Rotary Weekly News - September 15,2025 (Sep. 15, 2025)

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

President Milan welcomed all to our meeting, which celebrates an annual event in the Rotary calendar which is the club visit of the District Governor, as well as a few surprises.

After the singing of O Canada, the club took time for a moment of silence to honour and remember the contributions to our club from Jack Snedden.

After that sombre moment, the meeting turned somewhat upbeat, as District Governor Manon Mitchell had the pleasure of inducting our newest member Brian Andjelic. Brian was joined by Club President Milan and his sponsor Brent Secondiak.

Welcome to the club Brian. We look forward to learning about you, and supporting your contributions to the club and the community.

The next reason for celebration was the District Governor's excitement to present last years Board (those who were present at least) with the Rotary Award of Excellence. Achieving goals means you first have to set them and then follow up and she was thrilled to advise that our club was the only one in District 5360 to win the award.

President Milan then turned the meeting over to DG Manon.

Rotary Club Information:

Housekeeping:
- We continue looking for volunteers for desk reception at our Monday meetings.

MONARCH 1911 SOCIETY

As many Rotarians will know, our club, in cooperation with the Saamis Rotary Club and the Friends of the Monarch Society, has been working on restoring both the structure and the programming at the historic Monarch movie theatre on 2nd St S.E, Medicine Hat.

Our club will try to keep track of events on at the Monarch, to give members a heads-up that the opportunity to serve exists. If you are interested, please let Rotarian Janessa Anderson (403-952-1907) know and she can provide details of available shifts and responsibilities.

Volunteering at a show is a great way to connect with the community and support the historic local landmark.

The next event at the Monarch is a showing of the Princess Bride, on Friday Sept 26, doors open at 6:30 pm and admittance is $5.00 (cash only)

Ideas for Future Programs

The Rotary Club's Program Committee members are Jillian Koch (jkoch@jmhca.com), Margie Booyens (margiebooyens@gmail.com), Alain Guerard (aguerard@telus.net), Sharon Hayward (sharon.hayward@medicinehatymca.ca).

Annual Visit of the District Governor

The Rotary Club welcomed District Governor Manon Mitchell to our meeting today. DG Manon was introduced by President Milan as a member and Past President of the Rotary Club of Calgary. She is fluently bilingual and enjoys travelling and "doing Rotary". They have 4 adult children and 2 grandkids.

Manon spoke a little about her personal history and moving to Calgary. She was engaged in software education for a very long time, through many versions and generations of IT software.

She spoke about the District Action Plan, and how important the maintenance of our membership is to club and district health.

She presented historical membership numbers for the District, and for our club, with an emphasis on both new recruiting and managing our obligations to the fight against Polio. She invited everyone to an event in Calgary on Nov 1st, featuring

Ramesh Ferris, DG of District 5370 to our north. She would like to double the number of Polio Plus donors in the District to 108, and encouraged everyone to support both the Rotary Foundation and our End Polio Now campaign.

She spoke about the role of District and how they were working hard to help club be successful.

A great presentation, and we all loved the "addressing an envelope and mailing a note to a fellow Rotarian" exercise. We will all be checking the mailbox.

Meeting News

GUESTS:

The club was delighted to welcome District Governor Manon Mitchell, and her husband, PDG Kurt Kowalchuk.
Also, although only a guest for about 15 minutes we welcome Brian Andjelic (a member in waiting). Brian was Superintendent of the Prairie Rose School Division prior to his retirement.

ATTENDANCE:

There were 18 Rotarians at our meeting, 3 guests and 3 on ZOOM.

MEETING DRAW:

Doug Fleming was the delighted winner of a gift from the Stratford Festival gift shop.

Please remember to contribute gifts for the weekly draw. If you are somewhere interesting, a small gift to the club for the draw is much appreciated!

Makeups: None were mentioned.

Birthdays:

Milan Vujovic Sept 4

Dick Bide Sept 5

Joe Hrankowski Sept 15

Kevin Walcer Sept 24

Stan Sakamoto Sept 30

Rotary Anniversaries:

Bernie Scott 41 years. Sept 1, 1984

Dieter Brand 31 years Sept 1, 1994

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY ROSE RUNNER FOR SEPTEMBER 2025

Dick Bide

Minutes

Next Rotary Bingo: Gregg Martin is recruiting for the next bingo, which is Monday evening September 29 beginning at 5:00 pm.

Circle T Toastmaster Club: Gail Haldemann encouraged members and friends to attend an open house of the Circle T Toastmaster Club on Tuesday, September 16, from 6-8pm (with door opening at 5pm), in the Courtyard Room, MH College. You can find more information on the Club's website: circlet.toastmastersclubs.org

Veiner Centre: Drivers are urgently needed! Dawn Barr encouraged members to respond to the plea from the Veiner Centre for drivers. Drivers are needed for Meals-on-Wheels deliveries and for taking people to medical and other appointments. Any level of help will be appreciated!

Rotary Club Locator: Dawn reminded members of how useful the Rotary Club Locator app is, when one is out of town or out of the country and wishing to attend a Rotary meeting. Consider downloading the app!

Pecha Kucha presentation on our Club's Team Freewheel Bike Project: Terry Cooper has confirmed that the project will have a spot in the June 5, 2026 evening.

The annual Terry Fox run, was a big success and raised over $22,000 for cancer research. Great work by Sunrise Rotary. DG Manon and Kurt also participated.

On October 1st, The Sunrise Rotary club will have "Mothers Apron" presentations at the MH Library.

Family of Rotary

The Rotary Club family sends our prayers and condolences to the Snedden family on the loss last week of Jack. Jack was a member of our club for 36 years, and a prominent member of our community. His celebration of life will be on Friday September 19th at 1:00 pm at Pattison's Funeral Home.

The Club continues to keep Ric Carrier in our thoughts, as he deals with the long term effects of his bicycle accident.

Please keep a Board Member informed about members health and/or any other changes, so that information can be provided to the club through the Weekly News.