Jack Verhulst Dinner

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Sunday September 8, 2024 was the third annual Perth-Wellington NDP Jack Verhulst Fundraising Dinner & Golf held at the River Valley Golf Club just outside of St Marys where the Thames River and Highway 7 meet. Kate and I were there with many of our NDP friends.

Jack Verhulst was a local long time NDP supporter, party bag man and sometimes candidate who passed away a few years ago (2021). He lived just outside St Marys when we first met and they used to have the NDP summer picnic at this place. When he and Tina moved to a smaller home in Stratford Jack convinced us that we should host the picnic at our house. We did, several times. This September event is to honor Jack's memory and to raise a bit of cash for the local NDP party.

One of the things Jack liked to do at fundraising dinners like this was to have a "Pie Auction". People would donate a pie and everyone else would bid on them. It's a way to encourage folks to open up their wallets and give a little. The pie is a bit of an incentive, the bidding a bit of a competition. Neither Kate nor I are bakers but we do make jams, pickles and various preserves. We donated several baskets full of our goodies to the auction. Today the event was run as a silent auction; Kate and I bid on several items but didn't win any. I guess we ought to have bid much more. Oh well, we'll continue to donate to the NDP.

Irene R. Mathyssen, retired NDP MP from London, was there with her husband Keith and won the bid on some of our preserves. We bumped into them at a Stratford event and asked how they liked the preserves from the year before. They've been great supporters of the local association and she often speaks at this event. Now that Irene has retired, her daughter Lindsay Mathyssen, who holds the same London-Fanshawe seat in Ottawa, was there and spoke about how and why the NDP have withdrawn their support from the Liberals.

It was a good day all around. I tell my friends that they ought to come to this, and other, Perth-Wellington NDP events because, "It's right to lean left."