The online version of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg-Charleswood was back together again tonight with the help of Zoom. As usual most joined in the meeting around 5:30pm for 15 minutes of fellowship. The meeting was called to order by President Mandy Kwasnica at 5:47pm. Sarge Mike Dudar was present tonight to help keep the meeting organized. We had one guest tonight, District Governor Fred Wright.

 

 

President Mandy advised that this is World Immunization Week. To keep with this theme we will be watching a video from R.I. that was presented on World Polio Day (Oct. 24, 2019).

 

President Mandy reminded those that haven’t registered for the online District 5550 conference to do so soon. To register for the conference: [1]https://www.crsadmin.com/EventPortal/Registrations/PublicFill/EventPublicFill.aspx?evtid=a412a70f-38e9-4ff8-b775-9200c96721cc . May 23, 2020.

D.G. Fred discussed the program for the district conference. There is a great line up of speakers.[2] http://rotaryclubofkenora.ca  .  

There will be an open forum for questions after each make their presentations. Type in your questions in the text box and they will answer as time allows.

These two individuals will focus their respective presentations on how ending child poverty works in with reconciliation.

We will receive updates from the Rotary Foundation, Ripple Effect, ShelterBox, district literacy and World Peace Partners.

We will pass the torch from DG Fred to Gailmarie Anderson and from DGE Gailmarie to DGN Dan Sutton.

We will acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Clubs of Kenora, Prince Albert and Weyburn.

There will be a 10-minute break once an hour as well as a 45-minute break for lunch. During this 45-minute break, the 10 Best club videos will be voted on to select a final 3 best. Club videos will be online to view as of May 7^th.

This will be a great opportunity to get together with other Rotarians from District 5550. The R.C. of  Melfort will be looking at a possible hybrid type of D.C. for 2020/2021. On-site in Melfort for those able to travel and online for those that need to stay home for various reasons.

-Paul Brault reported on the Westgrove food hamper program. First, Paul thanked Iain for his assistance last week with the Costco food shop. They were both outside Costco at 7:10am.  This allowed them to wait inside the heated cart storage space instead of out in the cold. This week will be the last weekly hamper delivery. The month of May will see the hamper program cut to just two hamper distribution days. We are then looking at shifting back to a breakfast nutrition program delivered to the children that received the breakfast in school before the Covid-19 disruption.

Of interest is that the Provincial Government has noticed that ~30,000 children in the province have been shut out of various breakfast nutrition programs due to the school closures. Paul will be looking into the process for submitting a proposal for Westgrove School children to be included in any nutrition program that the province may initiate.

Paul advised that the funds for the food program are in good standing. He has received substantial funds from his neighbour as well as a significant amount of food items from a colleague that Paul knows from his riding association.

 

Iain Scott advised that the food shop and delivery to Westgrove went very, very smoothly. Iain has offered his assistance to Paul again this week. Iain asked how the hampers are prepared and dispensed.

Paul described the hamper preparation as being sorted by Val, her husband and children as well. They then dispense the hampers out the kitchen window of the Family Resource Centre where the recipients are lined up according to social distancing guidelines by chalk lines on the sidewalk. Paul has asked Val to video record some of this process for our club video which will be submitted for the District Conference.

Ed Thompson reported that he has receipted $4475.00 for funds that have gone through the RCCCF for Westgrove food hampers. There is $1985.87 left in the RCCCF Westgrove food fund as of today.

President Mandy thanked Paul, Iain and all club members for supporting this food hamper program, “amazing & awesome”.

 

The R.C. of Winnipeg-Charleswood was featured last week in an article published in the Canstar publication -Metro. President Mandy’s review of the article is that it was well written and showcases the work that our club is doing while meeting virtually online with Zoom.[3] https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/metro/Rotary-Club-switches-to-online-meetings-569793211.html .

 

 

President Mandy read an award certificate that she received on behalf of the club from District 5550. A Literacy Award for 2019 / 2020.

• Jim Forestell was happy to have taken part in the birthday party for his little sister, who lives in Toronto. She turned 65 this past Wednesday and retired to celebrate her birthday. Her daughter organized an online Zoom party for 69 people on Saturday; they were online for a couple of hours. A great time!
• Dave Morris was pleased to have video and sound feed working for this meeting. Today is Nancy and Dave’s wedding anniversary as well as Dave celebrating a birthday. They have been married for 57 years. Dave said he will put $10 in the ‘kitty’ to recognize this day. (Dave quote, “to the same woman”)
• Iain Scott is feeling good about a situation we all learned about last week. The Can Do People program was closed down due to Covid-19. Joan Leslie-Thomson has advised Iain that the program has been given the green light to re-open for her sons. They are 23 years old and have autism. A few other families that require the program will be able to attend as well. This comes about due to Joan’s efforts in contacting various Government Ministers. While this was happening, her home hot water tank stopped working. A very generous contractor has replaced the tank for free. Joan is feeling much more optimistic now.  
• President Mandy had a great birthday this past week, even though it was not in Nashville as originally planned. She had a team member ask to present a ‘training session’ to the group. Mandy thought this would be great – a team member sharing her knowledge with others. When it was time for the session, it became obvious that she had been tricked into a surprise birthday party for herself. They all had their offices covered in balloons. A wonderful surprise.
• President Mandy was joyous to see and photograph the rainbows that appeared out her kitchen window on Sunday evening. She ran outside “like a little kid” to get the pictures that she showed to us tonight. With all the depressing news recently, there is no other better sign of hope than a rainbow landing in your back yard! Spectacular photos!!
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• Lorraine Forestell has been in contact with Glenda Werbowski. She is doing well. She seemed upbeat on the call that lasted a significant amount of time. Glenda has the courage to stay strong.
• Nancy Morris was happy to have been speaking to Jeanne Gitzel.  Jeanne’s sense of humour is still there so it was fun to catch up with her. She seems to be doing “pretty good”.
• -ain Scott asked D.G. Fred Wright about travel to the Kenora area. Is it true that you must isolate for 14 days if you travel in either direction? The answer is yes! The retail merchants are in a rough spot. Usually just survive through the winter looking forward to the return of the summer crowd. This year the whole of Kenora is devastated financially. There are local cases of Covid-19; the individuals are isolating and caught the virus by travel.

Charleswood R.C. is supporting the G.G. with a donation of $500.00. This will be matched by Mr. David Newman (R.C. of WPG Downtown).