Y’ know the Community Service Awards make for an action-packed morning. I’ll get to the highlights.
Hajra Wilson is District 7080’s Polio Plus chair and took a few moments to share with us the news that India is now officially polio free. India! Everyone expected it to be the toughest nut, but no. It’s done, and there’s more: Nigeria has not had a case of polio in the past year. That doesn’t make it not officially polio-free, it won’t be until it goes three years without a case. Now if they could do the same with Boko Haram.
Mayor Rick Goldring spoke briefly, bringing greetings from the City; always nice. He re-capped, acknowledged and praised Rotary for its various projects in the city: Carpenter Hospice, the hospital, The Rotary Pond. All good stuff.
The Community Service Awards this year went to Rainer Noack and Burlington Taxi. You don’t have to look very far to see Rainer’s imprint, and well, you can’t miss Burlington Taxi.
Rainer is a colourful character. He’d have to be to achieve what he has, building and developing Burlington Student Theatre (BST) from scratch. He got started in 1978 and it has gone from strength to strength. You’ll often see BST kids where you least expect them, usually in costume at events. Rainer also teaches drama at local schools. A lot of the top actors in the UK end up as Sir this or Dame that, Judy Dench and Lawrence Olivier come to mind. We don’t do knighthoods here – thank heavens, but if we did, Rainer might be on the right track; at least he got started with Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2013. Those medals come with instructions on when, where and how to wear them; Rudy Reimer used to wear his Order of Ontario all over town.
Burlington Taxi. Their motto is, Hop in –Let’s Go! How cool is that? Scott and Sarah Wallace run BT like the family business it is. But like nice families everywhere, they take good care of their neighbours. Your scribe had prolonged dealings with BT in the period 2006 – 2010 and they were forever surprising me with the way they do things. It was always stuff that leapt off the Four Way Test page. Just one example: “Since 1988, Burlington Taxi has provided complimentary transportation to and from the breastfeeding Clinic at JBMH. We wanted to ensure new mothers have the transportation they need for their newborns care and nutrition.” Wow!
Our guest speaker was Dean Rutty’s old pal Steve Paikin; they go back an increasingly long way. Personally, I don’t watch TVO’s The Agenda (hosted by Steve); but I might just start. I find it a bit dry and a touch too serious at a time when I’m done for the day with serious stuff. Steve is a polished speaker – he’d have to be wouldn’t he?
His book ‘The Life’ looked at what drives or inspires individuals to get into politics; the root causes were as varied as the indiviuals. But sooner or later The Life’ comes to an end; sometimes cleanly, often not. He told us a series of anecdotes about the real life after political life. Well, your scribe can attest to the fact that a stranded politician cannot necessarily count on judicial appointments or visiting professorships. Most ex-politicos have to find their feet in a world that is ambivalent about them at best and hostile at worst.
He recounted the sorry tale of Brian McCurly, an Albertan, a stalwart party supporter who was persuaded to run in the next federal election. He did, and was elected; but his timing could not have been worse. His party, and everyone in it, lost the next election and he was so badly out of luck that a Google search turns up nothing about him. And that’s politics; that’s The Life.
P. Scribe
