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The meeting began with the saying of grace by Janet Johnston and the singing of O Canada led by Don Shaw, followed by a toast to Her Majesty the Queen and Canada.
The head table consisted of John Travers, Art Weaver, Rick Merritt, Vicky Rudachuk, Doug Foss and Cindy Mewhinney. Cindy introduced the following guests today: Visiting Rotarian John Boot, Alexis DeWolfe guest of Roger Segalin, Erica Benedikty and Joann Tweney from Cogeco TV, Stephen Carroll from the Standard, exchange student Kenji, Fatima and Marcel guests of Kelly Buckley
Acting President Rick had the following announcements:
1. Long range planning committee meeting will be held Thursday Feb 7th at 11:00 in the golf club board room.
2. There will be a meeting of the Alex McKee group (members who joined within the last two years) held February 13 at 7:00 pm at the Niagara Regional Credit Counseling office. Please confirm attendance with Alex.
3. District 7090 has nominated Karen Oaks for the 2010-2011 DG nominee.
4. Art Wing on behalf of the Awards and Recognition committee thanked all the members of the club for their hard work on the tv auction. Art then proceeded to hand out certificates of recognition to the following individual for their special contribution: John Lennon, Dopug Geddie, Serge Paquwin, Jacquelin Clark, Kim Widdicombe, Peggy Davidson, Peter Dedrikus, Art Weaver, Norma Medulun, Ron Dubciak, Marg Jarrell, Ron Bassett, Brian St Hilaire, Bill Cole, Roger Segalin, Tom Arkell, John Travers and Sam Walters.
5. Sam Walters gave the club some auction highlights and statistics. He announced the top team as team number 3 - Buckley's Mixture. John Crossingham was recognized for making a sizable cash contribution. Bob Thompson was recognized for bringing in the most contributions by a new Rotarian. Gerry Reppel was given the Joe Fernandez plaque in recognition for bringing in the highest net dollar value.
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Winning Team Buckley's Mixture |
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John Crossingham & Sam Walters |
Sam gave out a certificate to Alexis DeWolfe in recognition of all her hard work in setting up the internet version of the tv tabloid.
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Alexis De Wolfe & Sam Walters |
Ross Burns on behalf of the ribfest committee gave out a certificate to Stephen Carroll of the Standard to recognize the significant contribtion the Standard makes to the ribfest and the tv auction.
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Stephen Carroll & Ross Burns |
Sam Walters thanked Cogeco for its contribution and gave out cerificates to Erica Benedikty and Joann Tweney.
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Rick Merritt, Joann Tweney, Erica Benedikty,
Sam Walters |
Sam and Norma then presented the club with a cheque for $85 000 representing the net proceeds of the auction
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Rick Merritt, Norma Medulun & Sam Walters |
Maurice Gomme, Wendy Southall, Alex McKee, Bill Ford and Harold Nash all turned one year older this past week.
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Alex McKee, Harold Nash & Bill Ford |
Coletta McGrath led off happy dollars by announcing that her organization was awarded $200 000 for new projects.
Kelly Buckley was happy that her mom is now out of the hospital, she welcomed Fatima and her son Marcel to the meeting and she announced a free, healthy chocolate seminar.
Roger was happy that our club recognized the contributions of Alexis, Cogeco and The Standard.
George Doty was happy to announce that he has a smart granddaughter.
Norma Medulun was happy to be back with the club and happy to be cruising.
Rusty Kruty had a chance at the $340 pot but came up short.
The Civic Affairs Committee was in the spotlight today and talked about the various programs they have underway. John Travers introduced Art Weaver, the chairman of the committee, and Doug Foss.
Doug began the program by talking about the committee's anti graffiti program. Doug would like the program to be called the clean city campaign and challenged every member to take charge and clean up their own neighbourhood. Doug demonstrated the effectiveness of a product called "goof off" which eliminates the paint from any non porous surface. He told us that we need to keep a low profile so as not to challenge the vandals to spray even more.
Art Weaver gave the club an update on the Rotary Park. The park is a former landfill on Pelham Road which is currently being remediated in accordance with a MOE mandate. The thought was that if we could piggy back our efforts on the mediations by the city then the end result would be more bang for the buck.
There are many benefits to the park including being a positive representation of Rotary in our community. The park will become a reality but it might just take some time. The park may become a rally point for other Rotary clubs to hold various functions at. The city would benefit from the versatile park concept - it will offer passive recreational activities and access to the 12 mile creek area both of which fit into the city's longterm tourism objectives. The park would also many educational opportunities.
Once the park is completed there will be an opportunity to revitalize the tree park as a celebration tree park. This has the potential of becoming a future fund raising opportunity.
Currently the civic affairs committee has met with the Mayor on 5 occasions and has approached local MPs, MPPs and OPG for fund raising. The committee has put together a master plan which has been adopted by the city. In the near future our club will need to provide funds which will act as seed money to show our level of commitment and to kick off a major fund raising drive.
Harold Nash thanked Art and Doug for speaking today.
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Art Weaver & Rick Merritt |
Lynn Dempsey -
Speech Pathology Professor, Brock University, - Literacy in Kids
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