Rotary Weekly News - March 21. 2022 (Mar 21, 2022)

Remarks of the President

Acting President Dave Panabaker called the meeting to order at 12:15, thanking everyone for attending the first in person meeting at the Medicine Hat Lodge as well being fully online. Dave advised that future meetings will be a hybrid of in-person at the Lodge, with a ‘Zooming an option" for those unable to be physically present. Acting president Dave P thanked John John for the set up for the in person meeting, Dave Stalwick for doing the Weekly News from Surprise, AZ, as well as Mike for the ZOOM connection. The Sergeant at Arms will be Mike Christie for today.

Acting President Dave thanked all who sold the Club1000 tickets. Dave thanks to all for selling but in particular Adolf Seiler who sold 66 tickets., The draw took place on Sunday 20 March during the Stars of the Festival at St Barnabas Church. He advised that a report on the raffle would be presented at the business meeting on March 28. Congratulations to all the winners.

Dave then asked Past President Margie to come forward for the presentation of our club induction material to our newest club member Emilia Dirk and at the same time Sandy Mackay presented Emilia with a Paul Harris pin. Dave then asked Sandy to present Gwen Dirk with her Paul Harris Fellowship certificate and a Paul Harris pin.

Dave introduced our guest speaker, Emilia Dirk for her classification talk.

Emilia advised that she is from Romania and has been in Canada for 6 years. She spent her first year in Calgary (were she meet her husband) and then moved to Medicine Hat. She is employed at Saamis Immigration.

Emilia advised that she knew at age 10 that she wanted to come to Canada. She tried to tailor her education to assist by studying accounting and then architecture. She is the youngest of 4 girls, of which two have also immigrated to Canada. Her hobbies are hiking and biking. She also likes to paint and showed us some of her work. She recently took her new husband for his first trip to Romania where he meet many family and they also toured Dracula's castle. Emilia has two black cats named Lacey # 1 and Lacey #2 and if the ever get another cat it will be Lacey #3. She also advised that with her husband she has two grand children.

Several questions were asked and answered. Welcome to the Rotary Family Emilia!

Our guest AG Keith Walker:

Keith extended an invitation to the the March 31 social with our DG starting at 6:30 at the Best Western hotel. There will be small charge for the event of $10/person along with a cash bar. This evening is hosted by the Saamis Rotary Club.

Keith also advised that there are still some tickets for the draw for two E bikes by the Sunrise club, and of course he had some with him!

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Shelterbox and Rotary are official Project Partners in international disaster relief. Shelterbox is responding to the Ukraine crisis and their teams have arrived in Poland and working to understand how best they can help people affected by the crisis. If you wish to make a donation to assist, please follow this link.

https://www.shelterboxcanada.org

If you would rather donate through Rotary International, here's the link

https://my.rotary.org/en/disaster-response-fund

Rotary Club "What-z New":

A few more meeting helpers are required to run cameras and sound during our hybrid meetings. We are all learning to adapt to this new reality. Anyone wishing to help should contact Mike Christie 403 878 3311.

Rotary Club Membership Update:

Would you like to join the membership team? Check out a meeting and see how exciting it is! The committee meets on the second Thursday of each month at 5:00 pm. Contact Mike Christie to join in.

Rotary Club Information:

Housekeeping:
- If you have a Meeting Minute, please phone or email the President and it will be included in the next Newsletter.
- Board minutes can be found on ClubRunner, under Club Documents.

Upcoming Club Program, Activities and Meetings:

Wednesday March 23, 2022 - Rotary Bingo: 5-10pm
Monday March 28, 2002 - Business Meeting at The Lodge
Thursday March 31, 2022 - Quad Club Social with DG.
Saturday April 2, 2022 - Rotary Bingo (evening)
Monday April 4, 2022 - Club meeting - Peace Scholar presentation.

Upcoming Rotary District and International Events

The next District 5360 Conference is a "single day" event in Cochrane, on Saturday, May 14, 2022. Attendance will be possible by ZOOM as well. Register at https://www.discon5360.ca
RI International Convention - Houston, June 4 - 8, 2022. Much more information is on the website https://convention.rotary.org/en/houston

Future Programs:

The Rotary Club's Program Committee is: Jillian Koch (jkoch@jmhca.com), Dave Panabaker (d.panabaker@hotmail.com) and Margie Booyens (margiebooyens@gmail.com). If you have ideas for future programs, please contact them).

Meeting News

Posted on Mar 21, 2022

Guests:

One guest, Keith Walker, AG and member of the Sunrise Rotary Club.
Johan Booyens, spouse of Rotarian Margie.

Club Draw:

Doug Fleming won a pair of Rotary Centennial Martini glasses.

Makeups:

None recorded

Birthdays:

Dan Kammerer March 4.
Dave Panabaker March 7.
Terry Cooper March 25.

Rotary Anniversaries: .

Stan Sakamoto 38 years March 1, 1984.
Jack Snedden 33 years March 1, 1989.
Mike Christie 20 years March 4, 2002.
Dave Stalwick 20 years March 4, 2002.
John John 19 years March 10, 2003.
Bruce Shepard 8 years March 10, 2014.
Dawn Barr 18 years March 29, 2004.

Wedding Anniversary Rose Runner for March: Gail Halderman.

Minute People:

Emilia Dirk, who has family members in Romania, shared some additional information about the migration of Ukrainians to surrounding countries, including Poland and Romania, and the continued need to assist through organizations like the Red Cross and Rotary International.
AG Keith Walker reminded all that the Saamis Club is celebrating their 45^th anniversary on Thursday 31 March, the event costing $10 per person (with cash bar available), attendees to be addressed by DG Martin Parnell. The event starts at 6:30pm. The event will take place in the meeting room of the Best Western Hotel, on Paul Stober Dr SE.
There will be a $25 buffet lunch available during the in-person meeting at The Lodge on Monday 28 March. If you would like to be a greeter, or if you would are able to help John John with the layout of the venue for this meeting, please contact Dave Panabaker.
Bingo on Saturday April 2nd so please watch for the sign up. Dave S will be back from Surprise AZ to chair this event.
Dave Panabaker encouraged members to attend the 40th anniversary of the RC of Brooks on 7 April - this Club was sponsored by the RC of MH.
Anne and Terry advised that they will need many bikes to fill the demands from charities that have many individuals who need this type of transportation.
The annual highway cleanup is coming in approximately one month. Likely Saturday April 23th will be day.
Margie Booyens passed along a request from Nicole Nemo, who runs the "Homestay" program for international students at the MH College. The college is looking for 2 or 3 new host families to each host a Japanese student for the upcoming spring term from April 15 - July 22 (dates are approx.). Host families receive $650 per month for the out of pocket expenses of have the extra member of the family. Questions and applications can be directed to Nicole or Lulu Guan in the Global Engagement office at the MH College. The office phone number is 403-502-8448.
Paper version of the rooster will be out for people to verify and make any changes. It is also a time to look for any new areas in which you would like to serve. This will be done for all three clubs.

Family of Rotary: (PLEASE KEEP ADOLF SEILER INFORMED ABOUT MEMBERS SO THAT INFORMATION CAN BE PASSED ON TO ALL IN THE WEEKLY NEWS).

No report.