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September 2023 Newsletter
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Anne Whelan - Vice Chair
Welcome to our September 2023 newsletter.
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I can’t believe how quickly the summer is going by. Our social committee headed by Ros Craig has been super busy over this summer. We had meet and greets, our second annual picnic, Ros’s second annual BBQ and our first Blue Jay Day (organized by Tom Corrigan). Please see Ros’ outline below for details on recent and upcoming events.
At Enbridge’s retiree reunion on August 16th, the longest retired member there was Robert Rhodes who has been retired for 36 years. Robert was originally with the Union Gas North York retiree group which amalgamated with our group this year. Great to see him there! We all hope we reach 36 years of retirement!
This has really been a busy social season for our club and it is not over yet. The fun is going to continue straight into the fall and winter. Our social committee is busy organizing those events. Please take time to read all about our events past and future, below. Also, Check out the website for upcoming events and descriptions and pictures of all the previous events.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and we hope to see many of you over the coming months! |
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Thank You Tom! Tom Jedemann has decided to step down from his role as co-chair. We would like to thank Tom for his participation over the last two years. Tom was instrumental in getting the club on its way from its very first stages. We wish Tom all the best in the future and look forward to seeing him whenever he can make it to the GTA. Keep enjoying your retirement Tom! We will miss you. |
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Technical Hint: With some browsers, links don’t always work properly. If you are experiencing problems, you can clear your cache and browser history or go to our website directly for the item of interest. |
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Safety Reminder
September 28, 2023
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"Test Your Smoke Alarm Day" marks the first day of action
to promote installing and testing working smoke alarms in every home in Ontario and is part of a broader strategy by the
Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) to bring attention to the importance of having
working smoke alarms.
The OFM is asking all Ontarians to test the smoke alarms in their residence
on September 28, 2023 by pressing the test button
and making sure they are in working order. Only working smoke alarms will alert
you to a fire and give you and your loved ones enough time to safely escape. |
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Recent Social events
Your committee has been busy planning and executing several fun events for the past few months. Here's a summary of them.
Meet and Greet at Wishing Well Park- Due to the poor air quality, only a few braves souls ventured out. We made the most of it, having a nice lunch together.
Annual Old Fashioned Enbridge Gas BBQ- We had a great attendance at our second annual picnic on June 15th. Community Events prepared a delicious lunch for us and were very helpful. We had some new faces, and everyone had a blast.
Warren Dickert, the Retiree Coordinator for all the Enbridge retiree clubs donated some premiums and some gift cards for our draw. Thanks to everyone who assisted with the picnic and to those who attended.
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Enbridge 175th Anniversary Celebration- Enbridge hosted their 175th Celebration and June 20th, great food, and entertainment, it was a fabulous event. The retirees and current employees caught up with each other, which made the event more special.
Enbridge also celebrated National Indigenous Day right after the BBQ. We were treated to traditional singing, dancing, and a drum dance. It was an excellent event, enjoyed by everyone.
Buddy Holly Story at King’s Wharf Theatre - Penetang. On June 21, several GTA Lamplighters attended the Buddy Holly Story at King’s Wharf Theatre in Penetang. It was an amazing show.
Oro-Medonte BBQ - On August 14th, the second annual Oro-Medonte BBQ was hosted by Ros and John Craig at their home. There were twenty-six people in attendance, the weather co-operated, and we had a fabulous day catching up with one another.
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Enbridge Retirees Reunion - On August 16th, Enbridge hosted the Enbridge Retirees Reunion at Sheraton Parkway Hotel in Richmond Hill. We had approximately 140 attendees. Client Services (HR), Ontario Fire Safety Council and Enbridge Archives had booths at the Reunion. |
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Malini Giridhar, Vice President of Business Development & Regulatory for Enbridge Gas provided some very interesting information on rate rebasing for Enbridge’s future rate application which is before the Ontario Energy Board.
Mark Irvine, Vice Président, Enbridge Sustain presented a future vision for Enbridge to help customers become more energy efficient and sustainable. The presentations were very informative.
We were treated to a fabulous lunch with draw prizes to end a wonderful day. Many thanks to Warren Dickert, Jenn Thomlinson and the many other Enbridge staff.
If you were not invited to this annual Enbridge Corporate event but would like to be for next year, please register yourself at:
Enbridge Gas' Retirees Website (enbridgegasretirees.com)
Blue Jay Game - GTA Lamplighters arranged Blue Jay baseball tickets at a reduced cost for the Blue Jays Game against Cleveland Guardians on August 27th. Thanks to Tom Corrigan for arranging the tickets and to Walter Matias for setting up the poll and on-line payment process. It was a fabulous day; everyone had a marvelous time.
