Today, Lawrence Leung stepped up to the podium to start his year as President of the Burlington Central Rotary Club.
Guests : Dave Gruggeyn – Hamilton AM Rotary; Chris Dooley - Guest Speaker; Marny Alexander – guest and potential new member; Christa Papavasilion – Rotaract.
Announcements: Lawrence mentioned that there would be a Board Meeting on Monday (9th) and every 2 weeks after that. Members are welcome to attend.
Andrew Gaydon reported that the Golf Tournament is overloaded with golfers and asked everyone to bring in a bottle of wine for the bar fridge that is awarded as a prise at the Golf Tournament each year.
It was reported that Dean Rutty is holding a get-together on July 22nd or 29th – date to be confirmed, at his place up in Meaford.
Joe Watson reported that 250 tickets have been sold for Lakeside a la Carte on August 12. Volunteers are needed. Please let Mae Radford know how you can help.
There is a Bike Ride in support of Heart & Stroke on Wednesday Aug 15th. $50 to participate.
Our annual Club Bar B Q is being held again at Jamie Edwards’ home on Aug 16th. No morning meeting that week.
Lawrence read a thank you letter from the Carpenter Hospice word for word thanking the Club for its $5000 donation. At the end of the letter he revealed that it was signed by Lawrence Leung.
Sheila Welham revealed that we are going to have not one, but two exchange students for the coming year. She also stated that she is pretty sure she has host families for them both – lined up for the year!!
Rene Papin is kicking off his Councillor Campaign for Ward 1 in Burlington on July 11th at 6pm at Pluckers Restaurant on Plain’s Road (used to be Chaps).
Sergeant at Arms – Mae Radford: Mae stated that she took in the speech by Laura Bush at the Rotary Convention. In her speech Laura Bush had stated that when she initially became First Lady she wondered who she would emulate in terms of previous First Ladies and she decided that she was going to be like Laura Bush. Well Mae decided she was going to be like Mae Radford. Mae is going to have “Rules” about which we are expected to follow. She outlined the first 2 of these 1) all members are expected to always wear their Rotary pin and 2) members are expected to sing O Canada using the words that have just been changed to be gender neutral. The changes are made in the words “in all thy sons command” and replace them with “in all of us command”. Later Mae revealed that a 3rd Rule would be added next week whereby fines were to be levied against anyone whose phone rang or beeped during our meeting. Mae also revealed that she is going to award “Rotarian of the Week” to one of our members who has gone beyond the call of duty over the past week or so. Yours truly was the recipient of her first award because I took 4 Rotarians to their hotels by the airport after our Hosting meeting at LaSalle Park.
Rotaract Club: Christa Papavasilion gave us an overview of her involvement with the Rotary Convention – specifically the Rotaract portion of it. Christa was instrumental in organizing this for the Convention where 500 Rotaract Members attended – she was 1 of 9 members on the organizing committee. Rotaract is 50 years old. 470 projects were recommended in 29 countries and in 6 geographical locations across the globe.
Their focus is on health, green economy, peace and education. She outlined Rotaract’s role as connecting with Rotary through Rotaract members becoming Rotary members. Christa started off that way as a Rotaract member and 9 years ago she became a Rotary member. She indicated that Rotaract would like to double their numbers which would help Rotary increase its membership.
Guest Speaker – Chris Dooley; Chris was introduced by Alan Ramsay. Chris is a retired high school teacher who coached basketball. He was here to tell us about his book entitled “Can’t Miss – The Kevin Pancos Story”. To start his presentation he showed us a Rick Mercer segment about Gord Downie where perseverance, passion and hard work got Gord Downie to where he was in the music world. Kevin Pancos was a natural in basketball because of the same passion and dedication towards the sport. At age 16 he was a member of the Canadian National Basketball team. The title of the book came from people who said “that guy can’t miss” in reference to Kevin’s shooting.
Kevin’s background started with his parents and grandparents who escaped from Germany during the Second World War. They all had a strong work ethic. Kevin also has that same work ethic and regardless of his level of play he is never satisfied. Kevin has experienced some failures but each time he has used them as part of learning and moved on. Chris felt that all young people can learn from Kevin’s attitude where there is a need to have excellence in life.
Kevin played for Gonzaga in the NCCA where he was an all star. He tried out for the NBA but decided to go to Europe as he was never going to make it in the NBA. In Europe, there are fewer games with more emphasis on practice. He has just signed for Barcelona at more money than he could ever earn in the NBA.
Randy Reeve thanked Chris for his passionate presentation.
