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Rotary Club of Ladner, one of 34,000 clubs in 200 countries and territories of 1.2 million members in Rotary International, celebrated the 116th Anniversary of now the world's oldest and second largest service organization on February 23, 2021. The date is known as World Peace and Understanding Day. Club members enjoyed a virtual tour of the Rotary International headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.
"Rotary Opens Opportunities" encourages Rotarians around the world to seize the many opportunities Rotary offers to enrich their lives and the communities in which they serve. Rotary International President Holger Knaack said Rotary isn’t just a club for people to join, rather it's "an invitation to endless opportunities," for members to improve their lives and the lives of those they help through service projects. He adds, " Every new member changes us a little bit," bringing a new perspective and new experiences. Our members will, "grow stronger as we learn from new members.”The Rotary Club of Ladner continues to meet on Zoom at noon on Tuesdays through in response to health advisories. Please contact Chris Offer if you wish to join the meeting featuring any of the guest speakers listed in the right hand column.
Rotaract is Rotary for young professionals and college/university students, aged 18 to 30+ years. There are 203,298 Rotaractors in 10,698 Rotaract clubs in 180 countries worldwide.
At the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, then Rotary International President Barry Rassin presented Rotaract leader, Phoenix MacLaren, with the Rotary International Award of Honor for helping lead her District into increasing overall membership by 150%. Phoenix talks about Rotary on February 23, 2021, the 116th Anniversary of Rotary.
One of the biggest teams showed up for the periodic street clean up of Arthur Drive on February 20, 2021. Thank you to the 12 who picked up bags of anything from cigarette butts and candy wrappers to drinking cups and straws scattered along the sides of the road and under hedges along Arthur Drive, from its start at the intersection with Ladner Trunk Road along to 44th Avenue, under the City of Delta's Adopt-A-Street program. -- photos by Chris Offer and stock shot by Alamay
Rotary Club of Ladner collaborated with the North Delta Rotary Club which requested our assistance in delivering 180 free dictionaries to elementary students in South Delta. North Delta Rotary has managed this project in recent years through in-person visit to the schools, not possible because of pandemic restrictions.
The international Dictionary Project aims to assist school students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary. Educators see third grade as the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn, so the focus is on elementary school children in the third grade.
Food Plant Solutions Rotarian Action Group (FPSRAG) is a dynamic project that focuses on addressing malnutrition, hunger and food security using readily available local food plants.
FPSRAG creates educational resources to help people, particularly women, understand the connection between plant selection and nutrition. It empowers them to grow a range of plants with differing seasonal requirements and maturities.
26 Ladner Rotarians and partners gathered over dinner, to celebrate the Lunar or Chinese New Year, as usual, or not.....via zoom. Gung Hey Fat Choy. Thank you, Chris Offer. Guillermo and Paulette read fortune cookie fortunes for some of us. We gave toasts as we start the Year of the Ox. The event included two breakout sessions in smaller groups.
Former Chair of the Delta Foundation Noel Philippot received the prestigious Paul Harris Fellow Award from the Rotary Club of Ladner, which founded the Foundation in 1986 for his service above self to the Delta community as board director and chair of the Delta Foundation over several years.
Paul Harris Fellow honourees are individuals who meet high professional and personal standards set forth by Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary International. Honourees may have contributed more than US $1000 to The Rotary Foundation or may be recognized with this award by their club for extraordinary service above self.
While the world hopes for peace, Rotary International works to make it a reality by training the next generation of peace leaders.
The Rotary Club of Ladner, and the Rotary Clubs of Tsawwassen and North Delta, are now recruiting local, Delta candidates for the Rotary Peace Fellowship, a program that gives up to 130 fellows the opportunity to obtain professional development certificates or master’s degrees in Peace and Conflict Resolution from one of seven universities around the world.
“Today, there are still far too few mediators who are experienced practitioners in conflict resolution. There is an urgent need to produce another generation of people who can play a mediating role in the future,” said Professor Paul Rogers, University of Bradford, in the United Kingdom. “This program is the most significant development in graduate work in conflict resolution in decades.”
Dr. Gordon McInally Gordon, of the Rotary Club of South Queensferry, Lothian, Scotland, spoke to Ladner Rotary on February 9, 2021 from his home in Scotland about “Scotland Today”. Gordon is the past president of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland and has served on the Rotary International board of directors.
Conflict and violence displace millions of people each year. 90 percent of those killed in conflicts are civilians and half of those are children. Often conflict starts and continues over long periods in competition for dwindling resources and as environmental changes force people to migrate.
Volatile rainfall and temperature trends in many parts of the world have exerted significant pressure on available land, water and food resources leading to diminishing food stocks, inadequate water supply, mass migration and desertification.
