A busy time for the Community Services chaired by Trina VanderMeer
A Walk to Remember took place June 29th in the INEW Indigenous Park, a subsection of Queen Elizabeth Park, which combined both a ParticiPACTION Grant from the Federal Government with the Diversity Focus implemented by Rotary at both the District and International levels.
The walk saw 16 participants review North American history from the Indigenous perspective through a blanket ceremony and Smudge presented by a representative of the ISKEW healing center. Cree Subs provided soup and Bannock for the event which had 13 of the 16 attendees indicate they enjoyed the experience, and 4 attendees ask if another such event could be held with time for a Q and A session, and the suggestion of possibly a Sweat Lodge experience be included. This is currently being looked into as an educational opportunity to be arranged privately, so if you’re interested, please let Trina know.
The second priority Phase 2 and 3 of the “Accessibility Back Pack Program.”
This joint effort between Rotary Club of Edmonton Strathcona (RCES) and Variety Children’s Charity, saw the “building” of 30 backpacks at Wise Warrior Gym by two AMAZING teams of Rotary members—The Tuesday night team was led by Vince and Vi, who had MOST of the entire team’s focus completed before everyone showed up…which allowed for some face-to-face friendship!
The Wednesday night team took longer—TWO Presidents on site, Jim Peddie and Carin Jansen van Vuuren - what do you expect — they broke or broke-in new member Amy Stewart who had some difficulty keeping track of her squeaky toys!
Thank you to both Loida, and Rose Marie—who were quite disappointed the work were completed too quickly for them to feel like they worked hard!
Then Phase 3 of this project kicked off with President Van Vuuren and Community lead Vandermeer dropping of 10 completed back packs at the Edmonton Co-op in Hawkstone to District Manager Kris and Store Manager Karl, for Distribution to their 5 local stores. Training for these folks is slated for July 28th via Zoom.
Ninety-minutes later, Jansen van Vuuren, Peddie, and Vandermeer, met up with Variety Children’s Charity representative Carole Alvarez-Cornell, and presented the Telus World of Science Center with two backpacks.
The team of Telus, including CEO Alan Nursall and a representative from each department, took our team to the new children’s imagination center, where they promptly started playing with all the Sensory-based toys supplied, while OUR team played in the Airplane. Jim said Sir Richard Branson reached the edge of space & Jeff Bezos successfully completed a historic space launch. Now two Rotarians are on their way - one small step for Rotary!
Watch out for Alan Nursall and his team to visit a future club meeting and update RCES on the $40m renovation the Telus World of Science Center is currently undergoing over the next year and offer funding opportunities for our two groups to work together on.
In the meantime, if you have any suggestions on where you think we should put the Sensory Backpacks, let Trina know. She is currently working on supplying them to the Edmonton Zoo and West Edmonton Mall and waiting for contact info from members regarding Ronald McDonald House and Stollery Children’s Hospital.