Please join us at Odd Fellows Hall, 218 Concession Street, Kingston ON.
The Rotary Four Way Test
Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned
Rotary Reflection
For food in a world where many walk in hunger
For peace in a world where many walk in fear
For friends in a world where many walk alone
And for the opportunity to serve others through Rotary,
May we be truly thankful!
The Loyal Toast
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Queen of Canada!
Acknowledgement of Territory
We are gathered on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory. we are grateful to be able to join together in Rotary Fellowship on these lands.
Ana Sutherland, President-Elect, introduced Guests:
Maya Bergeson, inbound youth exchange student; Friend of Rotary Glen Roberts
Visiting Rotarians: None this week
Makeups:
Elizabeth Cohoe: Service Projects – Dolly Parton Book Launch
John Farrow: Bingo & Auction
John Gale: Centennary Committee
Heather Kembel: Bingo & Heritage Fair
Member Sharing
Fun Master - John Farrow
John started with pins/badges, but Michelle jumped in with pins for sale! (not magnetic……). John asked do you still have your snow tires on? Pay a buck! (Bernie – snow in Gatineau yesterday! He's exempt). And John Gale paid for having snow tires and his boat in the water at the same time!
Happy/Sad Bucks
John Farrow – Cruise from Rome to Southampton. A great guide took us to Juno Beach Centre – a really emotional day, but awesome! We beat Mr. Trump, so no traffic jams. Visited cousin in London and heard the story about the 6’long bomb recently unearthed. Missed you guys!
Rick Fiedorec – Saw Boom X at 1000 Islands Playhouse and it was fabulous!
Bill Egnatoff – April Rotarian a must see re: sustainability. One of the things Kingston is working on is reducing waste and I’ll feed your ideas into citizen discussion. Niece looking for accommodation and Nigerian friend too! (hey Bill, is your kitchen done yet?!)
Jackie Blakeney – My adopted daughter (a past exchange student from Hong Kong) is having a baby!
John Gale – opened northern Ontario camp and have an extra bedroom! Rotarians willing to brave the 8 hour drive are welcome!
Michelle Chatten-Fiedorec – I’m happy to hear that the young people in
Pikangikum are coming together in their community – a real example of how we should be trusting our young folks as they step up. Happy Thoughts store (in location of old guitar shop…….) has reusable coffee cups for $20 and look like Starbucks cups – they’re awesome! Former Exchange Student Charlotte and partner Johann are coming to visit and we’re looking forward to seeing them. They’ll be here at our meeting on June 18th.
Heather Kembel – Thank you everyone for all your thoughts re: the death of my niece…… However, awesome trip to Paris with Gary beforehand… Heather also noticed that Rotary display is listing?
Rick Frasso – next Tuesday meeting at Seniors Association. 5,000 Kingstonians are members and this is a great opportunity to expand our membership. Mayor Bryan Paterson will be there – thanks to the auction – Rick bid on the Mayor and stood him up on our first scheduled breakfast. He’s graciously coming and will speak about the City and what’s up. Please interact with the Senior’s Association members. Our Bursary recipient will be there too.
Greg Mumford – Loyalist irrigation replacing one of my pumps. While I was gone over the weekend they kept an eye out on my property and I came home to three pumps handling the rising water levels. Awesome service!
Terri Hodges– lots of awesome travel lately – so grateful!
Eddie – my sump pump hole is almost dry!
Ron Pols – He really missed John Farrow……. Announcement dollars: no fellowship events for a while, so…… Next Wednesday night June 12th Loyal Oarsman get together
Other Communication
President Elect Ana had several announcements;
Ana is officially retired May 31st! She feel a huge sense of achievement and it’s an awesome feeling.
Ana attended the Odd Fellows meeting upstairs, and made a presentation about our Rotary club– there are a lot of similarities to the work we’re doing – they’re also very community service-minded.
The Club is going to be smaller this year – let’s not be discouraged, but be encouraged by how much we’re able to accomplish. AND let’s please start bringing guests.
Pikangikum First Nation is being adversely effected by the forest fires – 400 evacuated already, 250 more today, the balance will stay until the bitter end to save the town. Right now they’re mostly affected by dense smoke.
From Janza Giangrosso, Friend of Rotary;
Aaniin!
I just wanted to remind you about the upcoming opening ceremony of our new outdoor teaching space at Loughborough Public School next week. The ceremony Thursday, June 13th will be led by Anishinaabe Elder Georgina Riel. There will be four different times through the day the ceremony takes place:
8:15am 9:15am 11:30am 1:50pm
I hope some friends from Rotary can join us to celebrate this Indigenous inspired outdoor teaching space.
