President Bill Fitzsimmons opened the meeting at 11:30 am for fellowship, and officially kicked off the meeting at 12.03 pm. 51 participants were in attendance, via Zoom.
Golden Stetson award went to Judy Cochran for all she does in our club: past treasurer and currently in charge of youth. Thank you, Judy, from all of us.
Guests: Mary Turner DG, Jo McDowell AG, Justine Wild, and Stephanie Rodrigo from Sri Lanka.
Inspirational Moment:
David Williams began by mentioning legendary quotations. Mark Twain: “when angry, count to 4; when very angry swear.” Francis Bacon: “Money is like muck, not good unless it's spread.” And the Greek quotation/translation of “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows only one big thing.” None of the foregoing was in his inspirational comments! Patience, it’s coming.
His quote was from our very own Des DeFreitas It all began when Des and Eileen went to an event with their daughter, Joanne. At this event there was a race. Soon after it started, one person stumbled and then another and another and so on until something remarkable happened. The people in front stopped and came back and helped their fellow racers. Once everyone was dusted off, the race started again and there was the usual 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Then Des said the quotation which was David’s “light bulb” moment: “A Champion came in last”. How can a champion come in last? David’s and our parents taught us all, “You can only do your best”. These people in the race who came in 4th, 5th or last all did their best. Why didn’t they give up, they couldn’t be winners? But they were all champions for trying to do their best! So let’s not judge a person's place in any competition or any walk of life. If they tried their best, then no one can do better than their best. Even though we don’t win the race, we all need assurance that we did our best.
Guest Speaker: District Governor, Mary Turner
PDG Dan Doherty introduced one of his best friends and our District Governor, Mary Turner. Dan was instrumental in Mary becoming DG. He used to say, “She’s our next District Governor, but doesn’t know it yet”. We have all been privileged to have Mary as our District Governor and for her inspirational leadership, especially during this very difficult year.
Mary was born and raised in a small rural community north of Toronto. She moved to Edmonton in 1982 to attend the University of Alberta, obtaining a degree in Recreation Administration, and returned to the university in 2001 to complete her Bachelor of Education degree.
Mary and her Rotarian husband, Steve, have been married for 33 years, have two children and one grandson.
Mary and Steve created the Wild Rose Medical Centre in Olds in 1994, and continue to manage the 17 family physicians and staff that work there. In 2019, the Wild Rose Medical Centre was recognized by the Alberta College of Family Physicians as the Outstanding Family Practice of the Year. Up until a year ago, Mary taught at the local middle school as a substitute teacher.
She joined the Rotary Club of Olds Alberta in November, 2008, and became club president in 2013-14. She has been an assistant governor and served on the District board since 2018. Mary and Steve have hosted three long-term exchange students and have attended three international conventions.
Mary thanked Dan for his support and Calgary West, many members of which she got to know personally when the District Conference was held at Olds College in 2019. She started off in the “spirit of reconciliation” that we live, work and play on territorial lands inhabited by the Blackfoot confederacy; the Siksika, the Kainai, the Piikani, the Stoney Nakoda and the Tsuut’ina.
She then asked us to share with her some of the successes and accomplishments our club has had during this past very challenging and difficult year.
Bill Fitzsimmons was particularly proud of both the community and international service projects this year.
Jo McDowell had a big shout out to Bill Lawless, who has been collaborating with seven other clubs for community service.
Barb Hames for Marlene Doherty doing a great job with the Foodbank and delivery of food to the less fortunate
Robyn Braley for the excellent speakers we’ve had and how well everyone has adapted to technology and virtual reality. This involved people from Vancouver, Edmonton, the Caribbean, Toronto, San Francisco, etc.
Marlene Doherty for managing the input to our Strategic Plan provided by members.
Judy Cochran gave a shout out for all the work Gord Cox does to keep our Zoom meetings running start to finish without a glitch.
Steve Rickard acknowledged Mary for her support in Microcredit. We are now in our 7th phase of the Honduras project amounting to $2.7M.
