MESSAGE FROM BCA's PRESIDENT
Rosalind Bell-Stitt

Hi everyone! As I write this it is well into December and we have the first winter storm warning in the weather forecast. The dragon boats are parked for the season and until we can ski we’re keeping fit indoors!

It’s been a few months now since I took on the responsibility of serving BCA as president of the Board of Directors and I’m finding my new “job” rewarding but busy. I feel fortunate that Diane Ryan has stayed on as Past President and that the board is such a positive group to work with.

As a two-time veteran of breast cancer treatment and having gone through that with the unconditional support and encouragement of my new community at Breast Cancer Action, I knew that I needed to return some of that energy to BCA when I had recovered and had the time.

The fall was very full of activity and change for us. First of all, we were delighted to welcome our new Executive Director, Karen Graszat, on board in October. Karen comes to us with lots of experience and energy, and I’m looking forward to working with her as we move forward.

Another staff change involved our excellent Office Administrator, Amy Cailloux who has left for another opportunity. We wish her all the best in her new position, but will miss her greatly. Thanks to Gloria Bateson who has stepped in for us on short notice. We expect to announce a permanent replacement for the Office Administrator early in the New Year, so stay tuned.

The staff and our board of directors are here to serve you and we invite you to provide us with your comments and suggestions. We also invite you to consider volunteering at BCA. This is your organization and together we are continually striving to make it even more valuable to the Ottawa and area community. We’ve been pleased to see a good response to our recent call for new volunteer board members and hope to have some new members confirmed early in the New Year.

The fall also brought the new session of our popular Go With the Flow fitness programmes (and they have proved to be VERY popular!). The winter session (from January to March) starts soon and if feedback is any indication these classes will remain very popular. We hope that the learning passed on to the participants is something they can use in their other fitness activities.

We enjoyed our annual Fall Gala in November at the Sala San Marco. Sincere thanks to all who supported this event again by attending, dancing and bidding on the many tempting silent and live auction items. We had a very dedicated and energetic planning committee and a great team of volunteers led by our Volunteer Coordinator, Jo-Anne Turple-Watson, and I’d like to thank each and every one of them. We’ll be announcing the date for next year soon so that you can mark it on your calendar early.

We’ve begun planning for our Walk and Fun Run which is tentatively scheduled for May 30th 2010 and other activities to be announced in our next edition.

On behalf of all of us at Breast Cancer Action, our Board of Directors, our Executive Director and staff, I’d like to wish you the very best during the coming holiday season along with peace, health and contentment in 2010.

Rosalind Bell-Stitt, President