2018-01-22 Rotary Buzz

 

Lou opened the meeting at 11:45 am.

 

Health of the Club - Excellent.  Jim R. is taking 2200 steps a day improving his walking since getting his hip replaced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ron is working with the Glenora rotary club in the Adopt-A-Village project in Honduras, and is building a school in St. Helene's on the Island of Roatan.  He says this is "his biggest challenge, yet."  He has already been there and plans to leave again on January 31 and will be gone for a few months. 

 

St. Helenes consist of 1200 people.  There are no roads or power and the only way to get there is by boat.  There is also no big dock to receive boats, so that poses another problem.  There are 140 students in grades 1 to 9, some coming from 1-1.5 miles away.  The small school that is there has a badly leaking roof which causes problems for both teachers and students.

 

The school Ron plans to build is two stories high.  It has eleven classrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen.  There is also an open commons area that offers a place for community gatherings.

 

 

To make the build go faster, Ron has ordered tools to have at hand such as a table saw, air compressor, nail guns and an assortment of saws.  There is a vocational school in St. Helenes and Ron plans to donate these tools to them in hopes of the school helping to build furniture and cabinets for the new school.

 

A few of the problems Ron is running into is getting the building supplies off the boat to the shore and then to the schoolyard.  Another is labour.  Ron will have to rely on getting the community to help if there are no other people willing to come to Honduras to help him.

 

The Glenora club has raised $150K for a water project, but because of all the rain, they are unable to get the trucks off the ships and up where they need to drill.  They have also raised $76K for desks and other supplies that will go to the school.  The Glenora club has partnered with other clubs, some in the US, to help raise monies for this large project.  There is also a donor in Edmonton that is willing to match dollar for dollar any money that is donated.  

 

Ron has budgeted $150k to build the school.  $50K is needed.  In hopes of raising the money, Ron is asking if the Camrose Club can help and there is also a website, stheleneadoptavillage.com, that you can personally donate to the project.  Dawn is planning on having a raffle to raise money as well.

 

 

 

 

 

To make May 6, 2018, Rotary Gala a success, we need the whole club to get involved.  We need volunteers!  There has been some trimming down of the things we are going to do, but it is going to take the entire club to pull it off successfully.  

 

Dawn has agreed to Chair the event.  She would like to reach out to some people if they re interested because they excelled at what they did.  If you do volunteer, it won't be meeting based, but Dawn will talk to you one on one.

 

If you want to volunteer but don't know where best to work, just contact Dawn or Dan.  Your help and your time will be much appreciated.

 

 

50/50 - $537  Dan O. ticket called.  Paul P. pulled the 4 of Clubs for him.

 

Meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm.