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Conservation Dinner

Annual Conservation Dinner and Auction

The Conservation Dinner returned to an in-person event on April 20, 2023 at the South Huron Recreation Centre in Exeter.

Each year, Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation is pleased to partner with the Exeter Lions Club and the watershed community to hold the Conservation Dinner and Auction. The Conservation Dinner fundraiser supports needed projects in local communities. 

The Exeter Lions Club has been a partner for more than three decades in the Conservation Dinner. 

The Exeter Lions Club, chartered in 1937, is part of the world’s largest and most active service organization. It is a group of service-minded men and women banded together to do things which cannot be done by individuals working alone. The club has actively fundraised for projects including development and maintenance of South Huron Trail, MacNaughton Park, and other nature and conservation projects. These are just some of the examples of their service in action.

This dinner and auction charitable fundraising event started in 1990. Net profits are split evenly between community conservation projects of the Foundation and community conservation projects of the Exeter Lions Club.

The event has raised more than $1.335 million for the community over 33 years.

Projects supported by the Dinner include parks and conservation areas; accessible nature trails in Bayfield, Clinton, Parkhill, Lucan, Arkona, Exeter, and Varna; outdoor nature education; a student environmental bursary; a summer job at Ausable Bayfield Conservation; turtle monitoring in Port Franks and Ailsa Craig; aquatic habitat studies in Old Ausable Channel at Grand Bend; and many other projects!

For more information on the 2023 Conservation Dinner as it becomes available, please visit conservationdinner.com and the Ausable Bayfield Conservation website

A photo of Conservation Dinner partners on stage.

PHOTO – 33rd CONSERVATION DINNER RETURNS TO IN-PERSON EVENT IN 2023 – After one missed year, and two years of holding the auction virtually online, the Conservation Dinner returned to an in-person event in 2023. Shown at the community fundraiser on April 20, 2023 are (from left to right in photo): Brian Horner, General Manager and Secretary-Treasurer of Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA); Lee Finkbeiner, President of the Exeter Lions Club; Dave Frayne, Chair of the Conservation Dinner Committee and Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation (ABCF); and Marissa Vaughan, Chair of the ABCA Board of Directors.

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