After President Doug called the meeting to order at 5:45 and PDG Nancy made it official with a bell from her collection, we were treated to O Canada sung by a vibrant 10 year old by the name of Angelica Hale, an organ recipient at age 6 (kidney from her mother) and the youngest ever participant to be a runner-up at America’s Got Talent. This was followed by the “Thought for the week” sent to President Doug by Darvin: “You’re holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill it, the coffee? You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea. The point is that whatever is in your cup is what will spill out. Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which will happen), whatever is in you will come out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
So we have to ask ourselves – “What’s in my cup?” When life gets tough, what spills out? Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility? Or do anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions come out? You choose. Today, let’s work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, kindness, gentleness and love for others.”
ROTARY ANNOUNCEMENTS
President Doug described our club’s plan for a Zoom style holiday dinner taking place on December 14th. Breezy Bend staff will prepare a maximum of 60 meals consisting of a turkey dinner and desserts to be delivered to or picked up by Charleswood Rotarians to be enjoyed in their own homes. Wine will also be available. An email sent to all members by Lloyd will include details and registration form. Orders accepted until Dec 7th; pick- ups or deliveries will take place Dec 14th.
Lloyd has arranged for an online live performance by WSO violinist Elation Pauls. The party may also include a few online games that have been proven to be popular on Zoom events.
Donations of breakfast foodstuffs for Westgrove School and winter socks for the Fit Feet on the Street program of Canadian Footwear can be dropped off either at Jack’s home on Lannoo Drive or Morris Insurance at 5250 Roblin Blvd or given to the Rotarian delivering your meals. Alternatively, monetary donations can be made by cheque or e-transfer to the Rotary Club of Charleswood Charitable Foundation Inc (rcccfinc@outlook.com). A tax receipt will be generated for any amount over $20.
President Doug took part in Zones 28 & 32 Director Valarie Wafer’s inaugural Director Dialogue which featured Rotary International Past President (RIPP) Ian Riseley and his topic was the environment, RI’s seventh Area of Focus. There were 438 people signed into this webinar. We learned that RI will release a “Statement of Explanation” on the Environment focus area in early January and will have Global Grant funds available for projects in this area on July 1, 2021. A recording of this Director Dialogue can be found at the Home Page of Zone 28 & 32, clicking on Webinars and then clicking on Dialogue. The topic of the next Dialogue, taking place on January 14th, 2021, will be “ ‘Elevate Rotaract’, what does it mean to Rotary? ”, will feature RIPP Barry Rassin. To register for that Director Dialogue, go again to the home page of Zone 28 & 32, then to Webinars, then Dialogue and then to Registration.
Brenda Banbury’s 250 km walking challenge in November to raise more funds forPolio Plus can be supported by donating to RCCCF and identifying the purpose of the donation as the Banbury Polio Plus Challenge.
D5550’s Public Image Workshop will take place this Saturday, Nov 21st from 9 am to 12 noon.
Since the club decided not to work at the Salvation Army Kettles this year, the Board meeting taking place Dec 1st will discuss the idea of making a donation from the club account and/ or from individual members.
The club’s newly formed Fundraising Options Committee consists of 5 members: PDG Jim, Margaret, Iain, Kristy and Rod.
President Doug announced that due to currently undiagnosed personal health concerns, Iain has had to resign from the club’s President-Elect position. After discussions with the nomination committee and members of the executive, President Doug has agreed to extend his club president position to a second year.
President Doug is also looking into having a couple of club members let their names stand for two new vice-president positions in an effort to provide the club with a stronger succession plan.
Jack informed club members that
Cheryl McComb, principal of Westgrove School, will speak to our club during our Zoom-style holiday dinner on December 14th.
Westgrove School would like to have basketball hoops and $1200 to buy more books for their classroom libraries, especially for use during the Christmas holidays.
There is no parent council at Westgrove School. Other Charleswood schools have nice playground areas, which have been provided by their parent councils.
Of the 65 pairs of shoes donated to Westgrove students, our club paid for 20 pairs - the rest were donations from Canadian Footwear and New Balance. In addition, Canadian Footwear has donated 140 winter hats to the students at Westgrove.
Hayley Gillis, a Charleswood resident and executive assistant of President Brian at Canadian Footwear, speaks highly of our club’s support for Westgrove School.
Bob Eilers has spent most of the last 7+ “pandemic” months with leisure and his yard. After losing 13 of the 32 trees in his backyard, he noticed that a large bur oak tree in his back yard also appeared to be dead, so he consulted an arborist. He learned that oak trees suffer “oak tree decline” from disturbances to their root systems by things like changes in soil aeration and moisture conditions, but It turned out that an insect called a two-lined chestnut borer (a species that moved from northeastern US into Canada to attack bur oaks here after they ran out of chestnut trees south of the border) was responsible for his large oak’s malaise. The insects lay their eggs in crevices of the tree and the larvae’s channels and tunnels eventually encircle the tree, preventing water and nutrients from sustaining the tree. The larvae eventually become beetles, which emerge from the tree through a D-shaped hole. After Bob had cut down that big oak tree, he decided to examine the tree rings to determine its age and its growth history. It turned out to be about 115 years old.
