Steacy Collyer of
Calgary Reads Tanya Koshawski of
Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids Katelyn Lucas of the
Elizabeth Fry Society Mrs. Lou Winthers of the
Stardale Women's Group Minh Le Representing the
Alberta Network of Immigrant Women Roxanne Cote of Calgary's
Distress Centre Howie Shikaze Introduces
Our Signature Legacy Project Big Cheque Presentation to
United Way Community Hubs Bill Andrews with Connie Hamilton of
Calgary United Way | | This month's Sergeant-at-arms Bruce Millar called the meeting to order, while President Tim Heaton introduced the head table. This week's musical introduction featured Manon Mitchell and Michael Pierson playing When the Saints Go Marching In. Following the singing of O Canada, this week's greeter Maya Starovic delivered the invocation. President Tim thanked our entrance volunteers Barbara Young, "Brom" Bromwich and Bill Clapham. Incoming secretary Jennifer Lavier Jankovic welcomed our 21 visitors and guests, and announced the four club members celebrating birthdays this week. Steve Austin delivered his final announcement of the 23rd Stay in School Charity Golf Tournament. He indicated that all sponsorship opportunities have been subscribed, but there are still a few openings for golfers. He also put out a call for volunteers to help run the event on Tuesday. President Tim issued a call for volunteers to help out at a breakfast coming up on June 25th at Valley View School. The Rotary Club of Calgary is a community partner of the Top 7 over 70 awards, a fundraiser for InterGen. Nominations for the Top 7 over 70 awards are due by June 30 th. Our annual sneak-a-peak celebration of the Calgary Stampede is fast approaching. Early bird tickets for dinner and the grandstand show are available at $60 until June 26th. Following the announcements, our President Nominee Eric Bennett delivered a message on behalf of the Membership Committee to the prospective new members in attendance at this week's meeting. By focusing on the awards made by the Major Donations committee, this meeting intended to showcase the amazing achievements of the partners we support. Eric then turned the meeting over to John Boyd to make our cheque presentations to the following major donation recipients. - Calgary Reads - $25,000. Stacey Collyer thanked the Major Donations committee for our financial support, and for our active participation in developing the Alberta Reads network. Stacey, who spoke to our club on March 19th, specifically thanked us for introducing Calgary Reads to ATB Cares who will help in growing the Alberta Reads network across the province.
- Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids - $20,000. Tanya Koshawski accepted a cheque on behalf of Brown Bagging for Kids, an organization that prepares almost one million lunches for school children each year. Through the work of community groups and volunteers, BB4CK provides lunches for approximately 4,400 kids each school day. BB4CK works with school staff members to identify needs and to plan how best to make sure hungry students get the nutrition required to think clearly and learn. By enabling better education outcomes, BB4CK gives students a hand up, not just a handout.
- Elizabeth Fry Society - $10,000. Katelyn Lucas described how our donation will be put to use in developing its indigenous program room. This is a key initiative as indigenous women make up more than fifty per cent of the Elizabeth Fry Society's client demographic, and 50 to 70 per cent of participants in its remand, prison and community outreach programs. For many, this programming is the first exposure to their indigenous culture as these women have been raised in foster homes in urban settings. For these women, reconnection with their cultures is the key step to establishing better lives.
- Stardale Women's Group - $15,000. In accepting the Major Donations Committee's cheque, Lou Winthers described Stardale's role in assisting young indigenous women. Its mission is to provide life skills and literacy education, as well as advocacy for women living in poverty and abusive situations. The four components of the Stardale Model encompass physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. The Stardale Model encourages development of skills and enlightenment by healing with compassion.
- Alberta Network of Immigrant Women - $15,000. Minh Le described how the Alberta Network of Immigrant Women has connected and empowered immigrant women across the province, leading and supporting initiatives that foster equality, justice, and learning. She told us that our donation is being directed to "Opportunity Knocks", a one-year pilot project that will assist marginalized immigrant women in establishing micro-enterprises.
- Distress Centre - $20,000. Roxanne Cote described the importance of the Distress Centre as a first-line point of contact for people in immediate crises. The Calgary Distress Centre is the second-busiest in Canada, providing 24-hour crisis support in Calgary and southern Alberta through its crisis line, email, chat, and text channels. A small fire in its data centre has underscored the need for upgrades to its technology platforms, and our donation will be directed towards improving its technology infrastructure. With our assistance, the Distress Centre is working towards improving the continuity of its operations by moving to a "cloud-based" information platform.
Following the Major Donation Committee's cheque presentations, Howie Shizake introduced the presentation of our $425,000 cheque to the United Way for our current year contribution to the Community Hubs signature project. Accepting our cheque were the United Way's Heather Innes and Connie Hamilton. Community Hubs project manager Heather Innes provided an overview of the Community Hubs initiative. She told us that poverty in Calgary is clustered in certain neighbourhoods where up to one in three people lives in poverty. This is why the United Way partnered with the City of Calgary and with Rotary to design, activate and sustain community hubs in five priority neighbourhoods. The Community Hubs initiative is a key lever of the city's "Enough for All" poverty reduction strategy that the Mayor referenced in his address to the club at our June 11th meeting. This strategy has the goal of a 30 per cent reduction in poverty by 2023. The Community Hubs initiative is the first partnership in Canada in which the United Way, a service club, and a municipality have come together to develop neighbourhood projects of this scale. Each site has been planned with extensive community consultation to create welcoming, inclusive gathering places that provide accessible support and services to serve people in their communities, and as platforms for economic development. The hubs initiative has served 53,000 people to date, with 33,000 served in 2018 alone. Heather Innes concluded her remarks by thanking Howie Shikaze, Cathy Freer-Leszczynski and Tim Heaton for their support of the initiative, and acknowledged the support of the Community Hubs Steering Committee, which now includes representation from eleven of the twelve Rotary clubs in Calgary. Following a general question and answer session, President Tim Heaton thanked all of our cheque recipients for their presentations. |
