Gossip Sheet # 24 - December 23, 2004
Editor: Peter Banwell

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

For historians, St. Catharines got about a foot (or 30 cm) of lovely white, wet snow overnight followed by freezing rain and then non-freezing rain, so shovelling show at 7 a.m. was equivalent to throwing large buckets of water four or five feet. Despite the dreadful weather, attendance at our Christmas meeting was very good, swelled by a large number of family guests.

With Betty-Lou in the chair, the meeting commenced with grace by Tim Rigby (elegantly done with a grace which I suspect his executive assistant located), the singing of O Canada led by Liz Palmieri and a toast to the Queen and to Canada.

Alex Elliott 1937-2004

Art Wing

Despite the festive season, our meeting had to start on a very sad note. District Governor Designate Art Wing gave a loving and gracious eulogy to our Club Secretary and Rotarian extraordinaire, Alex Elliott, who died this week at age 67. Everyone in our Club who has served on a committee or worked on a project or contributed to some District activity will have encountered Alex because there was no aspect of our Club work or our District work in which he was not involved. Each of us would have known that he was interested in the same projects that we were but until Art canvassed the entire list, few of us would have understood the depth and breadth of his commitment because so few of us would have had a range of Rotary experiences that wide. Alex was most deservedly a Paul Harris Fellow and in recent years had been particularly interested in youth exchange, group study exchange and the Rotary Foundation, without in any way diminishing his readiness to do whatever task, small or large, that needed to be done. A lover of life, a tireless worker, a concerned citizen, the epitome of “service above self”.

We all stood for a moment's silence in memory of Alex. Betty-Lou reassured us that Alex's family, at the funeral this morning, urged her to conduct today's service in the spirit of an Irish wake, as Alex would have wished.

Head Table

Many Rotarians mentioned their affection and respect for Alex. One of Alex's loves was the Rotary Foundation and each of us could do worse as a testament to his memory than to sign on for the “Every Rotarian, Every Year” programme which George Irvine was reminding us of as we came to lunch.

David Butler introduced John Travers as our newest Rotarian. John, after a career in geography, consulting with Acres in Niagara Falls, working for the Parks Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Huntsville and enjoying the admiration of others who were all graduates of Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls, has opened a business as an exhibit designer for small museums here in St. Catharines. Among his sporting activities are curling and golf, so he should fit right in.

John Snowling

John Snowling, who had been the Rotarian in the Spotlight for his great work in the Club, especially the lead role which he has consistently taken with the TV Auction, took pleasure in presenting a Paul Harris Fellowship to Wade Stayzer. Wade has twice been a member of the Club and twice has had to resign because his work has taken him elsewhere (at present, to Guelph). John reminded us that the Paul Harris Fellowship is the highest Rotarian award and that Wade had earned it through his great leadership in helping the Ribfest get underway and his enthusiastic work in many other committees. We hope Wade's absence in Guelph will be temporary and that we will see him back in our ranks in the near future.

Wade Stayzer

Pres. Betty-Lou, John Snowling & Wade Stayzer

Doug Geddie introduced some of the Rotary Auction production staff to us and we expressed our thanks to Joanne Tweney, programme manager, Erica Benedikty, producer, Julia Howe and Anna Tweney-McKenzie, all of whom were the Club's guests for lunch.

Doug Geddie

David Muratori, who had travelled to India with Alex Elliott on a group study exchange and had served as one of the pallbearers at his funeral.

Our Rotary exchange student, Chigusa, presented origami swans to the Club and they were distributed to the many children who had accompanied their parents to our meeting.

Chigusa Yoshida & President Betty-Lou

Birthdays:

Brian St. Hilaire

Happy Dollars

Dave Butler

The guests were too numerous to introduce one at a time but many family members and guests were introduced through Happy Dollars, ably conducted by Dave Butler, who was happy to announce that his oldest son, Stuart, has joined him at Scotia McLeod.

