Q4 2024 - Oct 15
Presented by:
Our October 2024 (Q4) meeting again took place at ¡Glitch! Gaming Lounge where we packed the house and enjoyed some great food, a few drinks, and some excellent presentations.
We would like extend a huge thank you to our Platinum Sponsor for the evening - the Old Buckers Hockey Club.
In addition, our Gold sponsors for this meeting:
Our sponsors play a huge role in our quarterly meetings. They ensure that none of our presenters go home empty handed and help us top up the $10,000 goal, if needed.
Check out our Sponsor page, to learn more about our platinum sponsor and how to get involved in this program.
Wilkie Award - Hussain Mumtaz
The Wilkie Award recognizes someone from the group that embodies the spirit of our late co-founder Keith Wilkinson. We consider The Wilkie to be a noble and prestigious honour!
The Wilkie Award winner this month is Hussain Mumtaz.
Hussain is among the many generous members of 100 Airdrie Men Who Give A Damn. He is a champion of our group - sharing and engaging with our Facebook posts, bringing along potential new members to meetings, and always showing up with positive energy. On top of that, Hussain is always asking what we need for door prizes, often unsolicited, which always provides an appreciated bonus to those who are able to make it in person. The Simmply MD gift cards are always a hot ticket door prize!
Thanks Hussain!
Guest Speaker: Tim MacDonald
For tonight’s guest speaker we had one of our regular members and local realtor Tim MacDonald share a personal story.
Life was really good for Tim in the early 2010’s - family, relationships, work. After finding an abnormal spot on his skin, he went in for testing and soon his life would be changed forever. A cancer diagnosis led to surgery which was able to remove a large tumour which was followed by body scans, which found more cancer and led to more surgeries.
In particular, this rare cancer was found on his spine which meant difficult spinal surgery. It all seemed to go perfectly and initial testing seemed to show a dream scenario - results that came back showing no cancer on the spine. The news seemed too good to be true and a sceptical surgeon insisted on further testing. This led to a nightmare scenario - they had removed the wrong vertebra!
A horrific mistake by the surgeon meant a difficult decision - another, riskier surgery with a high chance of paralysis, or aggressive radiation. Tim chose radiation but over the following months and years the cancer spread to other parts of his body and required further surgeries and treatment.
On top of his treatment, there were legal battles to be had (which he won, thankfully). It all led to many dark days for Tim and his family and he struggled with mental health at times.
Life now, however, is pretty good again. Although he has some limits physically, he still does everything he did before the surgeries. Tim wanted to share his story is to encourage others who are going through difficult challenges. A few lessons he learned:
Previous recipient: Off the Grid Youth
Next we had our previous quarters recipients - Off the Grid Youth - to share what they’ve done with the funds we gave them. They’ve been busy! They have:
Speaking of kids… the 100 Kids Who Care group has been revived! They are having their first meeting this weekend (October 19th).
Q4 2024 Presentations:
We heard next from our three presenters.
Airdrie Hospice
The Airdrie and District Hospice Society believes that every person deserves to be surrounded by family and friends as they continue their life path to its end. They profiled a local family - the Thompsons - and the scary and stressful fallout of a devastating terminal cancer diagnosis.
Airdrie Hospice uses highly trained volunteers to provide support for those going through hospice care and do so wherever is most comfortable (at home, a nursing home, hospital).
Support can come in the form of grief support, offsetting costs for medications or transportation, helping clients and their families navigate the system and how to deal with things like will and personal directives, palliative care support, and more.
Airdrie Scouts
A couple of Scout leaders shared with us some of the activities they regularly do and read some testimonials of the scouts about the different things that they love about the Scout program.
A few years ago, the Scouts lost their regular meeting and storage place when the building was scheduled for demolition. Since then, they've had to improvise and cobble together storage through basements, garages, and other options, which isn't always the best way to access and maintain equipment.
If they were to receive the money, the plan is to buy an enclosed trailer, custom fit the interior with shelving and storage space, and use it to store and transport all the gear they need for camps and other outdoor adventure.
Tails to Tell
Tails to Tell is a no-kill rescue shelter based in Crossfield but serving and largely run by Airdrie residents.
Currently, there are two main sources of their cats: people who need to move and are not able to bring cats with them and, unfortunately, ‘rural drops’ - people who cannot keep their cats for whatever reason and drop them off in the country to fend for themselves.
As Tails to Tell is committed to spaying, neutering, vaccinating, and microchipping their cats, the average vet bill is $10,000/month, and can nearly double during some of their peak months.
——
For this meeting, we had 110 paid members, along with a total of $2000 and an additional $450 (thanks Kimble!) that came from an awesome cooler donated by Lowing Media. This meant that we would be giving away $10,000 to one of the groups and an additional $1725 to each of the other presenters. Not bad return on a 5-7 minute presentation!
After the online vote tally, Airdrie Hospice was announced as the $10,000 recipient for Q4 2024. Congratulations to them, we know the funds will be put to good use.
Thank you to ¡Glitch! Gaming Lounge for once again being fantastic hosts.
We’d also like to give a giant shout out to those that donated door prizes. The meeting ran one this quarter, party because we had *so* many prizes to hand out. Thank you to:
We will back at ¡Glitch! Gaming Lounge for the next meeting - January 28th.
See you then!
We would like extend a huge thank you to our Platinum Sponsor for the evening - the Old Buckers Hockey Club.
In addition, our Gold sponsors for this meeting:
Our sponsors play a huge role in our quarterly meetings. They ensure that none of our presenters go home empty handed and help us top up the $10,000 goal, if needed.
Check out our Sponsor page, to learn more about our platinum sponsor and how to get involved in this program.