Rotary aims to look beyond the temporary cessation of violence in many parts of the world. There is a need to identify over the longer term conditions that lead to conflict management and mutual cooperation among those who have previously been adversaries.
When the Mission to Seafarers began in the 1830s, at the port of Bristol, England, the goal was then, as it is today, "to care for the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of all seafarers and their families." Seafarers, who run the container ships and other cargo ships, bring us 90% of what we have in our typical households and lives. In doing that, they are isolated from their families and the rest of society spending many months at sea, sometimes 12 to 16 months and more.
The Mission to Seafarers is a ministry of 'presence' and 'hospitality' by leaders in different faiths visiting seafarers on their ship, listening and letting them know we care, by providing centres a 'home away from home' where they can go and relax, speak with family, watch TV, play pool, send money home, buy a snack or two. We provide transportation to take them to the centre or to the mall. The Mission also advocates for seafarers, keeping a watchful eye on conditions on board and helping them know their rights.
Our economy has suffered seriously during the COVID-19 pandemic and so have many individuals, families and organizations. We have been managing with what we have and helping out each other.
It is that much more meaningful to appreciate that nearly 800 million people in our world live on less than $1.90 a day. An estimated 2.6 million children under the age of five died from malnutrition-related causes. Those children are among the 1 in 9 people in the world, or 795 million people, who do not have enough to eat. Of the world’s hungry people 60% are women and girls. 70% of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood.
It is that much more meaningful to appreciate that nearly 800 million people in our world live on less than $1.90 a day. An estimated 2.6 million children under the age of five died from malnutrition-related causes. Those children are among the 1 in 9 people in the world, or 795 million people, who do not have enough to eat. Of the world’s hungry people 60% are women and girls. 70% of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood.
Rotary members have been seeking sustainable solutions to poverty by providing training and access to well-paying jobs and financial management institutions to strengthen local entrepreneurs and community leaders, particularly women, in impoverished communities. The Rotary Foundation spent $9.2 million last year to grow local economies and reduce poverty.
Dalell Amed, of Village Farms, came to this community from Mexico. Pania Lincoln, of Pure Sunfarms, came from New Zealand. They both give their classification presentations so we can learn more about them as our newer members.
A team of Ladner Rotarians, with some from Pure Sunfarms, took down the outdoor Christmas lights and decorations at Delta Hospital on January 17th. The lights and decorations, installed in early December, were appreciated:
" Delta Hospital Auxiliary Society would like to send out an enormous thank you to the Rotary Club of Ladner for putting up the Christmas Lights at Delta Hospital this year. Delta Hospital Auxiliary Society would also like to thank Pure Sun Farms for donating not only their valuable time to help the Rotary Club in putting up the lights but for also donating new lights to the existing lights for Delta Hospital. The lights have definitely sparked the festive spirit in everyone at the hospital. Thank you, Rotary Club of Ladner and Pure Sun Farms for helping spread the holiday spirit!"
One of the main facilities of the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest port system, is in Delta. Deltaport is a deep sea port for companies shipping containers and coal, amounting to much of the activity in the system. Tanya Hawke provides an overview on port operations in Delta and an update on the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project.
Coast Mental Health (CMH) believes that people living with mental challenges can thrive in our communities if they are given the right resources: housing, support services and employment and education opportunities. With compassion and courage, recovery from mental illness is possible when clients take the lead in their recovery, working with the team at CMH. Port Moody Rotarian, Darrell Burnham, speaks about the impact of Covid-19 and the opioid crisis on our community.
Our long-time club member and Rotarian of 58 years, Michael Cruise, suddenly passed away at age 95 at Waterford Delta, in Tsawwassen, where he had recently moved. He had contracted the COVID-19 virus and was in isolation, but was not suffering serious effects as some have done. Michael was a Past District 5040 Governor (1995-96) and a Paul Harris Fellow, who made many contributions to Rotary over the years here in this community, this province and overseas. Michael’s wife Beryl died in 2018.
As we all suffer the hardship of this pandemic in one way or another, we are inspired by the best in generosity and creativity among people in our communities. We are sometimes ashamed or disgusted by the poor judgment and bad behaviour of far fewer people among us in public and private life.
One way to describe many of the kind of supportive, caring actions of volunteers among us is vocational service. That is the essence of any service club: "service above self" to make the community and the world a better place, by working with integrity and contributing expertise to the problems and needs of society.
One way to describe many of the kind of supportive, caring actions of volunteers among us is vocational service. That is the essence of any service club: "service above self" to make the community and the world a better place, by working with integrity and contributing expertise to the problems and needs of society.
Ladner Rotarian and Past District 5040 Governor Chris Offer appears in the January 2021 edition of the international Rotary Magazine. He has also been appointed to the Board of Directors of The Rotary Foundation Canada.
Service Above Self
Delta, BC V4L 2B2
Canada