Thanks for visiting our site! The first ClubRunner site in District 5370
"The Friendly Club"
Tuesdays at 12:15 p.m.
Woodvale Facility and Golf Clubhouse
4540 - 50 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6L 6B6 Canada
Our Club meets every Tuesday at the Woodvale Club except for the last Tuesday of the month. A Meeting With A Twist is a meeting and social at a location, date and time to be determined. Members will be notified by email of the details.
Pres. Elect Loida Lumanlan exchanging club flags with Dimitri Papanicolas
We were very happy to welcome one of our past members as a visitor to our club on Tuesday. Dimitri brought a flag from his current Rotary Club in Mons, Belgium to present to us. Welcome back Dimitri!
This week we heard from Dr. Sunita Vohra, Centennial Professor in the Depts. of Pediatrics and Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the U. of A. Sunita told us that she researches child based initiaives in healthcare with a particular interest in youth mental health. She said that youth mental health is in crisis now, with Alberta Health data showing that more and more youth are visiting our hospitals for mental health issues. She also said that depression, anxiety and behavioral disorders are among the leading causes of illness and disability in our young people.
Sunita has been researching, building and evaluating evidence for a method known as mindfulness for many years. It has been shown that after eight weeks of mindfulness training, young people find it much easier to walk away from violence, have better self esteem, are more likely to stay in school and are more likely to follow medical advice. They gain the ability to regulate their emotions and a sense of resiliency that allows them to better cope with what ever life presents them with. She said that mindfulness based meditation helps one to be present in the moment, to be able to pay attention in a particular way and it helps people to gain a non judgemental more open minded approach to life. She also said that the younger people are when they start this program the better it works. She also said that there is evidence that this type of training also creates physical changes in the body by turning genes on and off to reduce inflammation, which in turn improves physical health in many ways as well. It has also been shown to result in changes in the brain structure and how networks of nerves in the brain work.
Sunita said that she and her team are currently working with CASA (Child and Adolescent Services for All) in their residential treatment program to present a mixed methods study and evaluate it using quantitative, qualitative and neuroimaging methods. Qualitative results to date have shown improved mood, enhanced relationship to self, increased self control, improved problem solving, awareness of the present and enhanced interpersonal relationships.
Sunita said that she and her team have also conducted a systematic review of a method known as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). They compiled results from twenty nine studies and have shown that MBSR is moderately effective in reducing stress, depression, anxiety and distress and in improving the quality of life of healthy individuals.
Sunita said that there are many different types of mind body therapy programs ( MBSR, Tai Chi, Yoga, Qi Gong, Mindfulness, Guided Imagery, Meditation etc.) available, that have been independently validated, each with it’s own strengths. She said that they have been asked to provide recommendations to the school boards on which programs are best for them and have prepared and presented a guide to help the schools decide on which type of program is best for them.
She told us that she and her team are currently working on preparation of a Clinical Practice Guideline for child and youth mental health providers to provide evidence based recommendations for use by policy makers, decision makers, medical, educational and other professionals to use. This guideline will be based on an evaluation of the more than two hundred currently available randomized controlled trials. It will also build on the tool kit that their team prepared for our local school boards. They have received funding to cover some of the cost of this work but are hoping that Rotary, with it’s interest in youth and mental health, would also be able to help.
We would like to thank Dr. Vohra for her very informative and interesting talk.
If there is one member in our club who embodies the meaning of Rotary ‘Service Above Self’, it is Hans Granholm. Hans is a Charter member of our club and has been a loyal, reliable, volunteer for fifty years. He has served in almost every club office there is. He has served as club Secretary, Treasurer, Bulletin Editor and Publisher, Foundation Chair, Club President in 1979-80, and was our Website Administrator from 2003 to 2009. He also holds the record for perfect attendance with our club, with forty seven years of perfect attendance. Hans is also a Charter Member of the Paul Harris Society and the Rotary Foundation Bequest Society.
In 1991 Hans served as a Group Study Exchange Team Leader when he took a group of five young business women from our District to visit with Rotary clubs in Sweden and Poland to learn about how their same professions worked in those countries.
