Fellowship has always been a central part of Rotary. Our founder Paul Harris said in in 1935 in his book, This Rotarian Age, ‘Fellowship is wonderful - it illuminates life’s pathway, spreads good cheer and is worth a high prize’.
Over the years our club has come to be known as ‘The Friendly Club’, as our meetings have always been filled with friendly greetings, corny jokes, kidding around and laughter. Our members have always been there to support and help each other out when needed and everyone pitches in to help with the many fundraising and volunteer projects that we support each year.
Some of the opportunities we have for fellowship include:
The Sergeant at Arms is a part of our meetings that brings laughter and enjoyment as well as helps to keep members in line with proper decorum and also to raise funds for our charities. We all know to make sure to have a few spare loonies or toonies ready. The Sergeant may decide to fine people one dollar for not wearing their Rotary pin, for letting their phone ring during the meeting, or simply for wearing the same color shirt as them. Anything and everything goofy is grounds for a fine. They may have us all participate in a question and answer quiz where the men are asked questions women are more likely to know and the women are asked questions the men are more likely to know. The losing team has to pay up, one dollar each.
The Wheel of Fortune has been a fixture at our meetings for many years. It was donated by Eric Germain and Eric and his brother Ken have been using it ever since as an opportunity to tell corny jokes and give out donated prizes to our members. Prizes are all donated by members and can range from flashlights to wine to books to flowers from their shop. Prior to the current strict gambling legislation, it was also a fundraiser for our charities, as members could purchase tickets for the draw with the funds going to Operation Eyesight. We now select who gets to turn the wheel based on such things as birthdays, anniversaries or being a guest or speaker at our meeting.
Fireside Meetings for new members were a common way of giving new members a chance to meet with an older member in their home and learn more about the purpose of Rotary and the things that our club takes part in. It also gives them a chance to ask questions informally.
Our Christmas Parties are usually the highlight of the Rotary social calendar. In the early years these were almost solely organized by the wives, our informal Rotary Anns. They give everyone a chance to dress up, bring their significant other and enjoy a purely social evening together. It also gives the spouses a chance to get to know the other members and their spouses better. It nearly always includes a community support project such as collection of clothing or gifts for a local charity and they usually also include musical entertainment of some kind.
The yearly June Turnover Parties are the summer celebration where our members gather to say thank you to the outgoing executive and welcome the incoming executive. It also gives us a chance to present well-earned awards to members who have made outstanding contributions to the running of our club over the past year. It also gives us another occasion to dress up and bring our spouses out to socialize and have fun together.
Our summer fun in most years includes one or two barbecues for members, spouses and friends held at the homes of various club members and quite often a light hearted golf tournament as well. The barbecues usually include a wonderful array of food with the highlight being a whole roasted pig or perfectly cooked beef brisket. They often also included musical entertainment.
Bill Skelly and Hans Granholm enjoying a Summer BBQ Moment
Our golf tournaments can be anything from par three to regular nine hole with a contest of some kind at each hole. These also usually include a barbecue dinner afterwards with prizes that have been donated by members.
John Germain, Lloyd Hilderman, Rose Marie Basaraba, Karen Germain and Doug Mulholland enjoying a Golf Moment
One the things we do for fall and winter fun has included running a Hockey Pool for the hockey fans among us, which creates a lot of fun rivalry and joking around during meetings . Some years we also hosted Saturday Nite Silly Season Dinners, or Who’s Coming to Dinner parties. These are dinners where members sign up to either host or attend a simple dinner in their home for a small number of people, but they are randomly assigned as either host or attendee. The host does not know who will turn up or what the silly highlite of the evening will be.
Lastly, but definitely not least in the opportunities for fellowship are the many Rotary District and International functions throughout the year. Many of our members have taken the opportunity to enjoy fellowship with Rotarians from our community, country and beyond and have made many long lasting firm friendships along the way. Rotary offers a chance to meet people from all walks of life through attending everything from local Curling Bonspiels to weekend District conferences filled with wonderful speakers, to five-day International Conventions filled with all kinds of colorful fanfare, spectacular speakers and workshops.