Wilkie Award - Hussain Mumtaz
The Wilkie Award recognizes someone from the group that embodies the spirit of our late co-founder Keith Wilkinson. We consider The Wilkie to be a noble and prestigious honour!
The Wilkie Award winner this month is Hussain Mumtaz.
Hussain is among the many generous members of 100 Airdrie Men Who Give A Damn. He is a champion of our group - sharing and engaging with our Facebook posts, bringing along potential new members to meetings, and always showing up with positive energy. On top of that, Hussain is always asking what we need for door prizes, often unsolicited, which always provides an appreciated bonus to those who are able to make it in person. The Simmply MD gift cards are always a hot ticket door prize!
Thanks Hussain!
Guest Speaker: Tim MacDonald
For tonight’s guest speaker we had one of our regular members and local realtor Tim MacDonald share a personal story.
Life was really good for Tim in the early 2010’s - family, relationships, work. After finding an abnormal spot on his skin, he went in for testing and soon his life would be changed forever. A cancer diagnosis led to surgery which was able to remove a large tumour which was followed by body scans, which found more cancer and led to more surgeries.
In particular, this rare cancer was found on his spine which meant difficult spinal surgery. It all seemed to go perfectly and initial testing seemed to show a dream scenario - results that came back showing no cancer on the spine. The news seemed too good to be true and a sceptical surgeon insisted on further testing. This led to a nightmare scenario - they had removed the wrong vertebra!
A horrific mistake by the surgeon meant a difficult decision - another, riskier surgery with a high chance of paralysis, or aggressive radiation. Tim chose radiation but over the following months and years the cancer spread to other parts of his body and required further surgeries and treatment.
On top of his treatment, there were legal battles to be had (which he won, thankfully). It all led to many dark days for Tim and his family and he struggled with mental health at times.
Life now, however, is pretty good again. Although he has some limits physically, he still does everything he did before the surgeries. Tim wanted to share his story is to encourage others who are going through difficult challenges. A few lessons he learned:
- Make a Plan - everyday. Every day that you get up, have a plan to deal with the day and the stress that might await;
- Do something that gives you joy. Tim enjoyed a lot of comedy and stand up comedians. Laughter is a great adversary to stress;
- Lean on your supports. For Tim, it was family, friends and faith;
- Keep a positive attitude;
Previous recipient: Off the Grid Youth
Next we had our previous quarters recipients - Off the Grid Youth - to share what they’ve done with the funds we gave them. They’ve been busy! They have:
- Started a basketball program - paid for rentals and gym space
- Back to School drive - backpacks for 20 students and IT support for donated laptops
- Supplied laptops and tablets to share with program participants
Speaking of kids… the 100 Kids Who Care group has been revived! They are having their first meeting this weekend (October 19th).
Q4 2024 Presentations:
We heard next from our three presenters.
Airdrie Hospice
The Airdrie and District Hospice Society believes that every person deserves to be surrounded by family and friends as they continue their life path to its end. They profiled a local family - the Thompsons - and the scary and stressful fallout of a devastating terminal cancer diagnosis.
Airdrie Hospice uses highly trained volunteers to provide support for those going through hospice care and do so wherever is most comfortable (at home, a nursing home, hospital).
Support can come in the form of grief support, offsetting costs for medications or transportation, helping clients and their families navigate the system and how to deal with things like will and personal directives, palliative care support, and more.
Airdrie Scouts
A couple of Scout leaders shared with us some of the activities they regularly do and read some testimonials of the scouts about the different things that they love about the Scout program.
A few years ago, the Scouts lost their regular meeting and storage place when the building was scheduled for demolition. Since then, they've had to improvise and cobble together storage through basements, garages, and other options, which isn't always the best way to access and maintain equipment.
If they were to receive the money, the plan is to buy an enclosed trailer, custom fit the interior with shelving and storage space, and use it to store and transport all the gear they need for camps and other outdoor adventure.
Tails to Tell
Tails to Tell is a no-kill rescue shelter based in Crossfield but serving and largely run by Airdrie residents.
Currently, there are two main sources of their cats: people who need to move and are not able to bring cats with them and, unfortunately, ‘rural drops’ - people who cannot keep their cats for whatever reason and drop them off in the country to fend for themselves.
As Tails to Tell is committed to spaying, neutering, vaccinating, and microchipping their cats, the average vet bill is $10,000/month, and can nearly double during some of their peak months.
——
For this meeting, we had 110 paid members, along with a total of $2000 and an additional $450 (thanks Kimble!) that came from an awesome cooler donated by Lowing Media. This meant that we would be giving away $10,000 to one of the groups and an additional $1725 to each of the other presenters. Not bad return on a 5-7 minute presentation!
After the online vote tally, Airdrie Hospice was announced as the $10,000 recipient for Q4 2024. Congratulations to them, we know the funds will be put to good use.
Thank you to ¡Glitch! Gaming Lounge for once again being fantastic hosts.
We’d also like to give a giant shout out to those that donated door prizes. The meeting ran one this quarter, party because we had *so* many prizes to hand out. Thank you to:
- Peter Flannigan / Maaco
- Hussain Mumtaz / Simmply MD
- Ron Chapman / Tiger Propane - PropaneBottle
- Tim MacDonald / Redline Real Estate
- Airdrie Windshield and Glass
- Flint Energy
- Alejandro Gomez / COBS
- James Baldson / Integrated Electrical Services
- Tim Lowing / Lowing Media
- Keith Yeoman / Yeoman Woodworks
We will back at ¡Glitch! Gaming Lounge for the next meeting - January 28th.
See you then!
