Calvin Lim - Riverview Club Rotarian - 2019 Winner -  Innovative Broker of the Year

Recognized by The Insurance Nexus Awards, in Chicago, Calvin Lim is the 2019 Innovative Broker of the Year Winner for the insurance broker organization who goes above and beyond to meet the needs of the customer in the modern insurance industry. 

In the pursuit of delivering customer-first products with a seamless experience from purchase to claims, each carrier must first become a customer-centric organization. To recognize excellence and innovation at each stage of this process, in the category for product development, customer service, operational transformation and claims – and aim to celebrate both the executives leading the change and the teams on the front line every day executing on customer strategy.

Calvin Lim is the Owner of UW Insurer Brokers and a Riverview Rotarian since 2016.

Possessing a moral compass and unwavering moral principles. Upstanding. Honorable. Fair. Sincere. This aptly describes the individuals who were honored on May 8, 2019 at the 2019 Capital Region Rotary Integrity Awards. Every year, Rotary clubs are invited to honor non-Rotarians who embody the ideals of Rotary in their contributions to the community. The members of our club who attended the event heard some incredible stories about some incredible individuals. Just as we, as Rotarians, strive to "Be the Inspiration," these individuals serve as inspiration for us.

We were delighted to have Jim Bradshaw as our club's honoree. Jim has spent countless hours volunteering on community boards and for community initiatives--working to make communities better places for everyone. 

(Photos: Jim Bradshaw, all the honorees, Jim with Rotarians and friends)

The Edmonton Centennial Interact Club (at Ross Sheppard) hosted us for breakfast on April 30th and told us about their recent work in Belize.

Interact club president, Maya, says, “This year, Ross Sheppard’s Centennial Interact Club made our 7th trip to Belize to work with two of the schools in partnership with us--Ocean Academy and Eden Primary. It was beyond incredible. Each and every member who went has returned beyond grateful for our experience. We painted murals, rooms, and a guardhouse, and shared wonderful memories with the students of each school! We’ve come back with a renewed sense of leadership and service, ready to embody Rotary’s motto of ‘Service above Self’ within our communities and with the schools in the future!”

Here are some pics of the Interactors in Belize. We're proud to be a sponsor of this club.

It makes for a great Rotary meeting when there's an induction. At Tuesday's meeting, there was one. Welcome to the club, Mariusz Sapijaszko!

Mariusz is a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon https://www.youthfulimage.com/dr-mariusz-sapijaszko-cosmetic-dermatology. He's eager to serve, and we're delighted that he decided to join our club.

On Tuesday, April 16^th, Cecilia Blasetti, Director of the Boyle McCauley Health Centre addressed members at our weekly meeting. Our club has had a long relationship with the Centre, providing annual funding for its IUD (intrauterine device) program.  Cecilia thanked the club for its ongoing support and had some good news. The IUD program has now obtained secure, sustainable funding for the program, so we can channel our club’s funding donation to other good causes.

Cecilia described the many other services and programs that the Boyle McCauley Health Centre coordinates, pointing out that there are still opportunities and needs for partnerships with Rotary. For example, people often come through the door of the Centre with no healthcare card. The Centre assists them with getting “into the system” so that they can access much needed medial care.  The Centre also offers dental, footcare, chiropractic care (Our own club member Roman Bayrock, a chiropractor, has often donated his time here.), acupuncture, optometry as well as assistance with finding housing, pregnancy services, etc.  The list goes on.

The Boyle McCauley Health Centre offer services to the most vulnerable in our society—individuals who have challenges accessing health services. This is awesome work and we look forward to exploring new ways we can become involved.

Paul and Cynthia Dusseault are beginning their journey home from a six-week stay in Ecuador. The trip was very much a volunteer vacation. The club’s International Committee provided $5000 CAD for them to use in a partner project with the Tomebamba Rotary Club in the city of Cuenca. The project involved equipping Casa Maria Amor, a shelter for abused women and their children, with a variety of much-needed items—clothing, running shoes, kitchen supplies & equipment, etc. The women and children flee their homes with only the clothing on their backs, and the shelter is their refuge sometimes for many months. Government support for Casa Maria Amor was recently cut back, so the shelter is struggling to meet the needs of the women and children.

While helping the Tomebamba Rotary Club seek out (shop for and order) the many items that were needed by Casa Maria Amor, Paul and Cynthia embarked on a side volunteer project of their own. This project turned out to be much bigger than they had imagined. They spent almost every morning—for four weeks—at Hogar Miguel León, a home for low or no-income seniors (many with no families) as well as for orphans.

