Santa Under The Bridge 2018

Another fantastic run this year! We got off to a rocky start. One of our drivers had to cancel at the last minute but we managed to find another. We actually had a second driver that day and she became the primary driver by default. First on our list was Supportive Housing For Young Mothers SHYM(for women ages 16-24 who are independently parenting) and Women In Supported Housing WISH (providing  safe, affordable housing for women who have experienced homelessness, traumatic pasts, or mental health related concerns). 

From there, we visited Marguerite Centre, a longterm facility for women, offering a holistic approach to recovery from substance misuse and gambling addictions.

And, we finished our first day with a visit to Herring Cove Apartments, an initiative of Shelter NS, offering an affordable, supportive environment for individuals who have experience chronic alcoholism and chronic homelessness.

Day Two brought us to Alcare Place, a longterm facility for men in recovery from addictions.

Day Three, Monday, we visited Feeding Others Of Dartmouth, a facility in Downtown Dartmouth offering free hot meals to those in need,  and the Among Friends Social Club, a club providing social activities and support to persons living with mental illness.

On Tuesday, we drove to the North End of Dartmouth to visit our friends at Stewart Place and Amethyst Apartments, supervised apartment buildings one for men and one for women.

On Wednesday, we journeyed across the Harbour to visit Direction 180, a community based methadone clinic, and Laing House, a peer support organization for youth with mental illness.

Thursday was a big day for us because we visited Souls Harbour Rescue Mission,providing food, clothing and shelter to the needy. Stepping Stone (offering support and outreach to sex trade workers), and Brunswick Street Mission (offering help to anyone living in poverty).

And on Friday we were able to donate our gifts to the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Center, offering support and outreach to the aboriginal community.

And to the Fit It Forward program created by Luke MacDonald.

 When all was said and done, 300 scarves were donated along with an equal number of headbands or hats, plus 6 hand made afghan blankets, 200 dishcloths, and about 300 pairs of socks.

September Update

It's been a busy time since the last update. One of our directors resigned and since she was a Group Officer as well, it was necessary to replace her. Allexandra Campeau has filled the empty spot. We have had a few changes in our Board of Directors this year so we have updated our photo montage.

Upper left is Mary, upper right is Donna, lower left is Nancy and lower right is yours truly. Lower center is Allex.

We conducted our money board 50/50 draw on September 17th. Prize was $230. Winner was Theresa Bailey.

Also, at our board meeting on the 17th, we made our most recent project an official project. The Afghan Project is now underway and has been for about 2 months unofficially. We created a facebook page for that.Afghan Project. Shown below are some of the afghans.

I knit the squares and Nancy crochets them into a blanket. I think we make a good team. We have 2 more in the works. The idea is to create them and then include them with our usual donations in December, just one to a place. That's the plan, at least.

Some good news. we have enough money - just barely - to purchase our usual thermal socks and gift bags, so at Last House on the Block Society, we all know that miracles do occur.

Now you're up to date. See you next month. Oh and just a few more things, in case you wanted to contact us.....

The location of our registered office is

Last House on the Block Society
38 Trentonian Lane
Dartmouth, NS
B2W 0C4


That's the address you would send a check or money order to if you wanted to make a donation the old fashion way.

or you may interact your donation to lasthouseontheblock@outlook.com

you can check us out at Facebook by going to any of these pages:

https://www.facebook.com/LastHouseOnTheBlockSociety/

https://www.facebook.com/santaunderbridge/

https://www.facebook.com/jellyfishbaby/


and now.....https://www.facebook.com/afghanproject/

or visit our website to learn more about us at:

https://lasthouseontheblocksociety.weebly.com/

follow us on twitter

@lasthouseonbloc

or just bookmark this blog because Under The Bridge is the official newsletter of Last House on the Block Society.

August 2018

We currently have a 50-50 money board fundraiser underway. We sell squares for $10 each, 100 in all. At the end of the fundraiser, hopefully we will have sold all 100 squares which will have brought in $1000.00. Because it's a 50/50 draw, half that amount becomes grand prize and half that amount becomes money raised for Last House on the Block Society and our primary project, Santa Under The Bridge. Should you wish to purchase a square, you may interac the money to our email address, lasthouseontheblock@outlook.com and if you are the lucky winner, the prize may be sent to you via interac.

A new side project started by co-founder Bernie is the making of afghan blankets. We're not sure how many we'll get done in time for the deliveries, we'll see. As before, Bernie knits the squares and Nancy crochets them into a blanket.

