Rotary Meeting February 26th, 2020
GUESTS: Kalpna Solanki (Our speaker), Mobina Hasan and Ehsan Chisti (parents of a Heritage Woods student. They were part of the team of adults listening to the Student talks on what they’ve learned and what they want to accomplish. Also have shown interest in possibly joining Rotary.
BIRTHDAYS: Isy and Paul
ANNIVERSARIES: Ann 20 year with Club. Yvonne and Andy plus Megan and Paul.
- Danne spoke about the Heritage Woods students’ transition talks were and how inspirational.
- New Member social for the 5 Clubs was held at Pasta Polo and was a great turnout. Thank you to all our new members that attended. Glen, Michael, Anthony, Aziz, Mike, Frank and I hope I haven't missed anyone else. Oh Mobina Hasan and Ehsan Chisti were there and we will be very lucky if they decide to join our Club. DG Brad, AG Al, Past DG Denis & Carol did an excellent job presenting at the meeting. The first question that was asked was 'Why did you join Rotary'? a great thought provoking question that we should all reflect on. Well done !!!
- There will be a membership meeting on March 12th at Gayle’s place. Car- pool if possible as parking is at a premium. After the new members meeting, we will have a great start at what to talk about. Everyone welcome.
- Brief Board meeting update. NOTE we will have a semi-regular “Club Runner” update this Spring highlighting all the features and changes available on Club Runner.
- There will be a meeting on RIBFEST at Cleone’s April 13th. Will be for leadership team only.
- Report on PETS weekend.
- Thrifty’s has a net out looking for volunteers to help pick/deliver food orders to Seniors or folks with a disability that makes in store shopping difficult. This is the email we received. If you can help that would be fantastic.
From: Lynanne Smith [lsmith@thriftyfoods.com]
I am looking for your help in getting the word out for a few volunteers needed - three to be exact. Sendial is a shopping and home delivery service for individuals unable to shop in-store without assistance. The program has been in operation for 33 years. More than 500 volunteers make the service possible throughout the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. There is a small but mighty team of 14 that support our program in Port Moody. We are running very short on volunteers on Monday & Tuesday mornings. Since the shifts fall on weekday mornings, retired people are typically the best fit. Perhaps a Rotarian, or someone they know would be interested in exploring this opportunity. I’m hopeful you will consider putting out an e-mail to your members, or scheduling a representative to speak at an upcoming meeting. Over 150 of our volunteers have been volunteering for 10 years or more – they love their Sendial! More information about the program can be found at www.thriftyfoods.com/Sendial. Thank you for any assistance you can provide. I look forward to hearing back from you at your convenience.
- BON VOYAGE Party April 9th at Legion. More to follow.
- March 14th Belize Training. We have a large contingent of volunteers going to work on our International Grant project. Great work by Glen and Al S. organizing participation from several Clubs in our District, plus other districts, plus international support plus support from our Canadian Government.
And speaking about Belize look at what is already happening at the Belize Prison.
This is the new kitchen for the female section. First batch of cookies. We hope to make it sustainable by making items they can sell at the prison shop. So we can train sustainably. Teaching to make stuff that can sell will help them when they get out. They are so happy and proud.
- RLI coming up one Saturday in March.
Darrell was awarded a service pin for all the work he does securing guest speakers for our meetings. He is open to ideas from anyone in the Club--If you hear someone speak that you think would be good for our members to hear get the contact info to Darrell and he will follow up with them.
Guest speaker Kalpna Solanki from “Operators Without Borders”
--Born in Zambia, High School in Britain, and University in B.C. She is now CEO of Operators Without Borders.
--Kalpna uses the term OPERATOR to cover any of their trained workers involved in a) water treatment, b) water distribution, c) waste-water collection, or d) waste- water treatment.
-- Operators Without Borders is a Registered Canadian Non Profit NGO. It was formed in 2017 in response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria which struck Dominica. It presently has over 50 volunteer workers who work where and when needed.
--It is not a “first responder” agency. They are called on to help “recover” after an emergency with teams of operators who.
Mentor and train utility operators
Provide post-disaster recovery for water and waste-water utilities
Provide recycled equipment.
--in most cases they leave the area with better services than they had before the storm. As in Dominican Republic
--In Bahamas (2019) the problems have been with contamination of their aquifers so their work has been in drilling new source aquifers and working to desalinate water to drinkable levels.
--For first time they have also been called in to help in some cities in the US after hurricanes in the south.
--Part of their expanding mandate is to supply volunteers to help in poor countries especially around the Carribean but also looking at in Africa. They want to send teams to help the water/wastewater sector anywhere. Natural disasters like the earthquake in 2010 in Haiti can decimate infrastructure. Their goal is to be able to send teams to help the water sector anywhere help is needed.
They had a project in Belize in 2019 where they were helping to upgrade and replace part of their supply/treatment systems. $ volunteers worked to train “operators” in Belize.
More information available at their website https://operatorswithoutborders.org