President Mark Sorenson welcomed everyone to the meeting today, it was great to see all the faces on the screen and he hoped everyone was safe, well and looking after themselves. He mentioned that we had a busy meeting today, with several different presentations, so we got right to it.
Dave Panabaker encouraged Rotarians to redouble their efforts to sell the tickets for Club 1000, the Festival is still "on", although a virtual Festival will be a first for all of us. This raffle is our principle fundraising for the Music Festival. (as of January 11th, we have 438 paid tickets in the draw barrel, and $21,900 in the bank). With both the Saamis and Sunrise club, as well as the local Kinsman club, cash raffles done at Christmas, some of our competition has disappeared.
Rotary Club "What-z New":
A new club laptop is in our future, the current one will not provide the service required to stream our meetings.
If our hybrid meetings continue in the future, a few more meeting helpers will be required to help run cameras and sound. We are all learning as we go along here, but these type of meetings are manpower intensive.
Rotary Club Membership Update:
If you are interested in helping this working membership team, please contact Mike Christie.
Rotary Club Information:
Housekeeping:
Please collect club draw items. It is an important part of our meeting and the funds generated help to run the club.
If you have a Meeting Minute, please phone or email the Newsletter and we'll include it.
Board minutes can be found on ClubRunner, under Club Documents.
Upcoming Club Program, Activities, and Meetings
Our next "ZOOM" meeting will be Monday, January 18 at noon, Edward Lipin will do his classification talk.
The DG and President Mark have requested that we limit our in person gatherings while COVID cases are rising in the community. Our meetings will be virtual until at least Monday February 8th that is currently our first scheduled " in person" meeting, but don't hold your breath!
Upcoming Rotary District and International Events:
Mark this date in your calendars, the 2021 Rotary District Conference is May 14 - 16, 2021 in Drumheller, AB.
Future Programs:
The Rotary Club's Program Coordinator is Jillian Koch. If you have future program ideas, please email Jillian at jkoch@jmhca.com
The Rotary Club was delighted to welcome Elly Contreras to our meeting today, to speak about Project Amigo, "Ending Poverty through Education" in Manzanillo, Mexico.
Elly was introduced by Kitt Brand, who made her acquaintance at the meetings of the E-Rotary Club One. Elly joined Rotary in 1996 with the Rotary Club of Stoney Plain in District 5370. Project Amigo aims to help end poverty amongst migrant farm workers and their family's, by encouraging and assisting children to finish school. Many families in this area end up as unskilled farm labor, and their children are often captured by the same working environment, and only half finish middle school, and only 20% finish high school. Although Mexico has the 14th largest economy in the world, they also have one of the highest percentages of poor people.
Project Amigo aims to improve academic standards, and using a rewards based system provides material, scholarships and facilities to aid in further education.
The program has so far graduated over 80 students from university, often the first person in their family to achieve that level of education. This year they had 26 Jr High grads, 22 High School grads and 8 university graduates. Many of the university grads "give back" to the program to help keep it going.
A wonderful presentation, more information can be obtained by contacting Elly or visiting their website.
Terry Cooper provided some updates and information on a number of service projects, both International and Local that are ongoing.
First, he provided an update on the status of the first batch of bicycles that have been donated by the MH Police Service. With the hard work of Terry, Peter, Ken and Roger, as well as a number of others, the first shipment has been repaired or scrapped. A total of 12 bikes went to the Salvation Army, 3 are going to the MH Public library and a further 4 or 5 will be lent out in the spring.
Second, Terry reviewed the progress of the "Make them Smile" program, of providing dentures to needy seniors in Sri Lanka. This project was started early last year, with leadership from Sri Lankan Rotarians who were members of a recent Rotary Friendship echange but was suspended as the effects of the COVID pandemic hit Sri Lanka. The work has started up again, and Terry provided some great photos of happy people smiling for the first time in a long time!
Terry then reviewed an opportunity to partner with several other Rotary Clubs around the world, and support the "Tenderfoot" Self-Help School in Nairobi, Kenya. As they have expanded, they are in desperate need of kitchen facilities, and through a contact of Kitt and Dieter Brand in Ontario, we can provide a contributions to this project. The total project is over $32,000 US, and with a generous donation from the Brands, we can access unallocated District Grant funds from 2020 - 2021 which are still available. Terry Brekko moved, and Dave Panabaker seconded the club apply for the District Grant for this project and that motion was approved. Kitt Brand will do the grant work for the International Committee and hopefully we will know in a few weeks if we can access the funds.
Terry Brekko spoke about another major fundraising activity of Rotary for the Music Festival, the program advertising and "Patrons of the Festival" endowment that we maintain at the CFSEA. With a virtual Festival, and without a printed program, advertising is different but the fundraising is still important. Tax receipts for 2020 contributions to the endowment should be available this week, and hopefully those patrons will still support us. Don't forget to get your package from Dairy Queen in Crescent Heights.
Theresa Eisenbarth updated the club on the activities of the MH High School Interact club. It has been a slow start this year, with all the pandemic rules, but they now have an executive and are organizing a "Thank You" poster campaign for all essential service workers. They are sending out proposals to a variety of clubs and hoping to attract a number of participants. Sounds like a great, heartfelt project and we'll watch for them around town.
Dave Stalwick mentioned that he received a membership survey from Rotary International, apparently an annual update to their questions about "Why Rotary??"
Margie Booyens is looking for Rotarians to volunteer to serve on our board for the year 2021-2022. There is a need for at least 3 more volunteers.
Dave Panabaker mentioned that Club Leadership Team training is coming up. A recent email from District is a reminder that Part 1 is Feb 20th and Part 2 is Feb 27th. You can register for Part 1 with this link https://rotary5360.ca/event/club-leadership-team-training-workshop--1
Dave Panabaker also encouraged all Rotarians to sign up for the next Rotary training webinar, titled "Indigenous Relations". It will be Wednesday evening, Jan 20th at 7:00 pm. Registration in advance on the District website is required, follow this link https://rotary5360.ca/event/january-club-learning-webinar
If you have photos or a story to include in the Weekly News, please submit it to Dave P and we'll try to publish it.
Birthdays: January.
Dick Northcott January 13.
Roger Roy January 19.
Mark Sorenson January 23.
Melanie Harty January 25.
Jim White January 31.
Club Anniversaries: January.
Igor Grujic 1 year January 20, 2020.
Peter Mueller 1 year January 20, 2020.
Gail Halderman 25 years January 22, 1996.
Shann Snedden 4 years January 23, 2017.
Herman Wahl 59 years January 29, 1962.
Makeups:
None recorded.
Family of Rotary: (PLEASE KEEP ADOLF INFORMED ABOUT MEMBERS SO THAT INFORMATION CAN BE PASSED ON TO ALL IN THE WEEKLY NEWS)..
Joe Hrankowski continues his recovery from heart surgery, we all wish him a speed return to good health.
Adolf followed up on Herman Wahl, who continues to have some health challenges, but is doing better with his pain patches.
Terry Partis is back on the "right" side of the border, and we were glad to see him at the meeting.
Brenda Bauman is feeling as good as she's felt in a long time, and sends her best wishes to everyone in the club.
We send our thoughts and prayers to all three of our Rotary Club family who have lost a partner in the past few months, it is a very tough adjustment.
