A lively pre-meeting fellowship session ended at 5:47 PM when President Doug called the meeting to order and PDG Nancy made it official by ringing one of the bells from her collection. This was followed by an orchestral version of O Canada, accompanied by videos of Canada’s scenery, wildlife, people (soldiers, farmers. children), horses and buildings appearing above the words of our national anthem.

President Doug’s Thought for the Week was followed by a Rotary Moment and both dealt with Vocational Service (one of Rotary’s Five Avenues of Service) since January is Rotary’s Vocational Service Month.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“Vocational service gives Rotarians the opportunity to help others escape poverty and gain a measure of self-respect. As business and professional leaders, we have a duty to lead and encourage good ethics through vocation.”

Rotary Moment - Rotary’s Five Avenues of Service

Community Service includes those activities in which Rotarians make substantial and lasting improvements in the quality of life of their community.

International Service is a dynamic opportunity for members to become involved with world community service, friendship exchanges and global scholarships, all of which are aimed at promoting international understanding, goodwill and peace.

Vocational Service covers the work done by members in relation to their own vocation or profession, sharing business information, and may include coaching students about their career prospects and business ethics.

New Generations Service recognizes the positive change implemented by youth and young adults through leadership development activities such as Rotaract and Interact club service projects and creating international understanding through Rotary Youth Exchange.

Club Services encompass those activities necessary for the successful running of a Club, and include serving on committees, proposing individuals for membership, membership growth and retention activities, fellowship, club administration and public relations.

Sarge Mike introduced our visitors – Stuart Graham, Taiseer Sharief and Strini Reddy.

MORE ROTARY MOMENTS

Report from the Jan 5th Board meeting –

1. Assiniboine Forest:

a) A cross-country ski trail with appropriate signage is being developed for this winter in the main meadow when you first enter the forest from the Grant / Chalfont parking lot. This is being done with the additional help from two community volunteers.

b) The marketing and signage committees are putting plans together. Signage priority is the Grant Ave. roadway sign at the parking lot.

c) A grant application has been submitted to city personnel, as recommended by Kevin Klein. (Land Dedication Reserve Fud - LDR). Other possible grant sources are being investigated with the province and Ottawa.

d) A new online fundraising program (a lottery called “Chase the Ace”) has been approved by both the Assiniboine Forest Committee and the Club Board for the Assiniboine Forest Enhancement project. A contract must be signed with the supplying company after a few more details are finalized. President Doug will present the idea to the club once all the details have been determined.

2. Youth Services

a) Three students have yet to be invited to visit our club once we are able to meet at Breezy Bend again. These include Max Kurtz (RYLA participant), and scholarship recipients Emily Lang (Shaftesbury High School) and Brock Nykoluk (St Paul’s High School).

b) The club’s Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) team, with Iain Scott as the team counsellor, will be representing Kuwait at MUNA. Students involved are Halee Piasta and Matthew Stipanovic.

c) District 5550 Youth Exchange Committee is restructuring with a new strategic plan. A committee meeting is expected to be scheduled for January 2021. Glenn and Iain have volunteered to be on this committee. There is uncertainty whether the Youth Exchange Program will proceed for the 2021/2022 school term.

3. District Grants

The club would like to be able to apply for District Grants for the 2021/2022 Rotary year for scholarships and other ongoing projects. The applications must be submitted by March 31, 2021. However, to qualify for these grants the club must have made donations to the RI Foundation’s Annual Fund of at least $50 USD per capita by March 31st. President Doug asked members to please consider making a donation to increase our club’s per capita amount.

4. Director’s Dialogue

The next ‘Director Dialogue’ is scheduled for Jan 14th, this Thursday, at 6:00pm Central. The guest is Past Rotary International President (PRIP) Barry Rassin, and the topic is ‘Elevate Rotaract, and what it means to Rotary’s future’. Pre-registration is required.

The next ‘Director Dialogue will take place on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

Greg Fraser shared what he has been doing over the past 9 months or so during the pandemic. Basically, he cannot go on a vacation and is stuck at home. He and his wife have 3 children and 5 grandchildren – all living in Winnipeg. They used to have bi-weekly family dinners in their home, but the last family dinner took place about a year ago. Linda contracted MS over 40 years ago and has quite a few symptoms, but the biggest one is chronic fatigue, which forces her to rest every afternoon and forego many social activities. As a family, they used to enjoy driving by car towing a tent trailer across North America then moved on to cruises, motel trips to various places – but these had to stop before the pandemic. So over the years they have had to focus very much on the quality of life and make some difficult choices . Now Linda’s favourite pastime is shopping at the mall every Saturday afternoon while Greg spends time reading and enjoying good coffee. During the two years that Greg has been ill and during the pandemic, when shopping has been suspended, they have enjoyed patio lunches at a local restaurant.

In August 2019, Greg developed a hernia, which was pretty severe by the time he had surgery in mid-March. Greg became sick a month after his hernia operation and had to have his gallbladder removed. All surgeries and recoveries went very well, thanks to many people. Between his hernia and the pandemic, Greg has had LOTS of time at home – reading, watching news and reflecting on life in general. Greg then shared some of his musings with us: “Pandemic aside, serious global and local issues abound with little or no (or extremely slow) action to resolve them while ideas and recommendations abound. Leadership at all levels of government is lacking, involve endless debates, and short-lived action. I have come to believe that sustainability should be a top tier objective. But to be honest, I haven’t found a definition that is broad enough to include the activities necessary. Another issue – human overpopulation plays a key part in many of the current global issues. It needs to be addressed. However, it is rarely discussed, probably due to its inherent sensitive nature. As Linda and I have learned during her lengthy illness, quality of life is central to personal decision-making.”

