May 2026 Newsletter

Greater Orleans Garage Sale

May 30, 2026 – 8 AM Onwards – Across Orleans

Communities across Orleans are running garage sales for anyone interested (either to host one or to hunt for treasures). See more information, a map of registered sales, and add your own address to the list.

2^nd Annual Kidical Mass Ride in Convent Glen North

June 13, 2026 – 10 AM – Father Richard Ward Park

We’re all ready for a fun family bike ride to kick off the summer. Register now and join us on a loop through Convent Glen North. All ages are welcome!

If you or a neighbour/relative/friend are interested in volunteering as a marshal along the route, please get in touch via an email to [email protected].

First‑Ever Music in the Woods Festival

This Summer, A Celebration of Community, Culture, and 200 Years of Local History

Way, way more details to come! Stay tuned. Volunteer to help with planning or the event day at [email protected].

🎲 Join A Weekly Board Game Night in Orléans!

👉 Red Dragon Comics at 7:30 PM on Thursdays (6008 Voyageur Drive, Orléans)

Drop by and meet our friendly local board game group! We gather every Thursday at 7:30 PM at Red Dragon Comics (6008 Voyageur Drive) to enjoy a variety of modern board games—and we love welcoming new faces.

Our group is family-friendly, newcomer-friendly, and built on consistent weekly gatherings. Whether you’re stopping in for a quick game or staying the whole evening, you’ll find a warm, inclusive atmosphere where it’s easy to jump in and play.

We’re also especially looking to grow our community of experienced players who enjoy teaching games and helping lead tables. If you love sharing great games and can join us regularly, we’d love to meet you!

Come join your neighbours for a fun, social evening of board gaming!

Play Social Events Recap

We ran a total of three of these events this past year between January and March, and all three were extremely well received. We had enough attendees at each (between 80-100) that having more people show up would have been too much.

This was a very successful experiment in unlocking local space in the community to allow people to gather and spend time together. We intend to use this information as a jumping-off point to do much more of this, especially if local school councils are willing to work with us and grease some wheels booking space.

If you’d like to help host one of these events at a local school or other public venue, get in touch!

Clothing Swap Recap

Together, our community donated 2,842 lbs of clothing and textiles, which were recirculated to members of our community and organizations that support them. That’s over a metric tonne of fabric that found new life instead of staying hidden in the back of a closet, or destined for the landfill.

The clothing swap was only possible thanks to the hard work of our 35 volunteers. These volunteers managed to triage 1,421 lbs of same-day donations, while also doing “shopping” for our community organizations.

CGOW Cleaning the Capital Recap

More than 200 community members came out to pick up garbage in the sunshine: adults, kids, teens, families.

Thanks to YOU, we were able to pick up and remove NEARLY A METRIC TON of garbage from our community. We removed 2,126.8 lbs of garbage in just 3 hours!!

That’s thousands of pounds of waste kept out of our soil, streets and waterways. It’s incredible, and it’s all thanks to you. To every single person who participated in this year’s Cleaning the Capital event, THANK YOU. You truly made a difference yesterday.

What a powerful act of community and environmental stewardship. Every person in this event was a volunteer; you prove that everyone can make an impact.

An enormous thank you to our sponsors who helped make this all possible: Golden Fries Orleans, Mighty Mouse Junk Removal, Place d’Orleans, Metro Ontario (Jeanne d’Arc), & The Home Depot (Orleans).

Clothing Swaps: Changing more than outfits!

Chantal Boudreau

Clothing swaps are a way to keep clothing in circulation to give them new life. During these events, people pick from articles of clothing that were donated freely; you do not need to have donated items to pick items and generally the clothing is given for free.

The Latest from ‘The New Orleans’

From Rob Attrell, Board Director and Outreach Committee Chair

• My Delegation and Comments on Sidewalks in Manor Park – March 2026
• Dear Everyone – Keep Buying Gas, Please

Subscribe today and follow the journey at TheNewOrleans.ca.

From Matthieu Gagnon, Vice-President

Reflection on Growing Up in Orléans

There are a number of people who seem to be of my parents’generation who have a vision of a quaint Orléans that was idyllic to raise a family. I thought it would be good to reflect on growing up in the suburbs.

