President Doug had a number of Rotary announcements to share with members present:
First and foremost was the news that Jennifer E. Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, has been nominated to become Rotary International’s president for 2022-23, a groundbreaking selection that will make her the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 115-year history. Jones will officially become president-nominee on 1 October if no other candidates challenge her. Then raising his glass, President Doug said “To all this means to Rotary, especially women in Rotary. Here’s to Jennifer E. Jones,… CHEERS!!” and all present followed suit.
At the President’s meeting held July 29th he learned that our club and Neepawa are the only clubs meeting back in person in our original meeting site. Some clubs are meeting in person but out in open air settings like a garage or back yard. Most are still meeting exclusively on Zoom.
The District Board has decided to conduct a 4 hour long virtual Workshop on Saturday, October 17th, on ZOOM. The workshop is expected to cover the following topics:
RI Foundation Giving
Membership recruiting & retention
Fundraising Ideas
The organizers of the workshop would like clubs to gather in smaller groups to view the workshop to enable more face to face leading to better discussion and even consider mixing with other clubs in the area. President Doug suggested that our club should come up with some fundraising ideas before that October 17th workshop. There will be a follow-up meeting in February.
Three members of our club (President Doug, Bob Eilers and PDG Elaine) took part in a special meeting held by the RC of Winnipeg which focussed on a project titled “1000 Survival Gardens” which provides Survival Garden kits (a tool for women in South Africa’s rural settlements during the Covid-19 pandemic to grow gardens and create food security). The garden kit consists of a Hippo water roller, developed in South Africa in 1992 and manufactured in Johannesburg (an easier way to move more water in less time), a shovel, rake and hoe, a watering can, seeds and seedlings, compost, fertilizer, a “How to Grow a Garden Guide”, soap and sanitizer and face masks. The objective of this program is to raise $200,000 US from Rotary Clubs in Canada, US, Australia and UK to purchase and distribute 1000 of the Survival Garden kits in South Africa. A feature of the hippo roller is that it easily moves 90 liters of water at a time to a household, replacing 5 trips of women and girls carrying water on their heads and thereby making it possible for the girls to go to school.
Fundraising – Nancy Hansen’s stamps collected last year from the Charleswood Rotary Club and the First Baptist Church were sent off to Rotary District 9810 in Australia. These stamps (along with stamp collections sent them from other organizations) produced an income of $6000 for D9810, according to an email from Nancy’s contact Carrol Farmer, who also indicated that this year the funds from the stamp collection sales will go to Polio Plus.
The annual RC of Winnipeg Ribfest has been cancelled but the sale of 50-50 tickets continues online (www.ribfestwpg5050.ca) with the final draw taking place August 23rd.
The introduction by fellow Rotarian Paul Brault indicated that Matt Brault (his son) is the owner of a Diploma of Theatre Arts from Mount Royal College, A Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama) from University of Alberta, Bachelor of Education from University of British Columbia, and is working on a Masters of Business Administration online degree at the University of Fredericton. Following the introduction, Matt spoke of his experience and observations while teaching English in China, working in four different schools during his five years there.
The first school Matt taught at had 7000 students in 5 different programs – Public (Elementary & Junior High), Private (Elementary & Junior High) and International. He lived on campus that first year and found that experience to be “not ideal”
Matt’s observations on the school program included the following:
Chinese schools also have a military training program.
Teachers rotate through the different classrooms.
School parties have an agenda and feature performances
Chinese parents seek English teachers for children as young as two years old.
Schools provide meals for the teaching staff members.
Schools have marching and kung-fu competitions.
At the end of the school year, there are singing competitions.
His experiences outside the classroom:
In addition to teaching English, Matt also taught a professional development course for teachers on how to teach Drama.
Food in China is fantastic – consisting of 50 different and distinct cuisines (and dialects!)
A typhoon that knocked down lots of trees and created an 8 hour power outage
Electric bikes are everywhere – selling things like balloons or candies, working as taxis
Watched a live exhibition NHL hockey game Shenzhen, China
Performed with a band, including some stand-up comedy
Travelled to Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Seoul (South Korea) and Thailand (elephant rescue)
Swam with a manta ray
In response to questions from the audience we learned that
every school has a uniform that is set by the city
Matt did not feel any tension as a result of the arrest of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver and of two Canadians in China
Suicide rates of Chinese students are very high in Grade 9 (when tests are taken to determine whether or not a student can study courses leading to a University entrance) and in Grade 12 (when tests are taken to determine University entrance).
After listening to the singing of O Canada in French and English (as recorded by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir) followed by a moment of reflection, President Doug asked the members to not touch the Sarge’s microphone when he comes over for them to share their Happy Bucks, to avoid the possibility of spreading the Covid 19 virus.
Sarge Mike collected the following Happy Bucks:
While fishing in the Minaki, Ontario area lakes, Glenn was pleased that he was not attacked by the more than one-meter long Muskie that had bitten Winnipeg resident Kim Driver as she stood in chest high water in the same general area two weeks earlier.
Dave was excited about the big bag of beer cans deposited by someone at the doorstep of his business over the weekend.
Lyle was very pleased that he was able to set up his camper’s awning while camping this weekend - without skinning his fingers!
Ed Thompson gleefully reported on how a $3946 quote from Winnipeg Dodge to replace a sensor on his Jeep turned out to cost him $1996 after he ordered in the part himself from the US and just had the dealership’s technician install it.
Peter was happy to report that he and Nancy recently celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary.
After a day of fishing on Traverse Bay on Lake Winnipeg this past weekend, Chuck, a seasoned fisherman, caught a 6-inch walleye and three perch - essentially, he admitted, all he caught was bait!
Paul went on his first fishing trip ever on the weekend and his first catch was a 20 inch walleye – which was followed by five more fish - 2 of which were put back in the water as four fish is the limit.
A highlight of Elaine’s weekend at Star Lake with daughter Laura and two of her children was the delicious Smoothie created (single-handedly and unsupervised!) by 8-year old grandson Tobias who proudly offered it to his grandparents relaxing on the dock.
50-50 Draw – The ticket number drawn by Matt Brault belonged to Dave Morris, but Dave was not able to draw the lucky blue marble tonight.
Fines – Sarge Mike fined President Doug for starting the meeting late, himself for failing to introduce Matt Brault at the start of the meeting, and anyone without a name tag.
Next Monday’s speaker - will be Lieutenant Colonel George McLeod, from the Qalipu First Nation in Newfoundland. He happens to be PDG Jim’s nephew!
