ANOTHER YEAR OF SHARING FELLOWSHIP AMONG MEMBERS will soon be behind us. In our 89th year, the Kingsway Women’s Club (KWC) has again witnessed troubling world events, the continuation of the war in the Ukraine, the October 7th Hamas terrorism attack and the largest influx of refugees worldwide. The pandemic is transforming itself, but has not completely left us while other viruses appear; however, we have learned how better to protect ourselves. Through it all, the KWC has provided a welcome haven.
PROGRAMME
Although we did not have an official Programme Coordinator, two of our Executive Team members, Marg Logan and Anne Heber, stepped up and together took on this position, sharing the responsibility while shouldering their other responsibilities on the Executive. We owe them a heartfelt thank you for providing us with an outstanding program.
The year began and ended with captivating musical performances, peppered in between with engaging and informative presentations, including one with a disappearing act and a magical touch. In October, Len’s Little Big Band, small but mighty, entertained us with beautiful tunes and a variety of hits through the decades, bringing back poignant memories for many of us. With a complete change in subject matter, we learned all about lavender in the grey month of November, thanks to Lee Anne Downey, owner of Stonewell Lavender Farm, a stone’s throw away in Erin, Ontario…where several of us may be planning a day trip this summer.
During our Holiday Luncheon in December, we were provided a unique sound and high energy performance, courtesy of The Enchanted Flutes, under the experienced baton of Conductor Resa Kochberg. The halls of Markland Wood Golf Club reverberated with the sound of this very talented, twenty person ensemble of flutes, saxophones, clarinet, keyboard, bass, percussion, violin and vocals. The variety of both holiday music and classic familiar tunes had members clapping and singing along.
A history lesson engaged us in January, courtesy of Richard Jordan, former President of the Etobicoke Historical Society, who spoke about “The Mighty Humber”. The history of several mills along the river, Toronto’s first shipyard, colourful taverns, and the impact of Hurricane Hazel and old photos of “Royal York Road” were illuminating and captivating. Returning in February, Lianne Harris, in a gorgeous red period dress, took us on a tour “From Paris with Love” – a Parisian adventure delving into the lesser known but surprising facts about this beautiful city.
In March, magic appeared and then disapp red(??) thanks to talented Toronto Magician James Alan. What really happened – was it sleight-of-hand, what appeared or disappeared, was it really there at all? Members are still shaking their heads over some of the magic, trying to determine what was real and what was not!!
Our year closes with the talented Ambiance Flute and Guitar Duo of Doriann Forrester and Philip Disera…a repertoire ranging from classical, jazz, and contemporary to everything in between.
When all is said and done, it was a very good year, offering our membership a high calibre of speakers and entertainment.
We need to convey special thanks to Pam Harper, Social Coordinator, who took on this important role, in addition to her Vice President responsibilities. Pam liaised on an ongoing basis with Markland to ensure that, during our speakers’ presentations and entertainment, we enjoyed delicious luncheons and teas, while maintaining a positive business relationship with Markland to ensure logistics and our particular requirements were always met.
PROMOTION
As we approach the 90th anniversary, it would be wonderful if we could increase our membership during this milestone year to that magic 90 number. Each of my Annual Reports has emphasized the need for volunteers to keep this Club viable. Volunteerism remains the backbone of organisations such as ours, and permits all of us to enjoy the many benefits offered by the KWC. We are not alone in trying to increase our volunteer numbers.
I first mentioned this back in 2020 and it still holds true today – we are all the very best ambassadors for our Club. Whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself, please do not hesitate to talk up the KWC in your community, direct them to visit our updated website, invite them as a guest or gift them a membership in the Club (a perfect birthday, anniversary or holiday gift for the person who has everything).
Acknowledgment and thanks are due to Promotions Coordinator and Zoom Host, Anne Heber, who did double duty in these two roles, continuously updating our website while also keeping members connected on Zoom. The importance of staying connected remains a constant.
BOOK CLUBS
THE MONDAY CLUB (Submitted by Janet Haynes)
This Club has met for animated and enthusiastic discussions of great books on the fourth Monday of each month, September through June. We are grateful to Carol Spratt for hosting us in her lovely garden when the weather was fair and to Anne Heber for arranging the license and the connections for us to meet by Zoom when it was not. For the most part, our books came from the invaluable Book Club to Go collection of the Toronto Public library with only one month being impacted by the cyberattack on the library.
