Hello to the Montreal Chapter of QART. I sincerely hope you had a good year and are successful in voting in a new executive!!

I would first like to thank the present executive for their support and warm friendship this past year. You have been a great help to us. The members of our previous executive have been very supportive too and we surely appreciated their assistance.

Our Vice President is from the Pontiac and travels down to Aylmer to executive meetings and meetings. I really feel the Pontiac have enjoyed having someone from their sector on the executive. As you know we cover a wide area and many travel for an hour or more to come to meetings. Therefore, we do not have meetings in the winter months. Our May General Meeting has been held in Shawville for the last few years to show appreciation for the people of the Pontiac who travel down to Aylmer or Ottawa. During the year a meeting or function is held in Ottawa for the members who live in Ontario.

To give you an idea, we have the many members from these areas of Quebec: Gatineau, Breckinridge, Campbell’s Bay, Chapeau, Quyon, Low, Vinton, Bryson, Luskville, Calumet Island, Shawville, Kazabazua, and Maniwaki.

From Ontario we have members from: Ottawa, Pembroke, Vanier, Arnprior, Carp, Kanata, Nepean, and Gloucester.

Our March meeting was held at the Chateau Cartier Hotel in Aylmer. It was a rainy cold day with threats of freezing rain and dire warnings of tricky driving conditions. We held our breath but we had about 32 attending. The Pontiac showed up and we had a great time with people decked out in green apparel and enjoyed many Irish songs. I guess the comradely of the day melted the bad weather and all motored home safely. During the meeting we had a presentation by our own Lorna Roel educating us on the history of QART and of course filling us in on the fact that the South Shore was leaving to form their own group. Another topic of discussion was the possibility of doing some outreach in the community. With so many communities involved we have not come to a consensus as yet.

Our May AGM meeting is in Shawville at Café 349. Shawville is a neat little town with some excellent shopping and an amazing bakery.

For June, our activity is a day trip up the Pontiac. We will be going to Chichester, Quebec, to Northfork, a family run restaurant for lunch. On the way up we plan to stop at the Kavanagh farm, in Vinton. Our Vice President’s husband runs a beef farm there. Refreshments are planned and possibly a short visit around the farm. At Northfork, there are lovely grounds and flowers, quaint buildings to visit, sit awhile, play the piano, chat etc. Lunch will be served in a lovely farmhouse with beautiful country décor. The owners live there and are related to some of our members. Our second Vice President mother-in-law makes all the homemade pies! We will receive the “royal treatment”.

This seems more like a chat that a report but I like informality. Hope you don’t mind.
We wish you all a happy, fun, relaxing, safe summer. Enjoy!!!

Judy Kavanagh