Mary told us a story of her assembly of incoming District Governors who met in San Diego, January 2020. They broke into rooms where they were each challenged to imagine the best Rotary club they
ever saw and what did it look like. Being shut down for over a year has been very challenging, but now that we are getting close to reopening, what will Calgary West look like going forward? This is a huge opportunity for us as Rotarians to re-imagine what we want our club to be in the future! Something to ponder for sure.
Mary quoted Casey Eagle, a speaker at the Rotary Leadership Training program and member of the Blood Tribe in Southern Alberta within the Blackfoot Confederation:
“We need to walk with humility to find our solutions with equal voices and equal rights.”
“We need to look and learn to create hope for tomorrow.”
Clearly, thoughts worth dwelling on!
Paul Harris said, “This is a changing world; we must be prepared to change with it. The story of Rotary will have to be written again and again.”
Joe Klassen expressed the thanks of the club to Mary for bringing her message and for all the time and energy she has given to lead our District. In appreciation of her presentation today, our club will make a donation to Polio – Plus in her name.
Justine Wild, President of the Rotaract Club of Young Professionals YYC, told us about their initiative to address the “Summer Slide”. Three Rotaract clubs are meeting over the summer with a goal in mind, the Summer Book Bag YYC Program. Summer break is typically a time for kids to kick back, indulge in a little extra screen time, play outside, and embrace the kind of freedom that only comes with being young and having zero responsibilities. However, all of this free time can lead to the summer slide, a regression in academic proficiency due to the summer break, and experts warn it is hindering students’ progress when they head back to school.
What Is the Summer Slide? The concept of the summer slide is students lose significant knowledge in reading and math over the summer break, which tends to have a snowball effect as they experience subsequent skill loss each year. Their goal is to collect and distribute 100 Book Bags to children in need. 800 books are required and they are almost at their target. If you can help, please contact justine.wild@ucalgary.ca
Announcements
Bill Quinney, chairman of the LCS committee, advised that the club had $14,570 available for use in this current year and disbursed it as follows:
$5,000 – Stephen’s Backpack Society - Since 2006, Stephen’s Backpack Society has helped more than 70,000 children in need and has supported 32 families with a second chance at home life. Calgary West has allocated $5,000 to help one family move into a home. Project lead is David Watson.
$9,570 – Soccer Without Borders is an innovative multicultural outreach program aimed at integrating new Canadians into their community. Specifically, our funds will be used for food and delivery to needy families in the Sudanese community. Project lead is Kurt Schurer.
Bill also advised that the RESETSociety provides support for women in need. We have agreed to rebuild their fence and construction will take place June 12th and13th. Day 1, tear down the existing fence and install fence posts. Day 2, build the new fence. Bill needs additional help, so please call Bill if you can assist.
Robyn Braley announced that Laura Istead will be our guest speaker next week. She will talk to us about Cultivating Organizational Culture in a virtual world.
Judy Cochran spoke about our Free Online Reading Program for kids from kindergarten to grade 6. There are 266 learning units designed to engage young learners and instill confidence. Our challenge is to get the word out to our friends, family, co-workers, etc. Project lead isDuncan Stanners. The free reading link is calgarywestrotaryclub.org/Stories/the-free-reading program.
Malcolm Harrison – Currently we have about 25 members on the golf distribution list. If you want to be included on the list, contact Malcolm. Also, the group is planning a two-night trip to Trickle Creek in Kimberly. If you’re interested, give Malcolm a call.
President Bill added that the club is planning a get together at the Lil Devil Golf Course to play mini golf and have a social evening, and recognize Bill and Gerry Meek’s presidential achievements. Target date is July 15th
Barb Hames thanked Gord Cox for walking her through the Zoom process and now she is an expert! She concluded with the old adage: "Tell me and I will forget, teach me and I will remember, but involve me and I will learn."
President Bill also expressed his thanks to Mary Turner and Justine Wild. The meeting adjourned- 1:15 pm.
Rotary 2022 International Convention to be held in HoustonThe event will bring more than 20,000 participants from around the world and deliver $30 million in local economic
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