Rotary Weekly News - November 29, 2021 (Nov 27, 2021)

President Meeting Remarks:

President Terry Partis welcomed everyone to the last meeting of November, and was happy to return to mild weather after his shuffle to Florida for American Thanksgiving.

Terry wanted to mention a few highlights that he had become aware of over the past week. He congratulated everyone who participated in the Unisphere project on Friday at the Esplanade. There were several minutes take later in the meeting to speak about this learning circle.

Terry encouraged Rotarians to consider registering for next spring's District Conference in Cochrane. It is a trial one day event, and there are prizes available for early registration.

Terry also asked Sandy Mackay to speak briefly about the Rotary Foundation, which is the focus of Rotary work this month. Sandy first advised that everyone should have a "rotary.org" account, so they can access the mountain of information about Rotary on the Rotary International website. Sandy spoke about the 46,000 clubs world wide, and the 1.4 Million members in Rotary and Rotaract. He listed the 7 area's of focus for Rotary work, and that we try to do "good in the world" and "promote world peace and understanding".

There is lots more to learn at www.rotary.org

President Terry and Secretary Doug Fleming wanted to congratulate a long list of Paul Harris Fellows, who have built up over the past few months as we aren't meeting in person.

New Paul Harris Fellows (Pins and Certificates): Igor Grujic, Gwen Dirk, and Reagan Weeks
PHF +2 - Bruce Shepard.
PHF +3 - Doug Fleming and Melanie Harty
PHF +4 - Dawn Barr
PHF +8 - Sieg Kappler

Congratulations to all of you and the support of the Rotary Foundation is appreciated.

Rotary Club "What-z New":

As it is most likely our hybrid meetings will continue in the future, a few more meeting helpers will be required to help run cameras and sound. We are all learning to adapt to this new reality. Any wishing to help should contact Mike Christie 403 878 3311.

Rotary Club Membership Update:

If you are interested in helping this working membership team, please contact Mike Christie. A new Membership Chair is needed, Mike is currently doing double duty with Community Service and it would be nice to lighten his load a bit.
There is always room for more interested Rotarians to join the membership team, check out a meeting and see how exciting it is.

Rotary Club Information:

Housekeeping:
- 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.
- Gail Halderman mentioned that Club Dues (now $250) are now due.

Upcoming Club Program, Activities, and Meetings:

Monday December 6, 2021 - Rotary Meeting (Induction of Mayor Linnsie Clark as an honorary member)
Monday December 13, 2021 - Rotary Meeting
Wednesday December 15, 2021 - Evening Bingo
Wednesday December 15, 2021 - See the Lights social
Saturday December 18, 2021 - Ring the Bells for the Salvation Army
Monday December 20, 2021 - Business Meeting (Election of Next Year's officers)

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

Future Programs:

The Rotary Club's Program Coordinator is Jillian Koch. If you have future program ideas, please email Jillian at jkoch@jmhca.com

Update from Canadian Humanitarian

The Rotary Club was delighted to welcome Bisrat Sime, the Country Coordinator for Canadian Humanitarian in Ethiopia, as well as Deb Northcott who with spouse and Rotarian Dick run this charity. Bisrat has been with Canadian Humanitarian since 2010 and with other NGO's prior to that since 1996.

Bisrat spent some time detailing the program in the area of Addis Ababa, as well as several centers in the south of the country. He spoke about the need for care, for vocational and educational training and support for high education that they have been able to provide.

They are involved with over 1600 children in 7 different centers. He gave several great examples of success stories with graduates, who have gone on to professional careers and have broken the cycle of poverty. He spoke about the difficulty of operating with COVID restrictions over the past year, involving home study, phone comsultation and scheduled visits to promote social distancing. He also spoke about the political instability, which has resulted in an ongoing war in the north part of the country which is very troubling.

He finished his talk by thanking all those present for their support over the past years, which has been vital and essential to their success. He is confident and hopeful that Rotarians will continue to support the organization and their work.

Community Service Opportunities

Rotary Club Community Service Director Mike Christie took the opportunity at today's meeting to review several very worthwhile projects. These projects have approached our club for support, and while we don't have the resources to support all of them, he believed that our club members might be interested in one of these specific initiatives.

MHART

Dick Bide has drawn this organization to our attention and offered to match a $200 donation.