The location of our registered office is

Last House on the Block Society
38 Trentonian Lane
Dartmouth, NS
B2W 0C4


That's the address you would send a check or money order to if you wanted to make a donation the old fashion way.

or you may interact your donation to lasthouseontheblock@outlook.com

you can check us out at Facebook by going to any of these pages:

https://www.facebook.com/LastHouseOnTheBlockSociety/

https://www.facebook.com/santaunderbridge/

https://www.facebook.com/jellyfishbaby/

or visit our website to learn more about us at:

https://lasthouseontheblocksociety.weebly.com/

follow us on twitter

@lasthouseonbloc

or just bookmark this blog because Under The Bridge is the official newsletter of Last House on the Block Society.

July 2018

Not much news at this time. It's summertime and the living is easy. When you're walking down the street in the evening and the temperature is 25 celsius, it's hard to imagine what it must feel like to be crawling out a snowbank under a bridge because it's where you spent the night. But, summertime won't last forever; it won't even last that long. 3, maybe 4 months. And then we'll be back to subzero temps and finding a warm dry place won't be easy.

Money is tighter than usual this year and Santa Under the Bridge 2018 will be smaller than usual. We have lots of knitted items, scarves, hats, headbands, the usual items. It's the additional items that we may be lacking, so the gift bags may not be as jam packed as they often are.

Of course, we still have 5 months before the project starts. A lot can happen in 5 months. We will keep you posted as new developments arise.

Just a few items to keep you informed. There have been a few minor changes to our Board of Directors. The Board now consists of myself, Bernie Schultz (President), Nancy Schultz (Corporate Secretary), Donna Horne (Vice President), Cyndi Murphy (Treasurer) and Mary Chaisson (Director).

The location of our registered office remains the same:

Last House on the Block Society
38 Trentonian Lane
Dartmouth, NS
B2W 0C4

 That's the address you would send a check or money order to if you wanted to make a donation the old fashion way.

or you may interact your donation to lasthouseontheblock@outlook.com

you can check us out at Facebook by going to any of these pages:

https://www.facebook.com/LastHouseOnTheBlockSociety/

https://www.facebook.com/santaunderbridge/

https://www.facebook.com/jellyfishbaby/

or visit our website to learn more about us at:

https://lasthouseontheblocksociety.weebly.com/

follow us on twitter

@lasthouseonbloc

or just bookmark this blog because Under The Bridge is the official newsletter of Last House on the Block Society.

June 2018

Not much to report these days. The warmer weather has arrived so most of our knitters have eased up, although there are a couple who knit all year round. The ones pictured above are from Leona Riley.

We're still waiting on word about some funding we applied for so we're a bit in limbo about that. We did have a mother's day fundraiser, a 50/50 draw that raised $190 for our project and netted one of the ticket recipients with $190. Krista Wry was the winner of that draw. We expect to have a few more draws over the summer and into the fall.

And as always we get donations of yarn from our supporters. This batch is from Joanne Bernard.

And I keep the dish cloths and scrubbies coming.

Naturally, Last House on the Block accepts donations of money to purchase yarn and other supplies. You may interac those donations to lasthouseontheblock@outlook.com or mail them to our registered office located at

Last House on the Block Society
38 Trentonian Lane
Dartmouth, NS
B2W 0C4

I'm sure we'll be talking.

March Update

Here we are, in the month of March already. It hasn't been a typically brutal winter, and hopefully in a few weeks it will be a season we refer to as "last winter".

Last House on the Block has had a small financial crunch. We missed the deadline for one of the grants we rely on for funding, but we have managed so far to weather the shortfall. We applied for funding from another source. We won't hear anything about that for a few months yet, but we'll keep our knitting needles crossed.

We were fortunate to have received funding contributions from Councillor of District 6 Tony Mancini

and also from Councillor for District 3, Bill Karsten

So, that will certainly assist us with our project.



We currently have a fundraising event set up. It's a 50-50 draw using the money board system. We sell numbered squares, 100 in all, for $10 a square. If we sell all of them, then the prize payout will be at $500. Funds for squares may be sent by interac to our email: lasthouseontheblock@outlook.com. It's probably best to contact us first if you wish a specific number. Otherwise, we'll just select random numbers for you. The draw is licensed by Service NS, permit #AGD-101295-18. The draw date is Mothers Day, but the squares are on sale now.

The Mother of Invention

Here it is, 2018 already. Usually, at this time of year we do the bulk of the knitting for the end of the year. Unfortunately, we do not have the huge supply of yarn we usually do. This is due to a shortage of funds to purchase the yarn. One bonus is that we have a surplus of completed scarves left over from last year's project, slightly over 100 scarves. And we do have "some" yarn, so all is not lost yet.

We'll just have to go slowly this month, and perhaps next month. Hopefully, the funding crisis will be resolved by the end of February.

We have a new item that we intend to mass produce for this year's project. It's a scarf, but instead of making it full length with a fringe, it runs about 35 inches and the ends are sewn together. You just pull it over your head and it sits snugly to keep your neck warm. They're easier to make and and they don't use as much yarn. You know what they say about necessity.