Hello SSO members, volunteers, and supporters,

As the Society’s busy season comes to an end and our AGM approaches, I want to thank everyone for the time and effort they have put into making our events a success. While the list of thanks is too long to mention all, I do want to highlight the tremendous efforts put forward by the members of the Society’s Board:

• Vice Chair Jennifer Hill who keeps a vigilant watch over all SSO matters and ensures our social media content is always interesting

• Secretary Karen Stevens who expertly vets all our correspondence and manages meeting minutes and provides Scottish cultural advice and expert fiddle music at many of our events

• Gordon Lutz-Wallace, our Treasurer who ensures that the Society’s finances are kept up to date and our bills are paid

• Communications Director Liz Smith who makes sure we get favourable the media coverage and provides quality control for all our public communication

• Our Special Events Director, Dave Johnston, who worked so diligently all year to organize the City Hall flag raising, and whisky-tasting on St. Andrew’s Day, Ottawa Kilt Skate, the Lairds of the Locks play, as well as our Tartan Day Trivia and Euchre events in April

• James Obi our ever-faithful Volunteer Director for staffing the critical events

• Andy MacCulloch, National Kilt Skate Director and Don Cummer founder of the Great Canadian Kilt Skate

• Ross Chase, Director at Large who offers us many great ideas

And to our retiring Directors an enormous thank you for your work over the last year:

• Ken Bartlett who put enormous effort into hosting a tremendous Hogmanay party “From the Streets of Edinburgh” at Blessed Sacrament Hall on New Year’s Eve

• Alix Williams who prepared a plan for development and fundraising

• Izzy Adams who keeps tabs on our membership lists, and who inaugurated and continues to organize the monthly membership socials

• Heather Woodside, our former Youth Director, who held a very successful silent Auction at Hogmanay this year

• Kayleigh Armstrong who has put on a series of terrific Burns Day dinners

I thank you for your selfless service to the Scottish Society over the past year (or more) and hope you remain part of our ever-expanding network.

I was extremely pleased to have applied for and obtained a Scottish Connections grant that enabled us to sponsor Pierre Brault’s outstanding “Lairds of the Locks” one-man play on March 21,  in the beautiful and historically appropriate St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. This story about pioneer Scottish stonemason and Rideau Hall, Rideau canal and locks-builder, Thomas MacKay, touched many hearts.  A great shout-out to our members Chris Brown and Maggi Macauley who faithfully project-managed this successful event. We hope this stunning piece of solo historical theatre will be remounted later this year for the Bytown 200 celebrations.

I wanted to take the time to sincerely thank these people not only to recognize their hard work over the past twelve months, but to remind members that our events don’t happen in a vacuum. They take tremendous work and dedication from many Directors and volunteers

If you have some free time and want to help organize fun events with a great group of people, please put your name forward as our AGM approaches and volunteer as a member of the Society’s Board of Directors - we have several key board positions including for Burns, Development, Membership, Youth and Director at Large.  

Beyond our AGM, (and the return of warmer weather!) I’m looking forward to the start of the Highland Games season with the Glengarry Games on August 1st and then the North Lanark Highland Games on August 22nd. Both games feature great bands, dancers, merchants and Scottish cuisine -  fun for everyone.

I look forward to seeing all of you at our AGM at the Centrepoint Royal Oak for breakfast on June 20th.

Here’s to a great summer!

Donald Macdonald