2018-04-16 Rotary Buzz

Lou opened the meeting at 11:45 am.

 

 

Health of the Club – Good.

 

 

 

 

 

Lyle Johnson is the President of the Sherwood Park Rotary Club as well as the Executive Director of the Emmanual Foundation.  They are District 5370 Shipping Arm as well as a partner in the Playground Projects overseas.

 

The Foundation's mandate is to serve the world's poor through sharing resources and supplies that will support sustainable community Development to bring hope for a better tomorrow.

 

The Foundation has three main areas:  Playgrounds, Sustainable Community Development and Resource and Development Centre.  The biggest being the playgrounds.

 

Alberta has three times as many playgrounds than any other province.  Since the 90's, there was constant renewal and development along with safety issues for children with the building materials, mainly wood.  This lead to using galvanized steel and heavy commercial plastic which meant playgrounds became more expensive to build.

 

In 2018, Calgary, which is the main source of playgrounds, will be replacing 50.  Banff, which is restructuring a school, will be replacing a $120,000 playground.  

 

But what was to be done with these older playgrounds that still had a lot of life left to them?  Enter Emmanual Foundation.  The foundation takes these playgrounds and finds a need and a home for them.

 

In 1998, the UN made a resolution that every child should have a right to play.  Studies showed a direct link between children that played affected their development as a person.

 

 

In our culture, play is just a natural part of our and our children's lives.  In other countries where extreme poverty prevails, children are an asset, they contribute to the family finances.  Play for them is foreign.  where Emmanual Foundation places these playgrounds, they have a healing power to the children that benefit from them.  

 

Out of the Playground projects, often lead to development projects.  Such as the School project in Honduras that our own Ron Grue is working on.  

 

Alberta is prosperous.  As we replace things, whether its offices, hospitals or schools supplies,  these discarded items are precious commodities to those countries that have nothing.  The Emmanual Foundation is the perfect place to gather and find a home for them.

 

 

Lyle quotes a book with the idea being that our prosperity is given to us so that we can pass it on to others.  Seems like a good idea to me.

 

 

50/50 – The pot is $608.  Sadly, Jerome Stetar drew the 8 of Diamonds.

 

Meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm.