Minutes of June 2,2014 meeting

Announcements

Nash- a few of our members are absent as they are helping out at the all-candidates debate at Langstaff Community Centre.

Golf Tourney- June 17- Cyril mentioned that we have 120 golfers and could still use about 30 more. 32 Golfers are from the RH Club. Need small prizes or giveaways.

Donation- Cam presented a cheque to the Club of $375 from the Rotary Couples Bridge Group that will be put towards the RH High School geography scholarship.

Gord- on his last boat cruise, while wearing our Rotary jacket, he met a fellow Rotarian from  New Jersey who has sent our Club their club’s banner.
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Jay - suggested that a brief  congratulatory letter be given from President Nash to each of the high school scholarship award winners. All agreed.

Peter- see the latest issue of SNAPD for pictures of our International Night.

Beer Fest- July 17- Anders now has tickets and posters. Hoping for 10 beer vendors and 10 restaurants. Anders will provide a list of duties for volunteers.

Turnover Night- June 28- members will need to RSVP . The event will be potluck. Gord has volunteered to BBQ.

Guest Speaker- John Var Laar , accompanied by his wife Cora
“Back to School Program”

Nash introduced John, past District Gov. from 2003-2004. They are members of the Collingwood Club. Cora is from the Phillipines. In 2014 John received the Rotary International Humanitarian Award.

John started the “Back to School” program in the Phillipines in 2006 and  there are now over 2000 scholars that the funds have supported. Hope is given to children to be educated and get out of the slums. John was challenged to start this program after seeing Fillipino children in the local dump looking for food. He realized the best solution was to educate them and let them help themselves.

In 2008 he took a team of Dist. Governors to see these children. The team then started to set up matching grants to start a number of projects like “harvest the rain’ to provide clean drinking water for the children . John has put together over $1.25 million in grants over the last 6 years. Because the island is prone to natural disasters-Rotary has shipped containers of supplies to help out. Through the medical grants 44 children were given heart operations-thanks to Rotary. The Rotary program to eradicate the Denge mosquito has saved thousands from this deadly disease. “Never give up hope-when Rotary is around!”

Peter thanked John on behalf of the Club. So many things have been done thanks to these grants. Funding is the key.

50/50 winner- Rick