“A great book will leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”
William Styron
As armchair travellers, we once again went around the globe and back in time, sharing the lives of fascinating characters.
It may seem like yesterday, but Toronto in the sixties was half a century ago and a vastly different place when it came to a women’s right to choose. In her heartfelt page turner, Looking for Jane, Heather Marshall interweaves the lives of three generations of women and the devastating consequences of a lack of choice. And with her we celebrated the brave doctors, nurses and volunteers who provided a safe, underground network of help and fought for the rights of future generations of women in Canada.
Wildflower Hill by Kimberly Freeman took us from London to an Australian sheep farm where we joined in the lives and loves of two women, a young ballerina adjusting to a career-ending injury, and back in time to her fiercely determined grandmother’s fight to win the farm and make a life for herself and her daughter.
We have become fast friends with the four septuagenarian sleuths in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, set in an idyllic retirement village in Kent. Last year we were charmed by the first book in the series and this year we followed up with the second and third, The Man Who Died Twice, and The Bullet That Missed. These cozy crime novels have impressively intricate plots, engaging humour and unique characters that resonate and warm the heart. We look forward to reading the fourth and last book in the series next year. Soon to be a movie produced by Steven Spielberg and guaranteed to delight, this series is highly, highly recommended.
When Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Bragg returned to his family home, forty acres in rural Alabama, to recuperate from cancer treatments, he never expected to fall in love with a half-starved, half-blind stray dog, a rambunctious Australian shepherd mix “who terrorized livestock and ate everything in his warpath”. In his memoir, The Speckled Beauty,we immersed ourselves in the lives of Rick and his dog, Speck, and how their lives were transformed by their love for one another.
We returned to the sixties, this time to Harlem. In Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead, also a Pulitzer Prize winner, took us into the world of Ray Carney, a young family man wrestling with his goal of staying an honest and honourable businessman while surrounded by the crime culture of Harlem. Pulled unavoidably to the wrong side of the law by friends and family, Ray walks a tightrope of respectability, while trying to balance his “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” point of view.
We look forward to our books in March and April. What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad, in which a nine year old Syrian boy, the sole survivor of an ill-fated refugee ship, is washed ashore on a small island where he is taken in by a teenage girl. Empire of Pain by Patrick Keele, “the sweeping saga of the Sacklers, the family behind oxycontin” and their over promotion of the drug and concealment of its deadly consequences.
Our book club has continued to meet year round on Monday afternoons for informal get togethers, outdoors at Carol Spratt’s, weather permitting, or by Zoom.
“I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book.”
Benedict Cumberbach
If you would like to join the Monday Book Club, please contact Janet Haynes at 416-242-3296 or janetannehaynes1@gmail.com.
THE TUESDAY CLUB (Submitted by Anne Heber)
This Club meets on the third Tuesday of the month from October to April. As it is a small group, we currently meet in the back corner of Java Joe’s in Thorncrest Plaza. To keep costs down, the majority of the books read come from the “Book Club Sets to Go” from the Toronto Public Library. A couple of the books are “member’s choice” and need to be purchased by each individual. Many thanks to Anne Heber for her leadership in organizing the books each month.
Selections always cover a wide range of topics and from October 2023 to January 2024, the Club read:
October – VICTORY CITY by Salmon Rushdie
The story of a young girl in fourteenth century India who is orphaned by war and starts hearing the voice of a goddess. Inspired, and imbued with powerful magic, she vows to ensure that no more women suffer her beloved mother’s unconscionable fate. Aided by miracles and a gift for prophecy, she creates a mighty city; her whispered words galvanize its people to grow and change.
November – A LOST LADY by Willa Carter
Written in 1923, a classic novel set in the Great Plains of Nebraska. It is the story of Marian Forrester, her husband who is an elderly railroad pioneer and who indulges his young wife, and Niel Herbert, the young narrator of her story, who falls in love with her as a boy and later becomes her confidant. Marian’s social decline also mirrors the end of the American frontier.
December – A REDBIRD CHRISTMAS by Fannie Flagg
Set deep in the southernmost part of Alabama, a little redbird named Jack is at the centre of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten it.
January – LOST & FOUND by Brooke Davis
An irresistible and heartfelt debut novel about the wisdom of the very young, the mischief of the very old, and the magic that happens along the way.
February – EMPIRE OF PAIN: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE SACKLER DYNASTY by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Sacklers are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague until it emerged that they were responsible for making and marketing OxyContin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis.
