This was a very special meeting for our club, with three (or four) key features:

1.  We welcomed and heard from our District Governor, Brad Whittaker;

2.  We inducted a new member, Brad Jalbert, into our club;

3.  We officially inducted four members into the newly resurrected Langley 

      Rotaract Club:  Jonah Johnson, Mikayla Johnson, Sydney Morfitt, and 

       Abran Johnson;

4.  We enjoyed wonderful treats brought by John Brynjolfson.

   AG Jorda Maisey introduced DG Brad and he delivered a very impressive and inspirational message to the club.  He wants us as Rotarians to make an impact this year, and to learn more about Rotary.  He asked us to google Rotary Action Groups, Rotary Friendship Groups, and Rotary Leadership where we will surely find items of interest and increase our knowledge.

     President Wayne announced that we were successful in being awarded a District Grant for improvements at LCSS and that club and Rotaract members would be asked to lend a hand at the painting project.

     Visiting Rotarians were Bill Lindahl and June Jones, who brought her granddaughter as well.  Plans are being made for us to have some type of celebration of World Polio Day on October 24.  Wayne thanked Jonah for his great work in getting comments and photos onto our website, so now  we have a visual record of our meetings and you can catch up when you miss a meeting.  DG Brad met with the club executive after the regular meeting, encouraging us to implement a membership plan. For more photos visit Sept 26, 2019.

President Wayne repeated our theme, Rotary Connects the World, and reminded the club that our District Governor would be visiting in two weeks' time.  He would like to meet as many members as possible before the regular meeting, and then with the executive after the meeting.  All directors should be present to answer questions.  Wayne gave the directors their "assignments", including which ones would be responsible for the five avenues of service.  

     September birthday wishes go to Trisha (16) and Brendan (older).  We continue to sing both verses of Happy Birthday, quite heartily.  Members had some difficulty naming I Guess Things Happen That Way by Johnny Cash, this week's tune, after the opening sounds.  

     From that Johnny we switched to John Brynjolfson, who filled in for an absent guest speaker with the second part of his medical update.  This time he spoke about Parkinson's and the advances being made in fighting that disease.  He sees a future where medicine will be available to stop the spread of Parkinson's, and people will not have to suffer as they do now.  Many of us wish that day were here right now. For more photos visit Sept 12, 2019.

President Wayne encouraged us to show Rotary Connects the World by bringing in some new members.  Les Clay replied that he had one in mind.  Stay tuned.

     On behalf of the Foundation Committee, Wayne wrote the proposal for a District Grant to include three projects at Langley Community Services Society.  For the two garden areas, including building an Allan Block wall two courses high, we would provide oversight but hire someone to do the work.  For the third, we would provide the labour and invite Rotaractors to join us in preparing a ramp for painting, and then doing the actual painting.  Now we wait to see if our application is successful.

     Club members were challenged to identify a song and name the artist after hearing only the opening chord.  Veronica and Rudy were able to recognise  A Hard Day's Night by the Beatles by hearing only that iconic chord.  

     Our guest speaker was our own practising physician and past president of the club, John Brynjolfson.  John brought us all kinds of incredible facts about research findings and new developments about prostate cancer, and he feels positive about medical breakthroughs coming to make our lives better.  Words like benign prostatic hyperplasia and 5 alpha reductase inhibitor just flowed freely from his lips.  He saved the second part of his talk for another day. For more photos visit Aug 29, 2019.

 

President Wayne reminded us that we can help Rotary Connect the World at Ribfest this weekend.  He announced we were getting a second quote for services for the proposed district grant for work at LCSS.  Special guests were Lillianne Fuller, Brooke Lindberg, and her parents, Clayton and Cathy.

     Brooke, a recent graduate from Langley Fundamental Middle Secondary School, spoke about her volunteer experiences and her plans for the future.  As a winner of one of our $1500 scholarships, she was most appreciative and thanked us for helping her, and stated, "I plan to continue to volunteer and make a difference in the world around me."

     Lillianne spoke about the Nicomekl Elementary School lunch program and her involvement with that project.  Students behave better and learn more when they are not hungry, and the results of providing food for the students who otherwise would not receive the nutrition needed are obvious and heartwarming.  Lillianne has been able to obtain sufficient sponsorship funding for this year, but may be back to see us next school year. For more photos visit Aug 15, 2019.

We met this week at the new Rotary Interpretive Centre at the Doubleday Arboretum.  As our club had donated $250 000 plus over 9900 hours of labour on this project, we wanted to experience a meeting inside this unique building.  President Wayne shared information from the executive meeting held last week, and announced that Judi Piccolo was reaffirmed as an honorary member of the club.  Funding requests have been forwarded to our new funding committee for recommendations to the executive.

     Plans are well underway for Ribfest, and members are encouraged to sign up to volunteer.  With no speaker for the evening, Wayne decided to play Name That Tune and provided the music.

     We went back in time as Wayne played parts of several songs and club members attempted to first name the songs and artists, and then arrange the tunes by year and tell which had remained #! on the Billboard music charts the longest.  Who knew that It's All in the Game (Tommy Edwards) and Purple People Eater (Sheb Wooley) each remained at #1 for six weeks in 1958, or that Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White (Perez Prado) was #1 longer than Rock Around the Clock (Bill Haley) ten weeks to eight in 1955? For more photos visit July 25, 2019.

President Wayne opened the meeting by reiterating Rotary's theme, "Rotary Connects the World", and stating that he felt confident our club would be doing its part.  Our speaker this evening was Roxci Bevis, Program Coordinator for the Derby Reach /Brae Island Parks Association.  Roxci gave an interesting and informative presentation about the parks association, its goals, and what services it offers.  She is in charge of planning recreation and conservation events in Derby Reach and Brae Island Regional Parks.  Wayne asked her to sign a book which will be donated to Nicomekl Elementary in her name. For more photos visit July 18, 2019.