Meagre crowd present this morning. It would have been worse but we had a fair number of Guests including our new exchange student Wiktor (pronounced Victor in English) Gluszczak – more on him later.
Guests – besides Wiktor
Brian Everest – Guest Speaker;
Dana Smith – Rotary Club of Burlington;
Joe Watson – guest of Rod Collard;
Camila Izguierdo – outbound exchange student;
Jules Villinger – younger sister of Sassa – our 2007-8 inbound exchange student;
Kyle Welham, Jean Duff and Alfred E. Newman – friends of exchange student program.
Announcements
Bryce Leggatt mentioned that work is underway for our 30th Club Anniversary – Sept 25th - keep date open – more info to follow – will be held at Jakes Boathouse.
Bryce and later Rene, asked club members to bring in more books for Telling Tales Festival.
The Syrian Refugee Committee did not get the necessary funding to sponsor a family – planning to direct funds to Syrians that are already here – with approval of donators.
Doug Brown is looking for a few stragglers’ to complete their Police Check Statement.
Jim Brindle needs a few more people to help out with the Breakfast Program – see/email Jim if you can volunteer.
Sheila Welham introduced Wiktor, our new exchange student. Wiktor surprised us with how good his English is. He told us he is attending Nelson High School, he plays soccer, has one younger brother aged 15, his mother works for the government.
Sheila also told us that Camilla received her Visa to go to Italy.
Mike advised that the next Board Meeting would be September 14th. Let him know if you are aware of any issues.
Sergeant at Arms
Another entertaining session with Rod at the helm of the fine department. Warning – his name is Rod, not Rob or anything else. He’s as bad as Catherine Brady is regarding how we say his name. Of interest is the fact that Albert started in the jewelry business as an apprentice 63 years ago – how old is he? You must have to be really old to sit at that table.
Guest Speaker – Brian Everest
Brian was introduced by Kathleen O’Connor.
- after World War II, he entered U of T and took Chemical Engineering;
- worked at Proctor & Gamble where he developed Ivory Snow Flakes and Ivory soap;
- worked in construction and Mohawk College;
- now retired 20 years but has been working at Neighbour to Neighbour.
Came to speak to us about food security.
- used the analogy that people have to pay their rent before buying food as landlords will not accept non payment;
- became involved with food bank through Neighbour to Neighbour;
- food banks were not solving the problems of the poor;
- suggested we Google “code red Hamilton” to get a picture of the problems that the poor have in dealing with mental health issues, isolation, shame, general health and hospital care, etc. These are articles by the Spec in 2010;
- Used examples that upper income people live on average to age 86 whereas the comparative figure for the poor is 65; hospital acute care is $60,000 compared to $950,000 for the poor; ambulance costs $140 vs $2000 for the poor (I had to read some of the articles to confirm I hadn’t written this down wrong);
- Neighbour to Neighbour decided that Community Food Centre Canada was the solution to the problems of the poor;
- there are now 8-10 Community Food Centres in Canada, one of which is to be in Hamilton;
- provide not only food to the poor but also better access to healthy food, better skills through education, help in dealing with issues that affect them, etc.;
- The Centre is still in the development stage at this point – they have a building (former Fortinos grocery store at 310 Limeridge Road W) and are in the process of securing the funding they need ($4 Mill – they have half from donations, grants from the City and other Governments).
Rene Papin thanked Brian for enlightening us on this issue and presented the Certificate on Polio Plus.