Hans was the driving force behind getting our District clubs online by using Clubrunner to keep track of the multitudes of information that our clubs need in order to function. It is a one stop online location for all of our club information- membership records, meeting programs, contact lists, minutes, financial records, photo albums, newsletters, public outreach and much, much more. In 2003 he travelled all over Alberta helping each club set up their Clubrunner Websites. He then continued to be our computer guru and savior on many occasions, helping the less tech savvy among us to cope with this new way of doing things. This one thing alone has probably streamlined many thousands of hours of paperwork for Rotary over the years.
In addition to this he has committed many additional hours to also serving with our Rotary District 536 which originally served all of Alberta and now as District 5370, serves Northern Alberta, North Western Saskatchewan, North Eastern BC, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. He has served as Assistant Governor for five District Governors and as District Governor Advisor in 2011 to 2012 for DG Harry Buddle with whom he travelled all over Alberta visiting our various clubs. He has also served as District Communications and Website Administrator from 2002 to 2011.
Since 2009, he has been the Web Administrator for International Rotary Zones 24 (~ 800 clubs) and 32 (~ 900 clubs) which serve all of Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon (France), Bermuda and the North Eastern States. Since 2008, he also serves as our Zone Institute Registrar.
As a result of his dedication and countless volunteer hours, Hans has been the recipient of many awards. These include:
A record four time ‘Rotarian of the Year’ recipient for our club in 1991-92, 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2019-20.
Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service in 1994
Rotary District Foundation Award in 1999.
District Governor’s Award in 2004
Rotary International Commitment to Service Award in 2005
Rotary International Governor’s “Service Above Self” Award in 2006 and again in 2009
District Rotarian of the Year in 2008-09
RI Zones 24 and 32 Award Presentation in 2019
Queens Jubilee Medal Presentation in 2023
Rotary International Zones 24 and 32 Award in 2019
Recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2023 for his service over the years to our Rotary Club, District and Zone.
Hans has been our mentor and memory keeper for fifty years and his dedication, patience and kindness has been an inspiration to us all.
We have received an update on our KIVA Microfunds investments recently. This shows that we currently have made 2,124 loans for a total of $ 55,240 in 66 different countries. These loans are in the following sectors, agriculture (65), arts (141), clothing (11), education (23), food (32), health (1), housing (1), manufacturing (1) personal use (8), retail (27) and services (19).
For our May "Meeting With A Twist" we are golfing!
We have booked the MillWoods Golf Course for Tuesday May 28th for twenty golfers for 18 holes of golf.
This is a Fun Golf Day.
If you can ride in a golf cart and can putt, you can play. Inexperienced golfers can take as many or as few shots as they want during the game. The idea is to get Club Members and friends out on the golf course to enjoy a nice spring day and Rotary friendship. Everyone is welcome.
We will have 5 teams of 4 golfers each. Each team will play the Texas Scramble style. That is the team uses the best drive, chip or putt from all four players as their best ball, and the next shot by all team players is from the best ball location.
We will randomly choose the players for each team the morning before we tee off. Or enter your own team up to four players, so you can golf with friends or other Rotary Club members. Each team will have a Captain who is an experienced golfer. Each team can use as many shots by each player as they like. That takes the pressure off of inexperienced golfers who are out for a Fun Golf Day.
We will meet at the Millwoods Golf Course Club House between 10 AM to 10:30 AM. The first tee time is 11 AM. All golfers should be finished their golf games around 4 PM.
We will have space reserved at the Woodvale restaurant upstairs from the Pro Shop and our regular Rotary meetings, starting at 4 PM for golfers and friends to order food and beverage from the menu as they like and pay individually.
The price per player is our direct cost from the Millwoods Golf Course of $89 per player plus GST.
This includes the green fee, power cart, warm up range basket of golf balls, and a $10/player pro shop credit. Golf club rentals are available at the pro shop.
For further information or to register for our Fun Golf Day please contact:
We are desperately in need of more donations for our Wheel of Fortune. Please bring your donations to the meeting with you and give them to either Ken or Eric Germain. Small, new items such as wine, small gadgets, candy, books and any other small non-perishable items are welcome, in particular something you yourself would be happy to win!
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