“Allan is the key man,” so saith our president. Read on to discover how Allan earned this key position. Only a small gathering of Rotarians today, two at Timms and five at home. Regrets received from Anthony. Fortunately a guest speaker, Rob Baxter, arrived to help swell our ranks. Swell.
With keys to the Timms room, the cabinet and the field house, Allan is our “key” man. If you want to make a grand entrance, or any entrance, call Allan. When Rob hadn’t arrived as soon as hoped, Leon suggested we’d need to make up stories about solar power this evening. Instead, we were treated to a very informative program on the topic. More later. We could see Brendan on screen. He was talking but his lips weren’t moving, a neat trick. Bob Lukie looks the same every week and never appears to age. We heard about the plans for the new museum in Fort Langley, and they look great (the plans).
O Canada was played at 7:06 and afterwards Leon commented that he’d been to all the locations shown on the video. He liked it all except where they had a navy guy standing in front of a memorial instead of an army guy. Hey, we’re all in this together. Thank you to Leon, Bob and Kadonah for selling tickets last Saturday.
We will have scholarship winners visiting us for the next three weeks: Vanessa Duthie on the 16th, Riley Sommerville on the 23rd, and Camryn Hofer on the 30th. We continue to need volunteers to sell 50/50 tickets and have been offered an opportunity to sell them at an event in Fort Langley which runs on Friday nights. We discussed sponsoring a YAIL facilitator (executive to vote by email). We heard about the recommendation that we take three-minute showers (how will I ever get the shampoo out of my hair?) to save energy, and then we were on to the Foundation Moment.
Rotary Champions of Girls’ Empowerment
Six Rotary members were honored in March as People of Action: Champions of Girls’ Empowerment during Rotary Day with UNICEF in New York City. This distinction recognizes the honorees’ commitment to improving girls’ access to education, health, and sanitation and hygiene resources, as well as their work to create environments where girls can flourish. Empowering Girls is one of RI President Shekhar Mehta’s key initiatives, and he is encouraging clubs and districts to make it a focus of their service projects this year.
Momtaz Chowdhury from Bangladesh, Mildred Fragante from Philippines, Elaine Ruiz from Brazil, Srinidhi S U from India, Lydiah Njoroge from Kenya, and Motalib Weijters from The Netherlands are working every day to create environments where girls can flourish.
Rob Baxter, CEO of Vancouver Renewable Energy Corporation, SolShare Energy, was our guest speaker. His presentation (Wayne has a slideshow available for you to view) was excellent. Rob pointed out that dams are nearly always some distance from where the electricity is needed, so long transmission lines must be constructed and maintained. Reducing our hot water consumption will greatly reduce our electricity consumption (we knew that but perhaps didn’t realize how much of a difference it can make). We heard about different types of solar panels: for domestic hot water, pool heating, and photovoltaics (to produce electricity). The cost of material for photovoltaics has dropped by 90%, but installation charges have increased. News to me was that these cells do not depend on heat to produce electricity, and in fact work better in cooler weather. No batteries are needed and they come with a 25-30 year warranty.
We also heard about energy cooperatives, and that 1.2 million homes in Europe are involved in these. In answer to a question, Rob confirmed that south-facing roofs are most efficient, that east and west-facing roofs lose 10-15% of the energy, and north-facing ones lose 50%. However, if you have the space, panels don’t have to be placed on rooftops. The average system will cost you $15-20 000, and with your electrical bills reduced, it would take about fifteen years for you to recover your initial costs.
Other updates
We pledged happy or sad dollars for: a visit from a son and daughter-in-law; Les’ poor state of affairs; gun violence in the USA; Russian peacemakers; being unable to help sell raffle tickets this weekend; our great presentation on solar energy; the rainy dark road to the airport; the lousy rain, and a camper that has a bladder problem; and finally from one who would love to have solar power.
We closed with a toast to Canada. Remember, if you cannot attend the meeting in person, you are invited to join via zoom!
Late news: Langley Sunrise and Langley clubs have been given Save On Foods in Walnut Grove as the location to sell tickets on June 18 and 19 from 10 to 3 each day. Please volunteer if you can!
