President Iain Scott opened the meeting with a land acknowledgment and we sang O'Canada.

Sarge - Mike Dudar and Lyle Miller were working together. Mike introduced and welcomed Pedro, our guest and prospective member.

Chair announcements

On Rotary’s website is an interview with Gordon McInally, President of Rotary International. Gordon answered one of the questions that has come up in talks about whom we send to RYLA which is relevant in our decision to support Rossbrook house. What youth programs are important to you?

I'm a great fan of RYLA [Rotary Youth Leadership Awards]. We have seen very successful RYLAs in our part of the world. If you take a high school student with potential to a RYLA experience, the change that can take place is amazing. Sometimes the quiet, introverted young students who go to a RYLA experience have, by the end of it, found themselves and are blossoming. It's important we send people with potential to the RYLA experience — not the highfliers, because they're going to fly high anyway. It's the people we have the potential to develop. https://www.rotary.org/en/you-asked-gordon-mcinally-answered .

District Leadership Seminar on April 12-14th - Cathy Skene and David Soper came forward to report on the DLS this past weekend. It was a great opportunity to learn and build relationships with other clubs and leaders in the District. They had some fun too.

Urban Stable - Urban Stable is hosting its Barn Dance Fundraiser on Saturday May 4th at Breezy Bend. They are featuring live entertainment from the Dust Rhinos and line dance instruction from Darolyn Pchajek. This will be an evening of family fun, dancing, pulled pork supper, silent auction, raffles, door prizes and more. Tickets are available online here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/f185ecbd-b491-4574-a33a-586f84526792

Charleswood Rotary Virtual Satellite Club.

Nancy Hansen, President, reports there’s a lot going on with the club in their various communities:

• World Down Syndrome Day
• World Water Day referenced with special mention of Shoal Lake 40 initiatives
• Cerebral Palsy month in March
• Cade using his editing money for support of various Rotary projects
• Nancy Hansen given Paul Harris Fellow 4 for Virtual Satellite Club development
• Canadian Footwear has supplied past DG, Fred Wright with 80 prs of shoes from the Fit Feet for the Street program for unhoused people in Kenora. Thank you Brian.

NEXT MEETING of the Satellite Club is April 24th 7pm Central Time. SEE YOU ON ZOOM. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84665956979?pwd=bWhVT2hEYWVCRHZ6Vy9GNXBTdHhUZz09

Meeting ID: 846 6595 6979 Passcode: 140188

Before we go to dinner.. With thanks from Jack Decorby. The other day during renovations, I thought about a job of inspecting mirrors. Now that's something I can see myself doing.

Guest Speaker, Brian Scharfstien, President, Canadian Footwear.

Canadian Footwear is a specialist store which provides full gait analysis and clinical assessment, from their Canadian Certified Pedorthists (peh-DOR-thist) & trained staff where they design the appropriate orthotic to suit your foot type, injury and lifestyle as well as educating you about choosing the best footwear and accessories (socks, orthotics).

Brian and his team have a long history of community service such as the assessment and treatment of foot problems at the FootHealth Centre; shoe repair services and donations of shoes to a wide range of organizations/ individuals. 

Canadian Footwear has a number of stores including 3 locations in Winnipeg. See canadianfootwear.com. 

President Iain thanked Brian for a most informative presentation of how Canadian Footwear has supported many worthwhile causes including the children at Westgrove School (and we heard earlier about the donation to unhoused through the Rotary Club, Kenora). We are most grateful for the continued support you have provided over the years.

Here at Charleswood Rotary Club, The Assiniboine Forest is our largest project and Iain encouraged Brian and his organisation to become involved as a supporter. "Please accept this bag and decal in support of the forest. It's not just a bag in the sense of shopping. It is to raise awareness of our efforts to raise funds to support the forest. Please use it whenever you go shopping. Please come back as guest whenever you can."

Mandy thanked everyone who took part in our furniture drive this past Saturday. In total they supported 11 families with furniture and household items. Mandy admitted at the beginning of the week, she was concerned about furniture donations, but after only 4 pickups were confirmed on Tuesday, this quickly grew to 11 pickups by Friday with 2 being very large pickups. The store is now bursting at the seams ready to support the next set of families.

The committee has now supported a total of 257 families since starting in October 2022! Our wait list currently has about 50 families in need of furniture. It was in the news recently that about 1000 Ukrainian refugees arrived in March as the last chance to enter Canada under the CUAET (Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel) program. This should keep us busy for a while yet.

Our families were very appreciative of the support. Some recently arrived while others have been here for about a year and still in need. One family had young children including a newborn so they were excited to receive a whole bunch of baby items. Another family was excited to receive twin bunk beds that they were in need of with their limited space and large family.

A special moment was when Wendy from Accent Environments dropped by with 3 large IKEA bags full of brand new IKEA household items that they collected from their staff. Incredible to see this support and they found us through a quick search on google.

Special thanks to Chuck and Lyle for cleaning the sidewalk in front of the store. The sidewalk was full of gravel and dirt and now is nice and clean keeping our furniture nice and clean.

*Next drive in 2 weeks*. We are planning for our next furniture drive event for Saturday, April 27th. Mandy will send you another note about this opportunity closer to the date.

Happy Bucks

• Jim was happy that we have received the special liquor permit for Lobsterfest. It's on June 14. Remind your friends and family to Save the Date!
• Mandy was happy about a wonderful Bridge of Hope Weekend, and a virtual presentation to the District Leadership Seminar (David and Cathy saw it and were very impressed), and a presentation to the Springstein Mennonite Church (that resulted in a $1,000 donation.)
• Jack is happy to have visited Calgary to see his four grandkids.
• Rod was happy for a beautiful bike ride Friday.
• Ed Thompson drove to Clear Lake last Saturday for a friend's 80th birthday. He highly recommends attending all celebratory occasions possible.
• Cathy was happy that Manitoba won the Family Feud Contest, beating out Sasktchewan and Northwestern Ontario, at the DLS.
• Alan Roberts happily reminded us about the coming art show at Charleswood United, which will feature 43 artists.
• Len was sorry about missing last week's meeting but was happy that it was because he was setting up video equipment for friend Gord for a film on aviation history. Len also will be donating three books to Westgrove School.
• Iain is happy that his daughter has written her final board exam and will soon return to Winnipeg to practice family medicine.
• Chuck was happy that the special liquor permit for Lobsterfest is in place so that all that wine won't go to waste. He is also happy to have his grandson come to live with him, although he is a little concerned about the future cost of groceries.
• And everyone was happy to see Gord .

Birthdays: Lyle had a birthday, and because it was Lyle we all sang real good.

50/50 - Mike Dudar's ticket was drawn, but he was unable to pull the blue marble. Next time..... There were no fines.

Next week - our guest speaker is John Perrin who will talk to us about the Peguis Selkirk Treaty and the Fort Garry Hotel. If you have been following the news, this should be a very interesting subject

Now just before we go. The other day I heard a Landlord wanting to talk to his tenant about high heating bills. The tenant seemed quite cooperative when I heard him say… “Sure my door is always open”