Promptly at 5:45 PM President Doug starting the meeting with the district’s Land Acknowledgements. This was followed by O Canada being sung by a group of 1000+ students (Who called themselves “Catching Sunrise” that were on a trek to the top of Mount Seymour to greet the sunrise on July 1, 2017. The national anthem in turn was followed by the following thought of the week: “If you really want to change the world, you have to inspire young people. That’s how you change the world.” – a quote from podcaster Joe Rogan.

ROTARY MOMENTS

CHASE THE ACE LOTTERY – Week 3 – Rod Delisle was the winner of $44 – his card was the 3 of Clubs in Envelope #29.

TALK SHOW – taking place on Thursday, May 6th, starting at 8:00 PM – will feature “Youth Service Opens Opportunities for Rotary”. Registration is required. Find your personal registration in the email sent out by Fred Wright on April 29th. Registration for this event closes at 10 PM on Wednesday, May 5th.

DISTRICT CONFERENCE - takes place May 13-15 (end of next week!) – by Zoom. Registration is $50. The weekend kicks off with a special evening of fellowship and superb entertainment on Thursday, May 13th. On Friday, May 14th and Saturday May 15th, the program will include a Youth Engagement panel as well as presentations about Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy, Community Involvement & Fundraising, Indigenous Relations and Mental Wellbeing. The full list of speakers and entertainment – as well as the registration form - can be found on the Rotary Club of Melfort’s Conference page.

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION - scheduled for 12-16 June 2021, in Taipei, Taiwan, will now be a virtual event in response to the ongoing threat of COVID-19. Registration is US$49 until 11:59:59 CDT May 7th 2021 (US$65 between May 8th and June 16th 2021). For information and registration visit https://convention.rotary.org/en. STAMPS TO AUSTRALIA – Nancy Hansen sends stamps to Rotarian Carol Farmer in Melbourne, Australia. Last year the proceeds from the sale of those stamps were applied to support Polio Plus. The project being supported this year is unknown to Nancy but presumed to be Polio Plus again. WESTGROVE SCHOOL GARDEN – Students have worked up the soil in one of the 8 gardens and need help to dig up the remaining 7 gardens during a morning next week. Volunteers included PDG Ed, Rohit, Chuck, Darvin, Mike, Lyle and PDG Jim (depending on the day).

LOBSTER FEST – Discussions with a Manitoba Health Advisor indicated that the event might be able to be carried out as described but there may be restrictions and those restrictions may change (e.g. may be limited to having 10 people together working inside and/or outside). In either case, is the event workable? The advice was – “You can take a gamble, but he wouldn’t do it!” Given the uncertainty of matters related to COVID-19, there are any number of things that can go wrong and require the club’s event to be shut down. PDG Nancy thought it would be particularly humiliating for the club to go on and then be shut down by the provincial inspector. Perhaps one could postpone the event to either late September or early October. (Need to find out if the Shriners are going to hold their lobster dinner in October again this year and if the Selkirk Rotary Club’s planned Lobster Dinner for May 29th is still a go – and if it is, how are they organizing it? PDG Jim said he would contact the Selkirk club to explore that question.

PDG Jim asked input from the members whether we postpone the event and ask current ticket holder if they want to hold on to their tickets or if they want a refund. Iain offered three event tents (no sides on them) but the idea of essentially working outdoors in that case to handle and wrap the food items for the pickups did not appeal to either Darvin or PDG Jim. Up to this point, very little has been invested in the event – but this changes significantly (to about $10, 000) once an order is placed for the food and the lobster two weeks in advance (around May 15-17th, which is before a new set of restrictions will come into effect in Manitoba) of the planned event. In addition, every item of each meal would have to be pre-packaged by the supplier to eliminate personal handling – and that could increase the purchase price by between $500 and $1000 as well.

President Doug’s request for a show of hands for people wanting to proceed as planned with the Lobster Fest on May 28th produced no response. PDG Jim requested a day or two to figure out - if we have another date for the Lobster Fest - how we will approach people who have already purchased tickets. Would they hold on to their tickets or would some refunds be needed? Lorraine has sold about 90 tickets and about a hundred have been sold through the website.

Chuck offered to check with Varsity View as to what the availability is expected to be if our postponed Lobsterfest were to take place in October.

Darvin indicated that a Health Inspector had requested an email describing the whole process that our Lobsterfest committee had planned on doing for May 29th and he was still going to send him that email. The Health Inspector’s evaluation would be helpful for planning the postponed Lobsterfest.

Amy WIlkie from the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre in, Ile des Chenes, MB appeared on our Zoom screens promptly at 6:00 PM (with the Ambassador owl Ash seated calmly on a thick leather glove worn by Amy) and was introduced briefly by PDG Nancy.

Amy informed us that Ash had come to the centre in 2018. Ash had been found as an orphaned fledgling (i.e. just starting to fly, having just left the nest but still dependent on its parents for food and protection) by a family that wanted to keep her as a pet, which is not a good idea – for reasons of safety (they carry diseases) and sanitation (they poop lots and the poop is smelly). Keeping wild animals as a pet is also illegal. While living with the family, Ash became imprinted on humans – she prefers to be around people and is scared of other birds. She lacks all of the instincts she would have learned from her parent owls and for that reason she cannot be released back into the wild. Manitoba Conservation had to confiscate Ash from her human family and bring her to the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre. She wasn’t being properly fed by her human family. Owls need to be fed raw meat to develop properly – and Ash gets one rat pretty much every day. Fortunately, Ash came to the Wildlife Haven young enough to develop properly – except for the imprinting onto humans. That’s another reason why she cannot be released back into the wild.

