President Charles opened the meeting by asking Ian Williams to lead us in O Canada with his wonderful slide presentation. Susie Stephens gave a beautiful invocation addressing the need for each of us to make a difference in order to make it a happy New Year.
Bob Wilson introduced guests and visiting Rotarians. Visiting Rotarians included Sheila Anderson from the Nanaimo North Club and exchange students Emily Wehrkamp (Germany) and Dorien Abberkirk (Netherlands). There were several guests all looking forward to hearing the positive message coming from Mayor Krog. Guests included Cindy Hammond, guest of Dave Hammond; Sari Saunders and Matt Rosenthal, both guests of Charles Ramos; Landon Sheck, guest of Sean Martin; Dawn Hankins, guest of Wendy Pratt; and Doreen Charboneau, guest of Carlene Shaw.
President Charles thanked organizers John Heisterman and Wahid Ali for the successful Bayview lunch again this year. He also thanked Joan Ryan for organizing the Rotary Christmas dinner.
He informed us that the union has settled its agreement with the Coast Hotel so we should not expect any interruptions in our meeting times. He gave notice that Geoff Clay’s mother passed away just before Christmas which was soon after the passing of his mother-in-law, Peggy Richardson’s mother. He asked that we keep Peggy and Geoff in our thoughts.
Doug Cowling brought forth a notice of motion to donate $1,500 to the Cadets and asked to shorten the notice from the required 2 weeks to 1 week. It was moved by Lucie Gosselin and seconded by Yvan Gosselin to waive the two week notice period and to bring back the motion at next week’s meeting. The motion was passed.
Debbie Narver brought a thank you note from Unitarian Winter Shelter for the clothing drive our club undertook
in early December. Brent Barootes reminded everyone of the multi club Chinese New Year dinner to take place on January 25th in lieu of a lunch time meeting. There are 40 tickets left out of the 80 available. Tickets must be bought before the event by contacting Brent on email at brent@partnershipgroup.ca.
in early December. Brent Barootes reminded everyone of the multi club Chinese New Year dinner to take place on January 25th in lieu of a lunch time meeting. There are 40 tickets left out of the 80 available. Tickets must be bought before the event by contacting Brent on email at brent@partnershipgroup.ca. John Heisterman circulated 5 thank you cards to be signed by all members for the businesses who helped with the Bayview lunch. Bees Knees for the cookies given to each child; Mrs. Riches for lending us their cooking and serving dishes and for cooking and preparing the potatoes and vegetables; John Barsby School for cooking the turkeys and making gravy; Thrifty’s for donating food and drinks; Johnston Wholesale for donating items for the goodie bags; and Mr Lube for donating cash to cover those items not donated. President Charles noted that District 5020 is actively searching for applicants for graduate level scholarships. For more information, please go to the website.
Sergeant-at-arms Wahid Ali managed to offend almost everyone with humour. I don’t think anyone was seriously offended except for those he missed. There were many happy and sad bucks. Some were happy to have received family for the holidays and others were happy the families had left. Frank Shoemaker was grateful that his power was only down for 5 days compared to fellow Gabriola resident Egon Holzwarth whose power was down 9 days. Egon gave a happy buck for saving on his hydro bill for 9 days. Jason Bradley was happy he managed to survive 32 hours on duty over a 2 day period as first responders dealt with the negative effects of the wind storm.
Table stakes was won by Hamish Lal and the chance to draw the ace of spades went to Yvan Gosselin who was unsuccessful.