For leisure, Bob has occasionally cruised through the neighbourhood in his 1954 Chevy, repurposed used wood to build furniture and built a little book barn mini-library for the children in the neighbourhood.
So, Bob has kept himself busy, moving and healthy!
President Doug informed us that according to the Random Number Generator he is using, next week’s Rotarian Show and Tell will be done by Dave Morris.
Peter Tonge shared a video from Rotary District 5150 (in the San Francisco area of California) featuring PDG Jane Hulbert, who spoke on the history of The Rotary Foundation (TRF), Rotary’s areas of focus, Polio Plus as well as the Foundations’ financing of Rotary projects and programs in the six areas of focus around the world. The infrastructure and medical surveillance networks developed while eliminating Polio from all but two countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan) has been used in fighting Ebola In Africa, yellow fever, dengue fever and is currently being used to cope with today’s COVID-19 pandemic.
The Rotary Foundation was the idea of Arch Klumph, who was President of Rotary. It started with a donation of $26.50 in 1917 (left over from an account used to collect contributions for a gift when Arch Klumph was retiring as Rotary president) to start the Rotary Endowment Fund. That “Fund” was renamed The Rotary Foundation (TRF) in 1928. The Rotary Foundation made its first award, a cheque for $500, to the International Society for Crippled Children in 1930, which became famous for Easter Seals, an organization for helping children with disabilities, including those stricken with Polio.
TRF funds projects in six areas of focus (funding for the 7th, Environment, begins on July 1, 2021). Smaller projects are funded by District Designated Grants (DDG) (amounts available are determined by district Rotarians’ donations to the Rotary Annual Fund three years earlier) while Global Grant projects – which must be over $30,000 and international – are funded directly by TRF. 90% of all donations made to TRF go to projects.
Programs for funding TRF include “Every Rotarian Every Year” and the Endowment Fund, whose earned interest supports life/changing programs forever.
A brief discussion on a Rotary Club in Minnesota that had a project to create pollination gardens to help increase the number of Monarch butterflies took place as the meeting drew to a close.
When Sarge Mike asked for Happy Bucks, here’s what we learned:
Chuck was happy to see that Canadian golfer Corrie Conners had a golf score that placed him in the top ten golfers of the Masters Golf tournament recently held in Augusta, Georgia.
Dave enjoyed reading about Canadian Rotarian Jennifer Jones in The Rotarian. Jennifer will be the first woman in Rotary International’s 115 years’ existence to become RI President when she takes over the position in the 2022-2023 Rotary year.
Doug was glad to recently learn that Canada has purchased anti-Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna, which has been shown to be 95% effective.
PDG Nancy reported that since the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s season will not begin officially until January, her twin grandsons (who were to be playing for the Neepawa team) will be passing through Winnipeg on their way back to their home in Alaska.
Someone added that the Winnipeg Blues of the same league had recently been fined for holding a practice in Warren, MB and Dave confirmed this.
PDG Ed observed that Tiger Woods had scored a 10 in the 12th golf hole (par 3) at the recent Masters Tournament in Augusta. Nevertheless, his final score was still one under par!
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Once again, there were none.
NEXT MEETING
On November 23rd, Sarge Mike Dudar will be making a PowerPoint presentation on the Assiniboine Forest Implementation Plan, which will propose projects for the next decade or so. A written summary of the presentation is to be sent out to members in advance so that members can vote on the proposal.
Bob Eilers has spent most of the last 7+ “pandemic” months with leisure and his yard. After losing 13 of the 32 trees in his backyard, he noticed that a large bur oak tree in his back yard also appeared to be dead, so he consulted an arborist. He learned that oak trees suffer “oak tree decline” from disturbances to their root systems by things like changes in soil aeration and moisture conditions, but It turned out that an insect called a two-lined chestnut borer (a species that moved from northeastern US into Canada to attack bur oaks here after they ran out of chestnut trees south of the border) was responsible for his large oak’s malaise. The insects lay their eggs in crevices of the tree and the larvae’s channels and tunnels eventually encircle the tree, preventing water and nutrients from sustaining the tree. The larvae eventually become beetles, which emerge from the tree through a D-shaped hole. After Bob had cut down that big oak tree, he decided to examine the tree rings to determine its age and its growth history. It turned out to be about 115 years old.
Peter Tonge shared a video from Rotary District 5150 (in the San Francisco area of California) featuring PDG Jane Hulbert, who spoke on the history of The Rotary Foundation (TRF), Rotary’s areas of focus, Polio Plus as well as the Foundations’ financing of Rotary projects and programs in the six areas of focus around the world. The infrastructure and medical surveillance networks developed while eliminating Polio from all but two countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan) has been used in fighting Ebola In Africa, yellow fever, dengue fever and is currently being used to cope with today’s COVID-19 pandemic.