Guests
Augustina – our exchange student from Argentina;
Camilla –outbound exchange student;
Augustina’s parents Esther and Coco;
Elaine Scrivener – guest of Bernie and host mother to Augustina
Announcements
Lesley Allison started the day off with a 50/50 draw to support the cost of dog walking for a friend whose cancer has returned and she cannot perform this task herself. Over $100 was raised and the winner was Mike Molloy.
Kathy Thomas reported that the Lakeside web site was up and running and you can purchase tickets online. The cost of the tickets is $105 until June 15th after which it will go up to $115. Part of the increased cost relates to the increased charges from Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
Dick Scott gave a brief report on the Golf Tournament and asked members to help in the recruitment of sponsors for the event. An online brochure is available and a hard copy outlining the details of the event will be available shortly. Date of the event is Thursday July 15th.
Mae Radford spoke about a new group being formed in Burlington for socially isolated seniors to help them move on to greater independence. She is looking for volunteers to drive them to have lunch together where they can socially interact. Only a couple of hours would be involved.
Gerry Willard asked for help to do the QEW/Appleby cleanup. He has since sent out an email on this.
Mike Molloy spoke to Rotary Leadership training. Mike wants to take a delegation to the Holiday Inn in Cambridge on May 14th. There are 3 levels of training provided. Contact him if interested.
Nancy Brady reported that the next Board Meeting for the club would be held at the golf club on Monday May 2nd. Club members are welcome to come and observe. Three new Board members are serving on the Board.
Rob Sybersma reported on the need for volunteers to assist a Public Health Nurse on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. See Rob for details.
Sergeant at Arms
Ron Lambert was on duty today and started off by welcoming back the snowbirds who were on hand today after a winter away from the club. Dean Rutty was also welcomed back for a visit.
While there were various fines and happy/sad dollars raised, Dick Scott was the main target of Ron’s fines today for the job he did as Captain of today’s meeting. As I was one of the last members to arrive, I didn’t know how bad it was but Dick was fined $5 and suggested that he attend Mike Molloy’s Leadership training delegation.
Guest Speaker – Augustina
Dean Rutty introduced the topic today which was Augustina’s account of her home and life in Argentina.
Before proceeding Dean did clarify some of the misinformation provided by Ron Lambert about himself, earlier. Dean, as many know, works at the Beaver Valley Ski Club as Membership Director. He now has a summer job working in a pro shop at a golf club in the Meaford area. He is also a member of the Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club and we were informed that it is now possible to belong to two Rotary Clubs at the same time – a new policy of Rotary International.
Augustina comes to us from Rotary District 4845 which is a huge district by our standards and includes a fairly large (4 provinces) section in the northeast of Argentina, as well as all of Paraguay. She lives in Mercedes, a city of around 50,000 people which is located 100 km west of Buenos Aires. She shared photos of a large Cathedral, a railway station and bank as some of the main features of her City. She described school, showed photos of her friends and parents who were watching her presentation.
Augustina gave us a quick rundown on Argentina itself – 41-8 million population, 23 Provinces, Buenos Aires is the Capital with 3-4 million people. She showed us some of the folklore prominent in Argentina – dances which reminded me of the Spanish influence – i.e. flamenco as well as the tango which is popular. Carnivals are also prominent and risqué. She showed us photos as examples of food and drink including their big export – wine. She showed us various tourist highlights including Iquazu Falls, which is a lot larger than Niagara Falls and borders on Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Argentina’s mother, also a Rotarian, spoke to us in Spanish and with Augustina translation thanked us for being good hosts for her daughter.
Sheila Welham thanked Augustina for her great presentation.
