newsJan25 | PROBUS Blue Mountain

Next Meeting:January 16th

Collingwood Legion
Member's Guests are Welcome

January Speaker: Collingwood Fire Prevention

Profiler: Rob Woodman

Membership 188 -- Have you paid your dues?

January 2025 Newsletter

President’s Message

Welcome to the “2025 New Year”, and what a new year it is shaping up to become. In Canada, our Prime Minister of the past 9 years has resigned, triggering a Liberal Party leadership race, and at the same time there is substantial concern about the possible implementation of an overall 25% tariff on any Canadian exports to the US. In addition, the world waits and watches towards US Inauguration Day, January 20th, when the new president will be sworn into power. We will be living through unprecedented changes in 2025 however we are confident in the knowledge that our country and our club are strong.

I am pleased to report that with the resumption of winter, after a week of rain, that the Snowshoe group was able to successfully complete its first outing, led by Carl Wintermeyer.

The heavy snow fall of the past week has also been good news for the Ski Legends group, which had its largest ski day turnout of 36 skiers at Blue Mountain last week. Many more activities being planned for the balance of the year and can be found on the website under the activities tab.

On another note we are actively recruiting for two leaders for the revised Money Matters group, formerly the Investment group, jointly with Collingwood Probus Club in order to continue the existence of this group. Please contact myself or Chris Meleskie if you have an interest in this role.

The club also has interesting openings for volunteers on the speakers committee, social committee, and management committee. Please contact any management committee member to find out details on these opportunities.

The management committee has also been busy this month by meeting with Collingwood Probus club executives and designing a brief survey regarding the reorganization of our annual Christmas lunch. The survey will determine our members interest in holding a joint Christmas event next December. Please watch for the email with the link to Survey Monkey and take a few moments to complete this very important survey.

And finally the Management Committee will be attending a board retreat on January 22nd to thoughtfully consider goals for the development of the club and a strategy to achieve these goals.

Looking forward to seeing you at the January monthly meeting.

Michael Coward - President
michael.coward@gmail.com

Cell Phone Use

Out of respect for our members and our speaker, please ensure that your cell phone is silent during the meeting.

Speaker

January Speaker will be Jeff Gage, Collingwood Fire Prevention officer

The Collingwood Fire Department’s mission is to serve the community by providing protection from fire, life threatening emergencies and dangerous conditions through education, prevention, rescue, suppression and basic life support services. The Collingwood Fire Prevention Division will be in attendance to discuss multiple topics and educate members on the importance of fire safety.

The Collingwood Fire Prevention Division is two of the three lines of defense in the fire department which are Education, Prevention, and Emergency Response. As part of their mission to keeping our community safe they educate different members of the community on fire safety including students, business owners, employees, residents, etc. For the second line of defense Prevention, it is their responsibility to enforce the Ontario Fire Code to ensure all buildings and structures meet minimum fire and life safety requirements.

The team consists of Fire Prevention Officer Jeff Gage, and two Fire Prevention Inspectors Chloe Almas and Melissa Wonfor. They all have different educational backgrounds and experiences, but all share the same passion and common goal of promoting fire safety and mitigating risks to protect our community, its environment, and its people.

Activities/Outings

Cranberry Snowshoe trek.

We eventually had 4 trekkers that made it around the 45 minute loop. Good cardio workout for me anyway. Lots of snow and alternate leaders to slug through the stuff. I made one wrong turn but we found our way again quick enough. Thank you everyone for turning out in the cold snowy weather.

Looking forward to the next one. Thanks Bill for organizing.

Cheers
Carl

Snowshoe Page

Ski Legends

Ski Page

PROBUS Ski Legends is running 2 trips to 2 destinations for 2025:

Sun Peaks BC (7 Nights), February 2-9
Banff/Lake Louise (7 nights), March 2-9

Sun Peaks

Why join this trip? Legends runs a ski trip to Sun Peaks every year, and there’s a reason why many members go back many times. It’s Canada’s second largest ski resort with 4270 acres of skiable terrain across three peaks, Mount Tod, Mount Morrissey and Sundance with lots of powder and excellent grooming. Located in the BC interior, Sun Peaks offers dry snow and fluffy powder with picturesque surroundings. It is a quaint small purpose-built ski town and the friendly village is traffic-free with many great restaurants. And new for 2025, the West Bowl chairlift is opening, serving even more awesome powder!

 Banff/Lake Louise

Why join this trip? Haven’t you always wanted to have a trip staying at the 2 iconic Rocky Mountain hotels, the Chateau Lake Louise and the Banff Springs? We first ran this trip in 2022 and everyone loved it! We will spend the first 4 nights at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, a 10-minute shuttle ride to Lake Louise ski area. And then on our 4th ski day while we are skiing, our luggage will be transferred to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel where we will stay the last 3 nights and get to also enjoy the town of Banff.  

Collingwood Blues Hockey

Next Game, Friday January 24th

Email Distribution Sign Up

Organizer: Jake Johnson
Jakejohnston.jif@bell.net

705-445-8387 / 416-571-8322

$18 (Includes access to the Founders Club)

Pregame Dinner before at a restaurant to be selected

Kitchen Bridge Group

The Kitchen Bridge group continues to meet the first and third Thursday of each month at 1:00 p.m. at the legion. Great relaxed camaraderie.

We welcome all who have an interest in the game of bridge -- whether a beginner or expert.  Play commences at 1:00 pm but, if you cannot come until later, come anyway. We will fit you into a game throughout the afternoon.

George Powell georgegpowell@gmail.com

Survey

Shortly, you will be receiving an Email with a link to a SurveyMonkey questionaire regarding the Christmas meeting setup. It is really importnt that you fill in your responses, even if you are not a regular Xmas Lunceon attendant. We need to know your preferences in order to better plan for December 2025. Thanks in advance.

Now that you're here ...

Take a look at the rest of the website. We have info on activities, calendar, speakers list and so on.

If you need to look up fellow PROBUS MEMBERS, you can login the to the Member's area. A number of members contribute to this content, so please check it out.