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Dearest members, welcome to MERA's newsletter - the best way to stay up to date with everything happening at McDonalds Corners & Elphin Recreation & Arts. Thank you for subscribing! If you have any feedback for future newsletters, please do not hesitate to send it our way! If you are not yet subscribed to the newsletter, use this form

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What's The Buzz???
  • Provincial Closure
  • Board of Directors - Call for Nominations!
  • Studio Updates - Art Circle is meeting on Zoom
  • Programs and Events - Bereavement Circle, Speakers Series - Jan. 20th Francine Desjardins and Jan. 27th - Ross Elliott, Gentle Yoga POSTPONED
  • AGM in March - more info coming soon!
MERA is part of the provincial shut down, so the doors have been locked since of the evening of January 5th until the province says we can open again. These measures are scheduled to be in place for 21 days or until January 27th.
The Township of Lanark Highlands confirmed that all communities centres are closed.  For specific information from the Ontario Government please visit COVID-19 public health measures and advice | COVID-19 (coronavirus) in Ontario
There are no exceptions to the closer, no one should be in the building except for emergencies and the approved person for insurance purposes.
Members will be notified once we are allowed to go back to our planned events.
Thank you for your cooperation.
 
Call for Nominations to MERA’s Board of Directors

Dear members and friends of MERA.
The AGM will be held in March. More information to come.

One important task of this meeting is to elect directors to MERA's board.  Please think about becoming a candidate yourself, or nominating a member of your MERA circle. If you are interested in supporting the life of this community as part of the team working backstage to set agendas and develop programs please put your name forward. Interest, enthusiasm and a 2022 MERA membership are the only prerequisites to serve on the MERA board.  
Submit your nominations to MERA admin meraschoolhouse@gmail.com or to Barry Russell russellb04@yahoo.ca.  Nominations can be submitted up to 10 days prior to the AGM, and must be done so via email.   Refer to the Bylaw for more information, but note that due to Covid some changes may be in place.

We look forward to welcoming you to the team!

Art Circle had a lively, warm first ZOOM meeting of the year on Jan 14. The next will be Jan 18 at 9:00 AM. Contact Helen hmogford@gmail.com for the zoom link.


MERA Bereavement Connection Circle with
Laurie Lynn Clark


January 24th to March 14th 6:00pm to 7:30pm on Zoom

Laurie Lynn Clark is offering an ongoing program to provide opportunities for adults who are bereaved to connect, to share their experiences of loss in a supportive environment and to honour their loved ones. These sessions will connect people in the community through active listening, expressing and sharing each other's grief experience safely and confidentially

It is recommended that participants register for the full session so as to benefit through coming to know the pain that results from the many losses that we encounter in life. Although, participants are invited to try the first few zoom sessions to explore whether it is a good fit for their personal grief process.

Registration for this program is based on the donation principle to ensure its accessibility for all involved. All donations will be offered to MERA Schoolhouse.  

For more information and/or questions about this schedule, please contact Laurie:

Home phone- 613-278-1755 or email laurieclark777@gmail.com or website: laurielynnclark.com 

Speakers Series Starts
January 20th

The Speakers Series returns this year with a new list of experts in their own fields.  Cozy up at home, the Speakers Series will be held over Zoom on Thursday evenings from 7:00 - 8:30 PM. Join as many as you like! To sign up, please contact Helen Mogford hmogford@gmail.com. 
 

Jan. 20  Francine Desjardins (Indigenous Knowledge Keeper): Connecting to All Our Relations 

Jan. 27  Ross Elliott (Certified Passive House Consultant): Keeping the Heat In

Feb. 3  Jennifer Raby (Art Educator, Batik and Watercolour Artist): Batiks in Africa: discovering my visual voice

Feb. 10  Ankaret Dean (Basketmaker and Founder of Lanark Highlands Basketry Museum) Adventures from around the world: by a lifelong basketmaker

Feb. 17  Kathy Boelsma (Forest School Practitioner and Early Years Arts Educator), Melissa Cornacchia (Honeybee Homestead), Anna Baranyi (Registered Early Childhood Educator): Children, Nature and Relationships: Creating Spaces for Connection

Feb. 26  Chris Anstead: Searching for Postal History: a chance to wave the flag for Elphin's favourite son, duelist John Wilson

Jan 20: Francine Desjardins –
Indigenous Knowledge Keeper

 
 Connecting to All Our Relations 
  
It will be an honour to be able to share part of the Indigenous teachings that I carry. Niawen, thank you for opening that space for me to introduce or expand your knowledge on our ways of being. Hopefully this will allow an awakening to our perspective and connection to the land, her teachings and how we interact with All Our Relations. There are many ways to share these teachings, but I've always found my voice through our songs, their teachings and intentions.  I hope you can join me on this brief journey into our ways of being.

bio:  
I am a Métis woman of Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) and French ancestry from the Bear Clan.  I’ve been active in drum circles, ceremonies and community gatherings and events since 1999.  I am a retired Federal Public Servant.

I support community as a pipe carrier, traditional dancer, holder of a full moon lodge and as a knowledge keeper.

