Cameron House has a new living room floor thanks to the generosity of our community, our membership, and to the vision and leadership of Soroptimist member, Bev MacDougall.
Cameron House in Peterborough is a women’s shelter which provides supportive, semi-independent housing to former homeless or at-risk women until they are ready to transition to more independent living.
Each March, our Soroptimist members host a St. Patrick’s Day lunch for the residents of Cameron House. This year, Bev was visually taken aback by the sadly deteriorated condition of their living room floor in this renovated, lovely old century home. This room is the common area for the residents to socialize and watch television.
Before
Bev was able to find a need and a worthwhile project for our Club. After making some inquiries, she learned about the significant renovations that had been done by other volunteer organizations but whose funds had been used up.
Bev knew our Soroptimist organization still had funds from two successful events: “Sharing Dreams,” where one hundred people attended a fundraising dinner at the Peterborough Golf and Country Club, and our “Annual Women’s Golf Tournament” at Baxter Creek.
Bev was on a mission. She took a few before photos of the distressed flooring, pursued a very reasonable estimate for replacement from an empathetic city flooring contractor company and then presented her project to our board and membership. Everyone said “Yes”!
This vision for improvement became a reality for Thanksgiving 2014. Cameron House residents now have a new living room floor through the generosity of “women helping women”.
Nicole Lacey, Team Leader, at Cameron House, shared that “the ladies absolutely love the living room floor. They have commented that it feels homier and that they like to sit in the living room more often because it feels cozier.”
Nicole was our guest and keynote speaker at the November Business Meeting. She provided a complete update on the projects that Soroptimist had accomplished for Cameron House in the last months and the difference that each project had made in the lives of the residents.
