MINUTES OF MEETING – March 23, 2016 - Prepared by Brandon Flewwelling
Meeting was chaired by Past President – Rick Bolzon
Announcements:
A big congratulations to Neil Aitchison who has been voted the Lions Club Citizen of the Year! Neil will be honoured at a dinner. John Thompson will send an email with information about the dinner. Neil joins Mike Collins, Don Wilcox and Tom Jeary as previous winners of this honour!
Wayne Stevens celebrates his birthday on March 29th.
Klara Serjani is coordinating our clubs efforts for the KidsAbility Fun Day to be held June 11, 2016. Klara confirmed that there will be two shifts for volunteers (morning/afternoon) and will provide further details through a follow up email.
Blood Donor Challenge – Our club is leading the challenge with 11 donations so far. The donor challenge is open for approximately 2 more weeks. Remember it’s in you to give!
Stu Mitchell – Donations Committee
The donations committee had three requests for donations in excess of $5000 that they were recommending for approval. The following donations were discussed and voted on:
- KidsAbility - $30,000 donation.
This donation is earmarked for an identified program called sparks aimed at 2-5 year olds. The donation was voted on. Ray Danbrook made the motion, seconded by Leo Tobi. The motion was passed unanimously.
- Vira’s Place in collaboration with the working centre and Emmanuel Church. Vira’s place is a home for women recovering from substance abuse. Vira’s place is a six bedroom home and support resource residence to help with the transition back into the community. The donations committee recommend $10,000 donation for this year and to review potential further donations in the future. Ed Simon made the motion, seconded by Allison Scott. The motion was passed unanimously.
- Grand River Hospital Foundation. The Grand River Hospital Foundation is seeking funding to purchase a new CT Scanner. Their funding drive is looking to raise the needed $2.5 Million to fund the purchase of the new machine and some capital improvements to support this. The donations committee recommend the donation of $10,000 in support of this. The motion was passed by Karen Voisin and seconded by Klara Serjani. The motion passed unanimously.
VFL Ticket Sales – Rick said the VFL ticket sales are important to help raise money for great causes like the ones above. Without these fundraising efforts the Club couldn’t support these types of great causes.
Membership Committee is happy to welcome Mac Graham and Michael Lambert (in process) into the Club. A new initiative is now in place wherein if a current member recommends a new member to the club and they are successful in joining; the Club will waive the next quarter of meal charges for the existing member!
50/50 Pot: Troy Stuebing, Mac Graham and John Vickery all tried but unfortunately did not find the lucky marble.
Poker Cards selected: Troy – Jack Clubs, Mac – Jack Diamonds and John - 8 Diamonds
Guest Speaker: Janet Willard – Lisaard House / Innisfree House
Janet was introduced by Ian Robertson.
Janet is the Development Coordinator for Lisaard House / Innisfree house. Janet was at the meeting to provide an update to the club as a follow up from her visit last year.
In total Innisfree House and Lisaard House provide a total of 16 beds of Hospice Care. Lisaard House is a cancer hospice and Innisfree House is open for all end of life illnesses. Innisfree House has been running for approximately 1 year now and is always full. Janet wanted to share stories of the positive impacts that a Hospice setting provides for residents. The average stay in Hospice is about 2 weeks. Hospice is designed to focus on living! All of the care a resident needs is available. The idea is to provide a sense of peace to the individual and the family.
Janet wanted to confirm that there is a lot of life in Hospice. Its ok to cry, but it is also ok to laugh at Hospice. One of the best things that Janet sees in Hospice is the opportunity for loved ones to see each other again as they were before such as being a husband or wife or daughter or son, when the need for care is shifted to the Hospice Staff the loved ones just focus on each other.
Janet thanked our Club again for past donation to Innisfree House. Following a few questions Allison Scott thanked Janet and presented the certificate from Operation Eye Sight as a thank-you for speaking to the club.
Rick Bolzon closed the meeting. Next week’s meeting will be chaired by Troy.
Meeting adjourned.
