Social time featured a number of interesting conversations and welcomes as we caught up with what’s been happening the past week. Right around seven o’clock, to the surprise of some, Past President Wayne called the meeting to order and informed the club that President Veronica would not be attending due to a death in the family. She had phoned him to request that he run the meeting, and to pass on her regrets to the club members and guests.
Leon Jensen played an enjoyable version of O Canada sung by The Tenors. The accompanying photos may show some members singing as well. Leon was thanked for doing a marvelous job in bringing different performers to our meetings each week.
Announcements were few: no birthdays, one anniversary, Rotary’s theme (though with Wayne asking one member gave the response that became automatic last year), and Les’ trees looking great at the Arboretum. Rotary is opening an opportunity for someone to donate lime flagstone for paving a pathway at the Arboretum. Let Allan know if you can help.
Foundation Chair Wayne read the Foundation Moments for last week and this week, telling about Large Grants and Global Grant Scholarships.
Our guest speaker, fellow Rotarian Jen Kormendy, spoke to us about ShelterBox Canada and showed a very interesting slide presentation while screen sharing, select January 28, 2021 to view the slides. ShelterBox was started by a Rotary club in Cornwall, England and now has six sites around the world where emergency supplies and equipment are gathered for delivery where most needed. Along with the shelter boxes, the organization now has shelter kits and solar lights available. Clubs (such as ours) used to sponsor a ShelterBox when making cash donations, but now are encouraged to send funds for general use or for specific items that would then be made available for delivery. Supplies are put on a pallet and sent to one of the pre-positioned locations, and then delivered to where needed. This is much more effective and economical than sending everything to England first, and then delivering it to the people.
We all pledged happy and sad dollars and closed the meeting with a toast to Canada.