This past weekend, a group of young high school students from Oakville visited retirement homes in the community to distribute flowers to residents.

 

MADD Canada (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is a charitable organization founded in 1989, dedicated to the mission of "stopping impaired driving and supporting victims of this violent crime." The Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar (RCOT) is partnering with MADD in 2024. This collaboration aims to continue educating and empowering youth in Oakville through MADD's School Program, designed for students in grades 7 through 12.

The School Program presentations focus on providing information to help students keep themselves safe in risky situations and offer alternative solutions to driving impaired from alcohol and/or drugs. The 45-minute video includes a fictional story and real-life accounts from victims and survivors, illustrating the devastating consequences of impaired driving on individuals, their families, and friends.

It's important to note that impairment-related crashes remain the leading criminal cause of death in Canada, with nearly 60% of fatal crashes involving alcohol and/or drugs. Particularly alarming is the disproportionate toll on young Canadians, as those between the ages of 16-25, comprising 30% of the population in 2016, accounted for almost half of all alcohol and drug-related crash deaths (source: Canadian Council Motor Transport Administrators, The Alcohol and Drug-Crash Problem in Canada: 2016 Report).

The continued support from Delta Bingo enables RCOT to contribute to worthwhile charitable organizations, such as MADD, in the community. Delta Bingo and Gaming provides direct funding for over 960 local charities. The Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar is very grateful to be one of the Delta charity partners. Our members have fun volunteering at the Speers Road location and all funds received from Delta Bingo go to support our local community. When you play, local charities WIN!

 

The recent cheque presentation to Dawn Regan, C.O.O. of MADD Canada, by Ken Auden, Community Service Chair of RCOT, signifies the ongoing commitment to the shared goal of preventing impaired driving and supporting those affected by it.

The Interact Club of Abbey Park High School, sponsored by the Rotary Club Oakville Trafalgar (RCOT), was officially inducted on November 23, 2023. This provides them an association with the world-wide Interact Club, part of Rotary International.

 

By sponsoring Interact clubs, Rotary clubs energize and inspire young leaders ages 12 to18 by helping to establish and support Interact clubs and encouraging them to become responsible community and global citizens through service to others. 

 

On Thursday November 23rd the Certificate of Membership was presented to the Interact Club’s co-presidents Shivaani Sundralingam and Sami Gupta, by RCOT President Lauri Asikainen, RCOT Youth Service Committee Liliana Chocarro, and Rotary District Governor Brenda Halloran.

 

District Governor Halloran engaged all students asking them why they wanted to be Interactors and shared her own story about how, as Mayor of Waterloo, she decided to become a Rotarian after attending their events.  Following inspiring words from Lauri and Brenda all members of the new club proudly accepted their Interact pins.

 

In addition to many of the Interact Club members’ classmates, the event was attended by Uche Okugo, District Youth Chair and co-Presidents of the Oakville Trafalgar High School Lillian Renton and Daria Ninos.

 

RCOT visited Abbey Park a week after the ceremony to give a presentation on Interact as part of a global family and on December 7^th to bring ten birdhouses and ten kits as a donation to the Interact club. They plan to sell them and donate the proceeds to a long-term care facility in Oakville (Ian Anderson House).

 

President Lauri and Youth Service Chair Liliana attended the Interact meeting where co-presidents Shivaani and Sami presented the project to their members and assigned roles and responsibilities to execute the project in a timely manner and donate the funds before Christmas.

 

The Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar is proud to play a role in establishing and supporting Interact, which bring together young people and helps them to develop their leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self.