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

Rotary Moment

Rotary Day at UNESCO 2023-24. Rotary Day at the United Nations will be held on 4 May 2024 in Paris, France, with a focus on education and peace. With the theme Connecting for Good, this year’s event will focus on community-based solutions to the global refugee crisis. We’ll also honour six members of the Rotary family as Rotary People of Action: Connectors Beyond Borders and see how their inspiring work has addressed the crisis. https://www.rotary.org/en/un-day

Sarge welcomed guest speakers Scott Saedal and Anders Swanson of Winnipeg Trails.

Chair announcements

News from past President Doug McKenzie that he won't be able to attend meetings until some time in early 2024.

Tabs for Wheelchairs - recent article in the Free Press about Tabs for Wheelchairs, which includes recommendations from club member, Peter Tonge. The program would benefit from increased drop off locations and broader coordination. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2023/11/26/disabililty-advocate-quits-as-chair-of-city-committee

Rotary Club of Winnipeg Assiniboine - President Iain met with Warren Thompson, President, Assiniboine Club who presented our club with the cheque for just over $5000.00. This cheque represents our portion of the proceeds from the Green Spaces Golf Tournament held this past summer. The money will all go to the Assiniboine Forest. Next year’s tournament is at Kingswood Golf Club on August 13th.

Call for Assistance - we received a message from Nasser Anwari who attended one of our meetings as a guest during the presentation by ADM Storage. His extended family has been given approval to come to Canada from Afghanistan. His single sister arrives Tuesday and she will be living with his family. His oldest brother's family of 9 has 7 kids and younger brother’s family of 4 arrives on Saturday. The family will be together after 14 years apart. Nasser found a 4 bedroom townhouse and needs a two bedroom apartment close to transit. If we know of any housing please let us know. They also need a few single beds. They need help with winter jackets, microwave, coffee maker etc. They have girls ages 18,16,13,12,7,5,2 and one boy 13 and 3 adult females and two males. Iain and Caroline have looked out some jackets for adults that may help but not for the children. They need accommodation beginning on December 1st.

Bridge of Hope Ukraine - Mandy advised that the next furniture drive will be on Saturday, December 2. Volunteers can register online. If you are not on the volunteer list, please contact Mandy or register at 'Help Move Furniture' at https://bridgeofhopeukraine.com. Mandy expects that 11 families will be helped.

Thank you to Lorraine for her work on preparing the agenda for the party. If you haven't yet purchased tickets, see Chuck.

Chuck reminded members that the club is taking donations for Fit for the Street and Westgrove School. The list of items (or cash) includes:

Canadian Footwear Fit for the Street: Warm socks for men and ladies.

Westgrove School Breakfast / Snacks:

• Cereal – Rice Krispies
• Cornflakes (Frosted and Original)
• Cheerios (Honey Nut and Original)
• Granola Cereals
• Wow Butter
• Strawberry Jam
• Granola Bars (no Peanuts)
• Nutragrain Bars
• Pudding Cups (Chocolate and Vanilla)
• Apple Sauce Cups
• Fruit Cups
• Ritz Crackers
• Cookies (Oatmeal or similar)
• Cheese Strings
• Yogurt Tubes
• Apple Juice
• Cheese Whiz

President Iain welcomed Anders Swanson and Scott Saedal from Winnipeg Trails Association. The organization was founded in 2003 and incorporated as a non-profit in 2017. It is a dynamic organization that plays a critical and comprehensive role in the development of a modern, sustainable city through the primary lens of active transportation. WTA spawned out of the need to put in a single trail and grew to represent an informal coalition of 40+ organizations and trail builders and trail users focused on accelerating trail and bikeway connectivity to, from and within Winnipeg.

Anders and Scott presented an impressive overview of the organization. Since 2003, they've developed 3+ trails, planted 75,000+ trees along trails and established 41+ school loops during COVID. Some of their current projects include:

Plain Bicycle Project - comfortable upright bikes for life. What some people call a 'dutch bike', it is one bicycle for any age, for any ability and for any day. Trails Winnipeg fills shipping containers with well used and well loved bicycles from the Netherlands repaired and distributed to new owners. As of 2021, over 1,000 bicycles have been shipped. The Plain Bicycle project includes much more such as bike repairs, sales, rentals and learn to ride lessons.

Winterpeg - The first and only one of its kind in the world, Winnipeg Trails’ Mobile Ski Library brings winter equipment and freshly-groomed trails to unexpected places. The Mobile Ski Library events are all about gathering together to spread the joy of winter. Each one is a bit different, depending on the location, the weather, and the fun folks who turn up – but no matter the setting, you can always count on good times outdoors and fun new opportunities! The Mobile Ski Library carries cross-country skis, snowshoes, and kicksleds, and options for people with mobility or vision challenges in the form of sit-skis, wheelchair blades, and other accommodations – and all of it is FREE to try! Come find a new winter hobby! Be sure to follow @WinnipegTrails on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates, including new events and weather-related schedule changes.

Goal 5 Bike Project - is a plan to knock down barriers to cycling for racialized women, together.

Healing Trails - an Indigenous-led initiative to re-think transportation through policy work, capacity building, education and tangible real-world projects.

Love30on30 - is a show of support for safe vehicle speeds on the 30th of every month. Started in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is inspired by the neighbours we missed seeing outside and the space between our homes that felt safe for us all. The goal is 30km/hr speed limits in Winnipeg neighbourhoods.

Trail Maps - over 30 detailed trail maps have been created in a joint effort by the Winnipeg Trails Association and the Prairie Pathfinders. Each map is a two page overview that can be viewed online or printed on a home printer on letter sized paper.

There were questions and discussion about collaboration. A great deal of excellent additional information is at the Winnipeg Trails website: https://winnipegtrails.ca

Travel Joke: For those of you who are thinking of going away over the Winter months, be careful who you tell. I told my suitcases we are not going away on a vacation this Winter. Now I'm dealing with emotional baggage.

Happy Bucks

• David S. was happy that Charleswood Rotary got a plug in the Winnipeg Free Press. Peter Tonge tried to get the city to collect pull tabs, but it was 'too hard' for them. The article mentioned that Charleswood Rotary collects tabs.
• Mandy was excited that Anya's horseback riding instructor asked if Anya was in gymnastics because of the awesome dismount she performed. Turns out that the dismount was not intentional.
• Len put in $2, because his dad will be 102 on Friday.
• Jack D. got a call as he was coming into the meeting from Ron Smith, the person who introduced him to Rotary in 1977.
• Jagish is happy to still be in one piece.
• Chuck threw in $2 because he dropped off 16 pairs of shoes to Westgrove School today. Not one of the kids knew how to tie shoelaces. He also dropped off a cheque from Charleswood Rotary to go towards the t-shirts that the children will receive as Christmas gifts from the school.
• Iain put in $5 because he received 56 comments on his post about the Van Roon Gardens.
• Ed Toews put in $4 in celebration of his 5 decade anniversary.

50/50

Joyce defied the odds and pulled the blue marble on the first week of a new pot!

Next meeting

December 4th - the speakers are Haley Edwards & Carla Bergen of Urban Stable