Stories

This year we moved our dinner to the Pink Pearl in Vancouver!  

Club members and guests celebrated the year of the snake at our Lunar New Year 2025 dinner - what a fabulous evening!

Speaker and Rotarian Steve Rutledge, who we've supported before, gave us an update of Adopt a Village in Laos with a video of Laotian villagers installing pipes for a water supply to remote villages. His signature water filters, while easy to maintain, continue to provide clean and safe water for $125 each.

We welcomed our newest club member David Walugembe at our first in-person meeting of the Rotary year! Past President Jane LePorte offered the membership introduction and pinning ceremony.

We met in-person to welcome new President Sheenam Bhardwaj and the Board of Directors for the new 2024-2025 Rotary year! Many thanks to Past President Jane LePorte for her work. We also congratulated Mary Anne Velayo on her final term as ADG and welcomed new guest David (soon to be new member).

 

Friendly reminder, we have changed our bi-weekly meeting time to 6:30PM! Come join us!

Guest speakers Janet Chalmers and her husband Roger presented on their journey across Canada in their EV. Wow!
 

Trip Summary: 
Distance = 26,851.3 km
Days = 127 days
Hours driving = 425 hours, 25 minutes
Cost to charge = $1,256.24 
Different beds = 70 different beds

We're back at Hoop-a-thon fundraiser this year! A big Thank You to our two teams - Peetra and sons, Kai and Konnor and Hilda and sons, Daniel and Jamie, and Guida - 34 basketballs went through the hoop. Very impressive! Funds raised go to support the Strathcona Community Centre Basketball Program, Scholarships, Youth Leadership Program, Basketball Equipment, Transportation, and Coaching.

Member Karen McDiarmid spoke to us about her advisory work with the Sts'ailes Development Project. There is a small tourism initiative already in place; a 9 bedroom eco lodge, conference centre, and eco tours of the Agassiz. Karen's business plan includes techniques for self sustaining food production, healthy eating, and workshops for the Band members. Keep up the great work!

We had an amazing time celebrating Lunar New Year with a 10-course Chinese dinner! John enlightened us about the history of the Lunar New Year such as zodiac animals, foods, and traditions. We were also joined by incoming Assistant District Governor, Wayne Fraser, other Rotarians, family, and friends. Michelle Cooper-Iversen, Chief Operating Officer at Co-operative Housing Group of Social Purpose Entities gave a brief but interesting talk about the importance of Co-operative Housing.

Our most recent FDU Scholarship recipient, Payal Anand, shared her story of the amazing things she did in Rotaract in India. Her presentation was full of pictures and experiences. Congratulations on your achievements!

 

The FDU Scholarship, sponsored by our Club, is an annual award given to graduate and undergraduate students attending Fairleigh Dickinson University Vancouver Campus to recognize outstanding student achievement in the area of community service.

Our Rotarians are back helping Aunt Leah's Place with their annual Christmas Tree Sale! It's rainy but still super busy as we helped with moving, sawing, and tying Christmas trees up to 8 feet tall. What a great way to give back in the season of giving! 100% of profits go to foster youth who are at risk of homelessness and mothers in need.

We're back at REVS Bowling for a Halloween themed bowling fundraiser! Congrats to our winners for the best costumes, best bowling team, and "most improvement needed" bowling team! Proceeds go towards our Water Harvesting Project in Kenya.

Our Rotarians are back at Admiral Seymour School to host the annual Pumpkin Patch event! Smiles all around as many of the elementary school students are experiencing Halloween and pumpkin fun for the first time. Our club sponsors the pumpkins and help with the pumpkin carving every year.

It’s a wrap! Our second Shredathon event this Oct 2023! Thank you so much for all the members, volunteers and our loving community who took their time to drop their unwanted papers to be shredded and donated for a cause. We would love to see you all again next year!

Steve Rutledge, Rotarian with the Whitby Sunrise Club in Ontario presented on the Adopt A Village in Laos (AAVIL) organization. They provide rural villagers of Laos with permanent water supplies, water filtration, toilets, and educational support. To date, they have raised over 6,300 water filters, servicing almost 32,000 rural villagers, constructed permanent water supplies to 21 villages, completed 12 school construction projects, built over 40 banks of toilets and provided education support to students who could not afford to go to school. There is still a lot of work to be done in a country still recovering from the deadly "secret war" of the 60's and early 70's.

 

We also congratulated club member Nancy Tan on her next Paul Harris Fellow recognition!

Haille Dau, Former RCVY club member, presented her doctoral project "The impact of cervical cancer on families in Uganda". An insightful presentation on a serious topic that relates to many developing areas of the world.

Johann “Hans” Lex is a member of Munich Airport RC and is the Head of People Business Partnering at Lilium, a company that has developed electric planes. His presentation discusses the future of electrical aircraft and about the workforce dynamics of a technology innovator. The goal of the company is to revolutionize sustainable, high-speed regional air mobility.

 

Recording of meeting can be watched on YouTube (https://youtu.be/2fcnRNbA-mU)

Our Shred-a-thon paper shredding fundraising event on May 27, 2023 was a great success. Thanks to all our members, community supporters, volunteers, and many more that helped behind the scenes.

Officially pinned, congratulations to our newly inducted club members Sheenam Bhardwaj and Shaula Delgado! We also enjoyed great fellowship at the waterfront Steamworks Brewpub.

Hope Rayson, Volunteer Coordinator & Fundraising Specialist at Aunt Leah's Place gave us a virtual presentation at our Club meeting. Aunt Leah's Place helps prevent children in foster care from becoming homeless and vulnerable mothers from losing custody of their children. Our Club has been volunteering at Aunt Leah's Christmas trees sale for many years. They also recently expanded their Thrift Store and are open to donations.

