Chair:   Greg Trefry

 

 

O Canada:   Susan Ueffing from Barbados

 

Guests/Visiting Rotarians:  VR - Guest Speaker Jillian Gibson, Russ Sanche and Pete Smith. Guests – Ben Fleckenstein. 

 

Guest Speaker:  Jillian Gibson, speaking on Rotary Peace Fellowships

Greg introduced Jillian.

 

 

Jillian first described that the Rotary Foundation has three main focuses. 1 is Polio Eradication, 2 is Grants both District and Global, and 3 is the Promotion of Peace.

Jillian then explained that the Peace Fellowship Program is an all-expenses paid scholarship program for students. It is fully funded by the Foundation.

 

There are 130 Fellowships and they are awarded to people already working in the Peace field. She then showed a quick video available on the website: https://www.rotary.org/en/our-programs/peace-fellowships. The application is also available online and the deadline for submission to the club is May 15^th. The application includes 5 essay questions and needs three academic referrals. Jillian then went on to explain further the process for the clubs to endorse an application.

 

 

Nora, an alumnus of the Peace Fellowship from Nova Scotia who did her fellowship in Thailand, is working in Switzerland with other alumni of the program on a toolkit to be distributed to schools who will receive refugees from the Ukraine to help them better support the students. On the Rotary website there is a video with interviews from other past peace fellows.

 

Jillian then explained that $25,000 + had been raised from Atlantic Canada for funding the countries bordering Ukraine to help with refugees in those countries.

 

Elva thanked Jillian for her presentation.

 

Susan:  Happy to have celebrated Joe’s birthday on Friday and next week she’ll be back in person!

Ellen: Happy for Saint Patrick’s Day!

Craig: Is wearing a lovely necklace because his granddaughter has been visiting for the last three days for the first time in years.

Shelley: Happy that Ben has applied for Holland College!

 

President Bill welcomed visiting Rotarians Jillian, Russ and Pete and guest Ben.  The special meeting is scheduled for the evening of March 28, it will be a chance to hear from the committees on what they have been up to and the implementation of the strategic plan.

Charter Night is scheduled for May 2 at KenWo. Conference is scheduled for May 13/14^th (virtual).

 

Illness Report:   Matt – Bill explained that Matt’s progress is up and down but hopefully we’ll see him again soon. It’s just taking longer than he hoped.

Janet Clarke’s father passed away.

 

Valley Faces: Presented a cheque to the club for $30,000.

Phil also reported to the club that sales are going well for next years book. We are currently at $75,000 (half way to our goal). Rod will send out emails next week with the club member cc’d who has the relationship with the business.

Kim – scholarship information went out to school and all the info is on Clubrunner.

Pierre – Fundy Foodbank – many members of the club help with deliveries. But they could use a few more people to help, they’ve done over 250 + deliveries!

Phyllis – Nominations for Paul Harris need to be in by next week. Also, for the social committee they are looking at a possible End of May wine survivor.

 

 

RI Minute was shared by Doug Hill

More than half of the 2.5 million refugees fleeing Ukraine have arrived in Poland where Rotary members are organizing shelter, transportation, and basic necessities for the incoming refugees.

Rotary Club of Olsztyn is collecting and managing donations for refugees, primarily unaccompanied children, staying at Ostróda Camp. Within a few hours, four cars full of donated items were collected— including food, clothes, bedding, personal hygiene products, as well as some toys.

The Rotary Foundation has received thousands of donations, totaling over $1.1 million. These donations support efforts like that of Rotary Club of Olsztyn as well as provide medical supplies in Ukraine and support refugees who have fled to neighboring countries. #RotaryResponds

Donate to Rotary's Disaster Response Fund to support refugees and victims of the Ukraine crisis here: https://lnkd.in/eQTexMPG.

 

Meeting closed with the 4-Way Test.

See you next week!