The Rotary Club of Lantzville is recruiting men and women residing in the areas from Nanoose to South Nanaimo to join us as we work to make our community a better place to live. If you wish to learn more about our club, please click on one of the names on the Executive list to the left so that we can tell you about our club. We just welcomed two new members: Renato Anacleto and Merv Unger

This fall The Rotary Club of Lantzville piloted a new program.To assist homeless people in Nanaimo we are working with the John Howard Society breakfast program. One Saturday each month we use the facilities provided by the 7 - 10 Club to feed from 200 to 400 people. It has been fun to work with a good group of people on this program and very rewarding to know that we are helping people who are truly in need.

Who would set a goal to defeat a pernicious disease and wipe it from the face of the earth? Who would tackle such an outrageous goal, set a timetable for achieving it and then work toward making it come true?

Rotary did!

Who would set a goal to defeat a pernicious disease and wipe it from the face of the earth? Who would tackle such an outrageous goal, set a timetable for achieving it and then work toward making it come true?

Rotary did!

Welcome to the web site of the Rotary Club of Lantzville. Our club has just completed 25 years of service to our local community here in the Lantzville-Nanaimo-Nanoose region of Vancouver Island, Canada. Over that time we have built parks, playgrounds and other community facilities. We have contributed to the large public facilities that make life in our community better and we have embraced the larger community outside our national borders by taking on projects in Africa, Mexico and the Philippines.

However, I am most proud of the work which we have done on smaller projects for needy individuals. Our members have been quick to step forth when people needed a little help to overcome some of life’s hurdles. We have reached out to people in medical emergencies, listened to young readers, purchased running shoes for children in need and provided drivers for people unable to supply their own transportation.

Our club is a hands-on club which has planted flowers, cleaned gardens, painted fences and decorated child care space. We have cooked hamburgers, hot dogs and pancakes; made breakfast, hidden Easter eggs and gathered food for the needy.

Through all of these projects we have maintained a sense of fun and enjoyment. Our club has developed a camaraderie through these work projects that is always evident in our meetings.

Members of the Rotary Club of Lantzville are committed to providing service to our community, but to have fun while doing it.

Over the coming year we will continue to put “Service before self” as we work to make our community a better place. While doing so, we will reach out to others to form new partnerships and to attract new members. Perhaps you will be able to help us in some way with our work!

If you get a chance to join us for breakfast, please do so. We are always happy to have guests, whether members of other Rotary Clubs or interested individuals. In fact, be careful. When you see how much fun we have you might decide to join our club!

One of the Rotary projects which is not well known is the chance it provides young people to travel and mingle with other young people from around the world. Youth services is one of Rotary's Avenues of Service and part of that is the Rotary Youth Exchange program.

Young people of high school age can apply for one of two opportunities to travel. There is a Short Term Exchange Program and a Long Term Exchange Program. 

The Short Term Exchange Program allows students to travel to a foreign country for approximately 4 weeks and reciprocate by bringing a young person from the other country home to visit with them. This is a family to family exchange in which the Canadian student stays in the home of a young person in another country and a student from the other country returns to stay with the student's family here.

The Long Term Exchange lasts for an entire year and does not have the return requirement. Instead the Nanaimo student would stay in 4 different homes for 3 months each, while attending the same school. This allows the student to sample life in the foreign country and to build language skills in the home language. There is also an opportunity to host a student from another country for a period of time as we often have students visit Nanaimo and always require host families for the visitors.

Students are asked to provide the name of a country of choice and where that is possible the exchange is made with that country. Sometimes there is a lack of host families or some other difficulty that makes it impossible for the student to travel to the country of choice, but every effort is made to make the choice work for the student.

While away the student is cared for by the Rotary clubs of the country being visited. Rotary has a structure in place to ensure the student is safe and comfortable while exploring a different way of life.

In Nanaimo the five Rotary clubs co-operate to send students away and to bring exchange students here. If you are interested in learning more about the student exchange programs offered by Rotary, contact any Rotarian or use the contact information on this page to contact our club. It could change your life.

Just to show that Rotary is not all about working, we have our fun too. On October 28, we paid a visit to VMAC, a Nanaimo company doing high tech manufacturing with sales all around the world. VMAC produces a leading edge Vehicle Mounted Air Compressor which is used by businesses which need a reliable source of compressed air in their work. That

This summer the Boys and Girls Club became home for a new school supported by the Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre. The school is aimed at off reserve primary students living in the city of Nanaimo and is supported by a public school district. In this way it answers to and is supported by the provincial department of education. Our Rotary Club has long been a supporter of the Boys and Girls Club because of the great work it has done and wanted to be a supporter of the new school because of its potential to help so many young people. To this end we agreed to supply labour to redo the exterior of the Boys and Girls Club building to make it a more suitable home for both its tenants. Our carpenters and gardeners had a great day working in the warm summer sun helping to make our community a better place.