Story by Angela Long

Published June 28 2016

It was late September when the Ladies Golf League of Unionville started planning their 15th anniversary. Members Heather Greenwald and Barb Aston offered up their Haliburton County cottages to the group of 20 women. But instead of guests bringing a customary hostess gift the women thought why not try something different?

“We knew neither of us needed anything” Greenwald said in a phone interview from Unionville. “But guests don't usually listen and bring something anyway.”

So on June 10 Greenwald and Aston's guests arrived with trunks filled with non-perishable foodstuffs and bags of clothing rather than bouquets of flowers and bottles of wine. The women had spent months accumulating the goods to donate to local charities with the intention of “making a positive impact on the community” said Greenwald. “We wanted to give back rather than to take.”

The initiative was embraced by the members of the league with great enthusiasm said Greenwald.

“One woman showed up with four huge bags” she said. “The group donated so much I'm going to have to wait for my husband to come up with the truck to take it all into Haliburton.”

After 14 years as a cottager on Lake Kashagawigamog Greenwald thought donations of items not readily available in this area might be appreciated.

“I know there's no mall in Haliburton” she said. “So something like a Timberland shirt might be really special to someone.”

The two truckloads of donations delivered by Greenwald and her husband last weekend are part of what Greenwald and the her league hopes will become a “summer trend” a “ripple effect” created by something much more than a jump off the dock and into the lake.