Our very first Metro Winnipeg Story - our Club will be submitting a monthly story in the Metro. This is our first one - on how we Pivoted during the Pandemic.
Please watch the Metro monthly as we continue to submit stories all about Rotary and our Club and how we make a difference in our world and our communities.
Please see the June edition: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/metro/Rotary-continues-its-worldwide-good-works-574594831.html
Rotary Pivots during the Pandemic
The Rotary Club of Winnipeg-Assiniboine is one of 8 Rotary Clubs in the City of Winnipeg and one of 13 in the Province of Manitoba. All fit under the umbrella of Rotary International whose membership globally is 1.2 million members in 35,000 clubs! The broad goals of Rotary everywhere are to promote peace in the world by promoting the availability of clean water and sanitation, maternal and child health, enhancing opportunities for education, both locally and abroad and reducing illness in countries where health care systems are either poorly developed, unavailable or in chaos due to uprisings.
With the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic, a first in 100 years, our way of working to raise money for the betterment of the community was seriously impacted. Our annual fundraisers were cancelled and our weekly meetings were moved to a Zoom format. The Adventures Programs for high school students did not take place and we were unable to attend to community service initiatives, like Manitoba Harvest which were volunteering at 4 times a year.
Since the beginning of the year, we have been looking forward to getting our Rotary lives back. While we wait, we have put our energy into preparing for the time when the vaccine arrives and the pandemic ends! We have used our downtime wisely by making plans for the upcoming year including tentatively booking the date for the Annual Fall Dinner in October. We have formed an alliance with the Assiniboia Chamber of Commerce, met with folks from the school division to look at ways we can support the Literacy Links program in our community and established a tie with our community newspaper to increase awareness of our work.
In January, we hosted Nadia Kidwai from CBC on Zoom after which we were invited to showcase the Rotary Club on the Weekend Morning show. We met on Zoom with Scott and Anne Oakes and received an update on the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre. With them we talked about how we might contribute to this very important resource in our community. Another important guest at our meeting on Zoom was Len Andrusiak from the Better Business Bureau. Len updated us on the LIFT initiative which was designed to introduce ethical behaviour in business for students in the schools, a program which closely aligns
with Rotary ideals. These guests were not only inspirational but also helped provide some direction for our service in Rotary.
We believe that through Rotary and other service organizations like ours, we have the chance to make the world a better place – a place that works for everyone! Join us as we spread health, happiness and peace to those less fortunate in our community and in our world.
The Rotary Club of Winnipeg-Assiniboine meets every Thursday evening on Zoom at 7:00 PM. For questions or concerns please contact us at club@rcwacf.ca