Let's welcome our newly elected Yaletown Rotaract Club Executives for 2023! Congratulations!

Lunar New Year celebration dinner at the Acsenda School of Management Campus with club members and guests. Special visit from District Membership Chair Danison Buan, who made a great presentation of the Rotary Organization through interactive games. We also welcomed Rotarian guest Ana from RC of Sarandi, Brazil. Happy year of the Rabbit!

This December our Rotarians John, Sheenam, and Cinthia are back helping Aunt Leah's Place with their annual Christmas Tree Sale! What a great way to give back in the season of giving! 100% of profits go to foster youth who are at risk of homelessness and mothers in need.

Online meeting with Sarah Thomas, shop manager of Our Community Bikes. Opened in Mount Pleasant since 1993, Our Community Bikes is a community bike shop for DIY bicycle repair and affordable bike maintenance and sales. Their service is vital in a neighbourhood with many families that use bikes as their main mode of transportation.

Our President Neil Mort, exchanging Rotary banners with Savita Padey from the RC Gargis in Kolhapur, India

Our club celebrated American Thanksgiving at Jane's house, with the visit of the District Governor John Berry, his wife Pat Berry, and Assistant District Governor for Vancouver area Mary Anne Velayo. We also inducted four new members during the meeting: Cinthia Carrillo, Hilda Camarillo, Peetra Cartwright, and Kaief Spencer. A very warm welcome to our new members!

Thank you for an informative session by Metro Vancouver's Julie MacIsaac and Brent Burton about our city's current situation with Liquid Waste Management and plans going forward. Let's make our city even cleaner and more sustainable! Presentation slides can be found here.

Well done team! We were awarded the Rotary Citation of 2021-2022 for achieving goals that strengthen Rotary and our club. Goals include increasing club membership, developing sustainable service projects, giving to The Rotary Foundation, and building awareness of Rotary in the community. 

We're back to provide pumpkins for Admiral Seymour School's October Pumpkin Patch, an annual event by our Club. Some of our members helped with the carving and a good time was had by all.

Club members and guests met at Granville Island for a tour to view a Seabin in action and an overview of micro plastics in our waters, led by Alicia Elgert from Swim Drink Fish. Her Team also measures water quality as part of a national survey. Our treasurer Nancy Tan also received a Paul Harris pin for her contribution to the Rotary Foundation.

What is the carbon footprint of your investments and are they socially responsible to better our world? Catch the latest hot topic of "Socially Responsible and Ethical Investments" by Allen Lin & Mandy Pui. Meeting available for video playback at: https://vimeo.com/746767078/6414136e30

Installation of Club board members for the new Rotary Year 2022-2023 at Trout Lake Park, with the presence of John Berry, District Governor and Mary Anne Velayo, Assistant Governor for Vancouver Area. New Paul Harris Award achievements for members Allen Lin, Nancy Tan, and Carlos Tan!

Thank you to our supporters, volunteers, and corporate sponsors Ascenda School of Management, Offices in the Marine Building, and Yaletown Business Improvement Association for another Shredathon success in May! We helped many people "shred weight" after tax season in a secured and environmental way! Stay tuned for our next Shredathon later this year!

Our Club is supporting Hoop-a-thon again! This year, eight Rotary Clubs, Rotoractors & Interactors worked together to raise funds for the Strathcona Rotary Youth Leadership Program. All money raised will go to Scholarships, Leadership Training and the Strathcona Basketball Program for basketball equipment, coaching & transportation. Our Club members Guida and John were in attendance to witness some amazing baskets! See Video.

Back in 2019, our Club completed the Water Harvesting Project for a rural school in Suswa, Nairobi, Kenya, through the help of Chip Morgan from Africa Water Bank. This week, we chatted with Chip again virtually, who gave an update of our Water Project in Kenya and mentioned new water tanks for future projects that we could participate in. Cheers to Chip for your great work!

Thanks Mandy Pui for a presentation about the Vancouver Foundation, the largest Community Foundation covering all of BC. They work with individuals, corporations and charitable agencies to create permanent endowment funds and then use the income to support thousands of charities. The original capital is endowed so that it generates income in perpetuity. 

Member Allen Lin returned from the African safari! He shared his recent adventures in Tanzania with us. Lions, giraffes, hippos, elephants, zebras, wildebeests, and more!

Rotarians are back helping Aunt Leah's Place with their annual Christmas Tree Sale! What a great way to give back in the season of giving! 100% of profits go to foster youth who are at risk of homelessness and mothers in need.

Yaletown's CandyTown street festival returns this year! Club members and Rotaractors serving up hot drinks for the community and hosting a kid's colouring booth. The event was a great success with hot chocolate donated by Sciue Italian Bakery Caffe.

Club members met at Jane's and Peter's house with the presence of District Governor Lorne Calder, his wife Susan, and Assistant District Governor Mary Anne Velayo. Many Thanks to Jane and Peter for hosting the event!

Our first ever Yaletown Paper Shredathon was a success! Thank you to our Rotarians, students from Acsenda School of Management, Yaletown BIA, and local community residents for the support. We helped many people "shred weight" in a secured and environmental way!

Our first in-person club gathering in over a year to celebrate the end of summer and to congratulate John Chan on receiving his first Paul Harris Fellow recognition!

Assistant District Governor John Bathurst and Assistant District Governor Elect Mary Anne Velayo joined our virtual meeting to install the new board of directors for the 2021-2022 Rotary year. We also thank you President Jane LePorte for her leadership in the past 2 years and we welcome Karen McDiarmid for her new President term in July.

The Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown awards our annual Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver campus scholarship to Peetra Cartwright. Peetra is currently a secretary of the Rotaract Club of Vancouver Yaletown and student in FDU Master program. She is from the Bahamas and has an extensive knowledge of the hospitality industry. She hopes to set up her own business in Human Relations after graduation. Congratulations!

