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Cloverdale Ladies’ Auxiliary awards $19,000 to community members, organizations

Third-annual donation ceremony gives funds to firefighters, students and many more
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From left: Rhiley DeBoer, Marilyn Chepil, Chelsea Collins and Cameron Mann.

The Ladies’ Auxiliary to Royal Canadian Legion Cloverdale Branch No. 6 awarded $19,000 to local community members, students and organizations at their third-annual donation ceremony on Wednesday, June 21, 2017.

The LA gave $1,000 cheques to the Cloverdale fire hall for their Breakfast for Kids and Teen and Adult Outreach program, the Cloverdale Community Kitchen for their expansion renovations, the Volunteer Cancer Drivers Society, Zion Manor, the Surrey Hospital Foundation, and Willow House to support women recovering from addiction.

Long-time Cloverdale Community Kitchen volunteer Dave Glastetter thanked the LA on behalf of the Pacific Community Church.

“I’m one of the cooks at the Cloverdale Community Kitchen, and we serve to the homeless and lonely people,” he said. “We serve meals Monday, Wednesday and Friday and we’ve grown in the past year from [serving] about 50 people to well over 70 to 75 people. We’re now doing renovations to increase our seating capacity to about 125 to 150. We appreciate your donations very much.”

He was the first of many to make a short speech thanking the Ladies’ Auxiliary for their work in the community. Surrey Hospital Foundation director Yolanda Bouwman said, “Legions and the community have played such a role in making the hospital possible” as she recognized that they wouldn’t have been able to break ground on Surrey Memorial Hospital 60 years ago without community support.

Michelle White, director at Zion Park, a complex care seniors facility, said, “We really appreciate the years and years of support from the legion. Car washes, pancake breakfasts and these donations as well. It really helps to make the residents’ lives better, and it helps give them a greater quality of life.”

As well as donations to Cloverdale and Surrey organizations, the LA awarded seven scholarships. Clayton Heights Secondary’s Allison Scott and Stephanie Boswell, Fleetwood Park Secondary’s Derron Johnson and Sarah (Felicity) Kim, and Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary’s Cameron Mann, Rhiley DeBoer and Chelsea Collins all received $1,000 scholarships.

(Rhiley DeBoer may be a familiar name to The Reporter’s readers, as he was the winner of this year’s annual hidden horse hunt.)

In a short presentation after the donation ceremony had concluded, the LA awarded the Cloverdale Legion $5,000, which branch president Barry Zuk accepted on behalf of the organization.