Did You Know?
Did you know the book we published in 2014 tells the story of the first hundred years of our club? Al McMillan briefly described a few of our early fundraising activities. Our very first fundraiser was a Vaudeville-style Rotary show put on by forty-eight club members that raised seven dollars. In those days, our club started the Christmas Hampers program, which continues to this day. We also put up lights for nighttime skating at the Elbow Park skating rink.
We participated in several beautification projects. Rotarians planted the evergreens you see on the Fourth Street grounds of the Central Memorial Library between 1916-17. We planted poppies along the side of the dirt road between Calgary and Banff, although deer eventually ate all the blooms. We were instrumental in setting up the Good Roads Association, which became the Alberta Motor Association.
Our fundraising activities have included a wrestling night with Stu Hart in 1957, the year we started our barbecues. The first of these raised approximately four thousand dollars, while our most recent events raised about $400,000.
New Home for Barbecue Equipment
Our thanks go out to Gord Graham and Steve Stein for moving our barbecue equipment to Bucars RV Centre. Our thanks also go out to Bill Redmond for allowing us to store our barbecue equipment rent-free at Bucars.
New Member Introduction
Greg Stevenson introduced our newest member Rishi Chakraborty. Born in India, Rishi completed a law degree at age 22 and moved to Canada to pursue an advanced law degree at the University of Toronto. He worked as a bicycle courier while pursuing his studies and went to work with a Canadian law firm. Following the financial crisis of 2008-09, he came to Calgary to complete a one-year articling program at McCarthy Tetro, and he never left. At present, he is a partner specializing in corporate finance, in addition to mergers and acquisitions. He and his wife are proud to be Calgarians, raising their two children in our city. Welcome to Rotary, Rishi!
Community Hubs Update
Howie Shikaze welcomed Karen Young, President & CEO of United Way of Calgary and Area, back to provide an update on the Community Hubs project.
From my team and partners at the city, thank you for your generous contributions to the hubs and the COVID-19 Community Response Fund.
I am going to talk for a few minutes about the Community Hubs in 2019. As you know, it has been tough out there, and I just wanted to thank you for everything that you have been doing. Your contributions of time and talent are essential to the success of the Community Hubs project.
As we know, Communities Hubs are where community happens. The program is about engaging residents to help solve some of the complex social issues they face, and you can see that they are welcoming and inclusive gathering places where people come together. Community Hubs are where they learn how to access the supports and services they need to be resilient in their communities. We also know from our work in the hubs that we had some excellent results in 2019. We helped almost 44,000 Calgarians, and we heard that 81 percent of the residents felt that being involved in their hubs had made a difference in their lives. I always say that when we work together, we have significant impacts.
Howie spoke about how we changed our delivery model during COVID-19 and how we mobilized communities to support each other in different ways rather than just the physical hub. I remember back in the day discussing how we could create virtual hubs, where people could connect in different ways, especially with the onset of digital technologies. The pandemic has accelerated digital technologies by almost five years, and we see people reaching out with technology. People can access mental health supports or their studies for school and employment. By partnering with a group called Ruckify, we can provide computers and smartphones to people so that they can stay connected. We have learned that vulnerable people living on the tipping point of poverty cannot afford access to essential technologies. These partnerships allow us to make sure that our hubs can provide access to these technologies.
We will continue working in this way as we move into our recovery and discover what kind of efforts will be required moving forward. We know mental health, social isolation, lack of inclusion, and access to good food will continue to be top concerns.
I wanted to take a minute now to congratulate you on your Lunchbucket Challenge campaign. It has been an honour to work with you. I got to share with you some of our priorities for the six million dollars we distributed to 159 agencies.
I also wanted to acknowledge a couple of Rotary efforts around engagement. I am proud of how the hubs team has reoriented itself during the COVID-19 pandemic and how we were doing things like delivering food packages. We have reached out to over one thousand residents via phone to let them know about the resources available.
I came here to thank you for your kindness, your commitment, and your caring spirit towards Calgarians. We need this more than ever. You are crucial to the social fabric of our community and know that this work needs to continue. I am excited to think about what community development looks like as we work to alleviate poverty in Calgary. We know more people are going to be vulnerable. I wanted to thank Howie and Rick for the work that they have been doing and thank Kathy for her work on the partnership committee. Together, we can make the most significant difference. So, thank you for having me today, and thank you again for your generous contribution from the Legacy committee to the Community Hubs initiative.
