President Ed Simon and Alison Scott thank Guest Speaker Ryan Mounsey from the City of Waterloo Economic Development Department.
Lots of smiling faces from kids attending Camp Kummoniwannago at Laurel Creek Conservation Area in Waterloo. Rotary Kitchener-Westmount provided sponsorship subsidies totaling $2,250 to assist low--income families to provide ten children the opportunity to attend the camp. Rotarians Karin Voisin and John Thompson made the presentation to Camp Director Sydney "Dorii" Spidell at the camp on Wednesday July 19.
In a letter of appreciation from Shelley Wiens, the Camp Administrator / Sponsorship Co-ordinator, referencing the "real cheque" presentation at the Concordia Club VFL draw on Wednesday May 17, she stated "Thank you for the delicious lunch and the friendly company at your event. I enjoyed it very much". She continued that the Rotary Kitchener-Westmount "donation is gratefully received and helps to make children's summer experiences at Camp K wonderful memories for years to come".
This is the final in the series of Rotary Kitchener - Westmount "public cheque presentations" to charities and not-for-profits for 2016-17, and the club looks forward to more of the same in President Ed's 2017-18 year.
Thanks Rotarians for your support and generosity!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Birthdays Alison July 20,
Moira July 23,
Neil July 30
Upcoming Events:
July 26 12:15 at the Boathouse in Victoria Park
Aug 11 Fish Fry/horse shoe tournament at Waterloo Knights of Columbus
ROTARY TRIVIA QUESTION: What is the second oldest business associated with Rotary ?
ANSWER: The world-famous Marinelli foundry, the only one that was granted the use of the Pontifical seal, is owned by Armando and Pasquale Marinelli, two brothers who also happen to be Rotarians. Their passion and love for Rotary has brought them to create and donate a 110 pound ornamental bell to help celebrate the Rotary Foundation Centennial. Todd happened to read this in the Rotary Magazine so he won a bottle of wine.
50/50 Pot: Stands at $77 after tries by President Ed, Steve Sweeney and Nathan Chung, with all failing to find that black marble.
GUEST SPEAKER- Ryan Mounsey: Manager of Expansion & Retention Services in Economic Development, City of Waterloo
Ryan was introduced by Nathan Chung, His present position mandates him to” enhance Waterloo's reputation as an internationally recognized municipality. This is a new position aimed at business expansion, retention, attraction and is focused on enhancing economic vitality and investment.”
Ryan started out introducing a photo of the dung beetle, famous for being able to lift a weight 850 times its own weight. He then went on to discuss the fantastic strides made in our Region over the last number of years, despite losing a number of the old guard manufacturing firms, Schneiders, Uniroyal, BF Goodrich….
We still have some good growth manufacturing like Ayron Labs that are growing the industry but many of the old buildings are now being successfully filled by tech, sometimes in renovated buildings like Google in the old Uniroyal Building at King and Breithaupt, and the new tech center on Glasgow. He also mentioned that although the tech space was in overabundance after the downsizing of Blackberry, that space is pretty- well occupied now with new tech companies. We now have growing employers like Thalmic Labs and Shopify to name a few that were mentioned.
But the land is also being used for building new tech centres as well as many high rise residential buildings to accommodate this growing and future staff. The predicted growth of the Region is from 580,000 today to 742,000 in 12 to 15 years.
Some other pertinent things Ryan touched on : U of Waterloo allows its research to be owned by the prof’s making Waterloo one of the top research universities in the world, having the second highest start-up density. This has resulted in 89% of the graduating students remaining in the area, and 93% of the new start-ups surviving. U of W has developed an organization called WATCO which stands for U of W Commercialization.
In 2020 50% of the work force will be millennials, in 2025 that could be 75%
20 thousand jobs are expected to be developed within 600 meters of the corner of King and Victoria. This mainly due to the two way GO between Toronto and Waterloo.
One thing Californians from the tech center down there try to tell us is” STOP BEING SO NICE”
He finished off the presentation likening our area to the Dung Beetle introduced earlier to the work that has been done in the Region to lift us MUCH higher than an area of our size.
The energetic and fact full presentation by Ryan was appreciated by all, especially by Alison Scott who thanked him and presented the special Gift of Sight.
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