Baamaapii miiniwaa (until we meet),
Janza
President's Announcements
June 11th - Mayor’s Address at Seniors Centre on Francis Street will replace our regular meeting. 7AM breakfast and your meeting cards can be used or cash at the door.
June 12thBoard meeting at Response IT at 7am
June 19th - Auction Committee, Kingston Dodge, 5 pm, cookies provided
August 1stCamp Merrywood BBQ
In July, Former Exchange Student Dani from Hungary will be back visiting us. Date to be confirmed.
47 youth are coming to St. Lawrence College this weekend for RYLA. 33 Ontario, 1 from Quebec, 13 USA. This club is supporting 3 of the students attending.
Dues are increasing from $225 to $250 and are payable now. Invoices are coming. Part of this comes from the need to secure services of a book keeper.
2 Board positions still open – Foundation and President Elect. Past Presidents please consider, and perhaps splitting the job between 2 Past Presidents – one take year 1 and the other take year 2?
President Rick attended a ceremony at Cataraqui Woods Elementary School where plaques were presented to students going to the Provincial Heritage Fair
Also, pictures from the Rotary Foundation Walk
Chase the Ace!
No joy for Heather Kembel so the pot continues to build.
This morning, with no scheduled speaker, we received updates on many ongoing programs, mostly about our various youth programs.
Kingston 2020 Celebrations
President Rick gave us plenty of advanced notice on several events;
Sunday, July 19th 2020 - Birthday Bash at Rotary Park rain or shine (there will be a tent in case of rain). This will kick off the Rotary in Kingston centennial year.
Friday, June 25th, 2021 (advanced notice – expect full attendance) at St. Lawrence College – Rotary Gala, tickets will be $100 per person – light entertainment, 1 speaker for 10 minutes, Rotarians from Australia and New Zealand will be joining us. This is not a fundraiser but a celebration of Rotary's 100 years in Kingston.
Monday, June 21st 2021 welcome barbecue for Rotarians from Melbourne and Auckland. Location is yet to be determined. Please get these dates in your calendar!
Notes from the South African Friendship Exchange
John Farrow read letters from South African youth that went on short term Rotary Student Exchange. these young men were introduced to us by our visitors from South Africa. Last week Urban Ruins, who is supporting these young men (1 to Germany, 1 to Argentina) passed along emotional letters of thanks. These are both young men whose lives will be changed dramatically by their experience. Thank you everyone in the club who supported this student exchange with donations or good wishes.
Adventures Programs
Greg Mumford reported that we’re supporting Adventures in the Environment which is well subscribed; Adventures in Understanding, although it is harder to find a candidate; Adventures in High Tech in Ottawa in October. We haven’t sent anyone in a few years to this, so we are hoping to return; we are looking to start an Interact Club sponsored by us with Pathways as a partner. And of course Greg has Bingo and Auction in his spare time!
Elizabeth Cohoe re: Fundraising
St. Francis of Assisi school – we have contributed to their kitchen renovation and also recently a book program (Dolly Parton Imagination book program which delivers one book a month to preschoolers.) Greg and Elizabeth attended the kickoff for that last Wednesday. There was a special assembly at the school, and Dollywood's Little Engine Playhouse presented a short play based on one of the books. Everyone they ran into at the school expressed their gratitude for our funding. They’ve sent us a thank you note and also a gift for President Rick – a school mug. Rick read out the thank you letter from the school.
Bingo - $250 per shift is what we make, and we’ve been having $2,000 months in our bingo earnings. That’s awesome! Thank you to everyone who does Bingo shifts!
Nut Drive – interest is on the wane…… we make less than $125 per person who participates. Rick could use a break, as he’s been head nut for a LONG time. Should we keep on doing this? On the plus side, we’re working together with other clubs (although we don’t actually work alongside them…… we’re kind of on our own)
Michelle expressed that she is uncomfortable with how we drag Queen’s students into this without giving them a choice. Don’t like the idea of Rotary being associated with something forced. And it hasn’t really improved our connection with Queen’s and their students.
Ana said we can still participate without leading, and we can still purchase for ourselves (and earn fundraising money for our club.)/ We voted and agreed not to lead on this, allowing club members to participate if they want.
Bill Egnatoff: Adventures in History
We received an email from a woman about our use of the image of teens behind bars. Bill saw this as an opportunity and was sure to respond and let her know how our goal is to highlight the positive changes that are happening today and encouraging our Youth to participate in generating those ideas. She understood and appreciated the response, and of course, Bill asked her to contribute! Bill also mentioned that we will ask the Youth what they think about our use of this image. Direct everyone to www.adventuresinhistory.ca !!! We need to work hard to recruit interested students. Grades 10-12 are the most appropriate ages. We could use some help, too from Club members!
Overall the meeting was a great update on how we are doing with Youth Programs.
