Rotary meeting April 19th, 2017
Guests: Carly Simms, John Crowther, Dr Paul Mitchell Banks
Speaker: Gerry Nuttall – Topic: The Club
Welcome Back Dave and Linda!
Search for the Perfect Pint – Peter and Gayle
Peter has sent out a spreadsheet with costs and returns to date
At the event we will have 7 food suppliers plus Rocky Point Ice cream and approximately 22 breweries participating. Westwood Honda will have 5 cars
Westwood Cycle is bringing e-bikes
Trudy is organizing the volunteers
Gayle is organizing the selling of the tickets – Anyone that has tickets, please update Gayle and bring the funds by next week. If there are any tickets left over we can give them back to the city to sell on line.
There are a couple breweries selling directly as well.
The Sign and street banner will be going up shortly and these will have good exposure.
Gayle is organizing an Installation dinner meeting May 2nd at 5:00 pm. She wants to get a good group for the committee…might be some wine at the meeting. The intent is to get some new ideas on recognition of those who are transitioning out of their positions.
Rotaractors - Trudy
There are more Rotarian magazines to recirculate. Trudy went to the Rotaract meeting and circulated the Tri-Cities news article. Ian updated us previously on some of their events. The Rotaractors have presented Barb from Home of Angels with a $2K cheque. Hearing her talk about the project, it was very moving. The situation in Africa and those from South Sudan is distressing. They may have used their RibFest earnings to support Home of Angels.
A couple of other items, their pub night is April 27th at 6:00 pm. Trudy has a ticket and wants to sell 5 more tickets to go together. Or buy a ticket that will be shared with a potential Rotaractor.
Finally, Noons Creek Hatchery needs to borrow a BBQ. Sarah Conkite was going on a project so she is going to help her a bit.
Rotary Moment - Dan Gallant
Rotary’s involvement in the UN. Global Polio 99% worldwide reduction for the last three decades a network of Rotary members have been working with UN, United Arab States and Organization of American States. (OAS) In the Briefing on education literacy issues were discussed. Ecuador worked with the District and OAS which is training teachers to meet literacy goals. The deep roots of Rotary and the UN actually pre-date the official chartering of the UN. 21 Nations met to advance education, science and culture which initiated Unesco and helped draft UN charter in 1945 and gave it a good start until the Cold War. In keeping with the Rotary staying out of the politics they pulled back from the UN at that time. Then the relationship was restored the launch of the campaign to eradicate polio in 1985.
Ann – Introduced Gerry Nuttall former Port Moody Councillor for 9 years. Gerry and Barb are best known for putting on fantastic golf tournaments and will be talking about one today.
Coreen busy taking notes.....
Gerry – Has been a resident of Port Moody for 45 years.
The Club is one room about 1100 sq ft at Ioco and Ungless and across from IGA parking lot.
This non-profit Port Moody Senior Friendship Society was established to address loneliness and engage shut ins and those who are disconnected in their community.
It is called “The Club” so people over 50 to say “let’s go down to the club.” In terms of background, when Gerry was on council they were trying to provide seniors with something so it was suggested that we support them with a location where seniors could meet. Gerry wanted to make it a place that the members could organize their own interests and programs. Ann Kitching was working with a woman called Toni Pandini and they were meeting at the Galleria with people from the Newport area to get together and socialize as they were stuck in apartments and alone. When leaving the council, He discussed with Ann the situation and what to do about it so they went to the residents at Alex Graham Manor but the centre was nervous about opening up what was previously a dining room. So Ann and Gerry decided to join the Seniors Focus Committee to see what to do but the suggestions were to put the coffee machine and sofas at the curling lounge…they wanted more and approached the Mayor for a gathering place for Seniors which have in many cases shut themselves into their homes and also for those active in the community. To provide a warm and an informal atmosphere where games, beverages light snacks and conversation, evening activities and out trips would enrich the lives of those seniors.
Unbeknownst to them , the Mayor was part of the Metro Vancouver Housing Committee so in a couple of weeks the Metro housing committee notified that they were going to donate the room and all the utilities and the City would cover the capital costs and a small annual budget of $30K. A Full kitchen and one employee are included and they are raising money to augment the budget that the City is giving them. They need to fund any activities they want to do and need to identify what the activity is and what it will cost. One of the policies they put in place is so that the people from Alex Graham manor could afford to participate and to have them not be a full service restaurant in competition with other local restaurants. There standard pricing is set so all meals and beverages are low cost so all can afford it for example: soup and sandwich $4.50 Bacon and pancakes are $3.50 and coffee for $1.
It has worked out very well. This would not be a place where people have to pay dues to participate. It costs them nothing to do anything there. One reason they are fundraising is for out trips such as a shuttle bus to Ribfest and ways to get the people out and about. Mayor and Linda Reimer visited The Club and said they don’t know anyone there as the participants tend to stay in their own area., some only come down for a few meals a week. A membership with dues is offered and those with membership have a say in what will happen in the club. To share what kind of stories and needs are being met…
One situation is an older gentlemen who had lost is wife and spent 2 years grieving and lived at his daughters he never did anything out. The daughter brought him down and now he comes 3 times a week and is socializing. A woman who used to be a professor and a published author from Rio Dejinaro and lives at Alex Graham Manor had not been out of her unit for 4 years except to visit doctors and now comes down 3 times a week. In the women’s wing, for those dealing with abuse and other issues they now have 3 or 4 people come down on a regular basis. A blind woman, who until the club was formed, only went out once a week and spends the day there. She is on the Board of Directors. Ann, Gerry, Fred Souffie and Wayne Borthwick. There is a monthly social with special guests. The purpose is to have the people there tell them what they want to do in the club. One of the things they want is a bingo day which would be good help them raise some money. Programs are from Monday for Friday, Toni and Cher does a practice your English group as there are a lot of people who have moved in and don’t have a good command of language. On Tuesday there is a knitting club, Wednesday a walking club and and Ukelele on Wed afternoons and a birthday celebration once a month with free cake and on Thursdays they have a geneology group forming. They also have events three or four times a month in the evening. As Ann mentioned they have now changed their Golf tournament from the city library literacy to
Links to Friendship. The tournament usually raises approximately $35,000 per year and will be August 29th this year.
Many could benefit from coming to The Club and bringing their friends as it’s a great place to meet. It’s not crowded. They are considering having a Poker tournament. Socials are open to everybody and Peller Estates provides the wine and they have horderves. There are typically 35 to 40 people for socials. On a daily basis about 30 people come in. They are looking into having a liquor licence to have happy hours on Fridays. They are seeking sponsorship for the Golf Tournament and have brought pledge sheets.
In the 6 months that they have been open they have 100 members. Membership is $15 per year. They send out a newsletter once a week for activities and notices. There is some newspaper advertising but mostly people find out through word of mouth.
Open 9 – 4 M-F and then evening events. With Metro Housing they have the space until 10:30 at night. There is a tenants association to work with on the evenings .
Ultimate their goal is to buy a bus but for this year their plan is to rent buses and supplement their kitchen staff for events. Other funds they have received include:
$10K grant from the Province for a patio.
$10K donations for endowment from Ann and
$4k donations for The Club
It was suggested that we could have a Rotary Breakfast meeting there some time to check it out.
All the activities are put on by members. It has been instrumental in getting retirees out, make conversations and make new friends as well as use their talents and minds for the community and themselves. This is something really needed by the retired and their communities.
Gayle presented the Golden Spike.