Easing Into a Bike Commute

Spring is here, gas prices are rising along with the temperature and the number of people driving downtown is likely to keep increasing with RTO mandates and an increasingly unreliable transit system. Some of you may be tempted to try a bike commute.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Guest Contribution

Mental Health Awareness Month is every May in Canada. It opens up conversations about the different mental illnesses that affect many people in their everyday lives.

Submit Your Photos Today

The Photo and Video Archive is our attempt at a community-owned, locally-sourced repository of high-quality visuals. By building this crowdsourced repository, we are creating a shared resource that belongs to the neighbourhood.

We are looking for “stock-style” photos and/or video that captures the everyday reality of our corner of Orléans. This includes the beauty of our ravines and river paths, but also the mundane—the intersections we cross, the homes we live in, and the ways we move through the community. You could look to capture something you really love or something you seek to improve. This media allows us to make our perspective visible to the rest of the city.

Contribute Knowledge to your Community

Our new forum is designed to let community residents break out of the algorithmic traps of social media and contribute to a shared knowledge base that reflects community needs and sentiment.

Built using Discourse community software, the CGOW Forum is an online public square for a variety of topics important to our neighbourhoods, and you can even navigate and read the forum without an account.

At the end of 2024, we explicitly set out to start growing our community association membership and newsletter subscription base. We now have over 200 members and our newsletter reaches nearly 600 people each month.

We’re hoping to get your help to register your friends and neighbours in the community by running a membership drive, featuring ✨prizes✨ for residents who encourage the most new signups (provided those people are residents living inside our Geographical Boundaries).

If you aren’t already a CA member, join today! You can still participate if you’re a brand new member.

Volunteer Opportunities

We have a ton of ongoing opportunities to get involved, please have a look at the full list (linked). Please reach out if you’re interested.

• Volunteer Coordinator
  • Send regular updates to volunteer group about new and upcoming opportunities
  • Help event planners find volunteers
  • Help recruit new community volunteers
• Events Coordinator
  • Keep track of upcoming events with leads
  • Make sure events have a poster, date/time, RSVPs, booking, etc.
• A/V Expert/Coordinator
  • Someone that can help out with in-person events that need video or sound to help set things up
  • Can give advice for possible purchases in this area
• Local Experts/Coordinators
  • We’d love to hear from you if you are interested in representing your specific area’s interests within the community association. Our boundaries include Convent Glen North and South, as well as Orleans Wood and everything north of St Joseph and west of Place d’Orléans, and we hear from some parts of the community much more than others.
• School Parent Council Liaisons
  • If you’re affiliated with a parent council, in the community we’d love to be in touch to coordinate events where appropriate.
• Graphic Designer
  • If you have a strong eye for design or visuals, we’d love your help putting together graphics for community promotion or advertising community events.
  • We have been using Canva for design, so experience with that program would certainly be helpful.
  • Tasks we’d be looking for help with include the following:
    • Help us to create posters, flyers, and other materials for events
    • Support graphic design needs like logos or other graphics.

Orléans Community Network

The Orléans Community Network is a way for different organizations and community groups to keep in touch, share information, events, and best practices, and unite in advocacy on relevant issues. It’s also a great way for residents to find and get in touch with community groups that are active in Orléans.

To have your organization included in the network, reach out to [email protected] with the name of the organization, its website, and a main contact email address.

CGOW Community Network

The Convent Glen Orléans Wood (CGOW) Community Network is a dedicated way for volunteer groups, schools, and local organizations right here in Convent Glen and Orléans Wood to communicate and collaborate. Powered by your Convent Glen Orléans Wood Community Association, our mission is to foster a more connected, informed, and collaborative neighbourhood. We believe that by making it easier for us all to communicate and work together, we can strengthen the tight-knit bonds that make our community a truly special place to live.

To have your organization included in the network, send an email to [email protected] and let us know the organization’s name, website, and a central contact email address.

CA Board of Directors Meeting – May 11 – 7:30 PM

Every month, the Board of Directors of the Community Association holds a meeting to discuss ongoing community association matters. If you’d like to bring up something the board should discuss, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also see minutes from previous board meetings here, to see what we’ve been chatting about: Board Meeting Minutes.