Evelyn St. Amour is the president of the Whitewater Historical Society.WHITEWATER REGION — The Whitewater Historical Society has a new executive, but, volunteers are still needed.
Evelyn St. Amour, who attended her first meeting a few weeks ago, and agreed to sit on the nominating committee with Hazel Hawthorn and Muriel Buttle, is stepping into the top job. Joining her is newcomer Connie Tabbert as treasurer and long-standing members Mac Coughlin as first vice-president and Lawrie Barton will continue as secretary.
“I think we have a good executive,” Ms. St. Amour said at last Thursday’s special society meeting at the municipal hall. “What we need now are more volunteers from throughout Whitewater Region.”
Joanne Pratt advised Daniel James, president of the Foresters Falls Athletic Association, told her the FFAA has “a surplus of volunteers,” and hopefully the two organizations can work together.
“He is full of youthful enthusiasm,” Ms. Pratt said.
At the start of last Thursday’s meeting, Ms. Hawthorn advised that all positions had been filled except first vice-president. Mr. Coughlin was nominated by Ms. Buttle at the meeting as he has the “knowledge, ability and experience.”
Mr. Coughlin did not accept the position at first, but with much encouragement from people around the table, he agreed to it.
Ms. Hawthorn welcomed Ms. St. Amour as the new president and said, “we will all support her.”
Mr. Coughlin stressed, what’s really needed is a property committee, because a lot of work needs to be done with the buildings.
Following discussion, various committees were appointed including property, museum, garden and telephone caller (to contact members when there is an upcoming meeting).
At meeting’s end, Ms. St. Amour said there is a lot of work to be done and she is looking forward to helping the society get to the next stage.
A few days later, she said this is her first encounter with the historical society and is looking forward to helping it succeed.
“I’m new to it all,” she said. “I didn’t want to see the historical society fail. I figured I’d better start to help and when I was asked to be president, I said yes.”
Since becoming president, Ms. St. Amour has checked out the various society buildings in Foresters Falls in preparation of last night’s meeting to review what needs to be done to on the maintenance/upkeep of the museum facilities..
“There’s a lot of work to do,” she said. “And we are going to need help by volunteers.”
Ms. St. Amour is hopeful volunteers will step forward on their own. However, there are plans to encourage the active members to bring volunteers to the society and attend various events to encourage people to volunteer.
The first event is the March 21 soup and sandwich lunch in Westmeath, where a table will be set up with current volunteers ready to sign others up.
Ms. St. Amour said a financial request has been made to council by the requested deadline of March 1.
The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, March 27 at the firehall in Foresters Falls to discuss planning events for the upcoming season. Everyone is invited to attend.
