Chair: Brian Hermiston

 

 

Blessing: Shelley Fleckenstein

O Canada: Susan Ueffing

 

Brian introduced the visiting Rotarians Peter Smith and Roger Seveigny and guest Chris Rice (guest speaker). Thanks for joining us!

 

Roger: Happy that he has a new beautiful granddaughter! She arrived early so is in the NICU, but is doing well and Roger got to touch her little feet! 😊

Bill: Happy to see so many out at the Kentville cenotaph on Remembrance Day.

Trish: Happy to do her first Happy Dollars as an official member of the Club! Hooray! She’s already working on a committee, heading to Central Kings to talk to the students about exchanges for the next school year!

Sue: Put in some change she found in their garden fountain! She was also happy to have had a wonderful trip – Italian cruise, Holland and Switzerland! Lastly, she was super excited and happy that her son and daughter in law are expecting twins in April!

Matthew: Holly Days is coming up in Kentville, come down and join in! He’ll be there with the Dukes of Kent!

 

Brian let everyone know that they had been baking at NKEC and could use one or two more volunteers.

Phil reported from the nominating committee that the AGM is December 6^th and they would like to present a full slate of Directors. If anyone is interested in being on the board get in touch with him.

 

President’s Report:  Bill said his welcomes to Randy Crozsman who joined us in person, all of the folks on Zoom, Sue and Joe back from their trip and our guest speaker Chris. Bill also let the club know that unfortunately Gerry’s mother passed away last week, so our deepest sympathies go out to him and his family. Bill also let us know that the Salvation Army is looking for volunteers for their Christmas Kettle program if anyone would like to help. Next in his report was that the Strategic Plan was now out with committees to work on action plans, they should be able to comment more on the process soon. Finally, two upcoming dates – the AGM is December 6^th and the Christmas social is on December 20^th at Centre stage theatre.

 

Illness Report: Bill mentioned that when they visited Nat James for his recent birthday he seemed to not be doing very well, so it might be nice to give him a call over the next few weeks.

 

Rick introduced the guest speaker, Chris Rice, who lives with a disability and who was presenting on accessibility in Nova Scotia.

 

 

Chris began his presentation by telling the club a little bit about him and his situation. He grew up in the Bridgetown area and he was in an accident where he broke his back and therefore spends his days in a wheelchair.

Chris went on to explain some of the aspects of life in Nova Scotia that are challenges for him. These include hospitals, employment, recreation, housing, and business/infrastructure.

 

 

He then talked about what he thought that Nova Scotia’s Accessibility Plan would look like before he did more research – more talk than action and lack of accountability. But as he did more research he realized that the accessibility plan was quite specific and measurable with each government department having specific and unique targets and goals. Chris also talked about his hopes for the future in terms of accessibility including a hotline for accessibility issues, an online database to track progress, etc.

 

 

There were lots of questions and comments for Chris on the steps Nova Scotia has taken so far, and the steps we still need to take to move forward.

 

 

Phil thanked Chris for his presentation and the club will make a donation to the Rotary Foundation in thanks.

 

The Rotary Foundation spends charitable contributions on multiple programs: from the eradication of polio, to scholarships, vocational training teams, Rotary Peace Centers and humanitarian projects. The funds support programs that Rotarians are passionate about and are sustainable. With a four-star rating by Charity Navigator for thirteen years in a row and 1.2 million Rotarians over-seeing the funds at a grassroots level, our funds are doing transformative work here and abroad.

You can read personal stories and review the details of our Foundation’s financials in our most recent Annual Report on rotary.org.

 

Roger drew the lucky ticket… Rick won… but didn’t get the ace, so it’s a roll over!!

 

Greg and the club read the 4-Way Test and adjourned.