Another Great Club Meeting - May 27, 2025
Doug McMillan
President Joe Fras welcomed the 65-70 members and guests noting that the Rotary Club of Calgary had been meeting in the Palliser Hotel for 111 years. Following the patriotic tones of O Canada, Franco Savoia’s invocation reminded us to “Do good now” with the upcoming Rotary convention being a good opportunity for this.
Joe indicated that, with the Rotary Club at Stampede Park and the Calgary Flames, our club contributed to increasing the capacity of Ronald MacDonald House from 27 to 91 rooms and suites making this the largest in Canada (there are 287 Ronald MacDonald Houses in 62 countries).
He reminded those present of the James Wheeler Davidson event June 26, 2025 at the University of Calgary and the Special Club Meeting June 3, 2025 to discuss, and hopefully ratify, the anticipated new Legacy Project. Please read previously circulated information and plan on attending!
New member Bomo Douglas (with lineage as a Nigerian prince) was introduced by Craig Henderson. Look for further biographic information in a future COG.
Sonny Belenkie gave a brief report on the generators provided for Ukraine. Calgary Rotary Clubs funded 140 of the 310 generators donated (The country of Sweden narrowly beat contributions from the city of Calgary). No club funds were used thanks to generous donations!
Doug Webb spoke about our club's BBQ for the Convention: There is a need for a few more volunteers (bus hosts and clean up) for the June 23, 2025 “home hospitality” barbecue at Bill Redmond's Bucars RV World. They were thanked for their space donation along with the Redmans and Macdonalds for their organizational support. There will be a Stampede mobile stage with a band and attendance by a Stampede princess. It will be a fun event!
Introducing the mini auctions, Frank Hall indicated funds raised support enhanced activities in the areas of Membership, Program, Fellowship and Communications (which previously had the support of an annual donation of Lou MacEachern). The items auctioned off raised $2,300 for these “operations”. If you want to see who is bidding on the much appreciated donated items, attend future meetings. Even better, come to bid.
Guest Speaker Mark Garner, Executive Director Calgary Downtown Business Association, spoke on the Business Improvement Area (BIA) model.
This program was first in Toronto (from where Mark moved in 2022) but Calgary Downtown is now the largest covering 102 square blocks. With 2976 members, the Calgary Downtown BIA:
- keeps streets clean and safe (e.g. Green Alley project)
- sponsors festivals and special events
- is involved with marketing and decoration including for the Rotary Convention
- contributes to keeping Calgary one of the world’s beautiful cities
- supports business and development projects (e.g. River Walk, Green Line, Olympic Plaza)
- monitors transportation trends (e.g. Stephen Ave)
- advocates for mental health, housing and building to keep Calgary a great place to live and to visit
There was obvious interest among those present as there were many questions before Mark was thanked by George Brookman, indicating that, as our usual practice, donations were being made to CAWST and the Rotary Community Hub in recognition of this address to club members.
Joe Fras closed the meeting with his quote which linked with the theme of our speaker- see above for the Jane Jacobs quote.
We hope to see a big turnout for both the Special Club Meeting June 3 and the Club Assembly June 17, 2025.
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