Chair: Wally Jarvis

 

 

Blessing: Phil Warren

 

Wally welcomed the folks on Zoom, and asked the meeting to acknowledge the sad passing of Nat James with a moment of silence. He then welcomed guests Mark Clarke (the guest speaker) and Jeanie Bernard (prospective member) and Visiting Rotarian Peter Smith.

 

O Canada: Susan Ueffing

 

Heather: Excited to be working on the exchange program again!

Shelley: Happy to have gone on a hockey trip to Cape Breton on the weekend, but hoping for a speedy recovery for one of the members of the team who had to go to the hospital with a concussion.

Sue: Happy it’s not snowing!

Katie: Happy to have her sister moving back to Kentville permanently.

 

Bill welcomed the visitors and guests and re-acknowledged Nat James, who it turns out had met Bill’s mother when they were both young in Dartmouth.

Bill then presented a Paul Harris award (+6) to Peter Clarke. Congratulations Peter!!

 

 

Bill then briefly spoke about a new “Atlantic Environment Committee” that is being organized within our new district. He will pass the information on to the Community Services Committee.

Lastly, Bill mentioned upcoming dates: Next week (December 6^th ) is the AGM, December 13^th is a presentation by Peter Akote – a Rotarian from Cameroon, December  20^th is the Christmas social, and stay tuned as there may be plans for another meeting during the holidays.

 

 

Rick let the club know that Matthew Connolly had been rear ended in Halifax and had a concussion and whiplash. He was okay, but wasn’t attending the meeting for that reason.

 

Wally then introduced Mark Clarke – President of the Kentville Lions Club.

 

 

Mark started by giving a history of Lions International. It began in Chicago (same as Rotary!) in 1917, and the first club in Nova Scotia was in Halifax in 1945. The Kentville Club was chartered in 1949 and then went on to sponsor 5 other clubs in NS and one in PEI. The club is filled with members who want to serve and serve with others. Their colors are purple and gold and motto is “We Serve”.

 

 

Lions International has several areas of focus including Diabetes, Vision (Blindness and Visually impaired), Hunger, and Environment.

 

 

On the local level, the club does fundraising by renting the hall, a monthly breakfast on the 1^st Sunday of the month, weekly radio bingo, weekly jam sessions on Wednesday evenings, and hot dog/sausage BBQs in the summer. Because of this fundraising they are able to contribute to many worthy causes including the Valley Regional Hospital Foundation CT Scanner campaign, autism awareness, Christmas Hampers with the Salvation Army, Ride for Refuge with the Portal, and letters form individual community members.

Mark received questions from Club members on working on projects together (they’d be interested!), and their building.

Carl thanked Mark for his presentation to the club and look forward to hopefully working on projects together in the future.

 

Brian – NKEC Baking- they need a couple more volunteers for December 7^th. They can start at 5pm and be out before 7pm! Get in touch with Brian if you’re interested. Typically it is the second Tuesday of the month.

Trish – Exchange 2022/23 – They interviewed 4 students, three from Central Kings and 1 from NKEC and selected one student for exchange. The student is considering Belgium for the exchange!

Phil – Valley Faces made $149,000 last year! 😊 Last year the theme for the book was Covid First Responders and so give some thought to a theme for this year. There will be a deadline of end of July for any editorial content. Below is the schedule for important dates!

 

 

 

Rotary is dedicated to seven areas of focus to build international relationships, improve lives, and create a better world to support our peace efforts and end polio forever.

Saving mothers and children: Nearly 6 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, poor health care, and inadequate sanitation. We expand access to quality care, so mothers and their children can live and grow stronger.

Supporting education: More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy.

Growing local economies: We carry out service projects that enhance economic and community development and create opportunities for decent and productive work for young and old. We also strengthen local entrepreneurs and community leaders, particularly women, in impoverished communities.

Supporting the environment: As our newest appointed area of focus, Rotary clubs can now apply for environment-related global grant projects.

Which cause are you most passionate about?

 

Phil won the lucky ticket… and no luck!!! So it’s a roll over!!

 

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

 

See you next week!