A good turnout again .......must be the food!!!
Owen invited us to toast any archaic monarchy of our choice . Susan introduced our guests Nate (sorry didn't get to the guestbook for a last name), Nadine, Yahel, and our guest speaker Kwesi. More on him later......
Nancy reported that the Salvation Army Kettle Drive raised 358,386.85 which was above target. Well done and thank you to those who rang the bells and manned the stations!
Rob talked about the Golf tournament and the need for a recipient Charity. If you have a suggestion please send it along to him. They must be registered at the City as a Charity in order to be the beneficiary.
Rod will be providing the dates for the next dinners in support of our Lakeside participants. Stay tuned- 22 confirmed for The Water Street Cooker.
Our first offsite meeting will be on Feb 20th at our regular time at the Joseph Brant Museum. More information closer to the date so that you stand a chance of remembering!!!!!!
Update on our fundraisers- Lakeside netted roughly 49K and the Golf Tournament around 41K.. Poinsettias netted approx. 14K. We are utilizing the Park on the Friday night prior to Lakeside. Details are being ironed out as we speak. The weekend will be busy and we are counting on everyone's participation to make it a success!
Yahel had a marvellous week including a trip to Montreal-highlighted by a ton of car crashes due to weather- you'd think they could handle that stuff now- and a terrific time at Mont Tremblant. Enjoyed the skiing but wasn't used to as many trees on the runs as the Alps are at a higher altitude. Food seemed to be the underlying theme of the trip as she mentioned poutine and bagels several times. Visited Ottawa on the way home but couldn't skate on the canal but did visit the Museum of Natural History . Sounds like she had a blast!
Rod took to the podium and proceeded to fine Nancy for turning her back on her class- an educator's no-no. David for saying fantastic more times than is necessary and Owen for his Robbie Burns dinner get-up. Rod introduced a new concept...a famous quoted which would apply to a certain member that we have to guess.
The example was a quote attributed to Jack Kemp-"Winning is like shaving- you do it everyday or you wind up looking like a bum" Not hard to guess the target here- a round of applause for our president. Hopefully he'll get the hint.......
Happy $$$$$
Joe for a positive outcome from a hole in his head requiring 15 stitches.
Jamie gave 20$ for missing us and all the fines he is sure he missed! He does make-ups in Florida and sat next to the first women graduate of West Point. cool.......
Sheila is heading up to Camp Wanakita with the exchange kids this weekend and is quite looking forward to it! Someone take her temperature! Hope you had a blast.
Telling Tales will be the recipient of some the Lakeside lottery revenue and Susan thanked the club for the ongoing support.
Renee introduced our guest speaker Kwesi Millington who proceeded to capture us with his story. Great day to be the scribe...
Kwesi came to us through Nadine Martin who trains with him on a regular basis at the Fitness Firm.
Kwesi has a background in policing. He graduated from the RCMP in May of 2005 in Regina. In October of 2007 he was called along with 3 other officers to a disturbance at the Vancouver Airport. Not a normal call as we all found out on the news. It only took 26 seconds but in that 26 seconds Kwesi's life changed forever.
Robert Dziekanski, a recent arrival from Poland was exhibiting very abnormal behaviour and was considered a threat lost his life due to a medical emergency. As a result the Crown laid charges but the incident was ruled tragic not criminal. Great or so they thought.
3 Years later the officers were charged with perjury as their statements didn't reflect what the video footage showed. He testified at a national inquiry and was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail. Two of the officers were acquitted but Kwesi spent 10 months in Joyceville outside of Kingston, mostly in solitary confinement. To use his words apparently a bad memory qualifies as lying...
The Library at Joyceville saved his life.
Cheryl Sanberg's book "Option B- Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy resonated with him and he took her lessons to heart. I wrote down some of the catch phrases that Kwesi used in his presentation.
We all have opportunities to be resilient in our daily lives.
Letting someone from yesterday influence you today isn't worth the effort . Learned from an interaction with a less than personable individual in the work place named Barb. He also learned that hanging onto resentment is selfish.
The opposite of resentment is accountability.
Kwesi talked about the 1% accountability factor. Even though his actions were justified that resulted in the death of a person- he was 1% accountable.
If you apply the 1% accountability rule to all your actions those small improvements in all areas of your life will lead to great changes overall. Forget about giving 100% -try 1% in every aspect of your life and see the differences.
Trying to capture the essence and energy of his presentation is next to impossible. I am glad that we had a good crowd to hear Kwesi. Hopefully many of you bought his book "Rise" which details his journey and will appreciate and understand his approach by reading it.
More information about Kwesi is available on his website www.kwesimillington.com.
As they say it's never too late to learn......
A standing ovation closed the morning.
Have a great week and remember to be resilient!!!
CB
