We kicked off our new Rotary year with a visit from our Rotary International President Jennifer Jones. When you consider there are 1.4 million Rotarians/Rotaractors around the world, we were extremely fortunate to have her kick off our first in person club meeting at Sneak-a-Peak on the Stampede grounds.
She was accompanied by her husband Nick Kryacik (Rotarian and District Governor Nominee) and several other Rotary leaders such as Valerie Wafer (RI Board of Directors).
Her itinerary in Calgary was quite hectic as she participate in the Brown Bear activities at Tsuut’Ina on Thursday afternoon followed by attending Sneak-a-Peak. She spoke very eloquently to our audience of just over 200 consisting of Rotarians and guests.
The next morning it was off to the Stampede parade and waving to the crowd of over 300,000 on an 8 km route (that’s about 13,000 steps for those of you who count that). Fifty Rotarians and Rotaractors walked alongside Jennifer and her husband who sat in a very cool western vehicle that was built in Hollywood and eventually made its way to Calgary to transport dignitaries in the Stampede parade.
President Madeleine walked the parade alongside several of our own club members including Bob Taylor, Helen Hu, Lori Forand, Kurt Kowalchuk and Manon Mitchell. It was a superb fellowship event as we met and chatted with Rotarians and Rotaractors from many other clubs from around our Rotary District. Did you know we have a Rotary float? Yes indeed, it is available for all clubs to use around the District (those of you who attended the District Conference will have seen it on display at the event). Being in the parade provided a significant amount of exposure about Rotary not only locally but internationally as the parade was televised. One wonders whether we should participate on a yearly basis!
After the parade President Jennifer and her entourage made their way to Rotary Challenger Park (remember it’s on James W. Davidson Link NE!) to attend the Umoja Mosaic Communities event where hundreds of kids from a variety of cultural communities got together for games, face painting, and lots of fun.
Our esteemed guests departed around 3:00 pm to attend a Stampede Dinner and then it was off to Edmonton the next morning.
With this year’s theme being Imagine Rotary, President Jennifer asks us to think about our impact, our actions as we Imagine the great things we can achieve together in Rotary.
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