Rotary Club of Kitchener Westmount
Meeting Minutes
June 21, 2023
12:15 – Incoming President Brandon called the meeting to order
O’ Canada
Toast to Canada, Toast to Rotary
Invocation
12:20 – Lunch
12:40 – Announcements -
- Larry and Kathryn celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary on June 19
- President’s Night is next week Wednesday June 28th
- Food for Kids has a peanut butter challenge on, Rotarians are encouraged to bring a jar of peanut butter to the meeting.
- Foor for Kids is also looking for volunteers to box food and or deliver it. See Brandon for details
- John T. announced a golf fellowship at “the Ferns” details to follow
- John is also looking for another Rotarian to join his fellowship committee for the upcoming year.
- The fellowship committee is planning another Drayton Entertainment outing
- Dave Forwell gave an update on the 9 ½ week old puppies. 4 puppies have been spoken for.
50 / 50 Draw – John V, Bill and John R were chosen to draw for the black Marble. John R pulled the Black marble and he won the 50/50 $326.
Our Guest Speaker Tom Bileski was introduced.
Tom is a member of the Community Outreach team at Habitat For Humanity Waterloo Region with a focus on procurement of donations for their ReStore programs.
A resident of Waterloo Region since 1989, Tom continues to marvel at the generous spirit of our community and the integration of arts, education and technology that contribute to make Waterloo a great place to live and raise a family.
Tom gave a brief background on himself. He is from a military family so he spent many of his younger years travelling from city to city as his father was stationed at Canadian Military bases around the world and across Canada.
Tom studied music at the University of Western. He is an avid Trumpet player and has played in various bands and groups throughout his life. He plays in the local Police service band.
Tom coaches Lacrosse and Soccer in all age groups from kids to University.
He has a passion for community building and this passion brought him to Waterloo Region. He found the diversity and community building spirit of Waterloo region very attractive.
He and his wife settled here in 1989.
In 2018 he joined Habitat for Humanity and the community outreach program.
History of Habitat:
- 1976 – started in George (USA) – primary mission build affordable housing
- 1988 – The Waterloo chapter of Habitat was started
- 1989 – First home built in the Region by Habitat
- 1993 – 10 homes built in 10 Days – Danial Ave – “Nicknamed the Carter build” as former President Jimmy Carter and His wife have been lifelong supports of Habitat for Humanity. They visited in 1993 and were volunteers on the build.
- 1998 – 25th house completed
- 2000 – Women’s build program was started here in the Region. Encouraging all women volunteer build teams
- 2004 – 50th house completed
- 2005 – Re store in Cambridge opened
- The Re – Store diverts building supplies and other products normally destined for the landfill for reuse and resale. Many companies now support Habitat by donating product to the restore. Funds generated from the sale of these donations help with administration costs.
- 2013 – 100th house completed
- 2023 – current build is Kehl Street a 45 unit townhome project
- Last year 5400 volunteer hours were donated, 92% of the labour is done by volunteers
- The Re store had $2M in sales
- 60 different companies donate to the Retore
- Habitat offers a kitchen / bathroom removal free of charge with a tax receipt so that the cabinets and other products can be salvaged for sale
- 1300 tons of product were diverted away from the landfill last year
- Partners with Conestoga College, Wilfrid Laurier and UW
- House of Friendship
Q & A
PP Graham noted that in 2003 the 5 Rotary clubs in the region volunteered on a team build at Habitat.
A question was asked about the approximate cost of building a home.
Tom noted that the current cost is approximately $420,000 for the land and materials
Another Rotarian asked about the families that purchase the homes.
Tom indicated that each family is asked for 500 hours of volunteer work as a downpayment on the home. The mortgage is based on 25% of their net income and is jointly held by Habitat and a credit union.
1:25 – Simon Adler thanked our speaker by presenting him with a certificate restoring the eyesight of someone.
1:30 – Meeting adjourned.
.png)
