The Cochrane Activettes have been chartered as a “Not for Profit” Society since May of 1978. The organization has seen a strong volunteer group of dedicated, “active” women for over 43 years. Currently, there are over 50 women who are volunteering their time to providing charitable welfare for Cochrane and area.

Upon asking Cochrane Activettes President, Marcia Gilbertson to reflect on 2020 and the greatest challenges the Activettes faced she answered, “The biggest challenge was the unknown. What we were going into with the onset of COVID how we were going to cope with it? If we were going to get donations, and how and when and who our clients were going to be?  Were we going to have a large demand?”

Their primary focus is the Cochrane Food Bank and providing Christmas Hampers. Marcia Gilbertson reports that although they were concerned with the uncertainty of 2020 and what the pandemic world would bring, the Activettes 2020 Share Your Christmas campaign was a great success. The Activettes handed out 288 hampers to 975 people which broke down to 239 adult males, 317 adult females, 419 children, 135 dogs, and 142 cats. Of course, Garcia says they couldn’t do it without the kindness of local residents. “We have a great community here that has always been very helpful, very thoughtful, but everybody really just stepped up to the plate and it was amazing.”

Another big obstacle the Activettes faced was the operation of the Clothesline thrift store which they operate was affected by the shutdown in the spring of 2020. Gilbertson says that the Clothesline is their mainstream of revenue. They were concerned about how the organization would handle that unknown, but Gilbertson says in hindsight, “We managed it very well.”

With 2020 in the rearview mirror, and thankfully having successfully maneuvered it, Gilbertson looks ahead to 2021. She would like to see a more open line of communication in reaching the folks that need their help. Gilbertson says, “There are lots of ways to communicate these days, but I don’t know that it gets down to the grassroots of the people that really need our help.” The Activettes, look forward to increasing that communication highway and as Gilbertson says continue,” Working with the community to see the need for the food bank and the clothesline, and also highlight what else we do. We do help a lot of groups in the community throughout the year with our Ways and Means, which we don’t really get noticed for quite as much. So, we want to highlight those things and move forward with them.”

Gilbertson, says that in 2020 the group was not able to get together socially, and that was missed as it is an important part of the organization. While they were able to meet on zoom, it wasn’t possible to get the large group all together at once. She hopes that 2021 will see a return to the social camaraderie that is a vital part of the organization.

The Cochrane Activettes are a strong heartbeat in the community of Cochrane and area and their work and dedication help and touch the lives of so many. One of their goals is to make Cochrane and district a better place and they certainly succeed in doing that.

Gilbertson says the Cochrane Activettes are always looking for more volunteers, so if you are interested in volunteering some of your time with them you can go to their website here.