South Mouth, October 31st, 2011

Rotary Club of St. Catharines South

AGENDA -  July 19

12:15 p.m. Call to Order:  Tom Schultz

1. National Anthem: Cathy Henry   

2. Toast to the Queen & Canada: Ian Forbes

3. Invocation: Jean Stewart   

4. Lunch (reconvene at 12:30)

5. Introduction of Guests and Visiting Rotarians Ron Kozub:

- Ross MacDonald

- Henry Becker

- Dan Ventresca

6. Sergeant-at-Arms, Arie Vrugteveen,  

We had an excellent day in collecting happy dollars, Arie, started it off by contributing $5 to celebrate the birth of his son Brandon on October 28^th (as a result Matt Taylor won the Baby Pool) – Congratulations to Arie and Joanne! The rest of the club followed for happy occasions such as cruises, vacations, the weekend District Conference etc. Henry Becker also contributed a happy dollar – he can’t remember the last time his club celebrated a birth – yes they’re that old.

7. Announcements:

1. Bingo – next bingo is Saturday November 12 and Jim has his volunteers, please think about volunteering for the next one on Friday November 25
2. GSE Update – The GSE team from Brazil headed back this week after a successful tour of our District. The District is now looking for team members for the return trip in April/May 2012. If you know of anyone that may be interested please contact Jim Hooper for more additional details.
3. TITH Gala – This Saturday November 5 is out 5^th Take it to Heart Gala. Cathy Henry announced that 307 tickets have been sold and that we’re looking forward to an excellent evening
4. Remembrance Day – November 11 is Remembrance Day, and similar to last year, the four St. Catharines Rotary Clubs are getting together at the cenotaph on St. Paul West to present a wreath in honour of our veterans.
5. Roteract – Jean Stewart announced that the St. Catharines Clubs together with the Welland Rotary Club are helping Brock Students form a Roteract Club. There has been some confusion in co-ordinating the efforts of the clubs and the students but Jean is determined to work through it.
6. Paul Harris Fellowship Luncheon – This event is being held on Monday November 28^th at the Golf Club. Please invite family members out to help celebrate the occasion with the recipients.
7. 37^th Bill Ford Curling Bonspiel – on Wednesday November 23^rd this annual event is being held. If you are looking to enter a team or contribute a prize see Jim Howes.
8. Spencer Williams Scholarship Award – Way back in 1970 Spencer Williams, a member of our Rotary Club, passed away and left an endowment through our club to provide a scholarship to a Brock University Student. The Scholarship is for $100. This year’s recipient is Leigh Ann Vermeer, she is studying towards achieving her Bachelor of Science – Kinesiology.
9. New Member Proposal – third and final announcement – Ian Forbes. Ian will be formally re-inducted on November 7.
10. The District Assembly was October 28-30 at the Niagara Falls Convention Centre. John T, Cathy, Roseanne, Sheila and Dan attended. Topic included the new look of Rotary with a focus on diversity, membership and polio eradication. Saturday evening was the Foundation Dinner – last year District 7090 raised over $346,000 for the Foundation. Roseanne did a wonderful GSE presentation on Saturday with her South Korean team.  We met last years outbound GSE team and this years inbound team from Brazil. Sunday focused on the Rotary Youth Exchange students. Next year’s conference is in Brantford, the weekend after the Canadian Thanksgiving.

8. Birthdays:  No birthdays to serenade.

9. 50/50 Draw: $2/ ticket - Find one of two Jokers. Jim Howes won the ticket draw but unfortunately chose a 4 of Spades

10. Early Leavers: There were some earlier leavers – they were probably frightened by today’s topic – Zombies.

 11. Introduction of Guest Speaker by - Dan Toppari: Our guest speaker this week Dan Ventresca. Dan V. is a lawyer, he was called to the bar in 1990, and is currently a criminal defense lawyer, but that has nothing to do with his talk. Dan is President of the Zombie Research Society. Dan acknowledges that Zombies do not exists, but his society studies Zombies as if the do. They study scenarios such as “How would we react if there were a Zombie Apocalypse?”

The type of zombies the society studies are those found in movies like Night of the Living Dead, not to be confused with the voodoo kind found in New Orleans. The zombies that Dan studies acquired their talents through a virus that doesn’t die on death and upon death reinvigorates only a small part of the brain. To show examples Dan shared some TV clips from Walking Dead.

For real – I went there – if you Google CDC (Center for Disease Control), go onto that website, go to the search bar and enter zombies, you’ll find that the CDC talks about the Zombie Apocalypse and gives instructions on how to create a Zombie Preparedness Emergency Kit.

Apparently, in real life, some insects like lady bugs, exhibit zombie like qualities.

12. Thanking the Speaker: Jason P.

13. Attendance Report Ron Kozub: 150% with makeups!!!

14. Next meeting – Nov. 7th

15. Rotary Minute or Inspiring Quote: “Nothing on Earth is as beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night” – Steve Almond