11 local Rotarians were joined on ZOOM by DG Lesley Barmania and her husband Aziz, PDG Doug Vincent, Peter Stam, Steve Zehr, and Anne and Don Soepboer.
President John Lohuis initiated the meeting with a Moment of Silence for the victims in Nova Scotia.
Speaker: DG Lesley Barmania spoke about her experiences at the RI Convention in 2016 in Seoul, South Korea and how it relates to RI President Mark Maloney's theme of "Rotary Connects The World". She spoke about how Rotary gives Hope and related their own experience in Seoul. Her husband, Aziz suffered a medical emergency and was rushed to a hospital with internal hemorrhaging. He was admitted to the ICU and underwent a number of diagnostic tests before the source of the bleed was identified. He required emergency surgery and Lesley spoke of the wonderful support they received from the local hotel, the hospital, the staff who helped translate for them, and the Rotary friends both Canadian and Korean who arranged to donate blood of Aziz's type (A neg). The blood donations in particular were crucial to his survival. Lesley showed us how Rotary is indeed one family worldwide and brings Hope not only to the communities we serve but in this case, desperately needed hope and help for one of our own Rotarians.
Our ROTEX, Ryo joined us today with her Host Mother. Ryo will be returning to Japan on May 8 by way of a connecting flight from Vancouver to Tokyo.
Next Week: Our speaker will be Kallista Chayil speaking on pitfalls with Wills and Estate Planning.