The District Govenor's Visit

Note from DG Ed Willson We're off on a great tour of our District Clubs. Athabasca was stop one on July 12. What a great Club and what fine Rotarians. It's a very busy Club with multiple projects on the go. Internationally, they are working with an orphanage in Mexico and plan on building additions to the existing structure. Locally their up-coming project is to support the building of a Multiplex in town. Their Sportsman's Dinner this past spring, ⿢ with Gordie Howe and Glen Hall ⿢ raised thousands of dollars in support of the Multiplex. Rotary is Leading the Way in Athabasca. Our second stop was Yellowknife. The hospitality was beyond expectations. Off the plane and on to the historical Wildcat Café, the first café in Yellowknife (circa 1937) for lunch. From there, we enjoyed a tour of the City, with its rapidly expanding residential and industrial areas. We stopped for supper at another historical restaurant on the waterfront and from there went to a wine and cheese social. We toured their Legislature with Rotarian Charles Dent. The Mace was the most beautiful Mace I have seen. We enjoyed our tour of a diamond cutting plant; holding raw diamonds and a multiple caret 'Princess' cut was a unique experience. There were forty-eight people cutting diamonds and they will be expanding to sixty to meet demand. Special thanks to AG John Argue and Ken Woodley for our tour of Yellowknife. Our next stop was Hay River. We had an executive meeting, then an exceptional evening at their world-famous Back Eddy restaurant (try the Back Eddy sauce!). Noon the next day was their meeting and again a wonderful group of dedicated Rotarians. After lunch Rotarian Chris Robinson gave us the grand tour of the town and area. He took us to Alexandra Falls on the Hay River. a match for Niagara, and we were the only three people there. Hay River is a strong active Club supporting many projects within their community and looking at moving into an international project. The week of July 31 took us to Grande Prairie to meet with Rotaract and the three Grande Prairie Clubs. Our visit to the Rotaract Club was their first dedicated visit by a DG and again a wonderful reception by all twelve members. Watch this group grow as they look forward to participating in more projects. Grande Prairie Sunrise greeted us early on the morning of August 1 with a full house. A unique project Dog Park, a fenced area in which to run your dog, caught my imagination as I have not seen one before. They have also sponsored a youth emergency shelter Sunrise House, a much needed anchor in the lives of stressed youth. Their latest fund raiser is the Oiler Training Camp that is expected to raise thousands of dollars; I thank our fellow Rotarian Patrick LaForge for making this possible. Grande Prairie Swan City was our third stop, again to a full house and a high energy Executive to Lead the Way. Their ability to raise funds is a bench mark for our District.