The Red Deer Kinettes offer a place for women to network with each other, become involved in community events and to develop relationships in the community.
The Kinettes are a division of Kin Canada, like the Kinsmen Club. The members help out the Kinsmen with a variety of activities and responsibilities. The ladies of the Kinettes are a vital part of the Kinsmen Dream Home project as well as leading their own fundraising projects.
“It’s fun just being part of the group – it’s such a great group of women. Every year there are more and more people joining. It’s fun to know that you’re doing something for your community, and helping out,” said Kinette Melissa Janes.
“One of the most fun things for me is the senior light tour we do at Christmastime. We rent City buses and pick up seniors from lodges and manors in Red Deer and Sylvan and we take them around the City showing them the lights. Then we take them to the Westerner and serve them coffee and hot chocolate and there’s a group that sings carols for them. They absolutely love it.”
The annual lights tour is one of many community projects that the Kinettes get involved in. They are active volunteers with the Kinsmen Dream Home, dedicating their time to volunteer hours inside the dream home to greet guests, sell tickets and manage the ticket sales.
“With the Dream Home, we manage ticket sales from outside locations. We also run the download pages so that people can purchase tickets online, and then we download and send them out. It just helps the Kinsmen focus more on being out there in the community, and we do a little bit more of the background work for them there,” explained Janes.
Recently, they celebrated an annual spring gala. The galas vary each year with themes but never stray from being an enjoyable evening. Currently, the Kinettes have begun to take part in their biggest annual fundraising event, which is selling a 50/50 raffle to support the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre.
Janes and a fellow Kinette came together with the idea to support the much-needed service through this annual community fundraiser.
“We kind of both came to the idea of reaching out to the sexual assault centre outside of each other. We both thought of organizations that we’d want it to go to, and we both independently decided that that’s where we wanted it to go. As women, and as health care professionals, we think it’s really important support-wise for victims as well as educational for the whole community.”
The Kinettes are currently selling tickets for the raffle, with contact information available through reddeerkinsmen.com/kinettes. The tickets will also be available in person during Westerner Days.
“We have a facebook group and our web site, and emails work as well. We try to be pretty responsive, and we’ve got a couple different people in charge of those things so you get a response fairly quickly,” she said.
Janes added the club is always welcoming and encouraging new members.
“It’s fun to be a part of and it’s a good way to get to know your community and the people that are interested in helping it. You get to know people that are of a similar mindset. A lot of people know about the Kinsmen but when you say Kinettes, they don’t know what it is so we’d like that information out there.”
kmendonsa@reddeerexpress.com
