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Don Shaw led us in Oh Canada , Rotarian Terry McDougall offered Grace, and we toasted the Queen and Canada .
President Tom introduced the Head Table:
- Art Wing to introduce our speaker
- Guest speaker, Dr. Jean Clinton
- President, Tom Arkell
- Sergeant-at-arms: Bob Gosselin
- Rotarian/Committee in the Spotlight: Wendy Southall (Literacy Committee)
- To introduce the guests: Jane Rufrano
Guests:
Jane Rufrano introduced our Guests:
- Visiting Rotarian, Ian Forbes from St. Catharines South club
- Jinnie Gordon, guest of John Potts
- Steve Tenyius, guest of Wade Stayzer
Committee in the Spotlight – Literacy Committee
Wendy Southall updated the club on the upcoming initiatives planned by the committee. These include:
- An inner-city school program (reading to children at risk) – for which an upcoming meeting with Wendy and two such school principals is scheduled.
- Provision of some books etc. for children associated with Family and Children's Services –details to be discussed at an upcoming meeting with FACS.
- Volunteers to read to a classroom – an activity that Wendy found quite valuable last year.
- Fundraising – for books and games.
Birthdays – Margaret Jarrell (Oct. 10); Archie Heide (Oct. 12); Serge Paquin (Oct. 12); Ralph Watters (Oct. 13), and John Burroughs (Oct. 13)
Many of the above were present to accept their respective roses, and be treated to an enthusiastic rendition of Happy Birthday.
Announcements
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President Tom and Ross Burns |
• Ross Burns (Rib Fest chair) reported that the final tallies were now in for Rib Fest, with the event raising $102,000. this year. A cheque for $100,000. was presented to President Tom (there was no mention of the wayward $2,000…but we can assume that it is probably allocated as part of a slush fund used to offset some of next year's expenses & not Ross' upcoming vacation). Committee and club members were thanked by Ross, and President Tom announced that Ross had agreed to act as “Top Hog” again next year!
• Norma Mendulun announced that 50% of club members had not yet registered any on-line donations as yet. She noted that there was general agreement that the “team concept” was probably not very effective, but urged all more seasoned members to help the new members with their task of finding and collecting donations. She stated that 479 items had now been collected, and there is much that we need to do in order to have everything we need in by next week. Contact Norma if you need some other leads…and let's get busy!!
• Patricia Rooney read portions of an email received from last year's inbound exchange student from Germany (Becki Kugler) saying that she had won two awards at Laura Secord (for Math and Phys. Ed.), and that her influence was still felt at the school also for her singing. She hopes to be back to Canada to see us again.
• President Tom announced the following upcoming committee meetings:
• Fireside Chat (for new members) following today's meeting.
• Membership Committee: Tues. Oct. 16 at 5pm at Darte's Funeral Home.
• Stand-up Board Meeting following today's meeting.
• He also told us that (in two weeks) the Iraqui Ambassador to Canada will be speaking, and seating will be in demand. Therefore, any potential early leavers are to attend another club's meeting that week as a make-up instead of this one to allow more seating for those who want to hear the speaker.
• President Tom also reminded the club that the Foundation Dinner is Nov. 9th , and anyone interested in attending should contact Joyce for tickets.
Happy Dollars were collected by Brian St. Hilaire who had little to say because he thought that he was doing happy dollars next week instead of this one.
- Patricia Rooney was happy that all of her auction items were in, and that Peggy Davidson had driven her for her last radiation treatment. By Oct./08, she will be celebrating being done with treatments.
- George Doty reported that there would be a General Brock Memorial Service, and told of his pride of his granddaughter – which this reported recorded in last week's gossip sheet.
- Marg Jarrell was happy to report that Judith Barker is now home from the hospital and doing well, but not yet ready to receive visitors.
- John Snowling was happy that his 89 year-old mother had undergone heart related tests, and everything checked out OK.
- Jagdish Mehta was happy that his dog was doing better, and that he had been in Rotary for 27 years…with perfect (I mean 100%) attendance.
- Rick Merritt was impressed by the efforts of Rotarian Bob Gosselin for his work with the Red Cross in assisting the Roehampton fire victims.
