Rotary Club of Nanaimo March 6, 2020 (Mar 05, 2020)

This year's International Women's Day theme is "Each for Equal. Collectively, each one of us can help create a gender equal world". Pioneering women, and the club's that supported them, helped bring equality to Rotary worldwide in 1989. Learn about the history of women in Rotary here: www.rotary.org/en/history-women-rotary

Meeting Notes

Posted by Douglas Anderson

Another clear rendition of O Canada with very few “sons” left.

Guest Introductions

Visiting Rotarians were Randy Borisenko, member of the Calgary Club and guest of Ed, as well as our exchange students Catherine Chen and Igor Kowalski.

Matthew Stephens was the guest of Rebecca Taylor, and Homa Safuei was visiting today, originally the guest of Behzad.

Birthdays

Birthdays included Mike Herold on 2nd March and John Salem on the 4th March. For a very special treat we sang harmoniously to Catherine Chen on her birthday today.

Flashback Project

The highlighted project today was Tillicum House. Originally a church, it was bought in 1978 by the Rotary Club of Nanaimo to provide a replacement home for the Boys and Girls Club. The total cost to purchase and renovate the building was $128,000 (over $500,000 today!); fundraising included Oktoberfest, a club raffle, lottery projects and a Provincial Government grant. By 1981 the Boys and Girls Club was in financial trouble and abandoned the building; our club took over, paid the final debt and handed title to the City. It was reopened as the Rotary Activity Centre.

In 1986 Tillicum House leased the building and continued the access for community programmes and the Food bank. In 1992 Tillicum House bought the building and it is now the home of the Tillicum Le’lum Health Centre, a group that our club has continued to support. What great Good News story!

Announcements

Janeane Coutu announced that tickets for the Centennial Gala on May 2nd will soon be on sale for $85 each.

Brent Stetar noted that the Book Sale is less than a month away, new double doors have finally been installed by the Mall to allow pallet access to the storage, micro sorting of non-fiction can now be done one category at a time, sign up for shifts now and sign up often.

Lori Bienert reminded us of the St Patrick’s social at SimonHolt on March 17th from 5:30 to 9 pm, with prizes, green beer, and fellowship.

Ian Williams explained how people should delete superseded shifts using the red X by their entry when changing their Book Sale sign-up.

Sergeant at Arms

Bob Janes was reluctant to fine anyone for anything because he was so energized and excited after his weekend at PETS (Pacific Northwest President Elect Training Sessions) with 700 other Presidents-elect.

Happy and Sad Bucks

Ian and Keith McFarlane both contributed for the weekly vignettes that Janeane shows at each meeting.

Wendy Pratt only had $0.45 to give, but was delighted with dinner at Behzad and Shirin Forghani’s house with the Rotary bridge group.

Jason Bradley thanked Ian and Doug Wortley for the great video interviews at Shaw Cable with the Exchange Students last week.

Barb Blinston had $5 for her niece's participation in the NDSS production for two nights at the Port Theatre.

Wayne Anderson was happy for his great weekend at PETS and that the RI President- elect and the General Secretary John Hewko were there all weekend long.

Douglas Anderson was happy that the Festival of Banners finally had a painting studio thanks to Bob Moss (North Club).

Wahid Ali was happy that his son’s basketball team came 3rd on the Island because he will not have to travel to the Provincials, but sad that this other son has 25 away games with his softball.

Doug Wortley was very happy that he raised over $1,500 in donations for his Coldest Night of the Year walk and that he finished all 42 km at 2 o’clock in the morning.

Table stakes were won by our visitor Homa Safuei.

Program Notes

Posted by Wayne Anderson

Our speaker today was Signy Madden, Executive Director of the United Way (UW), Central & Northern Vancouver Island. Signy was introduced by Jane Currie. Signy has been with the United Way since 2012 and since she has become the Executive Director, revenue to their campaigns and to the United Way have doubled under her stewardship. Jane welcomed Signy to share her stories.

Signy started her talk by wondering about the ‘big red X on the book sale volunteer website’ and then went on to talk about how happy she was to meet once again so many people she has worked with on campaigns over the years. A happy toonie resulted. She told us she has two children and she tells them that she has the ‘best job’ in the world in helping others. The United Way supports so may charities and Rotary has always been there at the same time supporting those in need, working with youth, and sharing its values; Rotary and the United Way have many things in common. Signy stated that her husband George Hanson had been at the club doing a presentation to the club last week and she didn’t want to be rated against his talk, so please don’t judge.

The United Way has been around 100 plus years in Canada and have offices in 5,000 communities. They all focus on social issues; they have been known for low cost fundraising and their goal was to make ‘giving easy’. That model was great for the 1950s, but it is not as applicable today. As a part of the United Way, Signy gets to meet and work with her colleagues in Canada four times a year. They share ideas and incorporate the best ones across their offices. Last year across Canada they completed 6,200 projects and raised $500 million dollars. Toronto has the biggest United Way in the world.

The three main areas of focus for the UW are Poverty, Kids and Community. There are five UW communities north of the Malahat and the opioid crisis has been a major issue in these communities. Each community focuses on its local issues; they like to call it ‘local love’. Last year there were 52,177 individuals helped, there were ten effect coalitions, four research projects, 90 service agencies partnered with 116 programs. To date in 2019-2020, 23,122 individuals have been helped from 47 programs. They are always looking for volunteers and Signy was asked – can they be called for grant requests and she answered yes.

The United Way is asking itself where will they be in 100 years? Donors today want immediacy and their numbers are falling off. Signy shared the story of ‘Ollie’. Ollie has challenges and through the Therapeutic Riding Program has gained strength through riding ‘his’ horse.

The United Way is evolving and currently they advocate for systemic changes, support data collection research to enable informed decision making, convene decision makers and host conversations on how to provide improved services. They are currently partnering with BC 201, a 24/7 help line, Nanaimo Homeless Society and the Nanaimo Foundation. There will be a homeless count over 24 hours on March 12, and they are looking for volunteers to help. They are a member of the Nanaimo Housing Task Force, the Nanaimo Homeless Coalition and the Govt. of Canada on homeless strategies. They are working to establish local organizations to help with all of these challenges. Finally, they are working with ‘Period Promise’ to supply free feminine products to those that cannot afford them.

Signy asked that we all show our ‘Local Love'. She highlighted three local organizations, Costco, Fisheries and Oceans and London Drugs, as wonderful examples of wonderful corporate citizens. Wendy Pratt thanked our speaker and as a token of our appreciation for her talk, gave Signy one of our Rotary of Nanaimo pens handmade by one of our members.