This past Tuesday we had a virtual Turnover ‘Dinner’ on ZOOM where we heard from our current President Jim Peddie who thanked all of the members in our club who have helped to make this such a successful year, in spite of the fundraising and volunteer work difficulties resulting from the COVID pandemic.
In particular he thanked:
‘Three Amigos’- Audrey, Rose Marie and Maggi for their efforts raising donations for Basically Babies, Hope Mission and twice for Wings
Audrey in person for single handedly raising funds for the hospice in Greece,
Trina and Richard for obtaining a grant to supply Variety backpacks with sensory toys and books to various outlets
Trina for hosting a Polio Plus event
Patrick for getting us together with Raffle Box and helping to raise funds for Little Warriors, Meals on Wheels, Dogs with Wings, the Edmonton Food Bank and the currently underway fundraiser for Wounded Warriors.
Jim chose two people as Rotarians of the Year:
Patrick Gibson for doing such a phenomenal job with fundraising which has helped both our club and also the district with new ideas for ways to raise funds.
Audrey Martyn, for being a great community resource in knowing where the needs are, for keeping him organized and on track and for her upbeat and positive approach.
Bob Sandercock then told us that our club had a total of twenty-five Paul Harris awards to give out this year along with three major donor awards. All together our club raised almost thirty thousand dollars for the Rotary Foundation this year with seventy six percent of club members donating.
Carin Jansen van Vuuren, our incoming President then spoke about her vision for the coming year and said that Jim would be a tough act to follow. She said that our theme this year is ‘Serve to Change Lives’ and that we would be trying to organize a Rotary Day of Service that would also include our two Interac clubs. She then introduced us to her incoming executive and board members and noted that they represent fifty percent of our total club members.
We were then treated to a very entertaining and musical hour with Tracie Gray and Matt Day of GrayDay Events and it was a great way to end the evening.
Here is the link to the recording of the meeting: