The weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Langley was held at Timms Community Centre. This week we had Rudy, Anthony, Wayne, Manjit, Merle, Nora, Stephen, Brendan and Nav on hand, with Bob and Allan participating on zoom. Our guests were Paul Crump, Director for Langley Meals on Wheels, and Manjit’s granddaughter Jasmine.
Following the call to order and O Canada (“Very good. All the voices were in tune.”), Stephen called for any club business. Anthony reported that Sonia Gill had resigned from the club, citing health issues as preventing her from participating the way she would like. The District Assembly will be held on Saturday, March 25, and PE Rudy would like other members to join him in attending this event. Our club will be charged $275 for five members, and we would like to have at least five attend. Wayne and Merle expressed interest, so we need two more to register to fill in our quota. The sessions run from 9 to 3 at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus in Surrey, and lunch is included. We discussed an access to water project, and noted the recognition of Manjit and Darcy Gill in the LMH newsletter. Darcy has been lucky to have caregivers nearby when he has faced medical distress. One instance was when he had heart failure on a plane. He happened to be seated beside a cardiologist, and a nurse and paramedic were also on board to provide the assistance he needed.
Langley Meals on Wheels
Our guest speaker, Paul Crump, who once worked at a credit union with Rudy, spoke eloquently about Langley Meals on Wheels, a program which delivers food and programs for seniors and families in need. Its many volunteers work together to reduce poverty and improve health in our community. Neighbourhood House provides the building (owned by the Township) and other agencies such as LCSS and Stepping Stones are invited to provide services for Aldergrove residents and people throughout Langley. LMOW has 564 active clients and receives a $32 000 subsidy from United Way. They deliver meals seven days a week. Programs such as Home from the Hospital provide free meals for up to twelve days after leaving a hospital stay. Volunteers also provide safety checks to make sure their clients are well, and to assist when they aren’t. Five-dollar bags of fresh produce are delivered to 130 people every week. There were more programs and statistics shared, but my pen and my mind could not keep up, and as there was no slide presentation, I could not take photos to refresh my memory. So, unfortunately, lots of information did not make it into this edition of RoteNotes.
The renovations for this community hub were built around the kitchen, and it now provides a reliable source for the meals. The two chefs are the only employees; all the rest are volunteers. Paul stated that they serve 4500-5000 meals per month and seventy meals are delivered to at-risk families. Even though the kitchen is fairly new, they already need another commercial oven! All packaging materials are biodegradable.
The building was originally a firehall, then the home of Milsean’s Chocolates, and now includes the Firehouse Café which is open to the public. This space encourages intergenerational connections. Upstairs has space available for rent for meetings, as well as housing the LMOW offices. Paul invites us to come out to the café and have a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. Tours of the facility may be requested.
Following Paul’s presentation, Wayne read the Foundation Moment.
Rotary Moment with Wayne
Disaster response grants of up to US$25,000 fund relief and recovery efforts in areas that have had a natural disaster within the past six months. These efforts can include providing basic items such as water, food, medicine, and clothing.
Districts that have had a disaster and are qualified to receive Rotary grants can apply for a grant to launch their own projects or work with established relief organizations.
Think about how you want to take part in grant programs. Which one interests you?
Light Touch
This was followed by The Light Touch, featuring another bar joke, with a difference.
A man walks into a bar. As he sits down, he looks up and notices three pieces of meat hanging from the ceiling. He asks the bartender, “What’s with the meat?” The bartender says,” If you can jump up and slap all three pieces at once, you get free drinks for an hour. If you miss even one, you have to pay for everyone else’s drinks for the rest of the night. Wanna give it a go?”
The man takes another look at the meat, then says, “I think I’ll pass. The steaks are too high.” Loud groans indicated that the joke was appreciated
Other updates
We moved on to happy and sad dollars with money pledged for: Paul’s sharing; good weather and daylight savings time; birdwatchers around; Zosia’s shoulder replacement; watching his granddaughter’s team win their first basketball game and watch her score her first basket; LMOW; missing meetings; more for this evening’s presentation; happy to be here at the meeting; celebrating Joan’s 79th birthday; having Manjit back at our meetings; humbled by all the good Rotary does; and even more for Paul’s presentation about Langley Meals on Wheels.
We raised our glasses, real and imaginary, and toasted Canada before closing up shop for the week. Remember that next week we’ll be at RIC so we won’t be able to offer zoom service. Sorry about that.
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