Stories

Area of Focus: Maternal and Child Health Month. This month also includes the Birthday of Paul Harris on the 19th of April.

When Coquitlam Public Library’s Book Bus was destroyed in a fire in May 2014, residents of the Cottonwood and Northeast neighborhoods of Coquitlam were devastated by the loss and staged a campaign for the library to get a replacement vehicle.  Now, after a fundraising drive supported by the local community and businesses, Library Link—the library’s new mobile branch—is bringing a revamped service to these neighborhoods, with plans for expansion in 2016. Library Link is continuing the much-needed service of bringing books, DVDs and other materials to people with transportation difficulties and other barriers to visiting the library.

With donations from Wesbild, Industrial Alliance, Rotary Club of Coquitlam, Friends of Coquitlam Public Library Society, as well as many individual community members, the library was able to purchase a replacement vehicle and named it Library Link. The new mobile branch has been completely refurbished with room inside for almost 2000 books and other items, and is equipped with a checkout computer, a sound system, wheelchair lift, WIFI and a large awning for outdoor story times and other activities. The collection includes children’s books, bestsellers, DVDs, ESL materials and more—all brand new. As well, the staff on board is able to issue library cards, help residents download library eBooks to their personal devices, recommend titles for them and their children, and help newcomers with information about the library and other community services.

Go to our Home page and check out our "photo albums" site for photos from our past events .

Birthdays:

Honourary member Howard Roche celebrates his birthday on April 24th.

Anniversaries;

None this week.

Membership anniversaries:

Maureen became a member on April 27th, 2005

Barb became a member on April 25, 2007

Important dates to note on your calendar:

May 2 - 5th: Rotary Youth Leadership camp

May 15th: NO MEETING

May 18th: we will be going to the Vancouver Whitecaps home game. Please contact Terry about tickets ($30) We will have a presentation from Bob Lenarduzzi, President of the Whitecaps.

May 25th and 26th: Share Food Drive, at Thrifty's Foods Austin Station.

June 14th: our club's installation dinner. Held at the Vancouver Golf and Country Club. Tickets are $50 and are now available for purchase.

July 20th: installation of our District Governor Denis and his team of 12 Asst DG's. Tickets are $45 . This event will be held at the Star of the Sea Parish Hall, 

15262 Pacific Avenue, White Rock. Let's have a great turnout from our club.

Last week, our speaker was our newest member, David Munro, who gave his classification talk.

Classification talks generally turn out to be the most entertaining and lively presentations at our meetings, and David's did not disappoint.

We enjoyed seeing pictures of his family and learning some of his family history and younger years. He even had prizes for those who answered his quizzes. (John ended up with all of the chocolate bars.)

David grew up near Bridal Falls with a close up view of Mt Cheam. His mother is from Nicaragua, and was one of 13 siblings. His father worked for the UN and moved around a lot, but came back to the Fraser Valley to settle and raise his family.

As a child, David had a hands on education on the farm, raising ducks to sell, and working with the cattle on the farm. He told us that every bull the farmed owned

at various times was named Fred.....but did not offer any reason why that was the only name they ever used.

David worked at a number of jobs including his family wood products company where he was paid by the number of bundles of shakes he could muster each day.

He said he spent some of his earlier years as a Firefighter.

His work experience enabled him to pay for his education, which included obtaining his MBA in Agribusinss at the University of Guelph, in Ontario.

He has travelled extensively in Asia, and parts of the Caribbean as well as Mexico and the Eastern US. 

His current employer is the City of Coquitlam, where he is the Manager of Economic Development. 

David is married. He and his wife live with their cat, and two small dogs in Port Moody. 

A couple of weeks ago, we heard a brief talk about a project in Mexico that is being spearheaded by three local  Rotary Clubs. Both Paty and Neil have been also been involved with this project...here is their summary:

The Nepopualco Sheep project is designed  to improve the economic situation of 450 indigenous Mexican women and their dependents engaged in livestock production in the Atlataucan, Totolapan, Hueyan communities. Shepherd women support approximately 600 children,400 youth and 600 seniors in about 350 households. Higher quality flocks mean more reliable income, supporting expanded health care, improved nutrition and better educational opportunities for the women caregivers and their dependents.

Sponsored jointly by three Canadian Rotary Clubs (Coquitlam ,Burnaby and Vancouver Sunrise)and the Mexican host club Cuernavaca Tabachines Mexico,with a possible RI grant,the $15,000 project aims at improving livestock quality and value through managed breeding, feeding and marketing of sheep herds managed by aboriginal women. The project is scalable; each unit comprises 20 ewes and 2 breeding rams, 325-45lb sacks of ground grain and a quantity of raw corn-sorgum; and two “units” are proposed for the initial project. The local shepherds will implement the project, leading to faster weight gain and healthier animals in the flocks.

Existing labour input and marketing will be enhanced more valuable animals reach market. There are already cooperative arrangements for processing feed and transporting animals to market, good evidence of the strength and resiliency of the beneficiaries. However, lack of investment in improved quality of the animals is a restraint.

Shepherding is one of the oldest Human occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor.  Shepherds developed a specialized tool, a pole with a hook, for the recovery of fallen animals by ensnaring a neck or leg. Since then, the crook has been used as a religious symbol of care (particularly in difficult circumstances), a badge of office for a Mithraic Pater and for a Christian bishop, the Crosier. . The term "Pastor", originally the Latin word for "shepherd", is now used to denote clergy.

Special thanks to Paty Thorleifson for “shepherding” the  Nepopualco project along; and aided by Tita Odiardi, she is determined to see the project succeed..by hook or by crook. If you  want to add an extra sheep to the flock, write a cheque for $138 to the Rotary Club of Coquitlam Foundation. You can even pick a name for the gift animal..it’s up to ewe.

For background information on Rotary activities in the Nepopualco community, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUpa149xNEE

Ron W introduced our guest speakers, Mark Pettie and Fred Fox. Mark is the community chair for the Terry Fox Run in Coquitlam; and Fred Fox is brother of Terry.

Mark has been involved with the community at many levels. He was voted 2013 Chamber of Commerce member of the year. He played a major role in bringing the 2010 Olympic Torch Run through Coquitlam. 

Mark gave us some background to the development of the Terry Fox Run in Coquitlam. He says he was never a participant in the run but was asked to look into getting a run started in Coquitlam when he stepped down as a board member of the Chamber of Commerce. They had their first run in 2012; there were about 120 participants and they raised about $2,300. Not bad for the first run event in Coquitlam. It was after the first run, that Terry's sister, Judy, told Mark about other runs which started small and grew to become very large (she cited runs held in United Arab Emirates, and Cuba as examples). He was inspired by Judy's description of these big Runs, and the vision of Terry running a Marathon, 26 miles for 143 days, on one leg. He is committed to taking the run to a higher level. In 2013, 500 people took part, raising over $15,000. This is a good sign that Coquitlam supports the event. He says the Run needs more teams and encouraged us to form a Rotary Team, We don't need to run if we so choose. Just show up and honour the legacy. Also help spread the word about the Coquitlam run.

Fred Fox spoke to us about the Terry Fox Foundation and what it has done to support Cancer research. He said: while the inspiration came from Terry, and it is supported by the Fox family, the key to the foundation's success has been the average citizen who contributes and participates to keep the dream alive. The foundation has 10 offices across the country but only 33 full time employees. He recognized that volunteers sustain the foundation's endeavours.

He told us a bit of Terry's history within the Tricities' Community. Terry was a highly skilled student athlete who participated in many school and junior events in and around Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam. While his home town is Port Coquitlam, he felt a connection to the entire Tricities area. Fred hopes that everyone will embrace the Coquitlam Run and support it as much as the more established Run held in Port Coquitlam. Fred showed us a copy of a page from Terry's journal dated exactly 34 years ago on August 27th, 1980. It was 4 days before he had to declare a stop to his running. Fred read a passage from the page, which recorded Terry's reflections about his support team and the closeness he felt towards them at that particular moment.  

The Terry Fox Foundation has raised over $650 million since its inception in 1980. The research that has been funded by the Foundation has helped create greater outcomes for all victims of all types of cancer. Terry Fox's goal was to raise $1 from every Canadian to help find a cure. On September 1, 1980, the return of his cancer forced him to stop his Marathon of Hope in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He died ten months later, but by then his dream had been realized: over $24 million had been collected in his name. We can all help to keep the dream alive by participating in some way. Ron is organizing a team from the club to walk, run, or just help at the event. Contact him to provide your support.