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Up Coming Events
Meet and Greet
Meet and Greet – September 6th, Heydenshore Park, Whitby. Bring your lunch and a lawn chair, reconnect with fellow retirees.
Port Perry Day – October 11th
We would like to invite you to share lunch and a little tour of Port Perry. It’s a beautiful little town on Lake Scugog within the township of Scugog.
There are great restaurants, a fabulous butcher and an amazing bakery. We thought it was close to Toronto and the surrounding area and a great gathering spot. |
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Lunch will be organized in Jester’s Court, 279 Queen St, Port Perry.
We are proposing a car share arrangement, one person who likes to drive will be paired with up to three people who don’t wish to drive to Port Perry. Everyone will share the cost of the travel and will be responsible for their lunch
If you are able to pick up other members who aren’t able to drive, please let us know.
To sign up for this event Click Here |
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Christmas Luncheons GTALL will provide a gift card to help with the cost of lunch at various Swiss Chalet locations. We'll send out reminders
closer to the dates when registration will be available. - November 14 - Markham
- November 21 - Whitby
- November 28 - Near VPC
- December 6 - Barrie
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Download Your Wild Apricot App Today
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We are happy to inform you that you can download a Wild Apricot App that allows you to use many Wild Apricot built in features. If you use this app for more than one club, using the same e-mail and password – you should be able to choose which club you are signing into.
What can you do with the member app?
- Renew your membership
- View a member directory
- View another member's profile
- Email your fellow members
- View a calendar of upcoming events
- View details of upcoming events
- Add event to your device calendar
- Register for an event and pay the registration fee
- Specify the number of guests (if the ticket type was set up to collect the total number of guests only)
- View your existing event registrations
- Cancel an existing event registration (if your site administrator has enabled this option for your ticket type)
- Pay an outstanding event registration fee
- View and update your own member profile
- View your membership card
To download the WildApricot member app for Android, tap here.
To download the WildApricot member app for iOS, tap here. |
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A Blast From the Past Consumer Gas Newsletter 1962
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Joan Hurd has shared an article by Betty Bright from our Consumers Gas Newsletter from February 1962. How times have changed.
Many thanks to Joan. We are sure you will find this article amusing.
How to Surprise Your Husband
Holiday festivities are over for another year. The gay round of parties, unexpected company and last-minute shopping have all given way to children back to school and the house back to normal. Perhaps then, this is the ideal time to treat your family – especially your husband – to a few small surprises to break routine and dispel the mid–winter lag which frequently occurs between Christmas and Spring. Here are some ways to be pleasantly surprising.
1. Tomorrow, have your husband’s favorite dinner waiting for him when he returns home. 2. On an occasional Sunday, bring him breakfast in bed (the point is to not wait for a special occasion such as Father’s Day or his birthday) or let him sleep late and wake up to find that someone has shoveled the walk for him. 3. Go on a diet without telling him about it. 4. Fix over some of your old outfits, add sequins to a sweater or embroidery to blouse. Change and neckline of hemline of a dress. Ask him how he likes your “new outfit”. Do not tell him that you made the changes yourself until he asks how much it cost. 5. Learn how to tackle an onerous “handyman” chore that he would normally have to tackle 6. If you normally, steer clear of the sports or financial section, read for a period of several weeks. The “casually” introduce your new knowledge into the suppertime conversation 7. If you normally don’t wear perfume daily, then start doing so or vice versa. If you wear an exotic scent, then change it up for a light floral scent or vice versa 8. At nine o’clock some evening, give the family an impromptu TV party by serving some tasty salad or cake a la mode with coffee. 9. Change your hairdo every few months. If you want to surprise, he can’t fail to notice. Lighten or darken your hair in one of two shades with a color rinse. Don’t make the change too drastic.
Follow these suggestions or create a few of your own and you may notice some surprising changes in your husband and family. You may be able to read him like a book, but life will be more exciting if you occasionally pretend that you are reading a mystery thriller. |
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Practice mindfulness
Mindfulness is about acceptance and living in the moment by focusing on the present. Practicing mindfulness has many proven health benefits that can help you age better, including:
- improved focus
- better memory
- lower stress
- improved emotional reaction.
- relationship satisfaction
- increased immune functioning.
To practice mindfulness, try:
- meditation
- yoga
- tai chi
- coloring
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For each newsletter, we reach out to members for their stories of what they have been up to. Whether its travel, spending time with the grand kids, volunteer work or what ever, we provide their short summaries. Its a great way to hear about colleagues we haven't seen for awhile.
