This week's meeting began with Sergeant-at-arms David Richardson calling the meeting to order. After the head table was introduced, Manon Mitchell led us in the singing of O Canada.
Greeter Bob Taylor delivered the invocation.
Thanks go out to our front entrance volunteers Sheila Taylor and Liam Pattemore.
Ali Gursoy and AG Creations sponsored this week's COG Bulletin. Thanks very much Ali!
Bobbi Turko invited us to the Fish Creek club's pub night fundraiser in support of "I Can for Kids".
In the spirit of the season, this week's sing song was the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas, performed by President Tim and his page.
Club secretary Kurt Kowalchuk announced this week's visitors and guests, and extended the club's best wishes to the two club members celebrating birthdays this week.
Tim Heaton provided a wrap up report on the recent barbecue for the residents of the Murdoch Manor seniors residence. President Tim also announced the club's Christmas party, scheduled for December 18 at the Calgary Golf and Country Club.
George Brookman appealed for contributions to the club's Christmas Hamper program. We raised $6,025 at the meeting.
Stay-In-School coordinator introduced our speaker Tim Fox, member of the Kainai Nation, and Director for Indigenous Relations with the Calgary Foundation. In this capacity, Mr. Fox works with local communities, and on the national stage, to mobilize reconciliation. He also sits on the board of the Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, and works as a facilitator with the men's domestic violence treatment program at the Calgary Correctional Centre.
He began by presenting a video clip from Senator Murray Sinclair, the former Chair of the Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which explained the work of the commission as memorializing the victims of a great wrong.
In the video Senator Sinclair stated that it is important that all Canadians learn from First Nations' residential school experiences as they are part of who we are as a nation, and that we must never forget what our country did to its most vulnerable people.
Working with the Calgary Foundation provides opportunities for Mr. Fox to gain insights into his experiences growing up on the Blood Reserve.
In his youth he experienced domestic violence, addiction, poverty and shame, but he came to understand that his negative experiences were only a fraction of those experienced by his parents in residential school. He indicated that although he has formally worked to mobilize reconciliation since 2012, he had been preparing for this work his entire life. His key takeaways from this work are that true reconciliation defies easy fixes, and can best be thought of as a journey that all Canadians are on together.
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