President Doug’s reading of the Land Acknowledgement Statement was followed by the video of O Canada sung (in English and in French) in tribute to frontline and healthcare workers by the Humber College Music and Film students. The thought of the week was a quote by Dorothy Thompson, an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who was noted by Time magazine in 1939 as one of the two most influential women in America, the other being Eleanor Roosevelt: “Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict – alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.”

ROTARY MOMENTS

Report from February Board Meeting

MUNA – [Model United Nations Assembly] The Virtual Model United Nations Assembly will be held April 28-29, 2022. Registration cost is $25 per delegation (two students and one counselor). Members are encouraged to contact Glenn if they know of students who are interested in participating.

Adventures in Citizenship – will take place May 27-30, 2022 virtually (i.e. online). The cost is $395 per student.

Other Adventure Programs – Except for RYLA [Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly] which will be held in August 2022, all other Adventure programs have been cancelled due to COVID.

Youth Exchange Program - The long- and short-term youth exchange program has been cancelled by the District 5550 Youth Exchange Committee for the school year 2022-2023. The Committee will continue to develop and promote awareness and training programs.

The North American Youth Exchange Network's (NAYEN) annual conference on Feb. 17 & 18 will be virtual again this year. Rotarians interested in kickstarting the Rotary Exchange Program after COVID are welcome to join the District Youth Exchange committee at this event. The cost of registration will be covered by the committee for those who register with the District Youth Exchange committee by sending your name, club name and email address to joanneg461@gmail.com

Golf Tournament: Jim Forestell recommended that the club not pursue a golf tournament this year. The Chamber has decided to go their own way with a different format. The Board agreed with Jim’s assessment. No golf tournament.

Resource Assistance for Youth (RAY): The Board decided to contact RAY directly to determine the best possible way that the club could assist the organization to support the homeless youth in Winnipeg. Peter will contact RAY and report.

Other Rotary Moments:

Books for Westgrove School students: Nancy Hansen has purchased 6 more books for Westgrove School students, ages 6 to 12. They will be shipped directly to the school by Amazon. This brings the number of books purchased in 2022 so far by Nancy to 13. Nancy Hansen has purchased them for the students with her own funds on behalf of the club.

The club’s Annual Fund-SHARE contributions total so far is $1,459.77 USD ($1,868.51 CDN). With a club membership of 35 as of July 1st, 2021, this comes to $41.71 USD per capita as of Feb 6th, 2022. We are short $8.29 USD ($10.61 CDN at the exchange rate of 1.28). To be eligible for district grants, the club must reach the minimum per capita donations of $50.00 USD by March 31, 2022. [Grant applications need to be submitted by April 15th].

U of Manitoba Rotaract Club’s fundraiser for the 1000 Survival Gardens / Hippo Roller project involves the purchase of tickets. ($10 for one, $25 for 3.) https://www.fundingchange.ca/rotaract/YFk_NWmYnH2yBrKa

Chase the Ace Raffle , Series 2, Week 11 winner of $32 was Mur Sutherland.

Peter informed members that Talking Rotary has just released a podcast about the Rotary Club for World Disability Advocacy.

There is a sign at the Assiniboine Forest (also along Shaftesbury) announcing a variance application has been submitted to the city of Wpg. .

Lloyd mentioned that he and Bob were driving out to Steinbach (on Wednesday!) to visit Prairie Pole Inc, a sign company, to discuss a new 20-foot high sign for the Assiniboine Forest. He offered to pick up anyone else who wanted to go. Lloyd also mentioned grant proposals, indicating that Glenn Campbell is putting together a proposal for STARS and wondered if Cathy and Elaine (both of whom took the required district grants course) would be interested in putting together a proposal for Urban Stable.

PDG Jim reminded all members of the Lobsterfest Committee that there will be a meeting of the committee on Tuesday afternoon, February 15th. He’ll be sending out an agenda on Wednesday or Thursday (Feb 9 or 10).

