Committee in the Spotlight – Historical Committee

John Burroughs described the tasks of the Historical committee whose main goal is to chronicle and archive the club’s activities. He described how these documents are collected and maintained in several “Special Collection” sites in the city. In addition to binding the gossip sheets for each year, this past year, the committee investigated any potential repercussions following the “Privacy Act” legislation, and determined risks were minimal. They have also been busy compiling memorable moments to which President Tom refers in his closing remarks, and they have been compiling various recollections of members.

John Burroughs

Birthdays

August 6: Mary Margaret Murphy
August 7: John Bird
August 8: Peter Goson

Both Mary Margaret and Peter were present to accept their respective roses, and be treated to another rendition of Happy Birthday.

Mary Margaret Murphy and Peter Goson

Announcements:

Ross Burns (Rib Fest chair) thanked the work of the committee and subcommittees involved in Rib Fest, as well as all the volunteers to have accomplished another successful Rib Fest. He noted that both attendance and suspected revenue over the course of the weekend was higher than past years. While we will await the final counts, the net proceeds seem quite promising at this point. With only a couple minor incidents occurring, Ross again thanked all involved.

Ross Burns

Gui Rebelo (our Youth Exchange inbound student from Brazil in 2000-01) announced that he was going to be traveling to Germany to finish his Mechanical Engineering Degree, and that he was grateful to the club and pleased to be back to attend his former host sister’s (John Crossingham’s daughter’s) wedding.

Gui Rebelo

President Tom announced the following upcoming committee meetings:

Senior’s Committee: Aug. 20 at 5pm
Auction Advisory Committee: Aug. 20 at 6pm
Membership Committee: Aug. 21 at 5pm

(Members of these committees are encouraged to contact the chairs or other members to find out the location of these meetings)

President Tom also announced that the St. Catharines Sunrise club would be holding a Yard Sale on Aug. 18th, and members are encouraged to contact Jean Armatige if they have any items that might be suitable.

He also noted that the Lakeshore Club would be hosting their annual Lobster Fest on Aug. 15th, and suggested that members contact him if they were interested in attending the event as we might be able to have enough for a table.

Happy Dollars:

Collected by John Crossingham who had several reasons for happiness including his son’s CD release, his daughter's upcoming wedding, and the fact that cyclists were using his trail.

John Crossingham

Dave Feasby was happy to provide some quantitative information regarding Rib Fest that involved numbers of various bills collected…..141 $100. bills, 345 $50’s, and 16,480 $20.’s

Rick Vanderkuip was happy to return after his leave of absence, and also happy to pay his $10 for a missed birthday.

Orlean DeRosa was happy to hear the positive responses from sponsors in the sponsor tent at Rib Fest, but seemed to be even happier about the end-of last shift perks in the beer tent.

President Tom, Oraine DeRosa, and Ross Burns with 2007 Ribbers

Liz Palmieri thanked the many volunteers, particularly those who stepped up to the plate after an urgent last minute request to help out.

Rick Evans was happy to see Gui, and was also happy to be seeing another returning Youth Exchange student (from India) later this week.

Gui Rebela again expressed his happiness to be here

Ron Sloan was happily impressed with the Rib Fest leadership, and the existence of Montebello Park.

50/50 Draw:

Our guest (Paul MacDonald) had the lucky ticket, but didn’t draw one of the lucky cards…..wasn’t he doing the same thing last week? The pot continues to grow at $521.50.

Program:

Classification Talk

Alex McKee introduced Terry Kellar, describing the fellowship of Rotary in action as he had met and become friends with Terry as a result of both of them joining Rotary early in 2006, and Terry’s active involvement in many of the club’s activities was noted.

Alex Mckee

Terry began by noting that he disliked public speaking, and displayed a whistle which he said he might use to help keep the audience at various stages of alertness should members tend to wane. Although born in Kingston, Ontario, Terry spoke with fondness of the small hamlet that he, his four brothers and two sisters called home (Plevna) near Napanee. While his family has German roots, he said that he was 6th generation Canadian.

Noting himself to like to “live on the edge” in his first 25 years, he entertained the club with a series of life events that took place from the time he was in utero when his parents’ house burnt down to when he was 25 when he sustained his fourth vehicle accident (that includes bicycles and motor cycles). Other incidents of interest included time spent in Sick Children’s Hospital at age three for eating ashes from the woodstove, almost drowning at nine, driving when under age, hunting bear, being at the other end of a drunken fisherman’s gun, paying his way out (along with his buddies) from a U.S. jail at 18 years of age, and joining C.I.B.C. for the first time at age 20.

Terry Kellar

Terry also described the many jobs he had held prior to his long time career with C.I.B.C. that included selling bait, cutting Christmas trees, trapping, logging, being a volunteer fire fighter, and a park ranger. He met his wife while attending St. Lawrence College in 1973, and subsequently raised two children: a son and daughter who have just completed university. Not liking the long hours when he first joined C.I.B.C., he left to work for a television station in Kingston. He later returned to C.I.B.C. and subsequently lived in ten different places in the course of that career, including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, until he arrived in St. Catharines, and retired at age 55. He described holding various managerial positions with the bank including being a district manager, and also working at the head office as a general manager assuming different portfolios.

In terms of character, Terry described himself as being tenacious, sociable – but preferring to stay out of the spotlight, and productive, liking new challenges. He said that he believes in the connection between one’s well being and their emotional state. He noted that he liked to help people, and he appreciated honesty. When he began to mention that he felt that he (as most people) needed to continue to work on themselves spiritually……the microphone mysteriously went dead……

In closing, Terry left us with some investment advice, reminding us that the single most powerful investment is in ourselves.

Thanks to the Speaker: Ron Sloan thanked Terry and President Tom added his thanks.

Terry Kellar and President Tom

Great Club Moments:

President Tom recounted a memorable moment in our club’s history which occurred on Sept. 24, 1992, when Tom Chapman passed out at the podium during his classification talk.

Kelly Buckley reminded that there would be a brief Youth Exchange meeting following the club meeting.

Next Week

Venessa Fralick – Niagara Symphony Children’s Program

Other Announcements:

• ROTARY District Newsletter for June is now available at http://www.rotary7090.org/pdfs/districtnews/DN0706.pdf

• The 9th annual FACS Fall Gala is being held at White Oaks on Friday October 12th . For more info, or to book tickets, call 905 937-7731 ext 3304

• The annual MS Bike Tour takes place in Niagara on August 26th. There are 40 and 75km routes along the Niagara Parkway. Call 1 800 268-7582 for more details, or register at msbiketours.com

Rotary Theme
2007-2008