I hope you are enjoying the heart of the summer of 2026! Early summer was a busy time with a successful Neighbour Day at the hall in June. In July, there was the Stampede Breakfast held jointly with Tuxedo Park and Mount Pleasant Community Associations at Our House restaurant. A big thank you to all of the members who volunteered to make these events great successes!
The next event on the calendar is the Community Clean Up that will be held in the WHMCA Hall parking lot on Saturday, September 5th. Bring out your large and small items for the landfill or recycling. Metal objects and electronics will be given special treatment. If you would like to volunteer or need more information, please see the article in this newsletter or email events@winstonheights.ca.
On the projects side, there has been some success with funding inititatives in the past month. The Federation of Calgary Communities has indicated that the Urban Hen Project is eligible to receive a Good Places grant. Please congratulate Jile Meyn for his work to get this grant. This is in addition to a generous community donation of $4,500 has been pledged in memory of Robin Swiderski, a local resident and backyard chicken keeper who passed away earlier this year. If you are interested in this project please visit https://winstonheights.ca/chickens/.
The other project that is ongoing is the Kitchen Renovation. The WHMCA has been working with the City of Calgary and its architects and engineers over the past five years to design a renewed kitchen in the main building. Since this is a very large project which includes electrical, air makeup, plumbing, wheelchair access and cabinetry upgrades, grants are being pursued with the Province of Alberta and the City of Calgary. In 2025, we submitted an expression of interest to the Alberta Community Facility Enhancement Program Large grant program but were rejected. A new expression of interest was submitted this May which was accepted. A full application was submitted in July, and we will find out if we are successful or not in December. Many, many thanks are due to Jile Meyn, Marcia Xavier, Suzanne Mott, Ben McKenzie, Jeffrey Haussecker and Tyler Ellis for their work on this project, which at times has been quite intensive. If you would like to help with this project, or anything related to facilities & operations, please email me at president@winstonheights.ca.
Thanks, Alex Reed, President.