President Doug reminded us that there will be no meeting next Monday, February 14th, but PDG Nancy’s announcement of a cancelled meeting on February 21st because it’s Louis Riel Day took him by surprise. A discussion ensued and it was decided that the club would meet on February 21st in person at Breezy Bend, whether or not a speaker had been arranged for that date. Cathy suggested having a representative of Bookmates Inc as the speaker on February 21st and Lloyd suggested a member from the Historical Society to talk about Charleswood’s Metis origins. President Doug suggested pursuing the Bookmates idea first, since Cathy has the contacts there, being a member of their board.

MEETING REMINDERS

• There’s an RCCCF Board meeting on Tuesday, February 8th at 3:30 PM
• An Assiniboine Forest trip to Steinbach on Wednesday
• Lobsterfest committee meeting on February 15th
• PDG Nancy indicated that she was planning to have a speaker to talk about Black History Month at our meeting on Monday, February 28th

PDG Nancy thanked Tammy for participating in our meeting and then introduced her to the members. Tammy Hansen is a chartered professional accountant at Cran & Company working with a variety of clients - individuals, small businesses, corporations, and numerous not for profits and charities. She lives in Ladner, BC with her husband and two daughters and has a passion for working with the local youth and mentoring them to become future leaders. Working with Rotary and amateur sports, she is able to provide volunteer opportunities for the youths and much needed assistance for the local associations. Her most recent Rotary project - the StoryWalk, where she was the project leader - was completed in June 2021.

Using a slide presentation prepared by Delta Child/Youth Committee, Tammy shared what a StoryWalk project is. Her project partners included three Rotary Clubs (Delta, Tsawassen and North Delta), Delta Child/Youth Committee and Delta Community Literacy.

The original idea of StoryWalk was that of Ann Ferguson from Vermont, who has a copyright on the name. A StoryWalk is a fun, educational, family-friendly activity that involves the separation of a children’s book’s pages (typically between 16 and 20 pages long), lamination of each page, and posting each page on its own stand along a nature trail. Because Delta’s StoryWalk project was planned to be set up on land belonging to the city of Delta, the first item in the project was to get permission from the city to do this. Benefits of a StoryWalk include literacy, getting students away from their i-Pads, televisions and smart phones (i.e. changing Screen time to Green time) and an opportunity for collaboration between various parts of a community (like citizens walking along the nature trail and schools in the area). Each story page can be accompanied by suggestions for physical activities like “pretend to skate” (or to skip, run, walk, wiggle, take giant steps, stomp, dance, hop like a rabbit, etc.) “to the next page”. A number of smaller communities in BC have a StoryWalk, set up by organizations like a Literacy Group, a city recreation department, an elementary school, or a library.

After permission from the landowner has been obtained, matters that need to be considered include: options for sponsorship or messaging, ideal location, options for the stands holding each book page (material, construction), which books to use, how/where to laminate the pages and how often to change them, feedback, and the initial and ongoing budget required.

An ideal trail for a Story Walk is a circle using existing trails, with each page stand within view of the previous one. Wooded areas are best for year-round use. Stands should be suited to the local weather and ideally designed so that the various pieces can be replaced when needed.

Suggested literacy level of books is for elementary school age children, ideally reflecting the local environment (focussing on nature and Canadian authors). The books should be changed up to 3 times a year.

Because the pandemic was in full swing, the City of Delta approved the idea (it was something for people to do outside) at the end of January 2021 and the first StoryWalk book was in place at the beginning of July. The Rotary clubs are working towards installing a new book every month. The Literacy group supplies the books. Three copies are needed – 2 to laminate each side of the book’s pages – and the third one as a spare in case of damage or loss.

