President Iain called the meeting to order with a Land Acknowledgement and O Canada.

Rotary Moment

‘Peace in our time’

I am sure we are all struggling with the news of the events from last week in the Middle East.

Rotary is apolitical and for many good reasons it will stay that way. It does not take sides, but it is always looking for ways to support peace. Historically, there have been disasters and war, and it never becomes easier to understand how humans treat others. Hopefully we continue to support those who are less fortunate and are in need.

Chair announcements:

Cathy has distributed a sign-up schedule for forest volunteers to talk about the changes to the forest. If anyone wants to enjoy the last few days of fall and support Cathy, this is the time.

If anyone still needs advice on the Square Reader device, please reach out to Iain and he will send instructions via email.

Jorell has emailed to say the Rotary Club of Winnipeg Satellite Club would like to invite us all to their fundraiser this Thursday, October 19, at A Maze in Corn where you can enjoy each other’s company while raising money for ShelterBox Canada. There is a link to the site for tickets that will be available in the bulletin or email Iain for it: https://tinyurl.com/CornMazeforShelterBox.

Nancy has a date this month for hip surgery. We all wish her well.

On Nov 6th, we have Nigel Jollands and Veronica Lysaght of the Novaro One Project. By combining their skills in leadership coaching, climate policy and finance they have bought the icebreaker, aero-rig schooner Novara, and plan to use this vessel as a platform to support coastal communities to become climate safe. Come and hear their story, their hopes, fears and how they aim to change the world. For more information, follow them on www.novara.world and https://www.facebook.com/NovaraOnePlanet/ https://novara.world/our-people/
Iain met Nigel by chance as their yacht was moored offshore from his family home in Lamlash Bay, Isle of Arran.

If someone can arrange a speaker for next week it would be appreciated.

The Xmas party is on December 18th

Mandy, is unable to attend and asked Iain to give an update of the Bridge of Hope:
Plans are set to have the next furniture drive this Saturday where we are hoping to support 10-12 Ukrainian families with furniture and household goods. This will take our YTD numbers now to supporting over 135 families!
We have a semi trailer full of mattresses, couches, and other furniture coming on Saturday morning at the CMU location arranged from Dave Wiebe of the Springstein Mennonite Church. The plan is to move as many donations as possible on Saturday to our families in need. If we have our new location on Portage Avenue finalised by Saturday, we will move the remaining furniture and household items from CMU to Portage Avenue in the afternoon with overflow going to our storage unit at Storage Solutions.
Board members, Mandy is expecting to receive a proposed contract for our new location sometime on Tuesday for us to review. She will email the board as soon as she is in receipt of this. We are hoping to have our Rotaract volunteers back out to help again. Last time they had about 6 volunteers in the afternoon which was a huge help. A new link has been created to volunteer. If you have already registered as a volunteer before, this new link allows you to click “I’ve already registered” then you will only be asked for your name and make selections for what jobs you want to volunteer for. This was based on the feedback we heard to make it easier to register. It is really important that everyone who is volunteering with us register so she has an idea of how much work we can or can’t handle. Usually, she only has about 8 register, but there usually ends up with 30+ show up! We are in need this Saturday of a U-Haul driver again if anyone is interested, please contact Mandy directly.

Jack Wilson provided an Update on Assiniboine Forest:
The Rotary Club of Wpg-Charleswood members have been the ‘Stewards of the Forest’ for over 30 years. The current multi-year plan for upgrades in the forest began after a lengthy and comprehensive study in 2017/2018. This is one of the largest urban forests in Canada at 700 acres. The enhancements include the road sign at Grant and Chalfont as well as a renewal of the main entrance at the Chalfont parking lot. The plan also involves the development of more trails on the North side of Grant, to help decrease the pressure on the forest that over 180,000 person visits is having on the forest / trails. This past week Jack welcomed the area councillor - Evan Duncan and City of Wpg Mayor – Scott Gillingham for a meeting in Assiniboine Forest. The following areas of concern were raised during the meeting: Wayfinding, Entrance Information Plaques, Maps, Education for Students, Historical Knowledge, Porta-Potties. The area to the East of the South Forest was addressed as well. This forest land was used as a dump in the past and has had water retention issues. The goal would be to redevelop proper drainage including a pond for wildlife. Ducks Unlimited has been consulted regarding the pond development. The proposal involves developing an environmentally friendly parking lot on the East side. The entrance would be located off Shaftesbury at Taylor Ave. These forest enhancements were originally budgeted in the $1 million range. It appears that additions and inflation have the budget increasing to the $2 million range. The club is looking for ways to control costs moving forward. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Lealand Muller has recently returned from the Invictus Games 2023 in Dusseldorf, Germany. He was one of 30 individuals selected out of 500 who had applied. Lealand had served 8 years in the Canadian Armed Forces as a mechanic. This was not his first thought for a career, he wanted to know if he was mentally and physically able to do the job. It turns out that he was. Lealand worked on chainsaws all the way up to tanks. If you put gas in it to operate, he likely repaired it!

After a life altering accident while snow sledding, Lealand became paralysed from the chest down. His goal is to walk again! He played various sports when younger and was constantly challenging his mental and physical abilities. When in the military Lealand entered the ‘Mountain Man Marathon’, He completed the grueling tasks in 7 hours/ 18 minutes. He felt there was nothing he couldn’t do. Then in Feb of 2018 he suffered a spinal injury while tobogganing – headfirst- and hit a tree. Right away he new that he was paralyzed from the chest down. He had thoughts of, “is life worth living without the use of your legs”. Cooking, cleaning, bathing all becomes very difficult. They were all new challenges, and he had a choice to make and was desperate for hope. He was up against a mountain and had to keep pushing on. The doctors had advised that he had a 25% chance of walking again. He has decided to work towards the goal of walking once more.

He received an application email from ‘Soldier On’, a Canadian organization helping to improve the recovery and quality of life of military personnel that suffer an injury or illness on or off the job. The injury does not have to be service related. Lealand described what it was like to enter a stadium built for 54,000 people currently filled with 20,000 screaming support for the athletes that had gathered for the Invictus Games, 2023. He spoke of the sacrifice and service that all the athletes went through for their various countries. They were all only identifiable by the country cresting on their uniforms. Yet the crowd screamed support for all countries as they entered the stadium.

The Invictus Games was founded by Prince Harry. The inaugural Invictus Games took place in London in the fall of 2014 and attracted more than 400 competitors from 13 nations. The second Invictus Games took place in May 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The games take place every two years changing location. The Invictus Games will take place in Vancouver, Canada in 2025. The competition sports include: power lifting, sitting volleyball, swimming, archery, indoor rowing, cycle-road, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, table tennis, athletics. The games are one week long and had 550 athletes attend in 2023.

Lealand registered for discus, cycling and basketball. Although his final results were not great, he is still proud for showing up! It was a positive experience and was able to meet people from all over the world.

You must define what success is. You can not be afraid of failure. Don’t wait for others to experience life. Advocate for yourself.

Improve, Adapt, Overcome.

A great example of this was teammate Scott Snow. He was taking part in wheelchair rugby and suffered a shoulder injury. He still had archery to take part in. He trained to compete while drawing the bow using his mouth! Lealand showed a video of Scott training while using his mouth and he hit a bullseye.

How can you help?
-Donate to the Games
-Donate to ‘True Patriot Love’
-Donate to ‘Soldier on’
-Support an Invictus Games athlete directly
-Volunteer at Invictus Games 2025 in Vancouver / Whistler.

Lana Taylor – Her Experience at the Invictus Games

The opening Ceremonies were beautiful. Being with the team. There are people everywhere. You are not alone anymore. The Games are an opportunity to connect with people. Lana was in the military for 30 years. Seven years ago, she began to recognise the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. Her military career came to an end due to the M.S.. You do not stop, however you are alone now. That was difficult to keep going. As part of the Invictus Games team you are no longer alone.

She registered for rowing, swimming, and sitting volleyball. Lana indicated that she did not know how to swim prior to the games. She forced herself to put her head under the water one week before the training camp began for her swimming event. She had not been swimming before that!

The team had two volleyball games and lost both. Her coach told the team members what they did right. No negative talk - only positive, she was an excellent coach. Lana was amazed at the confidence and respect that you get back from others.

Invictus Games in Canada is a one-time chance. The next Games have an entirely new group of athletes. Other countries have repeats, but Canada does not.

Questions:

Jack- What are your plans going forward regarding sports?
Lealand: continue wheelchair basketball, cycling, alpine skiing.
Lana: continue swimming, sitting volleyball.

Len- congratulations with pushing on. There seems to be so much pressure put on youth to be first, to win. Is there any way to impress on youth athletes that participation and growth is important?
Lana: Be like our volleyball coach was. Always be positive. Focus on what they do right.

The club welcomed many guests tonight. Some were Rotarians from St. Boniface / St. Vital. Cindy Ayotte, Rolly Ayotte, Myles Buchanan, Larry Cherrit, Jack Decorby, Joyce Decorby, James Hutchings, Stephen Hutchings, Elvin Klassen, Sylvia Klassen, Lealand Muller, Ray Muller, Roxy Muller, Sarah Scott, Lana Taylor.

There were many Zooming in tonight as well: Leigha Sherlow, Trevor, Bimikawe, Krista F., Paul Bowes, Alaina Mundy, Bertran LaBonte, Chris Kasdorf, Erica, Joana LaBonte.

Happy Bucks

• Ed Toews was happy that he will be in Palm Springs next week.
• Peter was happy to be here, for one of his occasional visits.
• John went back to his old hometown with his daughter, and two days later his old school burnt down.(coincidence?)
• Dave was happy that Nancy will finally get her hip surgery this Friday.
• Len is happy that his sister will be visiting from Toronto so he can leave her to keep his dad company and have some time to be in the Forest. He also reported having a good hike in the Forest with CPAWs.
• Jagdish was happy for the good weather, and that his bags of leaves will be picked up tomorrow.
• Al was very happy; he is just back from meeting his newest granddaughter in Canmore.
• Larry Cherrit (guest) was happy that he sold his house, so has neither leaves to rake, nor snow to shovel.

50/50

Sarge asked Lana Taylor to pull the 50/50 ticket. Sarge Lyle turned out to be the individual holding the matching stub. No blue marble found on the pull.

There is no guest speaker booked for next week’s meeting on Oct. 23rd . However, please plan to attend as the club will be welcoming three new members into our club membership.