Amidst social distancing rules, Hoop-a-thon is back again this year via live Zoom! Our Club continues to support the Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise on their amazing Hoop-a-thon Youth Leadership Project by making pledges to our Champion this year, Chensayi Kagandi, who scored 13 baskets in 1 minute!

 

The actual amount raised by the Hoop-a-thon event was more than $40,000, surpassing the initial goal of $35,000. A great success. Members of the Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown pledged over $1,600 in addition to our Club donation of $1,100.

Last year three members of our Club contributed funds to the Rotary Club of Sarandi, District 4700 in Brazil, for a Global Grant to purchase badly needed hospital equipment for the Sarandi Community Hospital. Sarandi members have acknowledged the assistance of other Rotary partners in their project on this plaque.

 

Nilva Chini, president of Rotary Club of Sarandi and Governor Gilmar Leonhardt of District 4700, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, would like to thank all the partners who collaborated, which allocated an ultrasound machine, four beds for the operating recovery room and an internal gurney for the Sarandi Community Hospital. The total value of the project was USD$35,042. The official delivery to the hospital took place on March 18, 2021, on a virtual solemnity. Without the collaboration of each of the partners, the club would not have achieved this feat.

Fantastic first joint-meeting with the Rotary Club of Calcutta Kankurgachi, India. President Dr. Dibyendu Banerjee led us to a very informative meeting, presented by 2 speakers with topics on Maternal and Child Health in India and Environmental Changes in Antarctica. We look forward to more joint-meetings with Rotarians worldwide!

Speaker Matthew and Emerson from Low Entropy Foundation shares their success with the Youth Empowering Youth (YEY) program, a nine-week curriculum led by teens for teens to nurture, support, and strengthen young leaders.

President Jane LePorte shares her vacation experience across the Mongolian plateaus

We were Santa's busy little elves volunteering at the annual Aunt Leah's Christmas Tree Sale! On a 4 hour shift we sold, trimmed, and packaged 130 trees!

An annual event for the Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown is providing a Pumpkin Patch at Admiral Seymour School in Vancouver, along with skilled guidance for creating Jack-o-Lanterns for Halloween. This year, due to COVID-19, the students carved over 125 pumpkins without our help and had their usual enthusiastic, fun time with candy to round out the day.

Lots of fun at our first ever online Halloween themed Scavenger Hunt! Great to see members, Rotaracters, friends, and guests having fun in costumes and staying safe. With combined team effort, we were all able to find the spooky items hidden around our house! More social game meetings to come in the future!

This year our Club continues to support Amarok Society with their newspaper program in Bangladesh, which provides funding for daily newspapers and literacy programs to women living in the poorest villages. The women read the newspapers out loud to other women and children who cannot read or afford books. Amarok informed us that with access to newspapers and reliable information, the families they reach can better understand what's happening throughout the country during COVID-19 lockdown. Reliable news sources are always important, but during a pandemic, a food shortage, and mass evictions, staying informed is actually changing lives. 

 

In response to the COVID-19 situation, our club is supporting the lunch food program at Admiral Seymour School, an elementary school located in the Downtown Eastside. Andrea Pieters from the school joined our web-based club meeting and thanked us for our donation and explained the school's food pantry.

Thanks to our club members, friends, and supporting businesses, our club raised a total of 360 pairs of glasses for Third World Eye Care Society (T.W.E.C.S). Our Rotary District 5040 raised over 3400 pairs of glasses in total. Dr. Marina Roma-March gave an online presentation to our District to recap her efforts over the last 25 years and her vision for the future. Thank you for restoring not only vision, but the quality of life for those desperately in need around the world.

This meeting we found out about the activities at RC Downtown Victoria from Linda Murray, former member of RC Vancouver Yaletown. We also congratulated Paramith Rudrappa for winning this year's Rotary FDU Scholarship!

Vancouver City Hall, BC Place Stadium and Telus Science World lit up on Sunday, April 26, 2020 to salute Rotary and its fight to rid the world of polio.

This week we had multiple meetings virtually in preparation of our featured fundraiser event in May. This was our biggest turnout online so far!

Our members are staying at home nowadays but we're still working! Today we hosted a virtual Club Meeting with guest speaker Anthony Kupferschmidt from the West End Seniors Network, who updated us about their current programs and services.

Round 2! Our Rotarians were again helping our partnered local non-profit, Help Change My City, to prepare sandwiches and write words of encouragement on the brown bags used to distribute to people in need at the Downtown Eastside. Well done!

Kim Laureen, director of "selfless", inspired us with the introduction of her documentary that opens the conversation to the ever growing epidemic with selfies, social media and technology. However this is not an anti technology film but rather a reflection on our devices and how we can help youth (and adults!) live strong and healthy in this new time. What the film does is it gets people to look up for a moment and start talking; to be more present in the moment is a choice we must make each day. Our club is looking into the opportunity of hosting a local screening.

We were honored to have Dr. Marina Roma-March of T.W.E.C.S. Canada to be our meeting's guest speaker. Since 1995, TWECS teams travel to developing countries and provide basic eye care and distribute recycled eyeglasses to the poor. To date, the Society restored vision to over 80,000 underprivileged people in the Third World. Our Rotary Club has collected over 200 pairs of glasses currently, to be delivered to TWECS together with other Rotary Clubs at the 2020 Vision Rotary District Conference in April.

Our club facilitated an incredible card making day at the West End Seniors Network, Barclay Manor. This event was taken on by the English Bay Starbucks (Michael Christie, Manager), who brought in an entire team of co-workers and his District Manager!  Michael is dedicated to making a difference in the community and will again partner with us for another event with our seniors. Bette and Guida helped this event be successful. There were 6 volunteers from Starbucks and 2 from Rotary with a dozen or more seniors participating. These events are often the only opportunity for our seniors to make something special for those around them. The cards made were so creative especially with the help of the volunteers!

