Rotary Club of Vermilion
December 20, 2018 Meeting Minutes
7:00am –Club Room, Vermilion Regional Centre
Call to order
O Canada
Rotary Grace
Four Way Test
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Mike Bykowski (Dec 31)
Introduction of Guests by Rotarians
Breakfast Trivia Game
Announcements
Thank you to Team 3&4 for Breakfast
A few Rotary Highlights from the Year
In 2018, the Rotary Club of Vermilion has…
Raised over $40,000 through another incredibly successful community garage sale and through the second year of our Canada Flag project, which saw over 350 flags delivered to residents and businesses in the Vermilion and Mannville area.
Entertained some previous Rotary Youth Exchange Students, including Teresa from Austria who helped set up flags in June and Telles from Brazil, who, along with his wife, joined us for a meeting in May. As a club, we also confirmed our continued support for participating in long term youth exchange in the future, and sponsored students to attend both Rotary Adventures in Citizenship in Ottawa, and Rotary Adventures in Human Rights in Winnipeg.
Been out and visible in our community, including judging public speaking and helping with the Hot Lunch Program at Vermilion Elementary School, having a booth at the Vermilion Fair, bartending at the Regional Centre, running our cookie fundraiser at festival of trees, and tending our Rotary lookout overlooking the provincial park.
Seen at least 14 club members support the Rotary foundation, with club members donating over 4200 in the months of October and November alone to this important organization that also allows clubs like ourselves to apply for funding toward some of our ongoing projects like school scholarships and our Books for Belize international project.
Continued to support the ongoing Rotary Polio Plus campaign for Polio eradication through our annual Purple Pinkie day, bringing polio awareness into our schools. We also had the opportunity in October to welcome assistant Governor Jason Whiting and via Skype, Aziz, the national chair for Polio-Plus in Pakistan, which was a great opportunity for our club to hear about the successes and challenges of Polio eradication in Pakistan.
Supported two club members to attend the Rotary International Convention held in Toronto this past June, and three club members to attend the Rotary District Conference held in Edmonton in October. All of the club members who were able to attend convention and conference in the past year had a chance to share with the club about their experiences and the new connections they made, and it is our hope that at least as many Rotarians will be able to attend International Convention next year in Hamburg, Germany and District Conference in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
Connected with our wider Rotary family by welcome guests to our meetings from our Interact club, the Border City and Lloydminster Rotary clubs, the Rotary Club of Vegreville and Edmonton West, and even from Rotary clubs as far away as New Zealand.
Continued our ongoing support of community initiatives big and small, including sponsorship of the Rotary Vermilion & District Music festival, youth sports including curling, hockey and minor ball, and increasing our student scholarship yearly commitment to $3000 annually between the four institutes where we support scholarships.
Learned more about our club members by hearing some great vocationals, and we welcomed four new club members in 2018 - Lisa, Marcia, Erwin and Darlene.
Held off-site meetings and social events in various venues around Vermilion, including the new Town of Vermilion Shop, the Western Institute of Emergency Education, the Vermilion Valley Lodge, the Red Brick, the Vermilion Heritage Museum and the new Animal Health Clinic at Lakeland College.
Committed more funds in support of community projects, including further funding towards Vermilion Heritage Park to help complete landscaping in the park around the oven, and the purchase of two pieces of accessible equipment for St. Jerome’s accessible playground.
And last but not least,
In light of the incredibly successful harvest gala event held in fall of 2017, we voted in January of 2018 to increase our support for the Vermilion Valley Lodge Living Well Campaign from the amount of $75,000 to $100,000. This donation is the single biggest financial commitment our club has ever made, and our club has now paid 75% of our commitment.
Cheque Presentation to Paul Kim, CAO of the Vermilion and District Housing Foundation
Sargent Report: In keeping with the holiday season- no fines today. Safe travels and Merry Christmas.
Meeting Adjourned