Hail to our Volunteers
Grounds and Greens
Keeping our greens in shape is a year round job. Although the club contracts a greens keeper once a week, the majority of the work is done by the greens crew headed by Lorne Oakes. On any given morning you will likely see Lorne, Keith Newhouse, Chris Rogal, Pierre Pomperleau or Sandy Hodel out mowing. Pierre also rolls the greens with the new roller on a regular basis. Al and Marianne Siemens keep the verges neat and tidy. A conservative estimate of the hours put in by the greens crew is 15 to 20 hours per week.
This year, Libby Weiser and helpers Caroline Mitchell, Paula Parkinson and Barb Marriott are looking after the flowers that edge the greens. They not only water and trim but also keep the ditches clear of weeds and pull dandelions on the greens. Over the winter Kirby Reimer took tender care of the Marguerite’s heritage begonia bulbs and planted them along with lobelia for another fine show in the main flower pots.
Games Bowls
Gopala Gowda is using his organizational, communication and analytical skills to do an exemplary job as Games Chair. Thanks to Gopal, we have an enthusiastic group of bowlers participating in the Men’s League and 3-bowl Pairs League, daily draws and club tournaments. He has been learning a software program developed by Jack Trueman of the Sydney LBC that creates the tournament draws and scoring and has been teaching the program to Jo Ann Allan and Anita McCaw who have been assisting him with the tournaments. In addition Jo Ann has created a signup page for tournaments on the website.
Alice Albert has organized the Women’s League this year. She is on hand every Wednesday to collect fees, ensure greens are set up and oversee the draw with Anita’s assistance.
Games Croquet
Peter Rassenti (who also looks after in-house repairs and maintenance at the club) organizes croquet games and tournaments. Pierre Dunn looks after the co-ordination of lessons and coaching.
Member recruitment
MaryLynne Reimer took on PR work this spring to recruit new membership by submitting articles about bowls and croquet to several community papers. She also connects interested parties with this year’s coaches: David Maher, Kirby Reimer, Norma Alison, Peter Gilchrist, Cathy Korpela and assistants Brenda Janke/Michael Pardaens and Marie Gorman.
Hospitality
Although our social events have been minimal because of COVID, we thank Hospitality Chair Annie Boldt for organizing the much appreciation Canada Day BBQ (food and servers) and Chef Peter Gilchrist for flipping burgers for fifty people.
We acknowledge with appreciation all the hours put in by club members over the years.
Updating safety features at our club
It won’t be long before we can open the club and when we do, the grass and the letters in the club name are going to look really good.
Thank you to our intrepid volunteers.
Over the winter, there has been a lot of very windy days blowing twigs, leaves, and needles onto the green. In this photo, Knut is sweeping up all that debris – Thank you Knut!
Greens Maintenance
Our greens don’t look this good without a lot of our members contributing a lot of their time doing all the maintenance chores. We all enjoy playing on such well maintained grass. So kudos to the following:
Bob Cameron David Maher 
Frank Leavitt Keith Newhouse
Kirby Rimer Larry Martin Ross Sands
Gardens and Grounds
A lot of effort has gone into improving our grounds this year that should be acknowledged. Al Siemens looks after the verges. In this he is assisted by Knute, Peter Rassenti, KC, and Lorne Oakes. The garden areas are unofficially tended by KC as well. Her’s is a significant set of chores. George Gibson spends hours on our ditches.
The Adopt-a-Pot was put together this year as a way of spreading the gardening load. Many have volunteered to have one or many pots as their own mini gardens. Each person looks after their patch and bears any costs. It has been suggested that we could expand on this project in the future. If other members wish to get involved they can, by first contacting Lorne Oakes. Please, no freelancing.
And here are some examples in their early stages growth.
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HOSTING PRIVATE EVENTS TAKES MANY VOLUNTEERS.
In 2019, the Club will host 17 private events, plus Lawn Summer Nights in July and a local school. Each of these events takes an average of five volunteers to welcome our guests and introduce them to lawn bowling. Thank you to each and every member who has given their time for this very important task.
PLAYER DEVELOPMENT DRILLS
During all 4 Friday mornings in May, there have been 4 volunteers who helped each week with the Drill sessions – removing bowls, resetting bowls, resetting jacks, setting up the challenges for each green – all 16 of them, and even giving a few pointers on how to tackle the drill. They made everything run so smoothly!
WOMAN OF MANY TALENTS
(Webmaster, Coach, Player Development)
Being webmaster to the VLBC’s informative and interesting website is just one of the ways that Jo Ann Allan has contributed to the Club over the years. A long term member, Jo Ann has also given many hours to player development (workshops/manuals), coaching, oversight/organization of tournaments (both Club and BSI) and booking/organizing the women’s lunch bunch. Thank you Jo Ann for all that you do so expertly and efficiently.