Vida's View - April 16

Port Moody Rotary  Meeting April 16, 2014

Gary gave us an update on the District Assembly which was last Saturday:  It  is now called “District Training Assembly”, and offered 31 workshops.  Our attendees split up so they could compare notes on the way home and thus increase their knowledge.

Linda is taking reservations for Installation Night; be sure to let her know if your spouse is coming.

May 10 packing the container for Belize and we need your HELP

Peter gave us an update on the hockey pool:  the season is over, our Linda came in third.

Ron requests that if you still have tickets to SFPP, turn them in.  We have just 200 spaces yet to sell.

The District Conference is coming!

Guest Speakers:  Representing a project called “Ruben’s Shoes”, Desiree Dupries, Kelly Strongitharm, Brenda Nijjer, and Kristy DeBoer

Kelly was supporting a boy, Ruben, in the Dominican Republic.  She discovered that if a child has no shoes, he cannot go to school.  She started gathering shoes, and to date has hand-delivered 12,000 pairs!  This gives all those children a new beginning. 

 In Canada, 12 million pairs of shoes get thrown out every year.  Worldwide, there are 65 million children out of school. 29 million of these children are missing school because they don’t have the means for shoes and uniforms.  Also, going barefoot leaves them subject to parasitic diseases from bacteria in the dirty soil

Now they are affiliated with Dominican Star Foundation, whose motto is “People are the real wealth of a nation”.   Projects include: an apartment building converted to a school, $9800 pays four teachers, and $5,000 builds a kitchen.

                                                   A school for displaced Haitian children, $30,000 buys land for a school and orphanage, $8000 will buy a bus

This year they are gathering school supplies

There was extensive discussion, with Rotarians offering ideas to help.  Anyone who wants to donate shoes, give them to Alan Schmelzel.