I give Aboriginal Awareness presentations to communities and schools.  As a drum carrier, I carry traditional songs and share this knowledge by facilitating drum and other healing circles in the community, most recently for the Lanark Drum Circle.

I speak for the water and support the betterment of life on Mother Earth for the next 7 Generations.  In 2012, I completed an 1,100 kilometers spiritual walk to reconnect to Mother Earth and All My Relations.

I am also connected to the Lanark County Neighbours for Truth and Reconciliation, who support and provides cultural awareness to surrounding communities, i.e. Perth’s Healing Forest Memorial.

I participate and provide cultural support to the Indigenous Health (Wellness) Council for the Leeds, Lanark and Grenville area.

I am a member of the Niikinaganaw group, a Research Grant study working at securing culturally safe medical and mental health services to the Indigenous community in the Ottawa-Gatineau area.

Donations can be made to support Perth’s Community Food Centre, The Table www.thetablecfc.org
Jan 27: Ross Elliott –
Keeping the Heat In

 
How much insulation is too much? How much is too little? Is it possible to make a house too airtight? Are triple glazed windows worth the extra cost? Where do our homes lose the most energy and which upgrades have the best payback? Can we get rid of expensive fossil fuels and use heat pumps instead? How do I get a rebate from the Canada Greener Homes Program? MERA’s speaker series presents the answers to these questions and more!

BIO
Ross Elliott is a Certified Passive House Consultant and has evaluated thousands of homes for energy efficiency improvements over the past 40 years. He lives with Kathryn in McDonald's Corners in a 1930 farmhouse they retrofitted to meet net zero energy.
Book Club meets on Zoom every month. Meeting is January 18 at 7:00pm. This month there are two books, descriptions are below:

Anthill by E.O. Wilson 

The two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist delivers "an astonishing literary achievement" (Anthony Gottlieb, The Economist).

Winner of the 2010 Heartland Prize, Anthill follows the thrilling adventures of a modern-day Huck Finn, enthralled with the "strange, beautiful, and elegant" world of his native Nokobee County. But as developers begin to threaten the endangered marshlands around which he lives, the book’s hero decides to take decisive action. Edward O. Wilson—the world’s greatest living biologist—elegantly balances glimpses of science with the gripping saga of a boy determined to save the world from its most savage ecological predator: man himself.

Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

In her first book, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths – that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complex, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own. (from suzannesimard.com)

If you are interested in joining the Book Club, please contact Jean Dunning.
 
GENTLE YOGA AT MERA
 
Please note that yoga has been postponed. For more information, please contact mandmkennelly@gmail.com

All participants must show proof of double vaccination either with QR code or paperwork and follow all MERA Covid protocols including social distancing and masking on entry.

While planning for the new session, take the time to consider your personal wellness. Yoga is a popular and age old mind-body practice that combines movement, breathing, relaxation and meditation exercises to calm the nervous system and balance the body, mind, and spirit. Yoga has been shown to decrease reports of pain, improve quality of sleep, decrease overall fatigue, and improve depressed moods. Yoga has also been shown to improve lung function, strength of inspiratory and expiratory muscle as well as skeletal strength and endurance. 

In gentle yoga, posture and breath work are emphasized. Supportive props and gravity assist can allow people to relax into postures and maintain them for longer periods to help reduce anxiety, increase energy and support physical and emotional well-being. Positions can be modified to allow full participation for a wide variety of participants. Gentle Yoga can also be a beneficial way for people to ease back into exercise. 
Yoga Instructor: Marj Kennelly is a certified Yoga Instructor who has recently retired as a physiotherapist and moved to the McDonalds Corners region. Marj will not be practicing as a PT for this program but will bring her 30+ years of PT experience and knowledge to help guide a safe, healthy, Yoga practice.
Target Audience: Adults of any age are welcome. Must be able to independently get up and down from the floor. Participants are expected to bring their own Yoga Mat and dress in comfortable clothing. Any props like blocks or bolsters that you have used successfully in the past would be welcome in the practice.

Goals: 
• To provide an accessible community based gentle Yoga program at MERA.
• To promote socialization through shared experience 
• To deepen the understanding of Yoga and provide cues to further the individual’s practice. 
• To provide a healthy physical challenge that promotes wellness
• To develop strategies to promote chest health and better mechanics of breathing
• To provide a chance for people to slow down and take care of themselves in a supportive healthy environment. 

Times: Tuesday mornings from 10 to 11:30
All participants must show proof of double vaccination either with QR code or paperwork. Participants should arrive 15 minutes prior to the first class to fill out a brief participant questionnaire and discuss any health issues relating to the Yoga practice. Marj will be available 15 minutes prior to each class to address any ongoing questions about participation in the program. 

Cost: $50 for 6 sessions for MERA members or 10 dollars/session as drop in or non-MERA member.

Should you have any questions please contact Marj Kennelly at mandmkennelly@gmail.com.
If sessions need to be cancelled due to inclement weather, Marj will contact registered participants either by Email or phone.
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