Rotarians were busy helping Aunt Leah's Place with their annual Christmas Tree Sale! What a great way to give back in the season of giving! 100% of profits goes to foster youth who are at risk of homelessness and mothers in need.

It's a cold but beautiful sunny day at Yaletown's CandyTown festival! We sold popcorn, ornaments, and hot drinks to raise money for our club's service projects. We had one of our busiest years ever! Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by and supported us! 

Some of us had a very good time at the District Foundation Dinner this weekend!

Guest speaker Judith Castillo shared about the work she has done through Divine TV Channel and involvement in cleft lip and cleft palate in Mexico

Our Rotarians were helping our partnered local non-profit, Help Change My City, to prepare sandwiches and write words of encouragement on the brown bags used to distribute to people in need at the Downtown Eastside. Over 1000 sandwiches were made and packed in bags in an hour!

Congratulations to our newest member, Jason Fernando, for being officially inducted into the club! Jason is already making an impact by leading the food project with the West End Seniors' Network.

Another successful FUN-D-raising bowling event this year for our Water Harvesting Project in Kenya!

 

District Governor Bala Naidoo and Assistant Governor John Bathurst joins us for a meeting to present goals and strategies for the Rotary year ahead.

What a great way to celebrate the club's 11th anniversary with dinner at the Portuguese Club of Vancouver! It was a great fellowship gathering with existing members, new members, potential members, and Rotarian visitors Phil and Gail from RC of Boca Raton in Florida. Cheers to another great year!

We're honored to have Rotarian guests from RC of Santo Andre - Norte (Brazil) and RC of Brynmawr (Wales) joining our meeting!

Immediate Past President Neil came back with videos and photos of his trip to Suswa and Nairobi, Kenya. Neil was honored to attend the commissioning of the new rainwater harvesting system and new toilets, alongside Chip Morgan of Africa Water Bank, Rotarians of RC Hurlingham, and Rotaractors. They were warmly welcomed by the Nakurto Lukuny School Principal, students, and community leaders. Stay tuned for more videos and photos to follow!

Rotary District 5040 is partnering with Third World Eye Care Society to collect eyeglasses and sunglasses in time for the 2020 Vision District Conference, April 24-26, 2020 in Vancouver.  We've collected over 100 pairs of eyeglasses/sunglasses to date! If you have extra pairs at home or from your workplace, please consider supporting our great cause by contacting us for pick-up.

Hurray! We're officially done construction for our Water Harvesting Project at Nakurto Lukuny School! Past president Neil Mort will be making a visit to Kenya in the near future to visit the school and our Rotarian friends at Rotary Hurlingham. A formal handover will be held at that time. Thank you to our donors and AfricaWaterBank for your hard work!

Co-President Elect Karen McDiarmid told us about her newest venture; matching Persons with Disabilities with potential employers via Applied Science Technologists & Technicians (ASTTBC). Disabilities can be physical and/or mental and while conventional wisdom says tech jobs require high levels of education, there are many jobs available for the disabled and also immigrants and women returning the the workplace. After President Neil Mort's final meeting of the Rotary year, we congratulated him for a fantastic year at Red Racer Taphouse.

July 1st marks the new Rotary year of 2019-2020. We kicked off the year early at Point Roberts, WA, with Past District Governor John Anderson installing our new co-Presidents Jane and Karen, and our new Board of Directors. Following that we had a big barbeque to celebrate the completion of Phase 1 of our Water Harvesting Project in Kenya. The students of Nakurto Lukuny school will be receiving clean water in the next rain season!

Linda Stromberg from Niche Canada told us about developments regarding the legalization of cannabis in Canada as of October 17, 2018.

Alina Smolyansky spoke about her story and journey to Neurographica art, developed by Russian psychologist Pavel Piskarev. Neurographica uses an unique set of circles, squares, triangles, and lines to form patterns that resemble nerves in our body. Not only does it produces amazing results, but it also heals our mental self!

Incoming President of the Rotaract Club of Yaletown, Paramith Radrappa, receives his pin from Incoming District 5040 Governor, Bala Naidoo at the Rotaract installation dinner on May 10. Rotaracters are known for their tremendous energy and enthusiasm,  and this evening was no exception.

Guest speaker Joel Harrison of Methodic Content teaches us about the 4 relationship circles of connections in a nonprofit: Advocates, Subscribers, Followers, and Acquaintances. The key is to generate a content-based marketing strategy for each of the four audiences, so that eventually they move towards being an advocate!

The Rotary Clubs of Vancouver Sunrise, Vancouver Yaletown, Vancouver, and Arbutus, in partnership with Global TV, raised $35,000 at Hoop-a-thon 2019 for the Strathcona kids basketball youth leadership program. Our Yaletown team recruited a BC Basketball Hall of Famer on our team to shoot!

We are getting pumped for Hoop-a-thon! Did you know that last year, the Hoop-a-thon program awarded $15,000 in scholarships to students for post-secondary education? Each recipient was a top student with a commitment to community service, volunteering and had a verified need for financial support. We're sending in another team this year and we're practicing early! It was decided that each person must score a basket before they could be allowed to the potluck dinner afterwards at our Yaletown Rotaract Club's 10th Anniversary Celebration.

RC Hurlingham, our partnered Rotary Club for the Water Harvesting Project arrives to Nakurto Lukuny School for their site visit. Also in attendance are pupils and members of the Rotaract Club of Technical University of Kenya. They are warmly welcomed by students with singing and dancing! For details please visit our Construction Updates section.