Tom Jedemann
Hard to believe it's been over 5 years now since I retired from Enbridge Gas. It's true you really miss the friendships we made during our working years. Judi and I moved to our new home in Kincardine on the Lake Huron shoreline upon retirement and have enjoyed living on the lake kayaking etc....when it's calm lol. We have spent our last few winters in Costa Rica and Roatan and have yet to decide where this winter will take us. Our kids are all out of the house now. Andrew, our eldest, recently finished his MS in Geology and is working in the Ring of Fire (Northern Ontario). Our daughter completed her Chem Eng degree at Western and is now employed nearby at the Bruce Nuclear Facility. We keep ourselves busy with the property in the summer and enjoy gardening and the many jobs jar lists I have handed to me. I've recently taken up squash again and Judi is trying her hand at pickleball at our local recreation center. To sum up, we are enjoying retirement and staying healthy.
Carol Adams
Retirement is great, I manage to keep very busy between family, new friends and old friends.
I am pleased to say that I keep in touch with a lot of my old colleagues thru golf, travel and dinner get togethers.
I golf every week with Sue McEwan, Lynda Vanderzwet, Lynn Arbuthnot, Ann Andrew plus we have a few spares that come out when needed - Fran Head and Gail Green
I travel frequently with Gerry Rieck and last year we met up with Anne Whelan in Phoenix which included a couple days in Sedona. In December we went on a cruise with Anne and Lynn and their husbands.
In February, Gerry and I went to Panama for three weeks plus a couple weeks in Mexico in March with the Vanderzwet’s.
In October this year Gerry and I are heading to Hawaii for couple weeks. In March we are heading back to Mexico. A trip out west is also in the future to visit my family.
John’s brother was here from Hawaii for a month and my niece and family from BC were also visiting which has keep us busy.
Life is good here in Pickering.
Maureen Kerr
Retirement since 2017 has been very kind to my hubby Kelly and me. We welcomed our 9th grandchild in June and 'that's a wrap' for the Kerr Clan. There's a nice mixture of 5 boys and 4 girls.
It's been so fun to watch them play sports, as they are quite competitive and play hockey, lacrosse and soccer.
We've done a fair bit of traveling since retirement, touring Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain, and many Caribbean destinations.
The pandemic allowed for a break, and so golfing and curling took up our free time.
This year is a little quieter on the travel front, as the kitchen is queued up for a renovation, so we have to save our pennies.
Not looking forward to the mayhem that a reno invites but really excited about getting slow-close kitchen drawers. NE |
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Anthony Alfred Gabriel "Tony"
Tony passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by his family on July 26th. Beloved husband for 54 years to Josie. Loving Father to Kim (Tim), and caring Nannu to Blake and Spencer. Tony will also be missed by his brothers, sisters, extended family, and good friends. His memory will live in our hearts forever. Tony was a fitter in Brampton.e Lane July 7th, 1947 - Wednesday, July 12th, 203.
Lynda Lane
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of the most loving and kindest soul, Lynda Lane on July 12, 2023
Lynda will be forever missed by her soulmate Bob. On July 5th, Lynda and Bob celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary, a life built on love and endless memories. Lynda will be sorely missed by her loving son Mike, her wonderful daughter-in-law Amy, and her perfect grandchildren Ethan and Caleb.
Sherrel Soloman
Sherrel Solomon at Consumers gas and Direct Energy I’m sad to report she has passed away on July 1, 2023
Carol Rosemary Bull
BULL, Carol Rosemary (nee Tucker) – passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, July 2, 2023, in her 79th year. Beloved wife of 58 years to Stanley Bull. Loving mother of Alan (Hannah) Bull, Mike (Colleen) Bull and Natalie Dingman. Cherished Nannie of Simon, Andrew, Sarah, Madeline, Owen, and Aaron. Carol was a long-time active member at St. David’s Anglican Church. She had worked for 22 years at Consumers Gas and will be fondly remembered by all her “Gas Girl Friends”.
Peter Bettiol
Peter Bettiol, passed away in Niagara, while surrounded by his family, on June 25, 2023, after battling an illness for several months. Peter was a loving husband of 35 years to Liane Bettiol; dedicated father to Caitlin Bettiol and Carlie Bettiol; and a wonderful friend to so many others in the community.
Rhona Marlyn Cox
It is with sadness that we announce the peaceful passing of Rhona Marlyn Cox at Scarborough Centenary Hospital on Wednesday February 1, 2023, at the age of 86. Loving mother of Sean Cox (Deanna Keeler) and the late Bruce Cox. Survived by three grandchildren, Paige, Ethan, and Peyton Keeler-Cox. Dear sister of Bernice Hunter and the late Allan Hunter.
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