The organizing committee was excited for this edition as we decided to hold a 100 Men Open House! As we were at a larger location than we are used to - the friendly confines of Main St Beer and BBQ - we decided we would invite anyone who was interested (man, woman and (18+) child). Of course, only paying members would get to vote but we thought this would be a chance to let others in on the fun and see what we were all about.

We invited the 100 Women Who Care Airdrie and it was great to see many of them as well as extra friends, family, and better halves of our members.



After a quick intro video to welcome those who may not be familiar with what we do, co-hosts Jack and Darcy spoke about why we think this group is important and kicked off with something new - the Wilkie Award. The Wilkie Award is to recognize someone from the group that embodies the spirit of our deceased co-founder Keith Wilkinson - perseverance, dedication and community engagement.

Our first recipient is Brad Lambert. Brad is well-known to the group and has been involved in every facet - he's been at all the meetings, he's donated prizes, he's been a guest speaker, he's been a sponsor. More importantly he's a genuine and active community guy - no doubt Keith-approved.

We know there are A LOT of Keith-approved guys in the group so we'd like to continue this tradition of recognizing the members at upcoming meetings to acknowledge all the support we get from the 100 Men as well as keep Keith's memory at our forefront. Keith's wife Sandra has generously offered to provide a prize along with the recognition. Thank you Sandra!

Guest Speaker - MP Blake Richards
Next we had our guest speaker. MP Blake Richards talked about the 100 Men being everyday heroes - a small group of people making a difference. Of course, the charities and community groups are heroes as well and Blake mentioned all of the groups that had received the main donation at previous meetings. It was humbling to hear all of the impacted groups mentioned at once.

This group has come a long way and supported a lot of local efforts and we should be proud of that. Speaking of support, it is nice to see local representatives at our meetings. Along with Blake, Mayor Peter Brown, and Councilman Ron Chapman were in attendance as well. All three of these gentlemen are regularly seen at our meetings and it is reassuring and appreciated to see our elected leaders supportive of our efforts.

Our Platinum sponsor for this supersized meeting was Atlas Family Chiropractic and we heard from Owner Glen Johanson. Atlas is a state of the art health centre, focusing on neurological corrective care for pregnancy, pediatrics, children to adults. A big thank to Atlas Family Chiropractic for their support!

In addition, a huge thanks to our Gold sponsors for this meeting:

• Martins Pest Control
• Common Ground Electric

The platinum sponsor provides money that is used to 'top up' in the event that we don't reach $10,000 from member payments. Any extra above that is split between the remaining presenters.

Regardless of whether we reach $10,000 or not, the Gold sponsors provide money that is earmarked for the two groups that don't receive the big cheque - making sure everyone goes home with something.

If you have an interest in being a sponsor, visit our sponsor page and connect with Darcy Forbes.

Past winner update - Meals on Wheels:
On our Facebook page, we had a comment recently about this part of the presentation being their favourite part of the meetings - hearing what the groups are actually doing with the money and the ripples it causes. I thought it was an insightful and a great comment.
Our Q2 - 2023 recipient returned to update us on their work and Airdrie Meals on Wheels and shared that the money received from the last meeting allowed them to do some personalized support where they helped an entire family that otherwise didn't know how to shop for and cook groceries with four meals per day for about a week. They were also able to use the funds to help put on a fundraiser family BBQ event.

Great work as always Meals on Wheels!

Presentations:
As this was a non-registered charity meeting, we had three great community groups listed for presentations.

First up was Airdrie Children's Festival.
The Airdrie Children's Festival is an annual event that aims to inspire learning, creativity, and curiosity in children while allowing for inclusion of others who might not ordinarily get involved. The event features four distinct fun and learning components – the Children’s Village, an interactive fun and play area; the Inspiration Stations, interactive learning centres; Main Stage Entertainment featuring professional children’s entertainers; and City-Wide Workshops. Examples include a Code Ninjas workshop, learning about trains at Iron Horse Park, building stress balls, and tons of performers and entertainment.

With $10,000, they would use the funds to build up their inventory (games), get assistance with marketing, and add more Maker Stations.

Next was the Royal Canadian Legion of Airdrie.
The mission of the Airdrie Legion is to serve all Veterans, including serving military and RCMP members and their families, to promote Remembrance, and to serve our communities and our country. Currently, Legion income comes from the poppy fund and from membership dues. They have 400 members, but they only get $18 from each member. Unfortunately, unforeseen expenses have caused then to be running in the red and they could use all the help they can get.

With a $10,000 reward, the Legion would put it towards future projects - such as updating Veterans Ave and the Cenotaph - as well as managing operating expenses.

Finally, we had the Airdrie Ringette Association.
We heard about the importance of girls in sport and how, with girls in particular, there is a challenge to keep them in sport, despite its numerous and lifelong benefits. As an organization, the ARA not only has the task of developing player skills and instilling core values, they also need a program that encourages retention - both in the sport and in Airdrie. This includes developing junior coaches as well as making the program as accessible and engaging as possible.

With the $10,000, the ARA would focus on maximizing their program value and ensuring it is consistently high-value year over year.

100 Women Who Care:
While votes were being tallied, our friends at 100 Women Who Care Airdrie spoke to the group to talk about what they do and hopefully recruit a few new members. A fact that may not be known to all is that the women's group actually started before the 100 Men so these trailblazers deserve some major recognition as well.

The Women's group can be found at 100womenwhocareairdrie.com.

Voting Results:
As per usual, we had another competitive vote. Combining the sponsor program as well as all the tying members for this meeting, we had a whopping $14,000 to give away!

The Legion was the recipient of $10,000 with the Children's Festival and Airdrie Ringette receiving $2,000. We know the Legion sorely needs the funding and we hope this gift can show a small measure of our immense gratitude to the Veterans of Airdrie.


A big thank you to Main Street Beer and BBQ for being fantastic hosts and managing our first ever Open House! We will be back in October for the Q4 meeting on October 17 - Mark your calendars!

As well, we had more incredible door prizes and want to thank our super generous members:

• Tiger Propane
• Main Street Beer and BBQ
• David Bowman Painting
• Yeoman Woodworks
• Maaco
• Hal Murdock