Co-President Elect Karen gave us a report from President Elect Training Seminar (PETS). She enlightened us with the idea that when we talk with new friends about Rotary, rather than explain “What is Rotary”, change it to “Why Rotary” and give your personal reasons for joining/participating/staying.

A BIG win (and big surprise) at the Foundation Dinner when PDG Don Evans called three District 5040 Clubs onstage to receive 2017-2018 awards for:

Congratulations to Fiona Ma for winning our FDU Scholarship this year, presented by Past President Lejla 

Everywhere is red at our fellowship dinner celebrating the Lunar New Year of the Pig! Thanks to Jane and Peter for being wonderful hosts.

This week we're happy to have Assistant Governor John Bathurst join our meeting for a club review and to induct our newest member, Hallie! Congratulations!

Happy New Year! Our first meeting of 2019 featured multiple guests.

Moritz Hirche exchanged club banners with President Neil. Moritz will pass on our club banner to his father's Rotary Club in Wiesbaden, Germany!

We're back again this Christmas season to help Aunt Leah's Place with their annual Christmas Tree Sale! Thank you to our hard working Rotarians and Rotaractors!

We're delighted to have Cindy Regnier, Rotarian from the RC of Liege Ville Mosane, Belgium to visit us!

Annual "CandyTown" holiday street festival along Yaletown's Mainland Street. This year our booth featured fresh popcorn (and popcorn man), ornament decoration, animal colouring, and candy kebab! Thank you to all our volunteers and donors who supported us!

Congratulations to our newest Paul Harris Award recipients: Neil, Karen, Nancy, Carlos, Jane, and a big Thank You to our friends Linda Murray (honorary member) and Bruce Gamage (ex-Yaletown member)!

DG Darcy Long came for a club visit and to induct our newest member and Youth Chair, Faye! Congratulations!

 

Highlights of Darcy’s talk:

We're famous in the Rotary world!
Check us out in the November 2018 issue of The Rotarian magazine! We're so grateful to be apart of this great publication!

Every year, our Club supports Admiral Seymour School, an inner city elementary school located in the downtown eastside. In October we host the annual Pumpkin Patch event by buying pumpkins and helping the kids carve them.

Alpha Kirabira of Help Change My City (www.helpchangemycity.ca) shared his journey from Uganda to Canada at age 12 to go to school and going back to Uganda at age 17. As he had been given much as a child, he started a school in Uganda which has helped over 10,000 children get an education. He then moved back to Surrey and since then he has put his enormous energy and compassion into empowering disadvantaged youth to achieve all the skills they need for a valuable life; especially to discover their own personal identity. Help Change My City makes presentations in schools and also works in DTES. Our Club is planning to volunteer for them by making sandwiches to help feed the homeless!

We have many Rotarian guests from India this week!

We're less than a month away from our Halloween Bowling fundraiser!

 

Join us Sunday October 21, 2018 @ REVS Bowling from 1 - 4:30 pm for a Halloween Bowling Fundraiser to support our Water Harvesting Project in Kenya. Help us build water storage systems in schools and communities in Kenya!

All proceeds to our Rainwater Harvesting Project.
Prizes for best bowlers, Halloween costumes, and more!

 

Online registration mandatory at: www.bowlingforkenya2018.eventbrite.com

We're delighted to have Thomas Miller who recently attended a RYLA Conference in Washington DC where he networked with 100 other delegates from around the world. Lots of them are university students who benefited from the leadership training RYLA provides. The group also visited embassies and participated in a cultural talent show. The delegates developed the Rotary Next Global Campaign, brainstorming what could come after polio is eradicated. This was the first RYLA Thomas attended and he was intrigued and impressed with the program. As part of this trip Thomas also attended the Rotary Conference in Toronto.

Congratulations to our Past President Lejla for obtaining the Paul Harris Fellowship, with the award presented by Foundation Chair Carlos.

Our new President Neil Mort is welcomed by guests from all over the world! We were delighted to have Kim Lisagor, writer for "The Rotarian" magazine and RC Central Coast Passport in San Luis Obispo USA, along with Blazena Macakova, RC Prerov in Czech Republic.

Our club's first year celebrating Canada Day at North Vancouver! We held a Rotary Kids Zone booth with face painting and animal colouring. We also offered free drinking water while promoting our Kenya Water Harvesting Project. Special thanks to our new member Faye and her daughter for the non-stop face painting!

Paul Evered from the Gastrointestinal Society gave us a very informative talk about gut awareness! There's a lot to learn about our digestive system but thankfully they have a complete online archive of useful information, even including poop!

Our guest speaker Pomponia Martinez talked about technology and artificial intelligence as the 4th industrial revolution after steam, electricity, and internet which all led to disruption of jobs and skills. Looking forward we will see more automation, a more mobile workforce, and more sourcing out of labour geographically dispersed. The future workforce will need to be more flexible, adaptable, and continually developing their skills with critical thinking and problem solving skills becoming more valuable.

The Rotary year ends June 30th, a new President and Board are installed at Point Roberts, Washington.

Thank you to Past President Lejla for her leadership and all the best to our new President Neil!

Today's guest speaker is a workshop by Noya Ben-Mazia from the Children of Art Foundation. We were challenged to create art pieces with limited time and resources, but we pulled through!

Our member Guida and some incredible young people helping out the non-profit "Help Change My City" by making 1100 sandwiches to feed people in need in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside

Nineteen Yaletowners & partners plus DG Don and Deb Evans, and old friend Tom Smith assembled at Jane’s to wish Linda well in her move to Victoria. We will miss her energy, knowledge, and love of Rotary. All the best and congratulations on your retirement!

A great turnout at the annual Social Meet Up to showcase our club's local projects, international projects, and wonderful people! Thank you to Central City Pub for the great venue!