- Debbie Sevenpifer was happy to have safely landed from a recent hot air balloon ride.
50/50 - Dave Edwards had the lucky ticket, but didn't draw one of the lucky cards. I'm not sure there are any aces in this deck, but we can all try again next week.
Program – Early Child Development and Literacy
Art Wing introduced Dr. Jean Clinton, a child psychiatrist, and active child advocate who lives in Hamilton , and is the mother of five children.
Dr. Clinton began by saying that she had been so moved by Wilf Wilkinson's address at the district conference two years ago that she had pledged to join Rotary…a pledge which she has fulfilled having joined the Hamilton a.m. club.
She shared with us her thoughts on why literacy is so important, noting the fact that, for many youngsters, the cards are stacked against them even before they start school, and that by focusing on literacy efforts with the very young, the playing field can be made more even. She described how critical it was for children to feel connected to people in their surrounding environment, and said that this was important for their neurological development since the young brain grows as a result of one's environment.
She reported that the United Nations had declared this as the “decade of literacy,” saying that there were an estimated 862 million people who were illiterate in the world. The U.N. also made note of the fact that success in this regard will come from the grassroots and not from the top-down. Hence, she cited Rotary as having the potential to do great things in this regard. Dr. Clinton reported some basic facts about literacy as follows:
• People with low literacy levels die earlier.
• 42% of Canadian adults (according to an international study on literacy) have low literacy.
• According to the “report card on children” done by UNICEF, 21 of the richest countries were rated on how well they were looking after their children across six domains, and Canada ranked only 12 th – and this is thought to be an overestimate.
• The UK and the United States competed for the bottom ranking. However, the UK decided to take action on the issue, while Canada has had no response.
• Canada ranked 17 th (out of the 21) in terms of children using risks (drugs, alcohol and other high risk behaviour).
She identified literacy as a marker of how well we are doing with respect to the care of our children, and discussed how important environmental stimulation is in early child development for people to become literate…to be able to make meaning of any text they are reading. She explained that there are “critical periods” when neural pathways are formed, and through love, nurturing, and stimulation these pathways can become vast – setting the stage for later learning and physical health, including the immune system. Without this kind of environmental support, later development of skills is much more difficult. The importance, however, of adult literacy initiatives was also noted, and one of these reasons is that this enables these adults to read to their children.
Dr. Clinton commended our club in our literacy efforts, and identified a couple other things that Rotary can do:
• Reach out to children, but don't just read to them, interact with them as you read.
• Link with what is already going on to continue to make literacy important. She described initiatives by family physicians in the area also concerned about increasing literacy, and said that we needed to also support parents to become more literate.
In closing, she acknowledged the creation of “The Brain Game” – a book developed by a club in Wisconsin to help parents interact with their children, and asked us to “spread the message” of the importance of literacy.
Several questions were asked and answered.
Coletta McGrath thanked Jean Clinton, and President Tom added his thanks with a children's dictionary to be given to a school in need in recognition of her presentation.
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Dr. Clinton and President Tom |
Next Week – Classification Talk: Ted Usick
10 Day Notice:
• Scott Crocco is a lawyer with Heelis, Williams, Little. Proposed by Scott Heelis.
• Steve Tenyenhuis is a Commerical Account Manager with Meridian Credit Union. Also member of organizing committee for charity golf. Proposed by Wade Stayzer.
• Jinnie Gordon is co-owner of Academy of Learning - Niagara . Also with Niagara-on-the-Lake Sailing Club--Junior's Program. Proposed by John Potts.
From the Mailbag:
Each year Rotary International holds a convention to celebrate Rotary worldwide. This year the convention is in Los Angeles , California from June 15 – 18. This is vacation land! Why not tie a well needed holiday to the convention and visit this Pacific coast city. You have beaches, cruises, movie studios, vineyards and the star studded community of Hollywood to visit. Have a holiday with your family and take in the convention while you are there. After December 15 the registration fee goes up; so, decide to go as early as you can.
• Niagara Suicide Prevention Coalition, Community Solutions Conference, Four Points Sheraton, Schmon Parkway, Thorold, ON. Evening of November 6 and all day November 7, 2007.
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