In the early hours of August 14, our exchange student Kai Wen (Kevin) Ku arrived from Taiwan! Originally, Kevin was heading to Fort McMurray with his host club being the RC of Fort McMurray Oil Sands. Due to the devastating wild fires this community experienced in May, this made hosting too challenging this year. Other clubs in our District rallied to come together to make this youth exchange happen for Kevin!

For the first time in our District’s history, Kevin will be sponsored and supported by more than two clubs. Our FUN FEARLESS & FOCUSED Rotary club is Kevin’s host club. We will be providing two host families: Marilyn Mucha (Len Chanasyk)  and Alfonso Ceccherini-Nelli. Mike Brandingen is his Counselor and has a wealth of experience in youth exchange; Mike has been both an inbound and outbound Counselor, hosted exchange students and has been the parent of an exchange student!

The Mayfield Club will be providing a host family, Brian Kierly, along with financial contributions. Three other clubs will be supporting Kevin financially this year: Edmonton West, eClub Canada One and Fort McMurray Oil Sands.

Kevin’s year here will be filled with adventure and fun! He will be attending Austin O’Brien Catholic High School in east Edmonton near Capilano Mall. He has already attended the Fringe Festival, tasted poutine, rode the old railway car over the High Level bridge, taken a day trip to Jasper and experienced a day of sailing at Wabamun Lake. Watch for updates on all that Kevin will be experiencing this year!

It takes a Rotary village to host an exchange student! Thank you to Sumeet Shinde, our RDA from the Youth Exchange team, Marilyn for all of her hard work and hosting Kevin, Mike for taking on the role of Inbound Counselor, District Governor Laura Morie for her continued support and enthusiasm,  the Rotary Club of Edmonton Whyte Avenue for taking this huge leap in being a host club for Kevin and to the other clubs for wanting to be a part of this unique Rotary Youth Exchange opportunity in making Kevin’s experience a true success!

 

Here are some pictures from the event:

 

The Rotary Club of Edmonton Whyte Avenue is raising funds for our many projects! Only 1000 tickets printed so don’t wait and miss you on your chance to win one of these FIVE fantastic prizes!

 

 

Tickets are $2 each. Contact Tamara Larson at Larson.tamarac@gmail.com to purchase yours and ask any of members for YOUR chance to win!

All proceeds go towards supporting our youth programs

 

August is Membership month! Our FUN FEARLESS & FOCUSED Rotary club has inducted several new members in June and July. Offering the opportunities for our newest members to learn about Rotary is important in making our club engaged and strong.  On Tuesday, August 16, Marilyn Mucha hosted a Fireside for our new members. This is an opportunity for our new members to learn about “What is Rotary?” and the different avenues of service along with projects our club is working on. Our newest members get to choose what they wish to work on and learn more about Rotary and our club!

Thank you to Marilyn for hosting and creating such a dynamic, interesting and fun presentation. Foundation Chair Kathy Strobl spoke to us about the many different facets of our Rotary Foundation, the important work we can do with the support of the Foundation and the options of contributing to make our Rotary engine run! Member Sheila Hawkins joined us to meet our new members and share her Rotary experience while President Tamara spoke with members about the different avenues of service and the many projects members are working on.

Thanks to Marilyn, Sheila and Kathy for their hard work in making this event a true success! Looking forward to a great year!

 

Here are some pictures from the evening: