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President Tom Arkell called the meeting to order today at 12:35 pm at the St. Catharines Golf & Country Club. Grace was said by Jaquelyn Clark, and Don Shaw gave us the perfect note to begin O Canada. Seated at the head table were:
Speaker Introducer: None
Speaker: Chris Blake
President: Tom Arkell
Sergeant-at-Arms: Heather Combe
Rotarian in the Spotlight: Rachel Delaney
Guest Introducer: Cindy Mewhinney
Today's Guests were numerous, the majority of whom were student prize recipients and their teachers. All will be listed below. In addition, we had the following:
Monique Charette - guest of Walter Sendzik
Chris Bozza – guest of Jaquelyn Clark
Jenny Chai – guest of Kelly Buckley
Jackie Davey - guest of Wendy Southall
President Tom reminded all the committee chairs that Sangeeta needs each committee’s budget as soon as possible.
Tom then called incoming club president John Snowling to come up and receive handsome red golf shirts for him and Janet to wear at next week’s RI Conference in LA. The shirts advertise their status as Canadians, as is the incoming RI President.
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John Snowling & Tom Arkell |
Coletta McGrath reminded everyone that the Ribfest sponsorship deadline is fast approaching (June 20), and encouraged everone to either be a sponsor or find a sponsor.
Earl Alton reminded us of the golf tournament on June 23 and requested prize donations to be brought to next week’s meeting.
Marg Jarrell advised that we will have two incoming exchange students next year, one from France, and one from Sweden. The Swedish girl will be arriving early, on August 14, and Marg asked if anyone with other young people at home would volunteer to host her, either at home (with a pool?) or at the cottage. Please contact Marg.
Sam Walters took the podium and named off all the new members in the last year, asking them to stand. He then asked them what was the most important Rotary event of the year. No, NOT the Auction! Apparently, it is the President’s farewell dinner, which, this year, is being held on Wednesday June 25. He suggested they ask their sponsor to take them. The event will be held at Pond Inlet at Brock University. Cost is $45 and parking is included. Contact Peter Kudreikis for tickets.
Were solicited by John Travers. John was happy to tell us that he has been reintroduced to Rowing by John Lehnen, which has been a real learning experience. Apparently he rowed heavy 8’s at Brock (how many years ago??) where he only had to deal with one oar. Now, rowing a double, he finds he has to use both sides of his brain simultaneously, which is something of a feat for him. Nevertheless, he and John finished the whole course dry yesterday.
John Snowling paid two happy $, one for each shirt, and advised they would be wearing them in LA when they have lunch with the Canadian contingent.
Doug Foss was happy to have traveled home to Pennsylvania for Memorial Day (Decoration Day), which started in the U.S. after the Civil War. He donned his uniform and medals and walked with his Dad, a Korean War vet, in the parade. He brought us samples of the American Poppies.
Henry Klassen paid $5 to tell us about the exchange student from Belarus whom he and his wife hosted five years ago. She is now graduating from Brock and has become quite Canadianized. He also told us about how he and his wife want to downsize their home now that the kids have left. The plan was to sell after the last horse died. His wife just bought another horse…
George Darte paid a buck to give John Travers a rowing tip: Get rid of Lehnen!
Art Wing was happy for the help he received from Rick Vanderkuip and Rick Merritt with hosting the Bulgarian GSE team.
Kelly Buckley was happy to have her friend Jenny Tsai at today’s meeting. Jenny is apparently the only authentic Chinese caterer in the peninsula.
John Lehnen took up the rowing challenge, making a shot back at George Darte about 1996…
Wendy Southall was happy to be accompanied by her friend Jackie Davey, a retired police officer. Apparently they both started with the Metro Toronto force, and both ended up in St. Catharines. Wendy enjoyed her first holiday in 3½ years recently at Jackie’s home in Arizona.
Rick Merritt thanked everyone who helped with the GSE team. He also was incredulous that Rachel is the “oldest woman” in our club. Chronologically, I think not Rick!
John Potts paid a buck to point out that RibFest is the next most important event of the Rotary year, (August 1 – 4) and encouraged all new members (old ones too!) to sign up on the volunteer sheets which will be available at the first meeting in July. No going away for the weekend either!!
Doug Geddie was happy to have completed the Niagara Great Circle Route on his bike last weekend, and thanked John Crossingham for making the Rotary Bridge a reality.
Harold Nash had the lucky ticket but drew the King of Clubs. The pot continues to grow.
Rachel Delaney
Cindy then told us about member in the spotlight, Rachel Delaney. Rachel joined Rotary in April 1994, having been introduced by Ian Elmes. She is married to Brian, and is now the longest serving female member of our club. Rachel is an insurance broker by profession, having owned her own State Farm Agency for the last 24 years. She is currently a Director of the Niagara College Foundation, and chaired the 2008 Seafood Gala. Rachel has many interests including rowing, running, skiing and (don’t tell Earl) golf. Rachel has served on almost every committee in Rotary, and is currently vice chair of the Family of Rotary Committee. She previously chaired the Civic Affairs and Environment committee and also the Ribfest committee.
Rotary Scholarships & Awards
President Tom then introduced Chris Blake, the chair of the Youth Leadership Committee, who quipped that this is his year end report for the committee.
The mandate of the committee is to provide opportunities for Youth to experience growth opportunities, particularly in the area of leadership – to get them excited about community service and the value of an organization such as Rotary – and to nurture the ideals of Rotary in young people. He pointed out that we had 13 excellent examples of bright, outgoing committed young people with us today, who have benefited from our sponsorship of their participation in leadership and education programs.
