Call to order at 12:15, Jack Kinch, acting President
Announcements
Jack gave the club’s best wishes to our President currently on holiday and commiserated over the weather. The following are significant about August:
– August is Membership & New Membership Development month at
Rotary
– August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding week
– August 8 is:
– National Sneak Your Zucchini Onto Your Neighbour’s Porch day
– National Happiness day
– National Dollar day
– National Frozen Custard Day
– National CBD day, recognizing the health benefits of non-hallucinatory components of cannabis and hemp.
Unfortunately, there was also some bad news: Spencer Yule’s mother passed away recently after a lengthy illness. Bob Neibert passed peacefully away at Grand River Hospital. A celebration of life will take place but details have not been released yet. Condolence donations to Grand River Hospital Cancer research or KidsAbility would be appreciated.
Bill Green spoke to reveal that his daughter, her husband and their children had been in a very serious car accident when an oncoming vehicle crossed the centre line and hit them head on. The driver of the other car was killed. The survival of the family is attributed to the safety features of the car and their proper use by the family (especially the child seats which where properly installed although the police advised that about 90% are not). Bill suggested we consider safety features when comparing cars as more important than gas mileage. He gave thanks for the support he and his family had received. The family are recovering.
Jack announced member birthdays, anniversaries etc. (Assistant Sargent at Arms cannot read his writing to give details!).
Jack also thanked Marc Engel for organizing the lunch at the Boathouse. He asked if there were interest in another event at the Rod and Gun Club – thinking of Tuesday October 2. This would be organized somewhat differently from the first one but would still involve a steak dinner and 5 shots (and a single free drink) for $40. Enough members expressed interest that Jack will follow up.
Jack announced another fellowship night at Knights of Columbus for Friday August 24.
Dave Barth won the 50:50 draw for $131.50.
Guest Speaker
Debbie Currie of Shad was introduced by John Rose. Shad is a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) programme for high potential high school students which runs across Canada. About 2,500 apply and about 1,000 are accepted into groups of about 60 “Shads” who take the programme at 16 participating universities across Canada.
The Shads meet for the full month of July residing at the programme – typically not at their home city. For the full month, they have lectures, labs and workshops in mornings and afternoons and a challenging recreational activity in the evenings and weekends. The aim is to enrich the participants and build relationships. Each group of about 60 is broken down into subgroups of 6-8 Shads. All of these groups across Canada are then challenged with the same entrepreneurial project. At the end of the month the projects are evaluated by a panel of judges and a winner announced.
In 2016 the project was improvement of food security. In 2017 it was reducing the energy footprint. In 2018 it was to assist communities to be more resilient in the face of natural disasters.
More than 20,000 Shads have passed through the course and the organization is looking to increase networking by the alumni.
The programme costs about $8,000 per student. The organization is working to ensure any selected student can attend. There are some foreign students accepted who do not receive subsidies. The organization has recently started receiving some Federal funding but otherwise looks to various foundations and individual donors.
Students apply on line (due November) and the selection is completed by March.