The project has garnered a lot of attraction – Tammy was interviewed starting with the local newspaper, then CBC radio, then Global TV, then the Rotary Canada magazine and most recently with Peter Tonge’s and Mandy Kwasnica’s podcast “Talking Rotary”. Tammy’s daughter, a teacher-in-training, has set up a StoryWalk in the yard of her elementary school in Surrey, BC. with the collaboration of the local Rotary club,

In the discussion that followed the presentation, we learned the following:

• Currently, because Winnipeg city does not want to have signage in the Assiniboine Forest, a StoryWalk there would not fit in with that idea. Other places where this could take place, however, include the Harte Trail.
• The City of Delta and Rotarians organized the location and paced out the sign locations. The city had staff dig a hole and then cement the support posts (stained by Rotarians and delivered to the city) in each hole. Rotarians then fixed the story page supports to the posts.
• Lloyd indicated that he has seen the concept in other locations. One in particular - near Ponoka, Alberta, was a memorial to a young man who had passed away. It was called a PrayerWalk and it had a series of plaques and sayings along the walk. He wondered if CMU (Canadian Mennonite University) whose students use the Assiniboine Forest for ecological training, education, and a relaxing place to visit (through their own entrance to the forest) would be interested in having an area there for dedications or similar ideas.
• The capital costs for the Delta Story Walk came to about $2000. That included the purchase of metal frames, metal housings, 4X4s, plywood, acrylic paint and stain. Operating costs consist of legwork and cordless drills. Additional operating costs would be incurred if damages were incurred and had to be repaired. Reflectors have been purchased and applied to the page displays because of bicyclists using the trail in the dark. Delta Literacy donates all the books and laminates the pages. The organization receives government funding. One could approach local bookstores or authors for donations. It’s important to consider the local community’s diversity (culture, color, ages) in the choice of books. Interesting graphics and illustrations are important for children and adults who cannot read.
• On behalf of the club, Dave thanked Tammy for her presentation. Tammy responded with an offer to help in any way needed should our Rotary Club decided to take on a StoryWalk project.

TOWARDS THE END….

• Mandy indicated that she would be happy to help lead a similar project.
• Darvin mentioned that he knew enough people that if we undertook such a project, we could have most of the capital costs donated.
• Cathy suggested that Bookmates Inc, (“a non-profit organization established in 1984 that provides family literacy programs and training in Manitoba and beyond”) might be a good partner for such a project.
• PDG Ed suggested the Bill Clement Parkway as a possible location for the project. Cathy mentioned that the city already has some signs related to the history of Charleswood in the Bill Clement Parkway.
• Dave suggested a location in Headingly, and PDG Jim cautioned that a StoryWalk location would need to have parking available.

Sarge Mike welcomed our speaker, Tammy Hansen, to the meeting, then asked for Happy Bucks from the membership.

PDG Nancy was delighted to learn that the Winnipeg Downtown Rotary Club had expressed an interest in the work of Sean Rayland after having learned of his presentation to our club from Peter. She facilitated an online meeting between Sean and the Downtown club representative to have Sean speak to their club, which meets online every first and third Wednesday of the month.

Darvin had a happy buck for Kerri Einarson from Gimli for having won the women’s national curling championship for the third year in a row.

PDG Ed was pleased to report that he saw the recovering David Newman at the ReFit Centre, who was just happy to be around after a couple of heart surgeries.

Bob recently dropped off some old winter clothes and winter boots at RAY (Resource Assistance for Youth) on Sherbrook Street and he was glad to be able to do so.

Chuck has found that his first week of “dry February” was tougher than he had anticipated, but he was “still on the wagon”.

PDG Nancy shared a special request from Margaret Hemphill, whose friend’s four year old granddaughter Victoria is facing chemotherapy and surgery for her cancer. A campaign encouraging people to send cards to the granddaughter (which could be dropped off at the Morris Insurance office at 5250 Roblin Blvd then delivered by PDG Nancy to Margaret in Headingly) to cheer up the little girl.

Mandy indicated that she would have her recently adopted children get involved in this campaign.

Lorraine was pleased to let us know that her husband, PDG Jim, will be celebrating his 80th birthday on February 17th and she’s “sticking with him”. Congratulations were offered and comments like “You don’t look a day older than 79” and “It’s actually seventy-nine ninety-five plus tax” followed.

Lloyd was happy that the judge in Ottawa decided to “shut the horns down” (referring to the truckers’ protest there). In addition, his grandson’s school principal advised teachers that children should not be walking to school (which is in the general area of the protests) for their own safety. PDG Nancy’s daughter, who lives in Ottawa, reported that protesters follow and harass women who wear masks.