MHART is an initiative of six local churches, which began in 2015, to sponsor a family from Syria. Now a non-profit society, MHART invites you to help us rescue six members of this South Sudanese family from the Kakuma Refugee camp in Kenya & settle them in our community.

MHART plans to sponsor six of William's relatives, including his mother and five educated young people, eager to work and contribute to our community. The Government of Canada will bring these family members to Medicine Hat, provided we can raise $15,000 per person to support their first year of settlement.

https://youtu.be/BBN2DoW8BJY

Medicine Hat Women's Shelter - ADOPT A FAMILY

Last year COVID-19 made MHWSS re-evaluate the most effective way to operate our program while keeping all our staff, volunteers, clients and sponsors safe and healthy. The changes we made turned out to be a huge success with a lot of positive feedback from clients. We have listened to the needs of those who access our services and are going to no longer run our program as a matching program. Instead, we are asking our community to assist us through donations of new toys and gift cards so we can then provide the parent the opportunity to choose the gifts their child will receive.

We are excited to be able to empower Mom or Dad with the opportunity to be a part of choosing items that will make their child's Christmas special. Mom or Dad will also receive a gift package and each family will receive a gift card for groceries.

We hope you will consider helping to make a difference in the lives of one of these families in need.

We invite you to support the program in any of the following ways:

Donate new toys, gifts (for all ages) or gift cards by dropping them off at Sun Valley Honda and Davis GMC in Medicine Hat between November 12 and December 17.
Make a financial donation towards the program (this can be done online at www.mhwss.ca, e-transfer to info@mhwss.ca or mail a cheque)

Deidre Giesbrecht, Volunteer and Donation Coordinator

Medicine Hat Women's Shelter Society

Medicine Hat Santa Claus Fund

Dieter Brand mentioned that former club member Mike Hertz was a long time supporter of the Medicine Hat Santa Claus Fund.

The form for making a donation is available in "PDF" form in Club Documents.

https://www.mhsantafund.com

Meeting News

Posted on Nov 22, 2021

Guests:

The club welcomed Bisrat Sime and Deb Northcott from Canadian Humanitarian as well as a good turnout of 32 Rotarians.

Club Draw:

No draw until we get back together in person.

Birthdays:

Dieter Brand Dec 10.
Dale Stein Dec 12.
Gail Halderman Dec 16.
Adolf Seiler Dec 17.
Ken Zollner Dec 18. (HAPPY 80^th!)
John John Dec 19.
Reagan Weeks Dec 27.
Kitt Brand Dec 28.

Rotary Anniversaries:

Terry Cooper 14 years Dec 04, 2007.
Sarah Koch 6 years Dec 14, 2015.
Brent Secondiak 1 year Dec 14, 2020.
Ken Feser 3 years Dec 17, 2018.
Theresa Eisenbarth 23 years Dec 23, 1998.

Wedding Anniversary Rose Runner for December: Ken Zollner.

Minute People:

Dave Panabaker thanked everyone who has already been out selling Club 1000 tickets, we have lots of tickets to sell and if you need more please contact Dave, Glen Presley or Doug Fleming. Sales of these tickets are our principle fundraising effort for the Rotary Music Festival each year, and we have until the beginning of March to sell them.
Dave also mentioned that he will be sending out a signup event for those who are interested in learning how to build this newsletter. It will be done over a number of Monday nights, and in small "chucks" so you can follow along as one is created.
Dave also mentioned that service can be a "small thing" and showed a photo of Rotarian Roger Roy donating a walker which he took down to Mexico to the local La Penita club. Great work by Roger!

Dawn Barr advised that a Christmas Light drive and social are planned for Wed Dec 15th. The cost will be $20.00/person and we will meet at 5:00 pm at the Teepee.
Mike Christie and Adolf Seiler spoke about additional workers needed for the Salvation Army Christmas kettles, an updated sheet will be sent out this week.
Club Treasurer Gail Halderman advised that we have received $17,218.64 for our recent casino. These funds will be used to meet our commitment to the Sanare Center. It's a shame casino's only come along every 18 months.
Peter Mueller spoke about a recent meeting of the Medicine Hat High School Interact club, and how he hopes to attend more meeting over the next few months.
Peter Mueller, Stan Sakamoto and Margie Booyens all spoke about how much they enjoyed participating in the Unisphere learning circle on Friday.

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

Nothing substantial to report, but Jim White sends his best regards to everyone in the club.