Our attendance was up and we had a great meeting. Anthony, Wayne, Leon, Sonia, Allan, Brendan, Nav, Gertie, Merle, Byron and Nora were joined by Rotarian guests Wayne Crossen and Rodney Blackwell from the Langley Central club, Jared Evans from WalMart, Judy Hutmather from the Christmas Bureau, and our special guest speaker, Agnes Lo. Lana tuned in via zoom and regrets were received from Veronica. We welcomed Merle to her first meeting as an official member of our club. Entertainment was provided by Brielle Ball, Anthony’s daughter.
Pre-meeting conversation topics included returning from a trip to Mexico, losing partners to cancer, putting up Christmas lights, or just using one spotlight instead.
President Stephen called the meeting to order at 7:02 and we sang O Canada. “Excellent rendition. We were in time.”
Our club Christmas party will be held on Dec. 11 at the Richmond residence and we are now fully booked with twenty attendees. Dinner will be delivered by five o’clock, BYOB, and have a good time. Sorry to any other members who did not respond in time, as Allan had a deadline with the caterers and also needed to arrange for the correct number of chairs and tables.
Langley Christmas Bureau
Judy told us about the Langley Christmas Bureau which is run by volunteers. Last year it helped 787 families, and so far this year 920 families have applied. Some are already sponsored, and our club agreed (at the executive meeting which followed our regular meeting) to be a sponsor this year. Sponsors will be given the name and contact information for a family and are to provide an appropriate food hamper for them, along with a small gift card for a nearby grocery store. The Christmas Bureau will look after toys and stocking stuffers for the children (the parents get to choose from a selection) and a $50 gift card per child. The Bureau volunteers will deliver the hampers by Dec. 13. Go to langleychristmasbureau.com for information.
Wal-Mart grant
Jared Evans, a former Rotarian looking for a new Rotary home, spoke about WalMart’s involvement in helping others, especially with the Food Bank, Red Cross, Breakfast Clubs of Canada, and the Children’s Miracle Network. He mentioned a $1000 grant available to our club to use for assisting others in our local community and Allan will be following up with him on this.
Discovering our Blind Spots
We were then treated to an energetic and enthusiastic presentation from Agnes Lo. Agnes, originally from Hong Kong, moved to Canada thirty years ago, and though she moved back and worked there for sixteen years, now has settled in Coquitlam as her home. She introduced us to the Johari Window and led us through an exercise filling in the different quadrants. The top left one was easy (see photos), and the bottom left and top right were harder. I didn’t get to the bottom right one. She stressed that the flip side of every blind spot is a strength, and always provides an opportunity for growth. We should seek feedback from others to discover our blind spots.
Other updates
Wayne read the Rotary Moments for last week and this week which came to us from Jack Rae, District Foundation Chair.
We moved on to happy and sad dollars, with eight people contributing this week. Money was pledged for: Allan allowing Wayne to assist him in putting together Wayne’s chair; a sister who couldn’t make it for a visit due to a husband’s injured hand followed by COVID; a grandson playing football very well and earning accolades, but what will his health be like in twenty years; struggles to get a Russian whippet registered here so he can race in Canada; Marina and the troubles in Ukraine and Russia; all kinds of scans (health issues); having Nav here and needing a ride home; the field naturalists’ secretary returning home safely; Greg and Hannah now being married, and them going to Korea for a formal wedding and celebration.
We closed as usual with a toast to Canada and wished each other a good evening. This was followed by an Executive Meeting. Remember that next week at Timms we have our District Governor with us on his official visit and we encourage more members to attend. (Event was last night)
.png)