President Lejla, PR Chair John, Madhu from RC of Vancouver, and ADG Davinder working very hard to promote Rotary at the Club's Day event at the Vancouver Public Library! Interest was shown by many passing by, and some came to our Social Meet Up on May 3.

Thank You! The Strathcona Rotary Hoop-A-Thon was a massive success on Saturday. We presented $15,000 in scholarships to five SCC students - the biggest amount since Hoop-A-Thon started in 2006! Thanks to our generous donors and shooters from our club! We also found out how tall Chris Gailus, news anchor from Global TV really is!

Guest speakers from the BC Federation of Foster Parent Associations sharing with our club about the need to educate foster parents with training programs. Many potential foster parents have a big heart, but do not realize the time and effort involved and become overwhelmed with stress and anxiety soon after fostering a child.

This week featured our speaker, Vivian Ching who recently arrived in Vancouver from Hong Kong where she spoke to many Rotary Clubs. She's an artist of modern art, inspired by Patch Adams who encouraged her to mesh traditional education with dreams of working in the art world. The message of Ask, Believe, Receive in the book “The Secret” was also inspiring to her. In 2014, the organization <Face in Space> sent one of her reprints to space at 120,000ft above ground. Vivian's "Happy Art" tells a strong message about chasing your dreams and being optimistic and opportunistic in life.

Phoung Tran, the FDU Scholarship winner, received her cheque of $250.00 from our club and updated us on her studies, work and “spare time” activities. She was going on a job interview right after her talk. Phoung was once a Rotaracter and will be a good prospect to help develop a Club with both FDU students and working people.

 

TRF Chair Carlos presented President Elect Neil with his Paul Harris Fellow Pin+2. Congratulations Neil for completing another award – you inspire us all! Our Strategic Plan set out a goal of a sustaining contribution of USD$100 per year per member. Smaller, and definitely larger, amounts are welcome.

Our Club President Lejla Uzicanin attended the first Rotary Presidential Peacebuilding Conference on Environmental Sustainability and Peace in Vancouver on February 9-11, 2018.

Our President Elect, Neil Mort, just returned from the President Elect Training Seminar (PETS) in Seattle last weekend.

 

Neil shared insights on three key benefits of the seminar: Education about Rotary, the Role of the President and the incredible training that is provided; Networking with other President Elects, District Governors, ADG’s, affiliated organizations and even RI President Elect Barry Rassin (see photo); and Inspiration that came from hearing about some amazing stories from incredible people who have and continue to great things for others through Rotary.

This week featured Rebecca Donnelly's classification talk and Ebrahim Bawa receiving his Paul Harris pin x2.

This week we spiced up our meeting at the Central City Pub in preparation for the Peace Building Conference and as a Membership Appreciation fellowship. We warmly welcomed Rotarians Les and Tom from RC of Lake Chelan, WA, who shared about their own Water Harvesting Project!

FAIRNESS is an integral part of our Rotary Four-Way Test, so how fair is our current voting system?

 

Our speaker, Iain Macanulty, backed up by Jeffrey Nienwenburg are volunteers from Fair Vote Canada (BC) (www.fairvote.ca) and want everyone to participate in the upcoming referendum regarding BC’s electoral system, which must be held before Nov. 30, 2018, to change the current (unfair) system of “First Past the Post” to “Proportional Representation”. There are many misrepresentations published about “First Past the Post” but 85% of OECD countries have adopted Proportional Representation to great success. You may find the presentation slides here.

 Rotarian visitor, Melissa Hebbard, from the RC of Milawa Oxley, Vic. Australia

Continuing our on-going support to Seymour Elementary School, some of our Rotarians put together a Christmas hamper for a 7 year old student and her mother. Thank you to Linda, Guida, Karen, and President Lejla for your kind donations and effort!

President Lejla and husband Andrew were the hosts of a most magnificent cocktail party! The $250 raised will go to Bangladesh to support our literacy project with the Amarok Society. Cheers!

Speaker Jacqueline de Raadt on the Universal Human Declaration: http://www.universalhumandeclaration.org

 

Jacqueline is on a mission to call upon every person on Earth to recognize and acknowledge their collective humanity and agree to stand together as one, actively disregarding all the traditional physical, philosophical, and geographical boundaries which separate us. Visit her site and sign the declaration!

We had great success as Rotarians and Rotaracters attended the annual CandyTown Festival on Mainland Street and Yaletown Park, hosted by the Yaletown Business Improvement Association. This year we sold popcorn, Christmas trees, and DIY Christmas ornaments for kids. All proceeds go towards our Water Harvesting Project.

Thank you to Alison Wheatley, blogger for voicesforourplanet.com, for the mention of our Water Harvesting Project in her blog post "Strolling Polar Bears, Global Affairs Canada and the Aga Kahn Foundation", after her visit to CandyTown Festival and our Rotary booth.

 

Alison's website gives a voice to those who are disempowered, whether they are women needing micro-financing, girls needing education, or animals needing conservation of both their species and their homes.

District Governor Don Evans joined our meeting, along with his spouse Deb Sankey and Assistant Governor Davinder Grewal. Don gave us updates of the past year, plans for the next year, and even a bottle of wine to our trivia winner Karen!

Our Rotarians are at Seymour Elementary School again, helping kids carve pumpkins for their annual pumpkin patch event.

Bowling for Kenya, our fundraiser for the Water Harvesting Project, was a huge success this year. We had fun bowling and showcasing our best costumes and most importantly, raising funds towards a great cause.

 

Please click here for photos!

Presentation by our Foundation Co-Chair, Francois Daoust on The Rotary Foundation (TRF), followed by talk from Rotarian visitors Viren Gohil and wife from the Club of Mumbai Ghatkopar

Rotarian visitor from India, Rotary Club of Calcutta Kankurgachi, exchanges flags with President Lejla Uzicanin

We have a new video for our Water Harvesting Project in Kenya.

