Please visit our Newsletter Contributors website.

 

Lawrence Grecco is a professional astrologer in New York City and a member of the board of directors of the National Council of Geocosmic Research, NYC chapter.

 

He is available for personal or telephone readings and can be reached at 212-255-5337. Email lawrence.grecco@gmail.com

 

Visit his web site at www.zenrising.com

 

 

 

Happy Spring Everyone,
 
It has been a long, cold, snowy winter and thank god spring has finally arrived, at least on the Calendar.
 
Boy oh Boy, what a busy month March was. There are a few special "Thanks" that need to be sent. Kelly, Cathy, Donny, Jay, John and Ed, Thank You for all the work you did to make the fund raiser for Farra N Hyte a success. Your efforts showed off with the outcome of prizes and money raised for Farra N Hyte.

 

Club 717 Patrons all deserve a round of applause for coming out and supporting Farra when she is not one of our regular performers. Our little Club in Oshawa raised more money for Farra to compete in the Miss Continental Plus pageant in Chicago than any of the other Clubs that did fundraisers for her. So applause to you all! The big Prize was a 42 Inch Plasma H.D.T.V. which was one by none other then Jay, oh if ever you want to watch a good movie call me and I will give you their address, but I am not bitter :)

 
The Durham Humane Society also had a fundraiser. It was held the week following Farra's fundraiser and this was tied-in with our annual Mardis Gras event. Once again our patrons rose to the occasion, and this was enhanced by a special performance of Mamma Mia.

 

Thanks go out to all who performed and special thanks to Savanaugh, Ruby, Larry, John and Ed. The entire team busted their butts to get items to raffle off and worked hard all week to ensure the evening was a success. There was also all the people that contributed their time and food for the party. We raised more money for the Humane Society this year than we have in the past. I am sure that this is in part due to the fire that took the lives of over 180 animals in December 2008.
 
Now, the Club needs to take a bit of a break from fundraisers and special shows and get back to the regular shows for a little bit. This will enable us to focus our efforts on the next round of renovations at the Club.
 
We are going to finish the entrance by the women's bathrooms and then add some more lights and sound equipment. This has been approved and the Board will be working on this in the next couple of months. I am going to try and see if we can do something with the Men's Room too!.
 
Our next big event will be an awards evening held in the Club by PFlag and the Aids Committee of Durham. It will be held on May 9th. I am expecting that Jayme Harper, an amazing force in our Community, will be writing an article pertaining to this. Then our next item is Durham Pride and Toronto Pride. I am not going to go into detail on this, I will leave that up to our Entertainment team.
 
Our Club is doing quite well at this time and in spite of an economic downturn, we are not feeling the crunch at this time.
 
So that everyone is aware, we have set aside reserve funds for a couple of months operation in the bank to get us through any slow times that may come upon us. We are still able to renovate in small doses, not have the renovations really affect our financial position.
 
Till next time, that is it for me.
 
Have a great month and I will be writing to you again.
 
Regards
and all the Best
Danny

 

 

hummer1975@hotmail.com 

Fun Time Travel Company staff are experienced professionals dedicated to serving your every holiday need. Steve Groat (Charlene's son) is a Travel & Tourism graduate from the Toronto School of Business. He has also taught there. Steve would like to tap into the gay & lesbian market. One suggestion would be to take a bus to the annual Gay Pride Parade in Peterborough (middle of September). He has done Gay Pride in New York City & Ottawa.
There is 'gay day" at  Canada's Wonderland in August. He has helped the Aids Committee of Durham Region at their monthly dances. Although they cater to mainly the senior market, Steve would like to reach younger clients. He can save people money on their travel plans >> often cheaper rates than one can find on the Internet. Steve would like to tap into niche markets like gay & lesbians & work with Rainbow Vacations on Church Street in Toronto.

Traveling in Canada is good for the gay traveler. This company has exclusive contracts for bus lines for Casino Niagara (Fridays & Sundays cost is only $15) & Casino Rama (Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays cost is $3).

The Fun Time Travel Company does a lot of day tours for things like theatre (Broadway type live shows), shopping etc.

