Only six members were present to enjoy the excellent presentation from our three special guests at the RIC. Brendan, Wayne, Allan, Anthony, Leon, and Rudy were joined by Victoria Biggs and Brielle Ball as we welcomed Candace Platter, Tracey Ehman and Christine Zitscher to our meeting. Regrets were received from John and Navnit.
Following opening remarks and the singing of O Canada (another great version) Rudy officially welcomed our guests and reviewed some of the expenditures approved last week. He advised that he missed last week as he attended the 50-year reunion of his Caribou High School grad class.
Guest Speaker - Candace Platter
Our special guest speaker, Candace Plattor, has written a book called Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: The Top Ten Survival Tips for Saving a Person With Addictions and she spoke of her journey through addiction and now to being able to help others. Candace, a private practitioner in Vancouver, reported that over 7500 people in Canada lost their lives to drug addiction. She herself became addicted to pain killers when she was seeking some type of escape from the pain of her undiagnosed Crohn’s Disease which has no known cause or cure. She was given all types of drugs to try to deal with the problem, and without realizing it became addicted and felt suicidal. When she finally realized that she was an addict, she made a decision to get clean and devote her life to helping others with addictions. She is now proudly 36 years clean and sober!
Candace worked sixteen years in Vancouver DTE with addicts and alcoholics. She came up with a plan that families had to change the way they were treating their addicted loved ones before changes could occur. One addict affects the lives of up to twenty people, so this is a huge concern. Candace admits that the AA twelve-step model has helped many people, but she disagrees with the premise that addiction is a disease and that you will relapse. She says it is a choice and it is simple to rectify: stop taking the addiction. Simple, but not easy. Families have to learn to differentiate between enabling and helping. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Take care of yourself first, and then you can help others.
Candace is looking for sponsorship for books to give families. She would like to give away 1000 copies, and they cost $20 each (cheaper in bulk). Members expressed interest in purchasing books for themselves, and a potential sponsorship may be considered.
All in all, Candace was a very effective speaker with an important message, and we appreciated her speaking to us.
Rotary Moment with Wayne
Wayne reviewed the club goals for 2023-2024 as included on Rotary Club Central at rotary.org. A copy of the list will be prepared for all to see at future Rotary meetings.
The Light Touch
Wayne followed this with The Light Touch, featuring two stories.
Anyone remember the good ol’ days, before Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? When you had to take a photo of your dinner, then get the film developed, then go around to all your friends’ houses to show them the picture of your dinner? No? Me neither. Stop it.
I found a neat book called How to Fix 50% of Your Problems. So, I bought two.
Other updates
Donations were made for: having his son visiting; getting a suitcase repaired in Richmond; Visa to India now on hold due to Canada-India disagreement; giving $30 000 in scholarships to students; the lovely group of ladies visiting us tonight; missing several meetings; wonderful speakers, and a great trip last week seeing nature thriving.
We closed with a toast to Canada. Next week we’re back at Timms so we will be able to offer a hybrid meeting. Hope to see you there!
.png)