Support us by sharing it with your friends on social media or in person!

 

Join us Sunday October 29, 2017 @ REVS Bowling, 5502 Lougheed Hwy, Burnaby, BC V5B 2Z8 from 1 - 3 pm for a Bowling Fundraiser to support our Water Harvesting Project in Kenya. Help us build water harvesting and storage systems in schools and communities in Kenya!

We were all smiles today as President Lejla officially inducted and welcomed Rebecca Donnelly, our newest member of the club!

Today we received a signed greetings card all the way from the Rotary Club of Maclean, Australia! What a wonderful idea it is to send greeting cards to other Rotary Clubs from all over the world. Sometimes the most traditional and authentic method is better than any social media platform nowadays!

 

Thanks to Secretary Jane for preparing us a return letter. Let's hope this is the start of a great new connection!

Our project chair Neil Mort spent two weeks in Kenya to visit the Rotary Club of Hurlingham in Nairobi, Kenya. As you may know, RC Hurlingham is our partner club for our international project: The Water Harvesting Project. Neil was warmly welcomed by local Rotarians and Rotaractors as he was taken on a tour to the rift valley area of Suswa, where he met the principals and students of the schools that the project would take place. Neil brought back the banner from RC Hurlingham, valuable videos and photos of the Suswa schools and community, and even gifts to share with our fellow members!

 

Today Neil gave us a presentation of his trip. Please support Neil and our club on our biggest international project yet!

President Elect Lejla announces her new board of the 2017-2018 Rotary year, with Assistant District Governor Davinder in attendance.

 

Thank you to our soon-to-be Past President Karen for another great Rotary year of service!

 

 

 

 

We're shooting hoops for kids!

Look at that perfect shooting form!

President Karen with Tina Parbhaker, RC Vancouver Sunrise

Our club President Karen, with President to be Karen Bation of a new Rotary Club to be chartered soon - the Rotary Club of Vancouver Mountainview

Tom Smith, President Karen, Bette and Francois - Rotary Foundation presentations

President Karen with newest member Guida

President Karen, one of the Masked Superheroes at the District 5040 conference in Whistler

Past President Neil with Louise Pedersen, Executive Director of NatureKids BC

President Karen and Farmer Francois get their hands dirty

Annual Club Meetup at the Central City Brew Pub

Look who's at this year's Club's Day at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch!

Christine Buttkus of Early Childhood Educators of BC talked of early childhood education (http://ECEBC.ca)

President Karen and Past President Neil (FDU) with Dr. Maria Concepcion, Rotary FDU Scholarship recipient and Rotaract Yaletown member

President Karen with Rotaractors Kate, Taylor and Sherry - trip to James Wafula Health Clinic, Uganda

President Karen with Daniel Whitehead, National Director, Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries

Lunar New Year fellowship dinner at Floata Restaurant to celebrate the Year of the Rooster

President Karen with Carlos Tan, PHF+1

President Karen with Michael Walsh, Kaizen Consulting ("Thinking Big is Not Enough")

Rotaract Club Members in the annual Vancouver Santa Claus Parade

President Karen with Santa and Ginger at Yaletown BIA's Candytown event

President Karen and District Governor Lyn with Bette and Francois Daoust, Major Donors

President Karen, District Governor Lyn and Linda (new Major Donor)

Seymour School students choose pumpkins for carving

President Karen joined by Neil Mort (club member and FDU Administrator) with Ramon Gahob

President Karen with Dominic Rubino, Entrepreneurs Organization community outreach

President Karen with Jason Jairam, Rotary Club of Chaguanas, Trinidad

Vancouver Yaletown Rotary, Rotaract and FDU participate in shoreline cleanup

President Karen with Monika Becker

Past President Linda with Philippe De Clerck, Rotary Club of Fontaine l' Eveque, Belgium

Neil Mort leading the Club's strategic planning session last weekend

President Karen and Kurt Heinrich, SFU Director of Communications

Francois and Linda celebrate birthdays with fellowship (and chocolate!)

President Karen welcomed Clint and Mary Alice Horne, RC Houston Heights

Club members enjoy the fruits of our labour at The Drive Community Garden

Club members Francois, Jane, Karen (and Linda) at Jack Poole Plaza for VSO concert

President Karen with Rotarian, Bill Davis, from Humble, Texas

Club walking tour of downtown graffiti art murals

Great fellowship (and pizza) at the Per Se Social Corner Restaurant

President Karen at The Drive Community Garden

Welcome to a new Rotary Year:  Rotary Serving Humanity!!

Seymour School Strawberry tea volunteers

President Edgar with Gem Munro, Amarok Society

RYLA South students Emily Parker & Oliver Merrett

President Edgar with Christina Grammenos, Aunt Leah's

Rotaract Superheros!!

Happiness:  Research Findings & Everyday Applications

President Edgar with fellow Rotarian Luke Vostermans (RC Gibsons)

Past President (and Pres Elect) Karen - Rotary Leadership Institute Grad!

Denise, Karen and Linda at the District Conference dinner

President Edgar with Shawn Zemla

President Edgar with newest club member Ralph Case

Cal Miller shows Neil how to revive  'Sally'

President Edgar with Ramona Materi, President Ingenia Consulting

President Edgar with Katherina Wagner

DGN Don with President Edgar

President Edgar with new member John Chan (right), and visiting Rotarian Grant from Vanc South

President Edgar with Hanif Ladha

President Edgar with Bruce Gamage, our Club's newest Paul Harris Fellow!