In response to questions, we learned the following:

• The Centre currently has 5 Owl Ambassadors – Ash is a Great Gray Owl – they also have a Long-Eared Owl and three Great Horned Owls.
• The Centre has 17 Ambassadors in total, which includes birds, reptiles and amphibians.
• In the wild, the diet of Great Gray Owls would consist of small mammals and rodents – in the Centre, Ash is fed mainly rats, sometimes a chick and a quail.
• Great Grey Owls will eat mainly lemmings and voles but will also eat things like a bunny, a squirrel, a rat and a mouse as well.
• The public is unable to visit the Centre at this time (shut down due to COVID) but the centre is still open for patient drop-off. They hope to be open to the public by the summer – but it depends on how restrictions go.
• Great Horned Owls have the most varied diet of the owl species. Being the strongest owls, they will also go after larger prey – like adult rabbits or even a raccoon, skunk or porcupine.
• All owls are great hunters.
• Ash is one of the friendliest Ambassadors – if one comes into her enclosure, she will come and sit on your lap your shoulder, nibble on your hair or clothes. She is also very gentle – even when biting on Amy’s finger. Her beak and her talons are not as strong as in some of the other owls.
• Ash is about 3 years old and the last time she was weighed, she was 1200 grams. Length-wise (from the top of the head to the bottom of the tail), the Great Gray Owls are the largest owl species (but not the heaviest – they are mainly just feathers). The Great Horned Owls are more muscular and heavier.
• In the winter, all the Centre’s Ambassadors are housed inside because it would be too stressful to bring them in and then back out again for events. In the summer, the enclosures are all outside.
• The Centre does not currently have a vet on staff. They have 5 certified wildlife rehabilitators on staff. If a patient needs an X-ray or surgery, it is taken to the local vet. Starting in July, the Centre will have a Vet Intern onsite.
• Currently, Ambassador animals include the following species: Owls, Red-Tailed Hawk, Swainson’s Hawk, 2 Peregine Falcons, a Mississippi Kite, a Turkey Vulture, a snake, a turtle, 3 salamanders, and a Bald Eagle.
• In the Hospital side, they have all sorts of animals native to Manitoba – currently that includes 3 beavers, a gosling, a few ducks, some turtles, a “ton” of baby bunnies, a “ton” of baby squirrels, and are starting to get some baby songbirds, a few owls, and a few eagles.
• Summer is the busiest time at the centre – when there are typically about 250 animals in their care. By the end of last year they had helped over 2,300 patients.
• The Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre was part of three of the shows in the television series “Arctic Vets”. The Vet at the Zoo is very helpful when his advise is needed at the Centre.
• Most of the funding of the Centre is from donors (no government funding). The Centre is pretty much volunteer driven as well with very minimal staff.
• Amy has a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biology, but she learned everything about the animals and birds on the job since she started at Wildlife Haven two years ago.

Chuck thanked Amy for joining the club’s Zoom meeting and sharing her presentation with us – and for bringing Ash with her. He asked if only animals from Manitoba are at the Centre. Amy answered that if patients come from near the border with Ontario or Saskatchewan, the province of Manitoba’s permission is needed to bring the patient into the Centre’s care. She also indicated that two of their Ambassador animals who are not from Canada, for which they also needed permission to come into the Centre’s care and into the Ambassador program.

For her “service above self” to the club, President Doug virtually awarded PDG Nancy Morris with her 7th Paul Harris award and for her “Service above Self” to our club. Congratulations! Nancy related to the members that her cousin had contracted polio when she was 3 years old and now suffers with post-polio syndrome. Nancy’s donations to The Rotary Foundation (which result in multiple Paul Harris award points) have all been directed to Rotary’s Polio Plus campaign. She was pleased to have read on her computer that at one point in the past year there had been only one case of Polio in each of the two countries -Afghanistan and Pakistan - where polio has not yet been entirely eliminated.

Sarge Mike welcomed tonight’s meeting guests – Rohit Goenka, Ruth Kristjanson and Barry Desrosier.

HAPPY BUCKS

Lyle – had his annual colonoscopy last week.

Barry – reported on a very successful fundraiser by the Rotary Club in Okotoks, AB. For a $60 subscription, a ten foot tall flag pole with a Canadian flag on it will be put up in one’s property on the weekend before May long weekend, Canada Day and Labour Day and then taken down the weekend after those holidays. The project is very popular – 200 poles have been created so far.

PDG Ed – Got an email indicating that he will be golfing at Larter’s Golf Course on May 10th.

Iain – Heard from his daughter Hannah, who is on her way to Winnipeg from Dublin and quarantined at the Hampton Inn in Toronto until Wednesday – the food is very good there!

Lloyd – An unhappy buck – The Interlake Foundation’s annual golf tournament scheduled for June in Teulon has been cancelled due to COVID-19. This was Lloyd’s one tournament of the year – says he’ll have to find another one!

BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

Barry celebrated his 11th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday

NEXT WEEK

Our speaker will be Terry Slobodian, President and CEO of the new Royal Aviation Museum.