March – VIOLETA by Isabel Allende
Born during the Spanish flu outbreak in an unnamed South American Country (clearly based on Chile) in 1920, Violeta addresses her memoir to a beloved relative, Camilo, during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. She spins a captivating, cinematic tale of her century-long existence, intertwining large-scale political and social transformations with reflections on her life.
April – THE MAN FROM BEIJING by Henning Mankell
From the internationally acclaimed author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries comes an extraordinary stand-alone novel – both a mystery and a sweeping drama – that traces the legacy of the nineteenth-century slave trade between China and America.
The Tuesday Club takes a break over the summer and will return in October with a fresh array of book titles to read over the Fall and Winter months. They will scan the library’s lists to find “the must reads”.
If you would like to join the Tuesday group to enjoy an afternoon in good company over a refreshment, please contact Anne Heber at ann.heber11@gmail.com.
KWC WALKING GROUP (Submitted by Anne Heber, Group Lead)
This Walking Group meets on Wednesday mornings at 10:00 am. Over the past year, the members have walked around Centennial Park, West Deane Park, James Gardens as well as the picturesque trails along the Humber River at The Old Mill. This is a very social group which gets together every week; when the weather is not cooperative, they revert to Plan B…a couple of indoor circuits around Sherway Gardens. While at Sherway, we’ll stay for coffee after the walk (and maybe a bit of shopping!!).
ADMINISTRATION
We are fortunate that, Member-at-Large Mary Rose and Heather Szymanski, volunteered to fill the void left by Noreen Sheffield and Susan Lawrie as welcoming ambassadors at the proverbial “front desk”. We should never underestimate the value of welcoming former and new members – that first impression of our Club is invaluable.
The Telephone Committee, headed by Dorothy Paterson and joined by Maureen Cowley and Margaret Topping, patiently call each and every one of our members to remind us of the upcoming monthly meetings and when our cheques are required, in order to provide accurate numbers as now required by Markland. We are not always the best in returning their calls (!) but they soldier on with a smile and have our gratitude.
We acknowledge and thank Connie Williams and Maureen Cowley who continue, with aplomb, to take such good care of the very popular 50/50 table.
I would like to offer my special thanks to our Executive Team. It has been my honour to get to know each Member, during the pandemic and afterwards. Little did we know that when some of us signed up, we would become the Pandemic Executive. A special thank you to Darlene Dubbin who, without being asked, volunteered this past year to take Minutes of our meetings, ensuring our record keeping was accurate, even when she had to do so remotely from her cottage. We would be remiss if we did not thank Joan Barltrop who stepped in as Treasurer/Membership Coordinator when we were very challenged in filling the position.
I have said this before but it bears repeating – I am very proud of each and every Member of this Team – Darlene, Ruth, Pam, Joan, Marg, Anne, Mary – for their continuing efforts, dedication, candour and creativity, and especially for stepping up to take on additional responsibilities when several Executive positions could not be filled. They have had the intestinal fortitude to put up with me all these years. For their loyalty, dedication and never ending patience, I am most grateful. It has been my privilege to work with them; I continue to count my blessings.
As this is my last Annual Report, I would like to take this moment to say that while there have been many challenges over the last five years, pandemic notwithstanding, it has been a pleasure to have shared and been part of the history of this Club. With a great Executive team, which I was privileged to enjoy, we can accomplish much. I hope that the changes we have implemented – from the revised Constitution and By-Laws, updating of Executive Positions, collecting and indexing Archival material to something as simple as the Book Exchange – will serve the Club well into the future. I have especially enjoyed getting to know our members.
This most venerable Club began so long ago in 1935 – and now we finally approach that memorable year when together we will celebrate our 90th anniversary of fellowship. This will be a special year.
Thank you to each and every one of you who have made this possible with your ongoing support. Thank you for allowing me to be your President.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Nawrocki, President
April 2024
2023/2024 Executive
Immediate Past Presidents – Darlene Dubbin and Ruth Hayward
Vice-President – Pamela Harper
Secretary – Vacant
Treasurer/Membership Coordinator – Joan Barltrop
Acting Programme Coordinators – Anne Heber & Margaret Logan
Social Coordinator – Pamela Harper
Promotions Coordinator – Anne Heber
Zoom Host – Anne Heber
Members-at-Large – Margaret Logan and Mary Rose
Book Clubs – Janet Haynes (Monday)
Anne Heber (Tuesday)
The Kingsway Women's Club 