ADG Tom Smith, President Edgar, and Secretary Jane with a First Nations print of the Rotary Four Way Test

Members of Rotaract Vancouver Yaletown at their installation

Club members enjoyed fellowship and a great meal at Original Joe's in the Rosedale Hotel.  Happy holidays!

Vanc Yaletown and Vanc South at Xmas tree lot fundraiser

President Edgar, Committee Chair Bette, Linda and Rotaract President Mickey with Olaf

Chris & Penny Offer and Emily Whitmer, RI Evanston, help prepare for club fundraiser

DG John, President Edgar and new members Bruce and Ebrahim

Annual Pumpkin Patch, Admiral Seymour School

President Edgar with newest Club member, Bruce Gamage

President-elect Bette helps sort Cobs Bread donation at Seymour School

President Edgar and Past President Karen at the Vancouver Giants District Rotary Polio fundraiser

President Edgar with David Greer

President Edgar with Isabelle St. Jean

President Edgar with Jennifer Yankanna, CNIB

Crossreach Society Executive Director Jessica Malkoske

Club member Lejla greeted in Sarajevo

DG John, President Edgar and the Yaletown 2015-16 board

President Edgar's theme:  Be a Gift to the World

President Karen and ADG Tom induct Lejla Uzicanin

Rotary Club members on the catwalk at 2015 fashion show fundraiser

President Karen with Penny Offer, District Public Image Chair

Parade of nation flag ceremony to open 2015 District Conference

Club members Francois Daoust and Jane LePorte at District Assembly

President Karen and ADG Tom induct new member, Denise Walker

Members of Rotary Yaletown, Rotaract Yaletown and Rotaract Young Professionals clubs with staff and volunteers at Salvation Army Harbour Light

President Karen with Thomas Turniawan, Burnaby Rotaract Club (PACE Committee)

PE Edgar shares the 2015-16 theme:  Be a Gift to the World

Congratulations Past President Janine and husband Steve Jones - now proud Canadian taxpayers!

Past President Linda with Michael Jeffery, RC Barrow-Nuvuk, Alaska

Gina, Holly, and Linda (joined by Pres-elect Edgar) at RLI Parts 1 & 2

President Karen with Brock Tully, Kindness Foundation of Canada

President Karen with Sharon DeLalla (Executive Director) & Kimmie Jensen (Program Director)

Bette shared her story and many defining moments

President Karen with Francois, Bernice and Linda at Women's Centre

Rotaract and Rotary Club members at UGM Women & Family Centre (even Santa dropped in!!)

Filling Santa's pack with gifts for UGM

DG Ken and ADG Tom with Club members Francois, Bette and Linda (Paul Harris Society members)

Gina Neumann, RCVY and Camp Director for RYLA South

Another fun and successful Xmas tree and popcorn fundraiser in Yaletown!!

Dr. Patricia Porter, Rotary Club of Vancouver Quadra

Congratulations Charter President Anuschka and the new Rotaract club

For Neil, 'life is a crooked line'

Proud mom and Club member Deneka with Chanel

A Rotarian on two continents

Rotaract Yaletown fundraiser a 'spooky' success!!!

Seymour School Pumpkin Patch - another successful year!

Rotaract/Rotary Clubs serve meals at Salvation Army Harbour Light

Quadra Club hosts a tasty evening of oil and balsamic vinegar sampling

District 5040 End Polio Fundraiser at Vancouver Giants Game

President Karen and ADG Tom inducted new members Bernice and Gina

Jacob Helliwell, co-District Rotaract Rep, presents Rotaract survey results

President Karen & Ashraf present cheque to Muslim Food Bank

Rotary and Rotaract participate in annual Shoreline Cleanup

Rotaract & Rotary serve meals at Salvation Army Harbour Lights

Thanks Darrell Nelson!

Celebrating membership growth

Club welcomes newest member, Gina Neumann, (aka Ms. Super-RYLA!)

President Karen with Steve Rutledge

International fellowship - Japan and California

ADG Tom presents New Member Sponsor pin

Bette and Francois' Great Canadian Adventure

Quadra Club BBQ & Canadians Baseball Fellowship Event

Gin and vodka tasting with Craig at Yaletown Distillery

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream - or gelato!!

A great trip back in time....thanks to conductor, Bill Johnston

New Rotaract Board, 2014-15

Breaking Stereotypes About Russia

Rotary Yaletown 'cleaned up' at the West End Community Yard Sale

Conference and Sydney highlights

Welcome to a new Rotary Year

Rotaract and Rotary Vanc Yaletown deliver pizza to Harbour Light patrons

Thanks to the outgoing Rotary/Rotaract boards

Pres Linda and PE Karen 'train' at District Conference in Squamish

Rotary Yaletown Produces...produce, at The Drive Community Garden!

Rotary Quadra and Vanc Yaletown at Foot Clinic

Rotaract Vanc Yaletown with Mike Crean

Dr. Makoto Fujiwara - cast a light on anti-matter

Bette and Francois become Major Donors

Rotary Peace Scholar concentrates on youth

Rotary Yaletown TEAM in action....congratulations!

Major Judy, staff and volunteers `light up` the Downtown east side

Banner exchange with Dan from Ocala, Florida

Phase 2 of The Drive Community Garden completed!!

ADG Tom presents President Linda with Rotary scarf

The Drive Community Garden - District Grant Funds presentation

Dress for Success, Working Gear & Wildlife Thrift Store benefit from Rotaract clothing drive

Dr. Cecil Abrahams (Provost FDU) and President-elect Karen McDiarmid become Paul Harris Fellows!

Edgar's Green Thumb in action...!!!

Welcome Charter President Uday Mawani

President Karen and Sandy Watson, CESO

Indo-African Charitable Society - Doing Good in the World

Rotary Women's Assn hosts successful 'spring fling' luncheon

Dr. Holly shared alternatives to traditional medicine