Today's meeting began in the usual fashion with John Crossingham saying grace and Rick Evans leading the singing of O Canada. This was followed by the toast to her Majesty the Queen and Canada.

Heather Combe

The head table consisted of Chris Bangham, Ann Godfrey, President Larry Iggulden, Jim Denham, Rob Reid and Heather Combe. Heather introduced Rob as the Rotarian in the spotlight. Rob joined our club in 1985 having been introduced by Dave Edwards. Rob is married to Margaret and has four children. He is a lawyer with Lancaster Brooks and Welch. Rob has served on most committees and was club president 1999-2000. Rob was recognized for his service with a Paul Harris award in 2001.

Rob Reid

Today's visiting Rotarians included: Willy Heidbuechel from the Lakeshore club and Glenn Stewart from Kitchener Grand River (father of dentist extraordinaire and editor with creative freedom). Today's guests included: Bill Charron guest of John Bird, John Burroughs and Terry Keller, guests of Earl Alton.

Birthdays:
Brian Stewart, John TeBrake and Rob Reid all looked amazingly well preserved for having celebrated one more year.

Rob Reid & Brian Stewart

Announcements

1. President Larry acknowledged the passing of Rotarian Ian MacDonald. Ian was recognized with a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting.
2. Larry gave his top ten highlights of TV Auction. Fortunately for Lumpy the fall off the stage was easier to handle than Larry's humour.
3. Nancy Hostick thanked the many volunteers at last weekend's auction. Figures to date show $102,225 or 63% of retail value. Please check for pictures at www.rotarytvauction.ca

Nancy Hostick

Happy Dollars

1. Mark Zammit

   Mark Zammit led the club in happy dollars. Orthodontists do not normally extract anything, but Mark did an admirable job removing his foot from his mouth during his failed foray into politically correct wordage.
2. Henry Klassen was happy to return from a golfing holiday and was happy that his mother was recovering.
3. Marg Jarrell was happy to get to know fellow Rotarians better at the auction.
4. Doug Geddie was happy to have the official auction gong repaired.
5. Glenn Stewart was happy to celebrate with his son on his birthday. (I would be remiss if I let this golden opportunity to plug myself goes by. Unfortunately my mind is clouded with celebration juice and the keyboard is having a hard time spelling properly.)
6. Eugene had a great trip to the west coast visiting family and watching the Grey Cup.
7. Dave Butler had a successful hip replacement and was very complimentary of the care he received at the General.
8. George Doty remembered Ian MacDonald as a great program chair.
9. John Crossingham was happy to promote his son's new CD. The band Broken Social Scene is currently on a European tour. John gave Dave a copy of the CD to help him replace some hip.

Program

Chris Bangham

Chris Bangham introduced Ann Godfrey as today's speaker. Ann, who is a graduate of Dalhousie University, has been the director of Family and Children's Services Niagara since arriving from Halifax in 1988.

Before she began her formal talk Ann thanked Rotary for its past support. Our club donated $50,000 towards the FACS building fund.

Ann highlighted several findings in a recently completed study on child abuse in Ontario. The types of abuse have changed. Sexual abuse has decreased since the 1980's while family violence, physical abuse and neglect/emotional abuse have all increased. Family violence is the number one reason for new caseloads at FACS. Neglect and emotional abuse can often be the most severe with regards to how it disadvantages children now but also in the future.

Ann Godfrey

Physical abuse is more common in older kids especially adolescent and teens, while domestic abuse is more common in younger kids. Physical abuse is more common with boys while girls suffer more sexual abuse.

Some of the positive trends that the study showed are that a larger percentage of cases are being substantiated. Agencies are also doing a better job identifying abuse amongst other kids within the same family. Furthermore, interventions are being made earlier.

Some of the risk factors for abuse include domestic violence, the lack of social support, substance abuse and inadequate housing.

FACS was established in 1898. In Niagara, as in many US regions, children's support programs evolved as off shoots of the animal humane society. In Niagara FACS has two major components. The first is the child protection side, which offers support on a 24/7 basis. There were over 6,000 calls last year. Currently there are 1,500 open cases with over 600 kids in approximately 200 foster homes around the region.

Ann Godfrey & President Larry Iggulden

The second component of FACS is community programs. These programs include the early learning centre, toy lending resource, nursery programs, the family counseling centre and foster care. Other programs aim at giving all kids a quality of life by, for example, sending kids to summer camp or by giving educational bursaries. Last year over $37,000 was given to 20 needy kids to help further their education and their future life quality.

John Bird thanked Ann for her talk today.