Community Relations

COMMUNITY RELATIONS: Becky Carlson, Joe Benkowski, & Barb Matson

2025 Re-cap of the Community Relations Committee

This year was a busy one for the newly formed Community Relations Committee.

What we did:

  • Set up several speakers for our monthly meetings.
  • Hosted our first Camp Villages event.
  • Promoted the first Christmas in July Open House.
  • Facilitated the VWC exhibiting at the Villages monthly Lifestyle Expo.
  • Contacted nine national woodworking magazines to see if there was interest in doing an article on our woodshops. We will follow up with those contacts after the holidays.
  • Set up a system to keep track of donations from members who donated their handmade items to be given to charities asking for items to be auctioned off at their fundraising events.
  • Worked with the Toy Department who generously donated a box of toys to be delivered in early January to the nursery and preschool rooms for the children at Hope Children’s Home in Tampa.

Next year, we have a couple of changes, ideas, and continuing programs as we go forward into 2026.

  • Our first change is that Joe Benkowski will no longer be a member of our committee. He will be volunteering with other committees that need his expertise. We would love to have more members join our committee. If you are interested, please call Becky at 651-270-4365.
  • The second change is that the Community Relations Committee will no longer be tasked with finding speakers for the monthly meetings.

What we are planning:

  • Working with the Board to help promote the re-opening of the Rolling Acres shop.
  • Promoting various other VWC events as they come up.
  • Continuing to accept donations for items to be given to charities for auctions and distribute them to charities as they contact us.
  • Plan on providing information about the club to realtors to share with each Village about the woodshop,
  • Discuss the possibility of another Camp Villages event next summer.