Mark Pettie, Fred Fox, and Ron.

DG Lyall was introduced by ADG Clive as a person who has always given back to his community. He has been involved in United Way and a Rotarian (Everett Club) for over 27 years. He has been chair of several Club Committees, an exchange student host, and worked at different levels in the District. Lyall is a banker with an Everett-based bank.

DG Lyall opened by thanking PDG Denis and Maureen for their help and advice along the path to becoming a DG. He enjoys being able to spend time meeting Rotarians in both Canada and the US throughout his travels in the District. 

His speech was comprised of three areas to which he wished to draw attention: 1) Membership!.....2) Membership!....and 3)Membership!

Membership is on the decline worldwide, with the exception of Asia. For the first time in many years, membership is below 1.2 million. Our goal is to increase membership by 3% worldwide. This would mean we would have to attract 85,000 new members to Rotary in order to net the 3% in growth. For our District 5050 goal, we need to have a net increase of 85. 

During his tenure as Club Membership chair, he has gathered several "best practices" that he wanted to pass on to all clubs. These will help attract and retain members:

-take care of members we already have. Engage members: give them a visible job and recognize their efforts. This will bring emotional buy-in.

-give new members a mentor to explain Rotary.

-all members must be responsible for recruiting new members.

-we must tell others what Rotary is, and what we do in the community and around the world.

-we need to define membership growth; i.e. focus on specifics: decrease our average age/ create diversity

-be open to business to business networking. It was one of the aspects upon which Rotary was founded.

Other thoughts:

we need to be proud of what we do, and spread the word. 

we need to do what is necessary to dispel the idea that Rotary is expensive and out of reach for younger prospects.

we need to be sure we let others know what we can do for them in their businesses and personal lives.

Rotary can be a proving ground for young business people who will find outstanding mentorship amongst Rotarians in general. 

Lastly, DG Lyall invited everyone to attend the District Conference on April 30 to May 3rd, 2015. It will be held at the Tulalip Resort Casino near Everett. There will be plenty of activities that members and significant others can take in. The committee has lined up many exciting events, including: lessons in games of chance; a field trip to the Boeing factory which is the largest employer in the Pacific North West. There will be great speakers and great food (the resort is renowned for their food).

Taking from this year's theme "Light up Rotary", he  wants us to Share the Light of Rotary with all.

President Jim took the podium to convey what he would like to accomplish in the coming year. He asked that we make a renewed individual commitment to contribute to the club's ongoing success and to reach for new achievements to make the club great. He would like to hear ideas for new club projects that we will commit to, and sustain,. He encouraged us to take part in club events,  and promote opportunities for deepening fellowship among our members and with other clubs in our area. He emphasized that the direction and success of the club lies not just on the shoulders of a few, but requires all of us to work collectively .. We need to take advantage of social media to get our story out in the community and engage other like minded citizens to consider becoming Rotarians

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Last Friday we held our 17th annual Caledonia night, and judging by all comments, it was the best ever. Our presenter, Tim Ellison, was hugely entertaining and informative. He displayed a vast knowledge of Scotch whiskeys and kept everything energized and lively. He even stayed afterwards and helped with all the clean up.

Thanks to Roy, Paul and the rest of the event committee, all guests were treated to an evening of enjoyment, food and a great selection of premium single malts. The Crescent Beach Pipe and Drum band played rousing tunes including a memorable rendition of Amazing Grace.

As always after these events, there will be an auction at an upcoming meeting to give members a chance to take home the remaining few ounces from each selection.

There are a number of pictures in our Photo Album on our home page.

Our annual installation gala is just around the corner, on Friday, June 14th.

This important social evening is a celebration of our past year's accomplishments, and a chance to recognize a few members whose individual contributions have made a difference. The gala is also a "changing of the guard" when we install our new President Harry and his board of directors.

There is always great music and entertainment, and of course a sumptuous buffet. 

Tickets are available from your bulletin editor (Me!) and are $50.00 each.....that's a fantastic bargain for our biggest non-fundraising event.

Please contact me by email or phone to advise me how many tickets you wish to reserve. thanks to those that already have done so.

For planning purposes, it's very important for us to get a handle on the number of attendees as early as possible.

The door prize was won by our guest, Mark Simmons.

The 5050 was won by Ken, who pulled the King of Diamonds.