A week was spent turning up the soil in a huge overgrown-with-weeds garden plot, preparing the soil for a vegetable garden. Paul and Cynthia arrived early every morning to first help the staff with the seniors—to get them ready for the day and to help them with breakfast. (Many of the seniors are in wheelchairs, so they need help with showering and dressing. Many have great difficulty feeding themselves or simply cannot feed themselves.) Once breakfast was over, then Paul and Cynthia headed into the garden for three to four hours, adzes and shovels in hand. The seniors watched curiously and offered the occasional bit of advice.

The next two/three weeks were spent fixing the seniors’ wheelchairs, which were in very bad shape—flats tires, loose brakes, missing footrests and armrests, missing bolts on hand rims, etc. Paul and Cynthia got to know where to buy tubes, tires, tools, etc.—Ecuador is not a place with one-stop-shops. They were also entrusted with a key to a secret room that contained about two dozen old wheelchairs, from which they were able to salvage parts. It was an exercise is creativity. Some of the seniors cried when they were given their refurbished wheelchairs. Thanks to the generous donation of money from the Operation Esperanza ward nurses whom Paul and Cynthia had come to know through volunteering on that medical/dental mission for 6 years, and who had entrusted them with some money to do something charitable with, there was money to buy supplies, tools, and parts to fix as many wheelchairs as possible plus to buy three brand new wheelchairs.

Towards the end of the wheelchair project, the nuns who run the hogar asked Paul and Cynthia if they could help with a fairly big donation—of an oxygen concentrator needed by a sweet 103-year-old man who has to be on oxygen 24/7. Compiling the remaining money from the nurses, plus a donation by a Canadian friend (Thanks, Dennis!) who had come to visit, plus some personal money that Paul and Cynthia contributed, plus a top-up by the Riverview Rotary club, Paul and Cynthia had the funds to go oxygen concentrator shopping. There was much happiness at the hogar the day they purchased it, squeezed it into a taxi, and delivered it.

The day Paul and Cynthia went to the hogar to say good-bye to the nuns, staff, and seniors, a two-hour-long surprise party was held to thank them—complete with speeches, cake (a real treat for the seniors), hand-made gifts and cards, and a few tears.

Back to Casa Maria Amor, just before leaving Cuenca, Paul and Cynthia and a delegation of Tomebamba Rotarians went to deliver all the items that had been purchased for the shelter. More speeches. Another little party. But the gratitude goes both ways. As Paul and Cynthia point out, giving back makes you a better person, so everyone benefits.

At this Tuesday’s club meeting, Nelson Scott introduced Rotarians to narrowboat vacationing on the canals of England. These boats were built during the Industrial Revolution, and Nelson and his wife, June, embarked on a unique narrowboat adventure. After receiving a brief introduction to their 72-foot-long, seven-foot-wide narrowboat as well as an orientation to the operation of the locks they would be navigating through, they set out on a week-long journey on the Stourport Ring. This trip of about 90 miles included 10 tunnels and 118 locks, of which only three of the latter are manned. The boat itself was well equipped and provided comfortable accommodation for four people (up to six people is possible). Nelson said that narrowboats and locks are easy to operate. The trip offered contrast between urban settings—such as Birmingham—and tranquil countryside. Needless to say, many pubs were located along the route.

Members of our Rotary club celebrated the 50th anniversary of Operation Friendship Seniors Society (OFSS) this morning at their "kick-off breakfast," which heralds a string of anniversary year events. It was great to spend a little time with the seniors served by OFSS, to meet some of the society's board members, and to mingle with other folks who give of themselves to help this shining star of a social service agency in our city.

The Calgary Flames fan is Jimmy Morrison, OFSS's Community Relations Supervisor. And that's long-time OFSS board member, Sue Walsh, wearing the lovely green and purple scarf. The rest . . . well, that would be us Rotarians, from left to right: Leslie, Chris Cynthia, Paul, and Dean.

We're delighted to announce our club's newest international project, spearheaded by long-term member Lora Lee Peaslee. Please consider supporting this project that will change the lives of low-income and no-income women in a village in Belize.

We've set up a GoFundMe campaign to tell the story and to make it easy for you to give if you can. Click here or click on the photo to learn more.
 

At our meeting this morning, Dr. Mark Joffe, Vice President & Medical Director for Northern Alberta with Albert Health Services, walked us through the history of polio, from when it was a mysterious and misunderstood disease that afflicted thousands and killed many, through to the discovery that polio is caused by a virus and can be vaccinated against, and finally to today when immunization programs have almost wiped this dreaded disease from the planet, the only countries with polio cases being Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan--and the numbers of those cases being very small. Joffe pointed out that the barriers to wiping polio from these three countries are both political and social. For example, the Pakistani Taliban have banned the polio vaccine.

The Rotary Foundation enables Rotarians around the world to undertake humanitarian service projects that change lives. At Tuesday morning's club meeting, Vicky Grabb, who is a governance consultant by profession and a Rotarian at heart, reminded us of that.

