President David Soper opened the meeting with our land acknowledgement and the singing of O Canada.

Chair Announcements

October 30 is the Paul Harris awards dinner at the Birchwood Inn, to be hosted by the Winnipeg-Assiniboine Club. More details should be available soon. Charleswood’s nominees are Patty Mainville of Rossbrook House, and Dave Wiebe of the Springsteen Mennonite Church. President David would like to get a table or two from Charleswood. December 15 is our Christmas party at Breezy Bend.

In honour of Orange Shirt Day, President David shared a biography of Phyllis Webstad, the founder of Orange Shirt Day, and also shared a lovely history of the day and its meaning. Many members honoured the day by wearing an orange shirt to this evening’s meeting.

Our speaker was Dwayne Till, of Tillwell Funeral Services. Like Charleswood Rotary, Tillwell is located in Headingley Tillwell is the only funeral service in Manitoba that is providing aquamation service. This service breaks down the body in a way that costs less than the average cremation cost, and is by far more environmentally friendly. Dwayne briefly introduced his business, and then proceeded with a lively question and answer.

We learned that it takes 18-20 hours to aquamate a pet, and about 24-48 hours to fully aquamate and dehydrate a person. The family then has the option of receiving the remains. The process is carbon neutral, and Tillwell donates 5% of its net revenue to urban canopy maintenance. The cost for a human is $1,895. The cost for a pet is $225 if the remains are returned, and $125 if the remains are not returned. Dwayne distributed a package of information about the services. To learn more go to tillwell.ca

Sarge Lyle introduced our guests, Keith Morris (Nancy & Dave’s son), and Dwayne Tillwell, this evening’s speaker.

Happy Bucks

• Peter Tonge was very happy to announce that District 5550 was the only district in Zones 28 and 32 to win the irresistible district award. This award recognizes growth in a district.
• Jack W. was happy that a crooked post on our sign was fixed by Chuck.
• Chuck was happy that his granddaughter’s team did well in a volleyball tournament.
• Alan Roberts just had the nicest time at the cottage all summer.
• Cathy was happy that her DGN nomination was passed by the district board. She is also very excited to be heading to the west coast on Friday to visit the Spirit Bear Rainforest. No phones, no lights, no motorcars!
• Lyle was happy that thanks to the nice weather he was able to get his deck stained.
• Ed Thompson was happy that he got a bigger woodchipper, $500 off at Princess Auto, and it made short work of his chipping.

Anniversaries

Jack Wilson had an anniversary.

50/50

Chuck had the lucky 50/50 and this week managed to pull the blue marble. Congratulations, Chuck.

Final Notes

Next week there will be a presentation about World Polio Day, and our guest speaker will be Donna Correiro, whose father had polio.

Dave Morris reminded everyone to save their beer cans.