Luncheon Nov 26,2015

A sunny crisp Osoyoos day outside and equally bright inside....someone had sprinkled a generous dose of the spirit of giving over the meeting!

PR Karen presided and introduced our guest speaker Michael Ryan who is spearheading the arrival and sponsorhip of a Syrian refugee family to Osoyoos. He spoke to the tremendous need to respond to this tragedy, the greatest human displacement since WW2. This family would come under the private sponsorship piece of the 25,000 refugees that the Cdn goverment has committed to. A steering committee of 14 is working the logistics, having raised just over half of the $30,000 they view is needed in the first year. A house is rented and there have been so many donations given that the more immediate needs are financial. He does not know much about the family coming other than there are four with 2 children aged 5 and 8 and they will arrive before February and hopefully by year's end. Support was immediately offered by individuals in the club and Michael was recognized for this worthy project.

ADG Cheryle then spoke on some of her learnings from her District role over the past 6 mos (she will share more in a future meeting), encouraging all of us to reflect on the reasons why we joined Rotary and ensure our actions and behaviors are consistent with the 4-way test.

Lynda updated us on the Christmas 'Adopt a Family' program that our club is supporting...this year it is a family of 5 with 3 girls aged 5, 7 and 11. She will distribute a list of needs and we can respond directly to her...of course there was lots of support from members! There is a fairly short time frame allowed for collection so please respond promptly.

We have been approached by the District to consider taking on an outbound student from the  Summerland Club as they had 2 outstanding applicants and could only support one. They recognized that we were not successful in finding a student locally and of course we need an outbound to receive an inbound next fall. The response from the club was immediate and strongly supportive...so very gratifying! The upshot is that we have a super excited Sylvia Mott now knowing she will be on exchange next year and is looking forward to meeting the club at the December 10th meeting. Well done!

Harold has taken the lead on our Festival of Trees decoration following the meeting at Inkameep...there was promise of 'bubbly' for those helping to decorate! The is part of some $60m that the Festival has contributed to Children's Hospital over the past 5 years.

Pam outbid everyone for the awesome Rotary licence plate holders that PE Karen auctioned! Lucky girl, and then Harold promised to mount them for her!

See what I mean by spirit of giving?

Remember no noon meeting next week, replaced by our Christmas function that evening at the Golf Club.