Jerome Freiburger filled in for President Ed

 

 

Jim Kibble brought sad news that Charter member Joe MacDonald’s wife passed away. Funeral arrangements at Walser Funeral Home.

 

Ray Millard celebrated a birthday July 11.

 

Rick Bolzon won the longest drive at Kathy’s golf tournament (which raised $12 thousand!) He also won the tournament along with partners Todd, Brandan and Brad.

 

Todd announced the Women’s Crisis Golf Tournament will be held August 21, need more foursomes!  $185 per person before July 15.

 

Dan Poole mentioned we are still looking for Guest Speakers.

 

Everton announced the meeting is being live screened and available on you tube…. A first!

 

 

50/50 Pot   Starts out at $ 43 today as Laura Power won the last pot….. and guess whose ticket was picked first?  Laura Power! Then Todd, then Nathan Chung. No luck today.

 

 

Our Guest Speaker was Bob Egan of BLUE RODEO fame.   He was introduced by Larry Masseo.

 

Bob comes from Oxford Mississippi, spent 23 years as a ROCK STAR   travelling the world entertaining. He was a guest on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien.

 

But what is his 90 year old mother most proud of? He was asked to speak at our Rotary Club!

 

Bob was enticed to join the Kitchener Public Library when he discussed the library’s vision with CEO Mary Chevreau. This vision revolved around changing lives, not about books. His job now is about serving the community and helping KPL become the artistic hub of the community. Bob’s title is Manager Community Development.

 

He told us that by 2020 it is estimated that 70-80% of of all jobs will require digital literacy. Today they figure that some 12,000 people in our Region desperately need help in digital literacy.

 

KPL’s answer is STUDIO CENTRAL, a state of the art audio visual recording studio where visitors can learn to program to create virtual reality environments.

 

Included in STUDIO CENTRAL are four 3D printers, and they were just provided with 100 Apple computers worth 250 thousand!

 

In addition, SUNLIFE just agreed to support a musical lending library with $100,000 donated to purchase 150 musical instruments to be loaned out 3 weeks at a time. Hopefully they can help replace the lack of school support for music.

 

Bob feels KPL has an amazing future with the ability to change the entire culture. This challenge has led to a decision to seek $250,000 in donations to allow a bricks and mortar project to allow their program to grow.

 

Following an interesting question and answer period, Bob was presented with our standard Gift of Sight by John Rose.