Minutes of May 10, 2017 Meeting

 

Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel, Benton Street, Kitchener

 

Chair:  President Troy Stuebing

 

 

 

Troy spoke on behalf of Bill Pegg’s plea to the Club Members to honor our Bingo Commitments; there have been several “no shows” over the past couple months (Bill’s wife has generously filled in) but our Club has been warned and we are at risk of losing our license rights to this excellent (and easy) Club Fundraiser. 

 

Jack Kinch followed up his email to Members with a reminder re: the next Club Social Event @ Kitchener Panthers on Sunday May 28.

 

Mac Graham announced the “Future of Africa” fundraising event and marriage celebration taking place this Friday evening at Knights of Columbus on Lancaster Street in Kitchener.  BBQ and Bonfire all for $20 at the door (only $15 in advance through Mac).

 

Club Donation: John Thompson briefed the membership on the donations committee constitutional rejection of a donation to the “Future of Africa” group on the basis it is not a Registered Charity but put forward a motion to the club to make a donation from our Non-Charitable Giving account in the amount of $500.  The motion was seconded by Tim Braddich and approved unanimously by Members in attendance. 

 

Ian Robertson thanked both the Club Members who donated AND the members who actually joined in on the Plasma Car Races last Saturday in support of KidsAbility saying he has a whole new appreciate for Todd’s favorite Nascar Driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

 

50/50:  It was another week of abysmal failures with Larry Masseo, Dan Poole and Brandon Flewelling all going down in flames !!!

 

 

Guest Speaker:  

 

David Barth introduced Al Weigold who has been the leader and organizer of the school-build trip being organized by the Club. For nearly 30 years, since his retirement from his working careers, Al has been active building in Honduras. David announced that Als’ 87^th birthday is this year.

 

Al opened his talk saying “I’m just an old man having a great time” and went on to describe a bit of his history with this project.   Al made his first visit to Honduras in 1989 at the invitation of the then current Executive Director of World Accord expecting to stay for just one week and ended up staying for three.

 

He shared several heart-breaking (and heart warming) stories of the poverty and the resilience and spirit of the people that has kept him going back for every year since 1989.

 

Al was inspired after his first trip to round up 12 friends and colleagues who each donated $800 and made the first trip back his first school-building excursion during which the team constructed one two room school house.  Since then, he has led the building of a total of 156 Classrooms in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.    Now, some schools have designated kindergarten classrooms and some even have Trade-School focus on Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing and Home Economics and business skills programs. 

 

Al credits the continuing involvement of World Accord and it’s partners with facilitating the builds.

 

On Q & A, Al shared additional details including:

 

-Construction is predominantly concrete block and steel; mahogany is rare and the termites destroy pine too quickly.

 

-Governments take care of hiring and training teachers which is actually a pre-requisite to a Build taking place.

 

-School uniforms have been made accessible and affordable to ensure clothing is not an obstacle or burden preventing children attending schools.

 

- Virtually all the building materials are locally sourced such that the builds then help feed local economies as opposed to bringing materials in from other countries.

 

- the build arrangements being proposed for our club’s support would likely support upwards of 2,000 people in the district.