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On September 20 9 members attended a delicious luncheon hosted by Youthlink, a charitable non-profit organisation dedicated to helping troubled youth who are of LBGTQ, abused and or generally need assistance for them to get back on their feet and starting new lives. Youthlink, transformed from The Big Sister Association of Metropolitan Toronto has over 100 years of history providing financial assistance to continue their studies while out of the regular school system. It provides counselling, outreach programs and a co-op residence for Scarborough youth. Executive director Janice Hayes showed our members the new Youthlink building layout for 51 long term and 10 temporary beds for drop in youth.
Our Club after listening to the moving stories voted to donate $5,000 to assist funding to equip the new building.
James, Chako, Mel, Marvin, Sonam, David, Lori, Michael and Milo approved the donation to Youthlink
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President Marvin Graf and Treasurer David Ing presented a check of $5,000 to Fundraising Director Evan Back
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Eight (8) special children who suffered from loss of relatives from the tsunami disaster in Japan in 2013 came to Toronto in SOK program sponsored by Rotary Club of Toronto-Forest Hill and members James Matsumoto and Chako Setoyama. They arrived on August 10, joined the summer camp and participated in home stay program where they stayed with host families. The children varied in age between 13 and 17 really really enjoyed Toronto and Canada during their stay. They departed Toronto on August 21 after expressing their feelings and thanking the hosting families and supporters at the farewell party on August 20 at Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC).
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Please join me to congratulate Kaven for doing an excellent job to develop a website for our out door pin pong table project.
Guest Speaker Shermeen Beg of the Agha Khan museum gave an enthusiastic presentation on her experience as an Immigrant to Toronto. Shermeen illustrated her talk with fascinating images of Toronto and the many places she has lived, studied and worked in her peripatetic life. Born in a small village in Pakistan, Shermeen had a strong desire in her early years to learn about the world around her, especially houses and other buildings. After earning a degree in architecture in Pakistan, she travelled to Savannah, Georgia where she completed a master’s degree in architecture. She then moved to Washington DC and practised architecture in a suburban capital region firm. Shermeen still had strong family roots in Pakistan which she maintains to this day, with Karachi being a focal point. She returned to Pakistan and opened her own architectural office as well as teaching. A few years ago, she emigrated from Karachi, Pakistan to Toronto. Shermeen showed us a series of photos illustrating the similarities and the differences between Karachi and Toronto. She also gave a brief description of her present life as an architect working and teaching at the strikingly beautiful Aga Khan Museum here in Toronto. Shermeen concluded her visit to our club with an invitation to club members participate in any of the on-going programs at the museum. Shermeen was thanked by our Treasurer, Ali Kazmi, a fellow immigrant from Karachi to Toronto. 
