President Glenn called the meeting to order with the land acknowledgement and the singing of O’Canada

Club Business

President Glenn thanked members who volunteered for tomorrow’s packing event at Peak of the Market. We’ll work with members of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. We’ll take photos and report back.

Rossbrook House is hosting the No Child Alone Dinner, Thursday, April 27 in support of programs and activities. RBC Convention Centre, Tickets are $175 per person. https://rossbrookhouse.ca/nca-dinner-2023/

Charleswood Community Resource Fair – Charleswood Library, Saturday. Thank you to Jack, Mike and Len for attending and representing the club. It was the first time for the event and was a great opportunity to meet other service organizations.

Mandy - Thank you to everyone who volunteered for the Bridge of Hope Ukraine furniture drive this past Saturday. There were 20 volunteers helping 11 families furnish their homes in Winnipeg. To date, our project has delivered furniture and household items to 76 families and we’ve collected from over 100 locations. Quite something for a small Rotary club. Thankfully, we have invaluable support from church groups and non-Rotary volunteers. We are now at a point where we need to take a pause on furniture donations and focus on furnishing families on our wait list. For more information, visit www.bridgeofhopeukraine.com.

Lobsterfest – Jim Forestell reminded members that this year’s Lobsterfest is Friday, June 16. Tickets will be printed and distributed soon. You can also register online on the club’s website. Do what you can to promote the club’s biggest fundraiser.

Rotary Club of Winnipeg Assiniboine is holding a fundraising Dinner on Friday, May 5. 6 pm cocktails, 7 pm dinner. Tickets are $75. Ed Thompson has tickets or e-mail dinner@rcwacf.ca

Rotary Club Winnipeg-West – the 72nd Annual Chicken Fest lunch delivery will run April 27,28 and May 1-5th. Proceeds from this event go to Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation. Winnipeg West has always been supportive of our club. Let’s return in kind: https://crf.mb.ca/event/rotary-club-chicken-fest/

Golf Tournament - The Rotary Clubs of Winnipeg - Assiniboine and Winnipeg - Charleswood are continuing their proud tradition of support for local community projects with our 'almost annual' golf tournament. Thursday, August 17, 2023. Bel Acres Golf and Country Club, 12 noon – 7 pm. Members are asked to think about who to invite to register a foursome and to consider local businesses as potential sponsors. There is a link for more information on the club website at: https://portal.clubrunner.ca/1000/SitePage/rotary-green-space-golf-tournament

President Glenn asked Jack Wilson and Mike Dudar to come forward to provide an Assiniboine Forest update. They spoke to a new powerpoint presentation that will be used on the next stage of fundraising.

Sarge – Mike Dudar introduced guest Anya. President Glenn advised that the guest speaker could not attend. We will have a presentation by the Forest Committee instead.

Happy Bucks

• Lloyd threw in a toonie to report that he was in Calgary over Easter and welcomed a new grandbaby, Hannah Grace, over the weekend. She attended her first symphony yesterday. It was loud, and she slept right through it.
• Anya was happy that her brother broke a wall yesterday, and they might have to pay for it. (Anya did not explain why that made her happy.)
• Len was happy to welcome two friends, one of whom was his sister who made 23 containers of oxtail soup while she was here. The second is his friend, the constellation Orion, who will make an appearance in October.
• Ed Thompson was $2 worth of happy after attending the WSO tribute to ABBA on Saturday.  It's not often the audience gets to stand up and dance at the WSO! Ed also took his mom out for dinner for a bargain price.
• Jagdish recently found out that he's been living with one eye for some time. The good news? His other eye shows no signs of AMD or glaucoma. He will be getting an injection in his eye monthly, for the next five months.
• Mandy enjoyed Ukrainian Easter at Jane's. That was where the wall breaking occurred, while Artem and Vlad were battling over a medicine ball. Mandy seemed a little less happy about this event than Anya was. Mandy was also very proud of the good job Anya did working as a 'shopper' at the Free Store on Saturday.
• Rod threw in $5 and announced his engagement to Dory! (No date yet.) Congratulations, Rod!

Birthdays

Ed Gramiak is 75, and Lyle is 72. We sang Happy Birthday to the two of them.  We were all happy because it's been awhile since anyone wanted us to sing to them.  

No fines from the sarge tonight. He had the winning raffle ticket, but could not pull the blue marble.