President Doug sympathized with Greg and wished him and Linda all the best and much better times when “we get out of this”!

Next week’s presenter of Rotary Show & Tell will be Iain Scott.

President Doug announced a Paul Harris Award to Greg Fraser, who is a Multiple Paul Harris Fellow through his donations to the worthy programs and activities of the Rotary Foundation. (Lloyd Talbot will deliver the pin.) Congratulations, Greg!

Strini began his presentation by congratulating members Mandy and Peter for their “Talking Rotary” podcast (which he highly recommended) with John Curry, the executive director of National HIP. He was also impressed with the club meeting, all its past District Governors and especially with the presentation made by Greg this evening. He then proceeded with his slide presentation, assisted by Taiseer Sharief.

The Charleswood Rotary Club was an early adopter of the HIP program by appointing a representative to the HIP committee. Strini hoped that many more clubs would join the Winnipeg Downtown Rotary Club’s HIP committee or form such a committee of their own. Winnipeg has two representatives on the National HIP Board – David Newman and Diane Redsky (executive director of Ma Mawi, an Indigenous-led Community Organization). The main focus of HIP is relationship building and reconciliation. Niigaan Sinclair reported that a Nanos study found that more than 50% of Canadians believed that we are not doing enough to support First Nations children and youth. The Indigenous Services Committee of the Rotary Club of Toronto echoed this by expressing the belief that reconciliation with Canada’s indigenous people must start with the children and youth by providing them with all the necessary means for them to live fruitful and happy lives. This has a remarkable similarity to the current Rotary D5550 Strategic Plan.

We were shown a video of part of the speech that Chief Perry Bellegarde made at the Rotary International Convention held in Toronto in 2018, commending Rotarians in Canada for the formation of HIP and challenging clubs to get involved. Chief Stacey Laforme also welcomed Rotarians to the convention and shared his poem “Walk with me” and encouraged Rotarians from around the world to get to know the indigenous peoples in their country. In February the Winnipeg Rotary Club (which has recruited 3 indigenous members) will be hosting a learning session on Truth and Reconciliation featuring Jessica Dumas and Strini will share the invitation to join this session with our club.

Strini has been involved with

• the formation of an Interact Club at Fort Richmond Collegiate and its graduates with restarting the Rotaract Club at the University of Manitoba.

• Inviting indigenous people living in the city to speak to groups of 5-6 students of Richmond Collegiate.

• getting groups of non-indigenous students from the south end of the city together with groups of indigenous students from the north end of the city (“Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges” videos on Vimeo 2018 or 2019).

• supplying hockey equipment, books, winter clothing, and soccer equipment to students in Kistiganwacheeng School in Garden Hill Reserve and to schools in other reserves in the Island Lake area of Manitoba.

• shipping flour and wheel chairs to the reserves in the Island Lake area during the pandemic.

In Response to a question from DG Nancy, Strini indicated that other clubs are welcome to join the Winnipeg Club – or on their own - in helping out northern indigenous communities once the pandemic restrictions are part of history.

Lloyd thanked Strini for his presentation and indicated that his son, reacting to a comment from Chief Bellegard that indigenous students are not well informed on their own history, published a book on the various treaties signed in Canada.

PDG Nancy told Strini that Niigaan Sinclair had been a Rotary exchange student to South Africa towards the end of apartheid and had spoken to our club several years ago about his experience there. She also thanked Strini and Taiseer for their presentation.

PDG Ed mentioned that our club works with Westgrove school students and families, about 80% of which are indigenous peoples.

More Info:

https://honouringindigenouspeoples.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/HonouringIndigenousPeoples/

HAPPY BUCKS

PDG Jim reported that he and Lorraine had attended the DG Chat on Wednesday night and noticed that out of the 57 participants, 7 were from our club, 4 of whom were Past District Governors. He also appreciated today’s delivery (by Lloyd Talbot) of his recent Paul Harris pin.

Dave was pleased with Bob Eilers’ gathering and delivery of beer cans from his bay whose return provides more donations for Polio Plus.

PDG Ed reported that he’s been using the Harte Trail for walking and has found that people he meets on the trail are becoming very friendly, making the walking experience a much more pleasant one.

Nancy Hansen sent off her stash of Christmas card stamps to the Rotary Club in Australia (that uses them as a fundraiser) and encouraged people to keep saving stamps and tabs.

Rod did a nice bike ride on the Assiniboine River (from the Assiniboine Park to The Forks, saw all the community ice rinks along the way and found it to be an interesting ride.

Iain experienced a 6 hour Zoom event on Saturday with friends from India, various locations in the UK, Toronto who sent birthday wishes to Caroline including a collection of about sixty 15 to 30 second long videos (starting and ending with one from Al Simmons) that Caroline’s daughter put together as a surprise for her mother. Their planned trip to Onanole on Saturday was cancelled due to the sad news that Caroline’s 97 year old mother-in-law was placed in palliative care in Brandon and Caroline drove out to Brandon today (Monday) to say Goodbye to her.

FUTURE MEETINGS

Next week our speaker will be Ryan Thorpe, who will speak about homelessness in Winnipeg.

President Doug mentioned that he and PDG Nancy are seeking suggestions from members for future speakers for our meetings.