2018 District 7070 Rotary Friendship Day in Oshawa

All Rotarians in District 7070 and their guests are invited to the 2018 Rotary District 7070 Friendship Day on Saturday, September 8, 2018 at Parkwood, the Estate of the late Colonel R. S. "Sam" McLaughlin , in Oshawa.

Oshawa Rotarian Michael Adams, co-chair of the event , along with Linda Porritt of the Oshawa-Parkwood Rotary Club, said, “Tickets for the event are $75 per person with all proceeds going to The Rotary Foundation. The Rotary Foundation transforms donations into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. During the past 101 years, the Foundation has spent $3 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects, the most notable of which is the PolioPlus campaign, Rotary's effort to eradicate polio from the world.”

Please register to join Rotarians to enjoy a day of friendship, fellowship, food and fun.  Tours of Parkwood Estate are planned following the meeting meal.   Rotarians and their guests from all of the 56 Rotary Clubs in southern Ontario, district 7070 are invited to join the hosting clubs, The Rotary Club of Oshawa and the Rotary Club of Oshawa-Parkwood for this fundraising friendship event. 

Please register online as soon as possible, by clicking "member" or "guest" registration (big blue box just to the left).

WE WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR PAYMENT  BY CHEQUE AND MAIL IT TO US.

Please make check/cheque payable to:  Rotary Club of Oshawa, P.O Box 91, Oshawa, Ontario  L1H 7K8.

You may also pay by CHEQUE,  CASH OR CREDIT CARD at PARKWOOD, on the day of the event, SEPTEMBER 8.

About the Event - Rotary Friendship Day in Oshawa - History

For many years, starting in 1948-49 and running through the 1950's and '60's, during his lifetime Colonel Sam McLaughlin, founder of GM Canada and an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Oshawa, invited the Rotarians of District 7070 out for an annual Friendship Day to his home, Parkwood Estate.

In its heyday, the Rotary Friendship Day was attended by over 350 Rotarians from all of the clubs in our District then called 707. The day included lunch, at the Rotary Club of Oshawa, and sometimes dinner at the Armories in Oshawa afterwards. The day also consisted of tours of the General Motors Plant plant in Oshawa, golf at the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club, lawn bowling , tours of Windfields Farm (the home of Northern Dancer) , and the Canadian Automotive Museum and then back to Parkwood for cocktails where Rotarians were met and hosted by Colonel Sam and before, her death, his wife Adelaide McLaughlin, at Parkwood Estate.

“Following Colonel McLaughlin’s death in 1972, this Rotary tradition was lost. With the 100th anniversary of Parkwood Estate, the Rotary Clubs of Oshawa and Oshawa-Parkwood have invited their fellow Rotarians of District 7070 and their guests to revive a great tradition and build on it for years to come,” Lind Porritt added.

“This is an opportunity for Rotarians and guests to see old friends, meet new friends, and share their ideas of Rotary service to others in their communities and throughout the world with their fellow Rotarians and to see the Parkwood Estate, a national historic treasure, right here in Oshawa,” added Michael Adams.

Colonel Sam’s home, Parkwood Estate, begun in 1916, and was designed by the Toronto architectural firm of Darling and Pearson and completed in 1917.

In 1989, the Parkwood estate was officially designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Parkwood Estate has been used in many television and film productions and most recently seen in the Murdoch Mysteries television series as the home of inventor, wealthy businessman and general rascal, James Pendrick.

More About Colonel Sam Mclaughlin

Honours and awards

McLaughlin was appointed honorary lieutenant-colonel of the 34th Ontario Regiment in 1921 and held this position until 1931, at which time he was appointed honorary colonel of the same unit, later designated as The Ontario Regiment (RCAC), a reserve armoured regiment based in Oshawa. Affectionately known as "Colonel Sam", McLaughlin served as honorary colonel until 1967, thereby becoming the longest continuously-serving colonel in the history of the Canadian Forces.

In 1967, McLaughlin was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Philanthropy

In 1951, he established the McLaughlin Foundation which, from 1953 to 2003, donated nearly $200 million to the University of Toronto and other causes, including the McLaughlin Planetarium at the Royal Ontario Museum.

McLaughlin was a major contributor to Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario. The university's Mechanical Engineering Department is housed in McLaughlin Hall, which was his donation in 1948. McLaughlin Hall in Queen's University's John Deutsch University Centre is also named for him. His wife, Adelaide McLaughlin, was honoured in 1957 by Queen's, which named the women's residence Adelaide Hall for her.

In 1947 McLaughlin and his wife donated land for a Boy Scout camp on the outskirts of Oshawa. The camp was named "Camp Samac".

McLaughlin donated $1 million to the 1968 library building at the University of Guelph, which bears his name.

He provided partial funding to build a college at York University in Toronto. Opened in 1968, it was named McLaughlin College in his honour.

McLaughlin Hall at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario, which he unveiled in 1971 at age 99, is named after him in recognition of his contributions to the school.

He endowed the Regimental Foundation of The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) and quietly paid the salaries of some of the regiment's soldiers during times of severely curtailed government funding.

McLaughlin House at the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific also bears his name.

Thoroughbred horse racing

In his youth, McLaughlin competed in cycling and yachting, and he was an equestrian show jumping champion at competitions in Canada and the United States. His love of horses led to the establishment of Parkwood Stable, a thoroughbred horse racing and breeding farm located a few miles north of Oshawa, Ontario

.

McLaughlin's horses won numerous races in Canada and in the U.S.; his horses won important races including the 1942 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park. A three-time winner of Canada's most prestigious race, the Queen's Plate, in 1934 his future Hall of Fame colt Horometer won both the Queen's Plate and the Breeders' Stakes. In 1950, the nearly eighty-year-old McLaughlin retired from racing, selling his Parkwood Stable to E. P. Taylor, under whom it would become known as Windfields Farm (the home and resting place of Northern Dancer).

A long-time director of the Ontario Jockey Club, McLaughlin was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1963 and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1977.