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Communithon will return to the Legion Hall

The 2019 Communithon will be going “retro”, as they will be returning to the Legion Hall where the event had been held for many years before it was moved to the Weyburn Comp School.
Legion Hall

The 2019 Communithon will be going “retro”, as they will be returning to the Legion Hall where the event had been held for many years before it was moved to the Weyburn Comp School.

This was one of the decisions of the United Way leadership committee on Wednesday, held to begin organizing their main fundraiser event of the Communithon in October.

For this year’s event, the Communithon will remain on one day, and will be held on the fourth Friday of October, which is Oct. 25. (The date was moved from its traditional date of the third Friday, as Access has already committed to Estevan’s United Way telethon on Oct. 18.)

Tasha Collins, who represents the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) as a member agency on the United Way leadership committee, said there was a lot of discussion about what to do with Communithon to return some excitement to it, with a number of people attending who had formerly been involved with the event in past years.

The new committee is headed up by Wanda Miller as the chair, along with co-chair Korynn Kubashek, past chair Sabrina Kraft, secretary-treasurer Brenda Clarke, and Regina United Way liaison member Robyn Edwards-Bertz.

The committee was formed after the Weyburn United Way dissolved as a board, with the Regina United Way now taking over responsibility to fund the member agencies for Weyburn. The Regina United Way wanted local residents to still be involved on the fundraising end of things, and a leadership committee has been formed to take on the liaison role with the organization.

On the issue of going back to the Legion, a suggestion which had been brought up at the public meeting held two weeks before, Collins noted there was a lot of discussion about making this move.

“I think a part of the discussion is they want to go back to where it all began, with a one-day format,” she said, adding there is a lot of discussion yet to come on what should take place at Communithon.

“For us, the meeting was really to formalize the committee and the leadership team. There are a lot of discussions needed. One of the main things is to bring the community back to Communithon,” said Collins, adding that from the people who came out, it’s clear that there is increased community involvement and excitement in moving the Communithon back to the Legion.

For those who would like to volunteer at the Communithon, there will be information coming out later in the year as the event details are firmed up.

“We are going to need lots of community volunteers, and as the committee gets further in the organizing of the event, we’ll be asking for volunteers. We’ll be recruiting later in the year,” said Collins.

As far as anyone interested in being involved with the United Way leadership committee for Weyburn, they can contact Wanda Miller for more information about how to do that. She can be reached by email at Wanda.Miller@sasktel.net.

Overall, said Collins, “there was a generalized excitement and a rejuvenated feeling in the room. It was really encouraging for me and for a lot of us.”