The seasons roll by not conscious of any difference in how our lives have been changed without notice. Now it is time to change our mindset leaving summer behind and looking towards the fall, its cooler days, shorter days, more activity around us and now school openings.
MWCN has been very busy during the COVID-19 last 6 months that have brought us through the summer Our 3 offices remained open continuously to respond to the needs of the community in so many ways. After a short pause to re calculate, we at MWCN adjusted our plans, activities and listened for direction from our government and Health Department. We reached out to the community to see what the present needs were, and it was all about informing, connecting, and caring.
Our Vaudreuil-Soulanges NPI coordinator, Clément Bergeron responded by working on our fall program keeping in mind that there may very well be some adjustments to be made along the way. Whether we will be presenting in person or virtually will be the question, and Clément is watching this closely. He is continuously in communication with the cities and has been successful in entering into a partnership with Desjardins Vaudreuil-Soulanges, who are also very eager to support the English-speaking community through this pandemic. Lorie Marcotte is our Coordinator of Community Development in Vaudreuil-Soulanges who has also responded with reaching out to the most vulnerable and isolated seniors. Meeting with Seniors at both Chartwell and Séléction Retraite through Coffee and Conversation and outdoor exercise programs, bringing Care packages to seniors at the HLM and starting up a walking group called Trotting Tuesdays.
Kim Wilson is our Outreach Coordinator in the Chateauguay Valley and has also been very busy in our newest location in Huntingdon. She has begun a chair yoga group at the Huntingdon Fair Grounds, and art class at the center, and a walking group. Conversation Café was a new addition in which seniors were given the chance to speak about their present concerns. We handed out over 200 care packages in all our locations, touching base with people as we handed them out to see how everyone is doing and having a chat on the doorstep.
What I find was so very interesting this summer is that we were able to move ahead at a different pace connecting more closely with our English-speaking members in the community despite the actual distancing rule. Monthly Newsletters, weekly letters, phone calls and even a chat when making the different deliveries. Another amazing part of our COVID-summer was the fact that we had 4 summer students join our 3 offices, bringing with them new energy and spurring on new ideas that helped MWCN to explore new ways of reaching out within the community. The students were successful creating summer day camps activities, organizing and delivering Frozen Meals to Hudson seniors, upgrading our libraries, assembling, and painting our picnic table & benches, compiling information for our 3 directories and so much more.
MWCN is very appreciative of all the work that was done by our 4 summer students and the encouragement they brought to our community organization. Thank you goes out to Simone Drouin and Amanda Bertrand who worked diligently in our Pincourt office. Thank you to Oleksandr Kopyl who worked mainly on the 20-year history of our organization from our Chateauguay office. Our newly opened wellness center in Huntingdon benefited from Elliott Arthur and his expertise as a new librarian studies graduate from John Abbott College. Thank you, Employment and Social Development Canada, Summer Jobs program. MWCN has benefited enormously from having these young people working with us and in the community. Their presence has made the MWCN summer very interesting and proved to be so valuable. We learned from them how to think outside of the box and they learned about community and gained confidence through this experience. We look forward to next summer and the adventures we will embark on with young people to help MWCN expand its vision.
Pauline Wiedow
Executive Director
