Guests for today's meeting were: Our inbound exchange student Saeko Oshima and our new outbound exchange student David McCrae.
Frank Oudesluys from the Rotary Club of Guelph South was a visiting Rotarian today. Frank was one of the district Rotarians who participated in the trip to Nogales.
Our program today was a report on the recent trip to Nogales, one of our two humanitarian projects in Mexico.
Candi introduced Cheryl Ewing who is the current leader of the project and Martin Jones who also represented our club on the trip. Highlights from there presentation were:
Nogales project was started by the Pantaro Club, Tucson about 12 years ago and is now a three country project.
Auga Prieta was added about 7 years ago as a 2 country project.
In both locations interaction with the local community is important to make connections with them, develop a level of trust and get to know the real needs their. In Nogales this is done through the distribution of "Christmas" Shoe Boxes, blankets, coats and food boxes. In Auga Preita this is done through the distribution of children's backpacks, and blankets and direct visits to places like schools, senior's centre, rehabilitation centre and hospitals. These connections with the community allow for more long-term sustainable project work to be done.
For Nogales, a lot of the preparation processes are a combined effort including Rotarians from Tucson Arizona, Noglaes Arizona, na Nogales Mexico along with Rotarians from several clubs in our district - Guelph, Kitchener, Mississauga and Oakville.
We are seeing a political change in Nogales as there are more politicians involved and more government money being spent as they see the advantages to the local people.
Upon arrival we were amazed at the number of rotary signs around. This event is well promted with the area.
Nogales is quite a nice town; however, quite a few of the factories have closed down as the production work has been moved to places like China. Also seeing a large drop in tourism.
We also got greeted by the local Mayor. Cheryl famous there as she appears on TV and local newspapers.
The shoeboxes contain hats, toys, school supplies, etc.
Winter coats are supplied at $18 per coat through Operation Warm.
2,000 blankets were supplied – 1.500 from the US.
A local rotary member owns the taxi company and supplied transportation for free.
Thanks to the monies raised at one of our meetings a few weeks ago we cleaned the local store out of every ball they had. We handed out 1,000 shoeboxes and 350 coats.
The Mexican rotary club treated us well at their club house where they entertained and fed us.
Water fountains where done in 4 schools. There is more to do and we want to do them all.
There is no municipal running water – it is all delivered by truck at a cost.
On distribution day for the coupons we went into the alleys and stopped at shanties.
Word of mouth created a crowd in the village square of over 300 people – we gave out all the coupons we had and that was all we had.
On handout day people were lining up at 3AM for a 9AM start.
We also gave out blankets and groceries to the people living as squatters at the local dump and received help from the local fire department.
It truly was a great trip, very motivational and emotional.
We will continue to work to build a bigger better process.
Bill Proctor informed members tha the District Gala with Ri President Gary C.K. Huang is sold out but they can have their names placed on a waiting list if they would still like to try and get a ticket.
Bill then pointed out some special events on the calendar for the next few weeks:
March 23 - No Meeting in lieu of the District Gala event.
March 30 - No Meeting, but instead we will have a joint meeting with the Kitchener Westmount Club on Wednesday, April 1 as part of our Home & Away series.
April 6 - Easter Monday and no Meeting.
April 13 - Back to normal with guest speaker Pat Quigley providing us with an update on the Stratford Festival.
Cam Yule – Is delighted to say that he picked up quite a few ticket orders for In Vino. Carl Zehr – Is delighted to host his Toronto portion of his family for the school break week but is equally happy that there are only 4 days left to go.
Lew Ford – Pointed out an article in today’s local newspaper showing the birth of a surrogate baby. The mother involved in the birth is an ex rotary outgoing student that Lew had mentored. This was the fourth try and finally successful.
WOW! Our 50/50 pot reached a record high of $1,584! And the there were just two cards left.
The excitement in the room was high. President Candi selected the first ticket. It belonged to Ashley Spiers, the hotel Banquet Manager. Lew Ford made the card selection for her. And, NO!, it was not the Jack of Hearts. One card left. The next ticket drawn would be the winner. The excitement was mounting. Rotarians were on the edge of their seats. President Candi put her hand back in the tub and selected one more ticket. You could hear a pin drop (even in the carpeted room). The tension was extreme. And the ticket belonged to . . . .
Ashley Spiers again! YES, she had two of her tickets selected and is the big winner!
Because the bulletin will not be circulated from the Rotary office until mid April, all birthdays until that time are listed this week.
Feb 28th - Wayne Boehler
Mar. 4th - Honorary Member, Audrey Wipper
Mar. 6th - David Smith
Mar. 7th - Stephen Swatridge
Apr. 2nd - Gary Parker
Apr. 3rd - Tracey Hare-Connell
Apr. 10th - Joe Knackstedt
Meeting called to order by President Candi at 12:45.
In February 2015 it was the coldest recorded February in 75 years and does not appear to be much of an improvement. President Candi introduced Diana from the Crowne Plaza. Diana has been a volunteer for various Rotary videos and also been involved in our lunch service. Diana has accepted another position (whereabouts top secret). Candi thanked Diana on behalf of all the members of Rotary.
