100 Men Red Deer wants to reawaken its membership and encourage new members to join in and help Central Alberta charities.
President Dan Sims said a lot of members are not as active as they could be. Attendance at meetings has slipped in the last year or so.
“We have about 250 who are on the email contact list, but attendance has been around that 60 to 75 mark for the last couple meetings,” Sims said on Thursday.
100 Men Red Deer meets four times a year and each member donates $100 at each meeting to a chosen charity.
“Since I’ve been involved for about two-and-a-half years, I’ve become aware of a lot of other charities or organizations I didn’t even know about before.”
Before each meeting three charities nominated by members are randomly chosen. A representative from each charity speaks at the meeting for about five minutes before members vote on which one to support. Cheques go directly to the charity that night.
“It’s one of the easiest charities to be involved in. It doesn’t take a whole bunch of time.”
He said men simply come out, have a beverage if they want, which is paid for by a sponsor, and a bite to eat and make a charitable donation.
The next meeting is on June 4 at 7 p.m. at The Hideout Eats & Beats in Gasoline Alley.
He said in four years the group has raised over $100,000.
“We’ve had great success. It puts a lot of dollars into Central Alberta charities.”
Sims said 100 Men Red Deer is working to increase its social media presence, getting emails out to members and encouraging members to bring other men to the meetings.
“We want to make sure we’re in people’s calendars months prior to the date so they do save the date.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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