President Cindy welcomed members and called upon Rachel Delaney to say grace and Rick Evans to lead the club in the national anthem. 
 
President Cindy introduced the Head Table:
  • Introducing our speaker: Tom Arkell
  • Speaker: Kyle Rose
  • President: Cindy Mewhinney
  • Sergeant-at-arms: Stuart Butler
  • Rotary Story: Talia Yousef
  • Introducing our guests/dinner and registration:  Terry Romaniuk
Guests:
Jean Aitcheson – Rotarian from Stratford Rotary Club
Brad Clarke – guest of Tom Arkell
Talia Yousef – guest of Betty-Lou Souter
Karl Vanderkuip – guest of Rick Vanderkuip
Pia Zimmermann – Youth Exchange Student
 
President Cindy invited Anne Atkinson to introduce our new member Jennifer HansenJennifer is the Director of Nursing at the Hotel Dieu Hospital.  Her classification is Health Care.
  
 
Rotary Story: 
Talia Yousef participated in the RYLA Program.  She was introduced to the program by Betty Lou Souter during a presentation to students participating in a homelessness initiative.  Talia agreed to participate but was intrigued as there were no instructions on what to pack.  Regardless, she found the experience life-changing. She thanked Rotary for the impact that this experience had on herself and her leadership.
 
President Cindy reminded members that the deadline is NOW for nominating students for RYLA. Our club normally sponsors 4 students.  She mentioned that the District RYLA Committee is looking for volunteers.
 
Speaker Introduction:
Tom Arkell introduced Kyle Rose, who is the President of the Brock University Student’s Union.  Tom mentioned that he and Kyle are normally on the opposite sides of the table but more often than not, of late, in a good way.  Kyle is completing his BA in Philosophy and is a varsity wrestler.  In his role as BUSU President, Kyle has been a strong advocate for an integrated transit system as well as strategies to retain youth in Niagara.
 
Speaker:  
  
Kyle spoke on how Brock University is a platform for the ambitious, which he said was evident in using his full name, Kyle Denzel Rose, on his first slide.  What is good about Brock is that the university allows students to excel.  He said that the best marketing tool is a satisfied customer.  He described a number of situations where students have raised issues or opportunities, presented the ideas to the university and saw their ideas implemented (i.e. new turf field).  He was attracted to Brock only because it has the best wrestling program in Canada, if not North America.  He realized that he needs more than wrestling to be successful and then started to focus on his studies and also on being an entrepreneur – he wanted to take his future in his own hands.   He then focused on the ways in which Brock fosters mentorship, entrepreneurship and leadership development.  He closed with his favourite saying, “don’t chase love, fame or success. Become the best version of yourself and those things will come to you.”
 
Wade Stayzer thanked Kyle for his presentation.
 
Announcements:
President Cindy announced that the Citizenship Ceremony has been rescheduled from May 5th to June 16th in the evening.  Details to follow.
 
Stuart Reimer announced that the City has received a Canada 150 Infrastructure grant from the federal government, of $50,000 which will be matched by $25,000 from the City and $25,000 from our club.  The funds will be used for upgrades at Rotary Park.  Thanks to Rick Vanderkuip for taking the lead on the grant application.
 
Tom Arkell reminded members that next week’s meeting is at Holiday Inn Parkway Hotel on Ontario Street and that this will be a joint meeting.  Steve Ludzik is the speaker.
 
Birthdays:
A round of applause  to bring birthday greetings to Terry McDougall, Sam Walters, April Feasby, and Kathryn RaRa Asaro.
 
Anniversaries:
Kim Schwenker (1 year), Gregory Darte (10 years)
 
Happy Dollars:  
 
Bob Lawler was drafted into doing Happy Dollars this week in return for a similar drafting of Tom Arkell when Bob was doing program earlier this year.
 
Betty Lou Souter was very happy for introducing Talia to RYLA, for the exceptional students who recently received awards from the Goodman School of Business and to Karl Vanderkuip, who did a pop-up dinner at Rodman Hall for Community Care.
 
Rick Evans was happy to be heading to Brazil where he will see the project funded with our Global grant.  He’ll also be bringing medical supplies courtesy of Dr. Ken Taylor and Dr. Tom Pekar.
 
Jagdish Mehta is happy to be back from India although he had hoped that spring would great him upon his return.  He paid for his happy dollars with a Crossingham dollar that still seemed to have some value many years after they were issued.
 
Rachel Delaney apologized for stumbling through grace as the after effects of a recent eye infection impacted her vision.
 
John Nitsopolous was happy to have recently celebrated his brother’s 60th birthday and, at the event, managed to raised $27,000 for four local charities.
 
Pia Zimmerman was happy to be staying with Steve 10-9-House and his family.  She was also happy to be moving from junior band to senior band.  She’s doing some fundraising for her trip to Montreal as well.
 
RaRa Asaro was happy for Kyle’s presentation.
 
50/50: Unfortunately Bill Finley did not win the $870 pot.  Bill mentioned that the 50/50 was introduced during his time as President and that today was the 1st time his number had ever been called.
 
Next week’s speaker: Steve Ludzic.  No meeting at golf club.  Meeting will be at Holiday Inn on Ontario Street, regular meeting time.
 
In closing:
President Cindy asked members to be better and not bitter. 
"You either get bitter or you get better.  It's that simple.  You either take what has been dealt to you and you allow it to make you a better person or you allow it to tear you down.  The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you."  Josh Shipp
------------------------------------
Challenge from March 31st: 
Watching funny videos will improve your focus!  Watch Tyler and Tripp's 'Every meeting ever':  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7agjXFFQJU
and "A Conference Call in Real Life" :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYu_bGbZiiQ