Thank You!
Thank you to David CS for his excellent meeting notes, and to Walter P for his photographs. This Bulletin would not be possible without your help.
May 22, 2019 Rotary After Hours
On every fourth Wednesday of the month, we switch from our regular lunch meeting to a less formal evening meeting starting at 5:30pm at The Jester on Yonge. Known as Rotary After Hours (RAH), the focus is on fellowship, and with each month, this meeting grows in popularity. If you’ve never attended a RAH meeting, check out what you've been missing!
Meeting of Wednesday May 28, 2019
Sergeant-at-arms: Mike H.
Reflection: Mike H.
I am drawing on the work of Marianne Williamson and Deepak Chopra, and to close the New Generations Month of May, delivered a reflection that he titled Shine on Rotarians – As Children Do. After noting that Rotarians are a force for good and achieve much, but still tend to act humbly and doubt their authority to shine and lead, Mike asked ‘who are Rotarians not to shine?’
“We are children of the universe. Us playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking, or apologizing so that other people will not feel insecure around us.
“Rotarians are meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of the universe that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own lights shine we give all others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, and embrace our genuine being, our light automatically liberates others. Rotarians remember to Shine On. There are no spare parts in the universe.”
Attendance:
There were 14 members, and our guest speaker Richard Mewhinney, Rotary Club of Newmarket, in attendance.
Birthdays:
Happy Birthday to Warren Morris, who could not be with us today.
Happy Bucks:
- Richard Mewhinney – pleased to be with us today
- Stephen Stein – noting his parents’ 72nd wedding anniversary
- Nilam – reporting on successful President Elect training with District 7070 colleagues at RI in Chicago, and an excellent Turkish restaurant lunch with Gunizi and others as part preparation for our new twinning with and Istanbul RC.
- Walter Wells – seconding Nilam on the success of the Turkish restaurant lunch, where he was one of nine members present.
- Mike Hazell – happy to have been present as his former school Ridley College beat St Mike’s at Ridley in the final of the Canadian schoolboys rugby competition. So happy Mike couldn’t resist a Go Raptors.
President’s Announcements:
Nilam explained that he was deputized by President Joe who was in Hamburg for the RI Conference.
- Annual Golf Fundraiser – Wednesday August 28 – Contact: Bill
- Foundation Walk – Sunday September 8 – Contact and leader: Chad
- JCPI Rotman Presentation – 9:00 rto 11:00 am Friday June 14 – Contact: Mike H
- Turkish Twin Club. Jackie, on invitation from Nilam, spoke of the success of the first planned restaurant meal to learn more of Turkish culture, at the Flame Restaurant featuring Anatolian food.
- The lunch was preceded by a video conference with members of the Istanbul club. Gunizi is in Turkey for the summer. There will be another restaurant meal, and a cooking class, during the fall. More details in due course. All welcome.
- Fall Fundraiser – Auction items and Donations.
- David, on invitation from Nilam, distributed copies of the list of auction items from 2017 and urged every member to produce at least one item for the live or silent auction by end of June. Contact Barb at 647 294 4662 or rotarytorontoeglinton@gmail.com with items of for more information. PLEASE ACT NOW.
- Stephen B confirmed with thanks 8 donations of $1,000 each – from Joe, Nilam, Barb, David, Bill, Julian, Miriam Rogers and himself – and encouraged others present to confirm similar donations. Contact: Stephen at 416 930 8138. Please donate – our target is a net $50,000 – up from $42,000 last time.
Guest Speaker:Richard Mewhinney -Water Collection for Sustainability: From Concept to Reality
Laura introduced Richard Mewhinney, a member of the Rotary Club of Newmarket.
Richard, a mortgage broker who has been a Rotarian since 2007, spoke to our club about this project some two years ago, and was back to give an update. We are one of fifteen clubs in District 7070 who have supported a major initiative at Ongutoi, which is about 10 hours north of Kampala. Led by the NGO High Adventure Canada and the RC Newmarket, a medical centre has been established. The current water collection project is to allow development of a large orange orchard to generate sufficient income to cover the costs of operating the medical centre and provide free care. Richard is playing a key role, and has visited Uganda 20 times now.
Richard explained:
- Ongutoi has a population that was displaced by insurgency and war in recent years, has returned, but is in much need.
- The goal of the current project is to harvest sufficient water to drip-irrigate and sustain a newly planted orchard of Valencia orange trees. The region has significant rainfall, but because this is occasional heavy rain with long periods of drought in between it is not possible to cultivate an orchard or farm vegetables without a sophisticated water collection and distribution system.
- Following his recent trip in April, three acres of orchard are planted (788 trees), supported by an appropriate water collection system. This includes a 110,000 liter ferro-cement, in-ground cistern completed last September; rainwater collection platforms that feed to the cistern and above ground tanks; solar pumps to get water from the tanks/cistern to the individual orange trees via a drip-irrigation system.
- Planned next is a global grant for funds for water collection and an orchard for a further eight acres.
- When the project is completed there will be net revenue per annum of US$72,000 after all expenses including funds for ongoing maintenance, sufficient to sustain and fund the medical centre from local resources. Valencia oranges mature continuously throughout the year and there is an established market for the fruit.
- Various Rotary clubs in Uganda support various aspects of the overall project (e.g. a surgeon at RC Soroti coordinates surgery at the medical centre). The local partner for the current orchard and water collection project is the Health Center Management Committee.
- A video illustrated the work completed and the participation and gratefulness of the community. The video can be viewed here.
Richard thanked the club for its support, $2,000 towards the last District Grant, and emphasized how important this project was to the local population. He looked forward to reporting again in the future.
In thanking Richard, Stephen Stein noted how dear this project was to our club with its involvement in both Uganda and water projects. This project was so impressive that Stephen was reminded of the comment of a former UN Secretary-General: Our one problem is that there isn’t enough Rotary.
50/50 Draw:
Chad scored wine once more, the Ace of Spades remained elusive.
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