{"id":7843,"date":"2014-08-20T21:35:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T01:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7843"},"modified":"2014-09-04T23:57:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T03:57:26","slug":"market-musings-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/market-musings-26\/","title":{"rendered":"MARKET MUSINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jan Freedman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the cool, overcast and breezy weather we had on Saturday, our first Family Day was a great success.
\nThe Farmers\u2019 Market was full of families eager to take advantage of the many mom-to-mom sales and enjoy the face painting, balloon animals and the great children\u2019s entertainer. We had a wonderful raffle which, among the items available, included two bikes and a flat screen T.V. I don\u2019t know yet how much money we raised, but it is all going to the Aurora Food Pantry.
\nWe also have some exciting news: Peter of Oakridge\u2019s Finest will be bringing cheese from the fabulous Montforte Dairy in Stratford to our Market within the next two weeks. The dairy is owned by Ruth Klaasen and specialises in goat and sheep\u2019s milk cheeses, although I believe that they have a few made from cow\u2019s milk. So, finally we will have some soft brie-type cheeses to augment the hard cheeses that are already represented at the Market.
\nYou may have noticed that the Market now partners with several community groups on some occasions. You will have seen Beverley Wood, Aurora\u2019s Citizen of the Year, among those selling raffle tickets for Magna\u2019s Wild Wild West Hoedown on behalf of Welcoming Arms.
\nWelcoming Arms is a registered charity and is an ecumenical partnership of six churches: Aurora Cornerstone, Aurora United, Campus Bible, Our Lady of Grace, St. Andrew\u2019s and Trinity and is housed in Trinity\u2019s former rectory. Their purpose is to assist Aurora residents who are in need.
\nEach church provides financial and volunteer support. Additional funding and donations have been gratefully received from: Empty Bowls, the Christmas Dream Dinner, individuals, businesses, community organizations, the Regional Municipality of York through the Christmas Hamper Programme and the Wild Wild West Hoedown.
\nThe vision statement says: \u201ca Christ-centered partnership, relieving the burden of poverty in our community\u201d. Their Mission Statement is \u201cIn loving partnership, we seek to be the hands and feet of Christ by promoting human, physical and spiritual well-being within our community.\u201d
\nTheir focus strategies are fundraising, marketing, communications, growth, sustainability and volunteer programmes. These all reflect the love, joy, compassion and commitment of Welcoming Arms clergy and volunteers.
\nFrom July 2013-2014, Welcoming Arms distributed $67,460 in monthly food vouchers, 3,190 York Region Transit tickets, and toiletries, kitchen and cleaning items from donations received from individuals and community groups.
\nThey also provided assistance with medical, dental, housing, utility, tutorial and children\u2019s programme needs. They also gave vouchers from Tim Horton\u2019s and the Clothes Closet to homeless persons.
\nSome of the comments received from those who have been helped include: \u201cChristmas really happened at our house this year, thanks to the support of Welcoming Arms\u201d and, \u201cto everyone involved in the Christmas programme, thank you for listening, caring and sharing.\u201d
\nWhile their main focus is on helping those in need in our community, they participate in many other activities such as: attendance at seminars, ongoing meetings and forums with York Region agencies, involvement in community activities including the Pine Tree Potters Guild, the Aurora Christmas Dream Dinner, and Hoedown. This year, Welcoming Arms was selected as one of fifteen participating charities for the 2014 Hoedown.
\nWith the invitation of the Optimist Club of Aurora to join them at the Farmers\u2019 Market on summer Saturdays, Welcoming Arms volunteers have enjoyed meeting shoppers, selling Hoedown tickets (3 for $20) and sharing the Welcoming Arms story, a programme that began in 2006 at Our Lady of Grace Church.
\nTo the Optimist Club of Aurora and the Farmers\u2019 Market, Welcoming Arms volunteers and visitors extend a special thank you for the kindness, goodwill and generosity they have been shown.
\nWelcoming Arms is located at 44 Metcalfe Street and is staffed by trained volunteers from participating churches. They are open Mondays and Thursdays from 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m., and on Wednesdays from 6.30 \u2013 8.30 p.m.
\nThe next Special Event at the Farmers\u2019 Market is our annual Community Corn Roast on Saturday, August 23. This year we have invited guests from three of our community partners to barbecue and hand out the corn.
\nWe will have two people each from the Aurora Cultural Centre, the Aurora Public Library and the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association helping with the barbecue and the public will have the opportunity to ask questions about these groups and their programmes.
\nThere will be great music from the band shell featuring the After Hours Big Band from 10 \u2013 11.30 a.m. There will also be a kids\u2019 crafts, a scavenger hunt and a draw for a Market bag at 12 Noon. The cost of the corn is by donation and all money raised will go to the Food Pantry. It will be an exciting day at the Market.
\nSee you at the Market!<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jan Freedman Despite the cool, overcast and breezy weather we had on Saturday, our first Family Day was a great success. The Farmers\u2019 Market was full of families eager to take advantage of the many mom-to-mom sales and enjoy the face painting, balloon animals and the great children\u2019s entertainer. We had a wonderful raffle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-22v","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 20:16:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}