Well I guess I can safely say that winter is behind us and we can now look forward to a warm and refreshing spring. Once again the local newsletter is being sent out to two groups of people who belong to National CARP! Either you have paid your $10 yearly fee to support our local chapter or you have sent me your e-mail address so I can forward any CARP bulletins I receive to you.

We now have 87 members who have paid their $10 to support us locally. This money has been used for postage of newsletters to those who do not have e-mail, coffee at meetings, advertising of up-coming meetings in local media, and to pay for our necessary expenses for incorporation as mandated by National CARP.

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since we became incorporated and held our first meeting as a separate CARP Chapter under the umbrella of National CARP! If you have not yet paid your local chapter fee of $10 you may mail a cheque to Sherrill Dewar, at:

*405 Morin St., Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6C 3E7.

For those of you who did pay the $10 fee for the first year, we hope that you will continue to support us locally and send Sherrill a second cheque to cover the 2007-08 year. We have opened an account at Canada Trust in the Cambrian Mall and on all cheques we issue require two signatures.

In Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding area there are 1175 households who are members of National CARP. I wanted to send out a newsletter to all those households but upon investigation of the costs, this was not possible. Printing was going to cost over $500 with tax, and adding postage would have put the final cost to approximately $1200. Since our bank account last month showed $639.20, quick calculations said “no way”! The McLennan Group did offer a $500 subsidy but even with that all the costs would not have been covered and I didn’t want to use every penny we had in the bank.

Howerver our hopes are high and we are determined to have a successful and prosperous year!

Thank you to all for your support and efforts!