emotionally like them to.  There are a variety of initiatives progressing with this project as we work to build a support network for the eventual family.  At this time we have raised the required $30 000 and members of both churches have been formed into several working groups focusing on education, employment support, family finances, healthcare, housing, life support, fundraising, community integration, etc.  The majority of the initial paperwork that is required by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), our sponsorship agreement holder, has been completed; after which we will be placed on a matching list for a family. MCC has indicated that the matching process has slowed down recently but they are receiving profiles on a bi-weekly basis, and currently have 34 groups waiting to be matched. They match based on profile availability and our group’s criteria. Our criteria is a family of 4-6 (ideally 5), and may include young children and/or teenagers. We are open to receiving a refugee family from other countries besides Syria.  Even though we have raised the minimum amount of money, we do not yet know the needs that our family will have or what other expenses we may incur.  In that light, a fundraising event is planned for April 30, 2015 with the Deacons of Jazz at Breslau Mennonite Church. Stay tuned for more updates.

Is there anything you want to add?

If you would like to share anything with the Breslau community and you would like to use my blog to help make that happen please get in touch with me at matthewlvandermeer2@gmail.com.  We are a diverse community and we can continue to find success together if we reach out to each other and grow together.

Thanks for reading.
Cheers.