Charlene Groat will be retiring in June 2009 & Steve will be taking over the business. I highly recommend if you have any travel needs or questions to contact Steve @ 905 576-1357 or toll free @ 1 800-420-6103. Also, check out their website: www.funbuscanada.com

If you know of a gay or gay positive business that could be featured in an upcoming newsletter, please let me know. I can be reached at:
cottageguy@rogers.com

 

 

           

What a blast Mamma Mia was!   The turn-out and response was phenomenal.  Standing on stage looking out at the fabulous audience made me stop and think about what an incredible community we have built for ourselves here in Oshawa.  Sure we have the usual drama that every gay or straight bar for that matter is going to experience, but we really do separate ourselves from the other typical bars in Southern Ontario.  We really are a community.  I could sense it standing with the other performers on the stage that night.  When push comes to shove, we are there for each other and we can never forget or underestimate the important of that sense of security for many in the community.
          We also reach out beyond our immediate community and extend into the broader.  The fact we were able to raise over $1400.00 for the Humane Society speaks volumes.  I was very proud to have so many from the Humane Society present that night to see first hand what our community has to offer.  Not only did it raise a significant amount of money, but it also raised awareness for ourselves.  We are a fun, kind, socially aware and generous part of this city.  Every time we bring the community in, we are slowly breaking down barriers of ignorance.  It is a win/win situation!
          As director of Mamma Mia, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest appreciation to all of the performers.  You have no idea the endless amount of evenings they give up for each production.  I'm talking hours upon hours of generosity.  Thank you to everyone involved in the production for making it such a huge success and a final thanks to all of the patrons who were so generous and giving that night.  We are stronger than ever and should be so proud of our place in Durham!

 

There ya have it - Savanaugh always has something to say.....

Hi All
 
I am back with the continuing story about  the Durham Alliance Association Social Club and how it developed into Club 717 as we know today.  Not forgetting that we are still the Durham Alliance Association Social Club, a Non-profit, Incorporated Association with a Constitution to provide an outreach, coming together and activities for the gay and lesbian community.
 
At this time President, Roy Miles and Secretary, Mike Childerhose, partners at this time ventured out to seek a permanent residence for our association to hold monthly functions with less work for all those involved.  We checked out many facilities around the city with no avail until we found an industrial plaza at 717 Wilson Road South, Unit number 7.  The owner seemed very excited when we showed interest in renting the unit on a monthly basis for our association monthly functions.  We held a board of directors meeting and soon decided that we would make the move to rent this unit and hold our monthly dances at a permanent facility.
 
We decided to rent this unit on a monthly basis and soon started making renovations.  The only washrooms at this time were the two ladies washrooms and we soon got under construction to build the men's and handicap washrooms.  We got the two men's washroom urinals from Branch 43 Canadian Legion and had donations for the two toilets for the men's and handicap washrooms.  We begged and borrowed for donations to help get everything we needed to meet our necessities.  I can remember John  Dunford jack hammering the concrete floor to install the men's washroom, handicap washroom and also to put in the plumbing for the bar sink.  Not a fun job!  We worked for two months during November and December countless hours building the washrooms, bar (out of barn board) which we had donated, and painting the walls and floor.  We got donations of paint and mixed everything together in a large metal drum and it turned out a light green colour.  This we used on the walls and an industrial paint (darker green) was used on the floor.  Finally we were finished and the club opened for New Year's Eve 1994 heading into the New Year 1995.  Allot of work by allot of dedicated people to open the club that very special New Year's Eve.
 
Our Treasurer at that time was a very thrifty Treasurer and he only purchased one 40 oz bottle of rye for the New Year's Eve party and I had to go home to bring more rye as we ran out before the party started.  The things we went through!  The evening turned out to be a success and from that evening we went on to be open every Saturday night.  Yes, we were only open one night per week on a Saturday night.  I was the DJ and did this for two years every Saturday night at no charge to the Association, yes I did this for free!  On occasion, I had my friend Jody from Toronto DJ to give me a break.  Each weekend he was DJ I put him up at my place for the weekend and usually had to drive him back to Toronto on the Sunday.
 
As the years went by we had various people on the board of directors of the Durham Alliance Association Social Club and they went through many changes and ventures as the club went on.  I find it sad that many of the club records, minutes and photo albums went missing and I personally feel that this information should have been kept for future reference for the Association's history and board of directors.  Anyone, with information on their whereabouts would be greatly appreciated as we had asked in the past with no avail.
 
We have had many people involved with Club 717 over the years, some good and some bad and I won't explain the bad parts, I think we all know.  At the present time, I am currently on the Board again and will work to achieve the betterment of the Club and for the gay and lesbian community.  The present board and volunteers, I feel are doing a great job and working very hard for the members and the gay community to provide a facility and entertainment to please you.  I hope that you have all learned something about the Durham Alliance Association, it's formation, it's building, it's builders and it's progress, and hopefully it's continuation and prosperity.  I only ask that you support the work that the board is doing for its members and community at large.
 
Submitted By: Mike Childerhose