Meeting Minutes

Announcements:

- We received a thank you from the Salvage Army for our help with their Christmas giving program.

- Rotaract Club of Laurier is having a Bottle Drive and taking any of your empties

- March 31 is the Together for Tomorrow with David Johnson. Tickets are $350/each or a table for $5,000

- The 8th Annual KW Trivia Challenge for Tiny Home Take Out is April 25th. If you would like to register, please speak to Mac

- Registration is still open for the RI National Convention in Calgary.

- Karin Voisin gave us a brief update from the grants committee. The club has awarded the following grants. Karen Spencer will provide a full update next week.

- $1,000 to Concordia Club Choir

- $1,000 to the Together for Tomorrow event

- $10,000 to KidsAbility

- $5,000 to The ForUsGirls Foundation

50/50 Pot was $416. Todd A., John R and Andrew W, all came up short and didn’t draw the black marble. The pot continues to grow.

Guest Speaker:

Alan Quarry – Heart Beats Hate

The story that launches this passion for Alan started with demonstrations he was watching where some people wanted to take down the Confederate statues that were still near the University of Virginia. One member got in his mother's car he had borrowed to go to these demonstrations. He got in the car and drove it into a crowd of about fifty.

Now, he had choices to make; First, choice was to get in the car. The second choice was to start the car and move it into position so that he could then go straight forward into this crowd. There's a decision. His next decision was to put it in drive and step on the gas pedal. With a long period before he hit the crowd, he could have made the decision not to drive into innocent people standing around. He decided that was his decision, and he didn't care what the consequences were. Why would he?

So that Sunday, sitting there Alan said, somebody ought to do something about that. Seven seconds later. He realized that he is somebody. I should do something about that. Alan got on the internet and found the phrase heart beats hate was free of any trademark or any sort of ownership.

He started this organization that day, and it's grown over the last eight years to 7800 members.

Kindness starts with individuals. If it doesn't cascade from parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts’ kindness will not be a choice. If any of us did one or two things to be kinder the world would be a better place. Challenge yourself as Alan challenges himself everyday. Is there anything I can do today that would help somebody have a better day? He is not talking about being nice. We can all be nice. So, no matter what happens, we need to be good to people. Being good people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

Alan’s ask to us to take this away from his presentation: Don't be a jerk.