There was a slight dusting of snow when we arrived at Rotary this morning and of course it was dark; there’s only a week to go to the winter solstice.

 

While most of us on the duty roster completed our task, the flag putter-upper didn’t.  So it was faintly comical that all of us should stand facing an empty space to sing the anthem;  actually the flag base was there but…. Anyway.

 

We said goodbye to unofficial exchange student,  Jules Villinger who has been a bright and sparkling addition to our meetings and events this past three months.  She’s heading home to Germany via New York, and then on to university to study international business.

 

Juliette Gateau, our real exchange student gave us an update.  She and all the other D 7080 students were in Burlington this past weekend to take part in our Santa Claus parade.

 

The mysterious Bet-on-the-Grey-Cup pool ended and winners announced: Glen Warnica ($30); John Allinotte ($50) Albert Schmid ($30) and Andrew Gaydon ($125).  Biggest winner was Polio Plus with $250.

 

Our guest speaker was Dan Miller, Director of Public Relations with the Salvation Army. At any time of year the Sally-Ann is seen as the Real Thing when it comes to community service and rescue.

We know very well that they do work with the most vulnerable and least able to help themselves. The S.A is there when most of us would prefer not to know any more.

Among the take-aways were that the S.A provides a home for too-young moms .  They provide a home for mom and babe as well as the opportunity for mom to finish high school.  Circumstances that fortunately are way out of the realm of your scribes experiences but I dare say come closer to home for others not far removed.

 

And then about those Christmas kettles; revenues are way down, they don’t have sufficient kettle volunteers and passers-by say they don’t have cash.  Several years ago we made it a club effort to  provide kettle duty helpers but I think it got lost when the local S.A Major joined the North Club and it kind of became their project; for a while anyway.

Still a bit of good news, the Hamilton main Scotiabank staff are manning the kettles in Jacksons Square this week and Scotiabank will match one-for-one every dollar collected.  I had business in Jackson Square yesterday, and there they were.

 

Next Thursday is the Family Christmas Party. Be  there by 7.00 with your children and grandchildren as the case may be; I’ll be in Florida.

 

Happy Christmas to All.

 

P. Scribe.