Busy meeting today which was started off by another terrible rendition of O Canada but it did get better the further we got into the anthem.
Guests - Fred Sweeney, visiting Rotarian from Burlington North; Sam (Samantha) Murray, Guest Speaker; Carlos Alvarez, visiting Rotarian from Calgary Downtown; Tina Blatchford, visiting Rotarian from Stoney Creek and representative of Halton Children’s Aid Society; Abraham, our exchange student from Peru.
Tina Blatchford was presented with a cheque as the Halton Children’s Aid Society was our partner in the 2017 Rotary Partnership Golf Tournament. Tina explained that the funds would be used towards bursaries for books, uniforms and other items that Wards of the Crown require beyond that offered by the Ontario Student Assistance Program for post secondary study. Tina presented our Club with a Poster in the form of a painting as a token of appreciation for this partnership.
Fred Sweeney was present to outline the details of this year’s 4 club Remembrance Meeting which will be held on November 8th at the Naval Hall at 2444 Industrial St. This year’s event will focus on the Korean War and on Navy personnel. Tickets ($35) are being sold as the Hall can only accommodate 120 people. Get your ticket soon from Allan Ramsay.
Owen McElhinney reported on the result of the meeting held at his home to discuss the Global Grant Project that the Milton, Oakville and Burlington Rotary Cluster would be making. It was decided to fund two projects in Guatemala – one for water supply and the other for agriculture. Our share of the donation would be $2000 US for each project.
Bryce Leggett requested volunteers for this year’s music festival where 133 volunteers are needed to man the churches where the events are taking place. He played a video showing what the festival is all about. This video was developed to help solicit sponsors for the program.
Rod Collard spoke about a program being developed to put Christmas hampers together and distribute them to local needy families that are not otherwise served by other organizations, Rod needs volunteers to help out so – see Rod if you can help.
Ron Lambert requested that everyone help out to sell Poinsettias as now (between now and Nov 11th) is the prime time to strike for sales. He stated that sales are quite easy to make at this time of the year. He requested leads from anyone who was reluctant to make calls on their own and he would make the call. Promotion is also being made on social media.
Abraham misses the swimming pool that has just been closed at Owen & Nima’s; he went to church; he is learning how to cook Nepalese food; he missed his bus and had to use GPS to find his way to school for which he was very proud of himself.
Catherine Brady was our Sergeant at Arms today and raised money by having everyone put a dollar into a pot and then she had a heads or tails question and answer game where she had prepared questions on Gord Downey along with a correct and wrong answer and you put your hand on your head or butt depending on which answer you thought was correct. Unfortunately she ran out of questions before everyone was eliminated and had to flip a coin to end it. Richard Pass was the winner of the game.
Eric Anderson reported on the hosting of the International Delegates to the Rotary International Convention. The hosting is being held on June 25th. Club members were asked to sign a sheet if they would consider hosting.
Our membership is growing the wrong way. We learned from Tina Blatchford that Dana Smith is transferring to the Stoney Creek Club. I don’t recall that the resignation of Doug Brown, which was announced to the club a few weeks ago, was ever reported in the Bulletin.
Kathy Thomas was approved as a Honorary Member in recognition of her past contribution to this Club.
President Janet Canavan asked me to include the following announcements in the Bulletin and she apologizes that we ran out if time for "happy and sad dollars"
-Oct. 24- 4Club World Polio Day. Event being held at 5 West Brew Pub, 5:30 p.m. 15% of proceeds for Polio Plus
- Rotary Burlington Music Festival starts Oct. 30, Grand Festival Concert Nov. 18
-Rotary District Membership Summit Nov. 18
-Rotary District Foundation Training Nov. 25
- Rotary Christmas Concert Nov. 26, tickets $50. Contact Gerry W
- RCBC-Save the date-Visioning Meeting Dec. 9, Salvation Army. Details and invite to come
- Breakfast at the Bistro Dec. 9
- Coming news-Christmas events!
Owen McElhinney introduced Sam Murray who is employed by Plan International Canada (PIC) which is one of the oldest (1937) and largest international support agencies focusing on ending poverty and advancing children’s rights and equality for girls in particular. They operate in over 70 countries and have over 200 active projects on the go. The programs they support have to be sustainable in order to be approved. Sophie Gregoire Trudeau is a major sponsor of this charity.
PIC is a child centered charity that focuses on girls. One of their main projects is entitled “Because I am a Girl” and Sam showed a short video on this subject. Because I am a Girl aims to improve girls’ access to clean water, food, healthcare, education, and protection from violence and exploitation. The name resulted from one of the organizers encountering a young girl, I believe in Africa, and she was asked why she was not in school expecting a response such as too far away, can’t afford to go or something of that nature. Instead she stated “because I am a girl”. In that part of the world only boys were given the opportunity to get an education. Other projects are focused on health and education of children with a special focus on girls.
PIC is known for its child sponsors where sponsors can “adopt” a child to sponsor somewhere in the world. PIC is endeavouring to reach 20 million children in order to be a catalyst for change and improve their opportunity.
David Dean thanked Sam for her presentation and she was given the usual Certificate regarding 120 does of Polio Vaccine.
