After listening to a reading of the District Land Acknowledgement Statement by President Doug and then singing O Canada led by Rotarian Dave, the club members were treated to this interesting Thought for the Week. “In 1907, the Rotary Club of Chicago, under the leadership of Rotary International Founder - Paul Percy Harris, initiated the first Rotary public service project: creating a public comfort station. This project launched Rotary onto its "service above self" path.” Then, in Paul Harris’ book titled “My Road to Rotary”, we read “In 1913 a tornado swept through Nebraska and destructive floods appeared in Ohio and Indiana. The Rotary clubs in those states, supported by those throughout the nation, leaped into action, rescuing and feeding people and animals, and helping in the necessary rebuilding work……Rotary had met its first great test as a service organization.”

ROTARY MOMENTS

Jack mentioned that he recently spoke with Margaret Hemphill, who was thankful for Rotary members’ support of her brother’s wedding/fundraiser. Funds raised came to $12,000. Margaret also provided Jack with several copies of the “Neighbours of Charleswood” magazines that featured Charleswood Rotarians – who in turn shared them with club members present.

Christmas Kettle Volunteering – Josh thanked club members for taking on the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle again this year. For volunteers who were not present at this meeting, he asked that they provide proof of vaccination before their first shift (This can be done online). The Liquor Mart will be doing a quick screening on site before each shift. The Salvation Army’s goal is to raise $115,000 to provide free community meals to vulnerable men, women and children.

Club Meeting Expenses - At the November Board meeting, after a discussion on the food and staffing costs for our meetings, the Board decided to create a line item in the club budget to cover the guest speaker meals in the future. The entire club member meeting fee ($22.00) would be paid to Breezy Bend. The resulting increase of ~ $2.00 to Breezy Bend to be directed fully to cost of food for club meeting meals.

Lobsterfest 2022 – The Board also decided that the club will tentatively hold its next Lobsterfest on Friday, June 17, 2022. It will be a drive through event again, hopefully at the Varsity View Community Centre.

Youth Services – Glenn reported that MUNA, RYLA and Adventures in Citizenship programs will resume in 2022. The District’s Rotary Youth Exchange program will likely start again in the 2022-2023 Rotary year and interested individuals need to get their paperwork in by the end of 2021.

Harassment Prevention and Addressing Harassment – DG Dan Sutton has indicated that each club should be up-to date on the Harassment prevention articles in our District’s Manual of Policy and Procedure (MOPP) (Document 7.4) and in My Rotary’s article “Abuse and Harassment Allegation Reporting Guidelines”. In addition, each club should have a Harassment Prevention Officer. Peter Tonge has volunteered for that position and the Board approved this unanimously. (Thank you, Peter) He said that he had been the club’s Harassment Officer in the past and never had an incident to deal with so “Let’s keep it that way!”

Christmas Party (Dec 13th, 2021) -will take place at Breezy Bend on December 13th starting at 5:30 PM for an hour of cocktails and fellowship. The party will be restricted to Rotarians and partners, and special guests Myrna Driedger and husband Hal, DG Dan and wife Peggy, and area councillor Kevin Klein plus one. Tickets will be $40 a person and the meal will include appetizers, a 3-course turkey dinner and table wine donated by Dave and Nancy Morris. The deadline for purchasing tickets is Sunday, December 5th. Tickets are available from Sarge Mike.

Donations of socks for the Fit Feet on the Street program and food items for Westgrove School’s breakfast program can be brought to the meetings and collected by President Doug and/or by Chuck, or they can be brought to the Christmas party.

Chase the Ace Raffle, Week 30 – The winner of this week’s $40 prize was PDG Nancy.

(Charleswood Rotary Club’s RI Foundation Chair)

“RI FOUNDATION – HEART OF ROTARY”

Rotary International has its own separate foundation that was started in 1917 by Arch Klumph with a donation of $26.50. Today the Foundation has assets in the range of about $4.4 billion US. The only stipulation on the foundation in 1917 was “to do great work”. The Foundation is important because the money donated to The Rotary Foundation (TRF) comes back to the clubs.