Donations to the Foundation come back to club members so they can carry out work in the Rotary's 6 areas of focus:
• Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
• Disease prevention and treatment
• Water and sanitation
• Maternal and child health
• Basic education and literacy
• Economic and community development

Professor Gordon Houlden, Director of the China Institute, explained China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to our club's members and guests this morning. Consisting of a “belt” of overland routes based on the ancient "Silk Road" and a maritime “road” of shipping lanes connecting numerous ports, the BRI is, as Houlden explained, the "biggest infrastructure project in history," with over 100 countries involved. (Learn more)

District Governor Ingrid Neitsch met with our club’s board on October 29^th and spoke at our club meeting on October 30^th, to deliver some advice and inspiration.

Back from a month-long journey in Russia, Paul Dusseault presents our club president, Cliff Neufeld, with "flags" from two Rotary clubs (a St. Petersburg club and a Kazan club) in Russia. When you're a Rotarian, you're welcome--in fact, more than welcome--to attend meetings of clubs in other countries. The exchange of flags is a token of friendship, and each club's flag is representative of some feature or aspect of the club, its city, or its country.

About that journey, Paul Dusseault and his wife (Cynthia, also a member of the Riverview club) travelled independently (not on a tour), learning a great deal about Russia, its people, and its history. Two members of the Kazan club even took an afternoon off work to show Paul and Cynthia some of the historic sights near Kazan, which is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. That's Rotary fellowship!

Paul Dusseault says, "Visiting clubs anywhere in the world is a great feature of Rotary. We think this type of people-to-people relationship building contributes to peace building by reducing mistrust and misinformation between people and nations. And by the way, go to Russia, it is amazing."

Induction!! At Tuesday's meeting, Jessy Nerval became our first new member in this Rotary year. Jessy launched the Seva Food Truck not-for-profit (see Seva YEG) a project of Edmonton’s Sikh community. Seva Food Truck provides meals to Edmonton’s hungry, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Welcome Jessy!

Today’s speaker was our own Roman Bayrock, who, with his fiancée, our own Sandra McDonald, enjoyed a unique boating adventure this summer, through the many locks of Canada’s Rideau Canal. The Canal was opened in 1832. It was designed to defend Kingston, Canada’s capital at the time, from an American attack. Thankfully, that attack never happened.

A few weeks ago, our club had a "handover" event at the Faculty Club, at which the reins of the club were handed over to a new president and a new board. Past President Paul thanked those who served on the board and served in key roles during his presidential year. Thanks again, everyone!

John, Jason, and Tamisan couldn't be at the event, so Paul thanked them at this week's meeting. Thanks, John, for another year of serving as Club Secretary. Thanks, Jason, for arranging our weekly speakers and handling our ongoing grocery card fundraiser. Thanks, Tamisan, for scheduling us all for meeting set-up and take-down.

As our club embarks on a new Rotary year, we invite you to learn about Rotary (https://www.rotary.org/en) by coming to a meeting. Head over to our website (https://portal.clubrunner.ca/454) and learn more about us. Send us a message and we'll let you know about our upcoming meetings, our meeting format, what Rotary does, and how Rotary can become one of the most meaningful aspects of your life.

On May 31st, we enjoyed a lovely "cinq à sept" farewell party for long-time club member Mary McLean. We gathered at the home of member Lindsay Robinson to celebrate Mary's years with our club and to wish her well as she prepares to move far away from us, but closer to her family.

Good-bye Mary. We are going to miss you. We thank you for your many years of stellar "service above self." (And here are just a few photos of the delightful evening.)

Nelson Scott presented the "Paul Harris" + 4 pin. Congratulations Nelson!

Thanks and thanks again to the Honourable Stephanie McLean, Minister of Service Alberta. Through her efforts, the Alberta Government was most gracious in responding to our request for surplus wheelchairs, tables, and chairs.

Our club partners with a few charities, especially the Emmanuel Foundation https://www.efoundation.ca, which ships containers full of playgrounds, medical equipment, and educational materials worldwide. In the extra spaces of those containers, we stick our tables, chairs, sewing machines, and other donations. Off they go to countries like Nicaragua, Uganda, and Belize.

Here are some photos of our work parties loading up wheelchairs and disassembling and loading up tables for delivery to the Emmanuel Foundation's distribution centre. Way to go, Riverview Rotary!

On December 1st, several of club members headed to Southgate Mall to volunteer for The Salvation Army's Christmas Kettle Campaign, which helps support those in need at Christmas and year round. Thanks to the busy shoppers who took the time to stop, say "hi," and put something in the kettle. Every little bit helps to make the holiday season brighter for those who have less. 

There is no greater joy than giving. 

Here are Norm Johnson and Paul Dusseault, who took the last shift at the Christmas Kettle.