"Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change - across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves!"
The Rotary Club of Calgary comprises professional and community leaders brought together in fellowship to make a better future.
Rotary International's theme for the 2025-2026 year
Birthdays
Jennifer Buck June 22
Ebenezer Mensa June 22
Paul Chave June 23
Bob Holland June 25
Nathan Koenigsberg June 25
Riz Nathoo June 27
Craig Henderson June 29
Dave Richardson July 1
Steve Allan July 2
Helen Hu June 5
Anniversaries
Jim Shaner 50 years
Cristina Castro 30 years
Michelle DeCecco 15 years
Club Meeting June 16
Madeleine King
Past President Joe Fras called the meeting to order in the absence of Club President Bill Hamilton who is in Taipei attending the Rotary International Convention.
Visitors and guests were welcomed, Michael Pierson led us in singing O Canada and Brian Guichon provided heartfelt words of gratitude during our invocation.
Joe Fras thanked the front-of-house volunteers- Ann Haessel, Dave Leslie and Bob Taylor as official Greeter.
After fellowship time, Steve Allan encouraged all to participate in the welcome revival of the annual Hays Breakfast, now spearheaded by former member Catherine Brownlee, Sunday July 5. Any questions, contact Steve.
Craig Henderson recognized 11 birthday members (including himself) and all were duly celebrated.
Sean Baylis spoke of this year’s 30th anniversary Stay-in-School golf fund-raiser (link here) explaining the major impact its funding provides to help youth graduate grade school and achieve good careers. All members are requested to participate and/or introduce a sponsor. BROCHURE
Our international student from Germany, Valentin Frauenknecht, was introduced by our club’s joint program leaders, John Hsu and Barb Young. He gave a presentation detailing his year here with us and the Stampede Club thanking his 5 host families including Manon and Kurt as well as William Friedson.
Franco Savoia, Major Donations Chair, introduced Cassy Weber and Lisa Kindree from a major donation recipient Mind Fuel Foundation. Cassy’s presentation included the vision and research behind their organization’s use of the money impacting the adult-life success of young people.
Steve Allan was called on a second time, this time to explain the incredible success of this year’s Big Book Sale ($585,000 raised), the importance of its role in advancing the cause of literacy for children up to grade 3, and paying tribute to the passion and exceptional ability of Steacy Pinney.
Catherine Scheers introduced our guest speaker, Dr. Alice de Koning, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary and Academic Director of its Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking.
Her fascinating presentation covered what business and community leaders can do to encourage innovation in Canada.
Alice explained we should be thinking of value creation, risk management (rather than risk avoidance), talent growth, scaling up projects to enter the global sphere – so that Canadians take their rightful place along with countries such as Sweden (which is more internationally present in business despite being smaller than Canada).
Inventors need the help of leaders to:
understand the problem they are finding a solution to
the size of their market
develop an organization or corporation creating sustainable value.
Leaders need to support the inventors to:
understand the problems of the leaders’ own business or community sector requiring solutions
be their first customers
provide funding
invest in talent to professionalize the management structure.
After a short Q&A involving several members with interesting questions, a warm thank you was delivered by Catherine Scheers along with a certificate indicating a donation has been made in Alice’s name to Wellspring Cancer Services.
Members were given the chance to share their “Happy Bucks” moments, and the meeting ended with a tribute to the forthcoming Stampede- the best time to be a Calgarian!
Notice to Membership: Annual General Meeting - June 30th, 2026
The Rotary Club of Calgary Annual General Meeting will be held:
DATE: Tuesday June 30th, 2026
TIME: 12 Noon - 1:30 PM
LOCATION: Fairmont Palliser - Crystal Ballroom
President Bill Hamilton and Treasurer Joel Snodgrass will present their reports on the 2025-2026 Rotary Year.
You will hear remarks from the Legacy Projects Committee and the beneficiary organizations.
There are no Resolutions for ratification this year.
The gavel will be turned over and the Officers and Directors for the ensuing year shall be installed.
Speaker Recognition - Wellspring Cancer Support
Al McMillan
At every bi-weekly Rotary meeting, we express our appreciation and thank our guest speaker by making a donation to Wellspring Cancer Support. Over the past year, these donations totaled $5,000.
Wellspring is a vital community partner that helps individuals and families navigate the daily realities of living with cancer. While hospitals treat the medical side, Wellspring supports the deeply human side—providing emotional care, practical assistance, and a compassionate community when it’s needed most.
CLICK HERE to read Wellspring’s 2025 Impact Report and learn more about Wellspring’s impact on our community.
Rotary Members Support Innovation at MindFuel's Tech Futures Challenge Showcase
Patti Dolan - Major Donations
As a supporter of STEM education and youth innovation, our Rotary Club was pleased to provide funding to the MindFuel Tech Futures Challenge (TFC) program. I was honored to represent the club as a judge at this year's Innovation Showcase and fellow Rotarian Franco was also able to attend and spend time viewing the project displays.