SLAPSHOT – was the first program introduced, and has nothing to do with hockey. Student Leadership Award Program for Students High On Training is a relatively new program in District 7090 (2nd year). The program is for 16-18 year olds and runs for a weekend in Canterbury Hills, and Anglican church retreat in Ancaster. It was the brainchild of Kevin Crouse of the Rotary Club of Ancaster, and provides a busy weekend, mostly about interpersonal skill development, and teenage issues and concerns. There are group presentations and exercises like personality tests, assertiveness training, skits on world issues and other workshops. There were 107 participants this year, and our club sponsored six, two of whom spoke to us today.
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SLAPSHOT Participants Tara Douglas & Keith Lutz |
Tara Douglas is in grade 11 at Lakeport, and plans to study journalism after high school. She has a summer job at Zellers. Tara found the accommodations to be a bit uncomfortable, but really enjoyed the weekend. She was most impressed at seeing strangers get along to create things, and with the blindfolded hike where she simply had to trust her partner (whom she had never met before)
Keith Lutz, also in grade 11 at Lakeport, plans to study engineering, and has a summer job in construction. Keith thought the food was “ok”, and really enjoyed the team building exercises.
Next on the agenda, Chris asked Ted Usick to come up and present the Rotary Medalists.
Our Club provides Rotary medals, a highly regarded award for student leadership, to a male and a female student in each of 3 area high schools (Lakeport, Laura Secord, and St. Catharines Collegiate).
The recommended criteria are:
- eligibility to graduate this spring (or graduated in January this year)
- significant involvement in 2 or more school activities
- above-average academic achievement (over 75%)
- high standard of ethics
- positive attitude
- good moral character
- exemplification of the Rotary Motto: "Service Above Self".
The award winners are selected by the schools. A Rotarian from our Club coordinates the selection process with the schools in May, and presents the awards at the Commencement exercises in June at each school. Each winner is given an engraved Rotary medallist’s medal and a certificate.
This year’s winners:
Danielle Tunbridge & Johnathan Sawicki - Laura Secord Secondary School They were accompanied by teacher Lisa Etienne, and Guidance Counsellor Nicole Goodwin, who said a few words about these outstanding students.
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Johnathan Sawicki & Danielle Tunbridge with Ted Usick |
Tasha Austin & Steven House - Lakeport Secondary School They were accompanied by Guidance Department Head Laura Donatelli and Principal Ruth Hernder, who first of all thanked Rotary, and told us about these outstanding students and role models.
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Tasha Austin & Steven House |
Emily Mitchell & Mohaned Mustafa - St. Catharines Collegiate They were accompanied by Tracy Sacco, Principal, and Vince De Luca, head of Guidance, who told us about the wall of fame at Collegiate, with the names of Rotary Medalists since 1923 on the walls. Vince spoke glowingly about both students.
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Mohaned Mustafa & Emily Mitchell |
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA):
Clubs throughout the District sponsor young people (18-25) for a week-long residence program on leadership training and activities. This year, we sponsored four participants and they attended the program this past week living in residence at Brock. Cindy Mewhinney organized the recruiting and she read a letter from one participant and introduced another, Alison Nicholls, who thanked the club for the sponsorship and told us a bit about their week.
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RYLA Participant Alison Nicholls |
The Rotary Canada Essay Contest
This program was coordinated by Mary Margaret Murphy and Walter Sendzik. Walter projected a photo from the Rotary Website of a hungry third world child with a bowl. The photo was to be the basis of this year’s essay, answering the question “What does this image mean to you as a Canadian?”
1st – Vanessa Sokol – Grimsby Secondary School, came forward with her teacher Cheryl Caldwell, to accept the $500 prize.
2nd – Kate McDonnell – also from Grimsby Secondary school, came forward with Ms. Caldwell to accept her $300 prize
3rd – Laura Kirkham – A.N. Myer Secondary School came forward with teacher Michelle Pope.
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Mary Margaret, Cheryl Caldwell, Kate McDonnell & Walter |
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Mary Margaret, Ms. Caldwell, Ms. Sokol & Walter |
Also present was Ann Gilmore, Curriculum Consultant with the DSBN, and the Essay Contest Co-ordinator. Walter thanked Ann for her participation, and then asked Vanessa to read her winning essay, entitled “Canada, a Leader in the Fight for Humanity”. It was excellent.
The final presentation was introduced by Steve Tenyenhuis. Our club sponsored a group at Governor Simcoe Secondary School called Simbotics (along with many other Niagara Businesses & Organizations). The Simbotics program has been in operation for five years, and this year, they won the world championship in robotics, competing against 1500 teams from around the world, in front of an audience of 37,000 in Atlanta earlier this year. Steve then introduced Greg Phillips, a technical teacher at Governor Simcoe, and student Nik Unger. Steve is an inspiration to the students in the program, which he described as teaching the kids the true ethics of work. He and Nik then showed us a video of the Simbotics team in action, a truly amazing sight, given that the robots, controlled by the students, had to play a race game with balls on a track. Truly incredible.
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Greg Phillips & Nik Unger with Steven Tenyenhuis |
President Tom thanked Chris and his committee for a great job and presented them with the dictionary for our literacy program.
Next Week:
Art Weaver – Rotary Park
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