Among those happy were

Norm Kreger, who had travelled to Jamaica and Venezuela to investigate expanding the “Not Just Tourists” medical supply programme.

Len Fenig for his 46th wedding anniversary.

Nancy Hostick whose mother had joined her from Florida.

Glory Ressler, who was happy, $22-worth, $10 for her birthday, $10 for her mother's birthday and $2 for escaping a car accident and for educating us as to how the world would be a better place if the baby Jesus had been visited by three wise women instead.

Dave Butler, Pres. Betty-Lou & New Member John Travers

Betty-Lou Souter paid $10 Happy Dollars because the Community Care Christmas donations continued to flow in. A large donation was being made by John Nitsopoulos and his brothers today. More than 2,600 families had been served so far this season, with more sure to come.

50/50 Draw: Ginger Buckley held the winning ticket but didn't find the winning card for $175.

The Program
Christmas Festivities

Rachel Delaney

As part of the programme, Rachel Delaney introduced Glory Ressler's mother, Carol Godard, and Glory's daughter, Avalon, who is a grade 7 student. The three generations warmed our hearts with their memories of Christmas. It seems that some of the tools have changed but that the essence of the season, for this family at least, has not changed greatly.

Carol Godard's Christmas memories were of a celebration of the sensory, the smell of the Christmas cooking, the taste of the food, the sound of the songs and the bells, the feel of the satin ribbons and the snow and the sights of the tree, the lights, the landscape. When she was young, her dad's work socks served as the Christmas stockings. The occasional hole in the toe would allow the orange to escape and wind up under the bed.

Glory also remembered homemade food, which she seemed to enjoy particularly because her husband (and her mother) did all the cooking. She did get a children's oven for Christmas one year but she said she was more “Lite Brite” than “Easy Bake”. She remembered her mother making dolls' clothes with a treadle-operated sewing machine. She remembered a potato in her stocking one year, something she has not forgotten nor forgiven. To her and to many others, this time of year celebrates the commencement of the return of the light, symbolizing hope and faith for most of mankind.

Avalon spoke last and told a tender story about her excitement in discovering that her Christmas wish for a puppy (now 180 lbs!) was going to come true. Two years later the dog ate all the bubblegum under the Christmas tree with predictable results. Avalon likes the modern stockings because they're a lot bigger than her grandfather's work socks. Christmas to Avalon is a time of gathering and selfless behaviour. She seems to have learned well from her mother and grandmother.

Rachel then introduced Cathy Kotyk, a music teacher at William E. Brown Public School in Wainfleet and reputedly, a superb Janis Joplin mimic. As far as I know, Janis never sang Gitchie Manitou a capella, which is how Cathy most impressively started her performance. Cathy then led us in several Christmas carols. Either she is fairly tone deaf for a music teacher or the presence of our many Christmas guests raised our usual singing standards, for Cathy heaped praise on us. To see more pictures click here.

Pres. Betty-Lou

Mark Zammit ably thanked our speakers and our song leader for their presentations and Betty-Lou and Glory for a most enjoyable programme. He thought that they had overlooked one reason to be happy at Christmas-time: the start of the ski season.

Betty-Lou's Rotary thought for the meeting came from President Saboo of India, 1991-92, who challenged each Rotarian to look beyond themselves for opportunities to serve. “Giving is living. What is important is how much of yourself you put into the giving, that is what makes the living sublime.”.

As there is no meeting on December 30th, at the suggestion of Liz Palmieri, we all joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne. There were more than a few wet eyes as many of us thought of Alex.

Your editor's vagrant weekly thought: Alex had deep Irish roots and would have enjoyed a conversation which I had last week with an Irish Cape Bretoner. Somehow we got on to the large size of Nova Scotian families, 12 children here, 15 there, 8 more around the corner. With a twinkle he told me that the government finally figured it out. The train went through the town at 4:00 a.m., which, he said, was too early to get up. They took out the train tracks and the birth rate went down.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. See you on January 6th for Graham Kennedy's classification talk.