The day began with an orientation session that highlighted MindFuel's impressive 13-year journey of helping young people progress from curiosity to capability. Their Innovation Journey framework focuses on three key stages:
Early Engagement – Building curiosity and encouraging exploration.
Innovation Readiness – Moving students from inspiration to action.
Outcomes and Momentum – Transforming ideas into real-world impact.
One particularly impressive statistic shared during the opening session was that 13% of Tech Futures Challenge-supported projects are commercialized within 4.2 years, demonstrating the program's ability to help students develop ideas with genuine market potential.
The showcase featured 28 student presentations evaluated by 28 judges. Judges worked in small groups with each group reviewing five to six presentations throughout the day. The projects covered a wide range of innovative solutions reflecting the creativity, technical skills, and entrepreneurial thinking of Canada's youth.
The judging day ran from 8:15 a.m. until approximately 4:30 p.m. and provided an excellent opportunity to see firsthand the remarkable talent and enthusiasm of the participants. It was inspiring to watch students confidently present their ideas, answer questions, and demonstrate the results of their hard work. Franco's visit to the project displays provided another opportunity to engage with the students and learn more about their innovative ideas.
Our club can take pride in supporting programs such as MindFuel that help develop the next generation of innovators, problem-solvers, and community leaders. The experience reinforced the value of investing in youth and providing opportunities that encourage creativity, critical thinking, and entrepreneurship.
Thank you to MindFuel for the opportunity to participate in this outstanding event and for the important work they do in inspiring young innovators.
Our Bar-B-Q Gang at Work
Diane Macdonald
Our last school Bar-B-Q of the season was on June 11th at West Dover School. We fed about 550 students and family members at their school festival and it was, once again, declared a great success. We served the food indoors but our cooks had to brave the elements outside where the rain came down for a little while. It’s a good thing we have some pop-up canopies!
We have had some great feedback from the principals of two of the schools with whom we deal.
From Bishop Kidd Junior High School:
“The BBQ was excellent. The students are still talking about it today and how much they enjoyed. Hats off to you and your team for taking the time to support our community. It was a great event. Glad to hear the extras went to important organizations.”
From Deb Hymers: What NSTEP did at Bishop Kidd was teach 120 grade 7 students how to make a healthy lunch, knife skills, food safety and how nutrition, activity, and sleep build better brains and bodies. Fresh Routes provided a bag of ingredients plus fruit to take-home over the weekend.
From West Dover School, from the Assistant Principal:
Thank you so much for all the work that went into making the BBQ such a success.
On behalf of our entire school community, please extend our sincere gratitude to all of your volunteers. Events like this take an incredible amount of planning, preparation, and teamwork, and we are so appreciative of the time and energy everyone contributed. Feeding more than 525 guests with no food left over is an amazing accomplishment!
One of the things we value most at West Dover is creating opportunities for connection and community, and the BBQ did exactly that. It was wonderful to see students, families, staff, and volunteers coming together, enjoying one another's company over food, and strengthening the relationships that make our school such a special place. The positive atmosphere throughout the event was a reflection of the care and generosity of everyone involved.
Thank you again for your partnership and support. We truly appreciate all that you do for our school community.
As we begin planning for next year, we would love to explore the possibility of hosting another BBQ.
Iman and Barb met with the principal of Valley View School yesterday (also interviewing stay in school candidates) who was very positive in her comments.
Volunteering for a Bar-B-Q is a wonderful fellowship activity, so the next time you receive a sign-up list email consider adding your name!
Rotary Concerto Competition
Iman Saad
On Sunday, we celebrated the winners of the 2026 RC3 Rotary Calgary Concerto Competition at the Calgary Civic Symphony's Rising Stars concert at Jack Singer Concert Hall. This year's winners, Dallevin Lapaire (piano), Bowen Li (violin), Sophie Ryskin (viola), and Josephine Wen (violin), performed alongside conductor Rolf Bertsch in a stunning showcase of emerging talent.
Through a $6,000 investment, our club supports approximately 50 young musicians in performing publicly, receiving expert adjudication and, for the top performers, sharing the stage with a live symphony orchestra. For musicians under 18, it is a pivotal experience that builds confidence, refines artistry, and can shape the course of an entire musical career. What makes this event even more special is that every Calgary Civic Symphony musician is a volunteer- community members dedicating their time so the next generation can shine alongside them. That is Service Above Self in action and it is exactly what Rotary stands for. Since 2018, our club has been proud to play a role in making this competition possible.
To Dallevin, Bowen, Sophie, and Josephine, congratulations. Calgary is lucky to have you.
Want to learn more? Check out the full post on our social media platforms to watch videos of the performances.