There are three major activities that The Rotary Foundation (TRF) supports –

• Polio Plus (in excess of $2 billion US bringing the number of wild poliovirus cases around the world down to 2 – one each in Pakistan and Afghanistan).
• Rotary Peace Fellowships (started in 2002) – with two programs – doing a Master’s degree in one of 5 Universities in the world (Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan; University of Bradford in Bradford, England; University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden) or receive a Professional Development certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand or at Makerer University in Kampala, Uganda.
• Grants (which cover each of the 7 areas of service. – Promoting Peace, Fighting Disease, Providing Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Saving Mothers and Children, Supporting Education, Growing Local Economies, Protecting the Environment). Last year, TRF gave out almost 1400 grants over three categories – District grants (for smaller projects), Global grants (for large scale international projects) and Disaster grants (like ShelterBox) - totalling around $108 million or $109 million US.

Our club collects beer cans and beer bottles to donate money to Polio Plus, has had 3 or 4 Peace Scholars, did a water project in Africa one year, contributes funds to the Ripple Effect Program (building schools in Guatemala or buying books or desks for those schools), and uses District grants to support high school scholarships.

Overall, contributions to TRF have been waning, so rules have led to some of these changes. In order for a club to receive a grant, the per capita donation from the club to the Rotary Foundation must be at least $50 US. In addition, the club needs to have at least two members take part in a grant seminar every year.

Peter asked club members to make the Rotary Foundation their charity of choice. Learn about what the Foundation does at the RI Learning Center. Volunteer for the local Rotary projects. There are 15 different ways to give to the Rotary Foundation. Donations can be made by cash, cheque, credit card, through your will, by taking part in “Every Rotarian every year”. Check out a new site called “Raise for Rotary” where one can raise funds for any number of projects for any occasion, challenge, memorial or celebration. One can become a Paul Harris Fellow ($1000 US), a Major Donor ($10,000 US), or Arch Klumph Society member (contributing $250,000 US or more during their lifetime)

PDG Ed suggested that members could make their donation to RCCCF (Rotary Club of Charleswood Charitable Foundation) to get a tax receipt and credits towards Paul Harris Fellow.

The awarding of Global grants is largely based on the needs of the group being supported and on the sustainability of the project being proposed.

Sarge Mike welcomed Josh from the Salvation Army, who took pictures of the double vaccination cards of Rotarians identified by Ed Toews as individuals who had volunteered to tend the Salvation Army kettle on Saturdays leading up to Christmas at the Charleswood liquor store.

HAPPY BUCKS

Dave Morris was delighted with the donation of 360 beer bottles and cans by Ed Toews to fund Rotary International’s Polio eradication program.

Darvin got to sit in row 4 behind the Blue Bombers bench at the recent football game as the guest of his grandson.

PDG Ed marveled at the Bombers’ 10 wins and 1 loss in their 2021 football season.

Chuck was happy to arrive home safe and sound after having encountered two “wrecks” (traffic accidents) on his way home from Portage la Prairie – one near Breezy Bend Estates and another one beside Royal School.

Jagdish was enjoying our continuing good weather.

FINES

Sarge Mike fined Rotarians at a table that was being raucous while Jack was speaking.

50-50 DRAW

The ticket with the lucky number drawn belonged to Lloyd. There were only TWO marbles left in the bag – the lucky blue one and the white one. One could feel the tension. When Lloyd pulled out his marble, it was NOT the blue one!!! So what happens next week? Will the person whose ticket number is drawn automatically be the winner of the club’s 50-50 draw or will he/she still need to reach into the bag and pull out the last – the lucky - the blue marble?

NEXT MEETING

Next meeting will be: Monday, November 15th at Breezy Bend. (Guest Speaker: TBA) (Zoom Hybrid for the Guest Presentation portion of the meeting.)

Please register by the end of Friday, Nov 12th if you plan to attend in person. This is for the meal order.
Fellowship at 5:30pm with the Meeting Bell @ 5:45pm.
Dinner meeting fee is $22.00 (Please bring the proper cash or cheque.)
Breezy Bend staff will ask for proof of FULL double vaccination.
Masks must be worn until you get to your table and put back on anytime you leave your table.

Please do not share or post the Zoom Invite.