Year-end Review for 2019-2020 from outgoing President Wayne
Despite the difficulties presented by the coronavirus pandemic, we have just completed another successful year. Congratulations to our club! We have earned a Rotary Citation and I will share details about that later on when we receive official verification of that achievement. I will also give out Paul Harris Recognitions and a few other awards once we can meet in person so we can physically hand them to our members. Stay tuned.
We re-instituted useful committees and have encouraged them to be active. We made good progress, but we can do better, and I look forward to it this year. We deliberately held more social events, and enjoyed them, and I see this trend continuing.
Where did we spend our money? Well, we had a stretch goal for the TRF Annual Fund, which we met and surpassed. We had a stretch goal for Polio Plus, and we met and surpassed that goal as well. Those were two goals I identified just over a year ago, and I thank club members for the support shown.
We spent money on the Rotary Interpretive Centre, and on the Arboretum. What we call David’s Garden has become a reality, though more work needs to be done before the bird garden is completed to our satisfaction. We supported GolFun (as part of our TRF donations) and the Yorkson Block Party. I recall taking my cousins from England and Wales to that event. We officially sponsored and financially supported the Rotaract Club of Langley, and again offered six $1500 scholarships to some very deserving students from our local school district. Money we donated in the past helped fund endowed scholarships at the Kwantlen Polytechnic and Fraser Valley Universities.
We funded projects at the Langley Arts Council and Langley Community Services Society, both with District Grants to make our funds go farther.
We purchased a Remembrance Day wreath and continue to honour our veterans. We have agreed to help pay for a container to go to Belize through the World Help Network, and contributed to the District 5050 Literacy Library Bus working through the Abbotsford-Sumas Rotary Club. We financially supported the Wagner Hills Farm Society and the Hope for Women Pregnancy Services. We purchased two more garden towers for use in School District #35, and heard and saw how productive they have been and how they have helped the food program. We sponsored one of the scholarships for SASSY 2020. We also donated to the Gateway of Hope to help them fight the COVID-19 virus, providing money for plexiglass shields as well as funds for supplies.
Tomorrow we have a photo opportunity at Gateway of Hope. Are there any club members who feel comfortable enough to join me for a photograph at Gateway of Hope tomorrow afternoon from 1 to 1:30? Dan Donkers will meet us for the publicity photo.
That concludes my review. I thank you for the support you gave me as your president, and hope you agree that we had a good year.