Our social time enabled us to touch base with another Rotarian, Beverlee Rasmussen, and with each other. We were introduced to her son, Jeff, our guest speaker for the evening. Several pleasantries, and no unpleasantries, were exchanged. “I guess it’s about time for Veronica,” intoned a familiar voice. On cue, President Veronica called the meeting to order, shared regrets from Leon and Anthony, and asked Wayne to share O Canada.
After a brief period of overcoming technical difficulties, Wayne played a bilingual version sung by Michelle, Monique and Michael Creber. Beautiful photos of Canada accompanied the singing of O Canada .
Announcements were announced: Rotary’s theme focuses on promoting peace this month; Rotary Opens Opportunities for us to assist others; seventy million people are displaced due to conflicts and natural disasters, half of them children; District 5050 has two applicants accepted into the Peace Scholar program (read more in the Peace Arch Journal); a new HVAC system is now installed in the Rotary Interpretive Centre, replacing the wrong one which was installed originally; and five fir trees recently planted are looking good. Charity Navigator has rated The Rotary Foundation with four stars (its highest ranking) for the thirteenth consecutive year, an accomplishment achieved by only 1% of the organizations Charity navigator evaluates. Good for us!
Foundation Chair Wayne shared the Foundation Moment for this week, reading Words from a Past Rotary Global Grant Scholar.
Our guest speaker, Jeff Rasmussen, spoke to us about ADHD Kids Rock Society, a website he founded and continues to operate. Jeff told us about his troubles and struggles in school and how he felt he didn’t belong. Teachers did not know how to handle him or keep him engaged and only once he understood what Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disability was and that he was not alone did he start to make progress. He set up the website to let others with ADHD realize that they are not alone and they can be successful. Some photos of his presentation show part of the story can be found in the photo album February 4, 2021.
Most of us pledged happy and sad dollars and we closed the meeting with a toast to Canada. Executive members stayed to discuss business at the executive meeting.