Caleb Nickerson
SHAWVILLE June 30, 2017
The Shawville R.A. Hall was filled to capacity Friday night as local citizens gathered for the second annual Villa James Shaw Canada Day fundraiser dance.
Albert Armstrong, president of the Villa James Shaw committee, explained that organizing the night was an entirely volunteer effort that began almost immediately after last year’s event. He estimated that over 200 people were in attendance.

“The Rotary, this is their sponsorship fundraiser for Villa James Shaw,” he explained. “They were responsible for getting the tickets out, renting the hall, all of that.”
He added that the light lunch served during the evening was coordinated by committee member Sue McCleary, who wrangled all the donations of sandwiches and desserts.
The Villa James Shaw project is an initiative of local citizens that are seeking to construct a retirement residence on rue Centre in Shawville.
The Des Allen Band provided the entertainment for the evening and had many attendees on the dance floor, grooving to their tunes.
“T page threehey’re all guys that were local, we all know them,” Armstrong said. “In fact, I coached Des Allen in hockey and he’s a super hockey player.”
“People like to hear from the local groups,” he added.
There was a diverse range of items up for auction, including a ride in an airplane with local pilot Eric Smith, a hockey jersey donated by Bryan Murray and lunch on Parliament Hill, donated by local MP Will Amos.
Midway through the band’s set, Villa James Shaw director Rick Valin took to the stage to thank volunteers for their contributions and introduce the project’s first employee, Erin Rousseau.
“This is an incredible display of community,” he said. “What better way to celebrate Canada Day than getting together with friends.”
Armstrong explained that Rousseau had been hired on for the summer for a wide variety of tasks.
“She’s going to be heavily involved in the project. She’s hired on to get memberships, to tabulate all of the [donations] from fundraising events,” he said. “She’s going to be putting on fundraising events. Right now we’re at about 230 members and we’d like to see that go up to about 400 by the end of the year.”
Currently a needs and feasibility study is underway and Armstrong said they would be hosting town hall meetings and distributing surveys in the near future to get the public’s input on the project. He expects the study will be complete by the end of September and added that there has been a considerable amount of support from private donors as well as local officials.
“We’ve got a lot of money promised for when the project is ready to roll,” he said.
Rotary Club President and committee member Larry Coleman said that in total, the event brought in roughly $8,000 for the project.
“There was a good crowd of all ages,” he said. “We’re going to try and do it every year about the same time.”