Lots of blissful Rotarians this week!
Shawky Fahel is delighted with the Olympic Gold medal won by the Canadian Women’s Football (Soccer) Team but is disappointed in that Canada still does not have a Women’s Professional Soccer league.
Dave Smith was very happy that he was able to participate in a Clan Gathering in Scotland without needing to get on an airplane.
Louise Gardiner is pleased that her golf game is going quite well right now and is looking forward to winning the Catch The Ace this week when her card Number 50 is drawn.
Ailton Santan is happy that he has been able to assist two immigrants to the area secure housing.
Dave Martindale (along with his wife Carolyn, we’re sure) is delighted to be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this Thursday.
Neil Swayze was pleased to able to enjoy some great music at the Kitchener Blues Festival on the weekend.
It's week 47 of Catch the Ace KW and Jeffrey P., won the weekly prize of $3,351 when he picked card #42, the Ten of Clubs. The big question remains - Where is the Ace of Spades? All we know is that with only 5 cards left from which to choose, your chances of picking the Ace and winning the progressive pot, are getting better – a pot in excess of $65,000!
Our online Auction Committee is in need of a new location for storing the auction items we collect. The space required needs to be about 12’ X 12” and is only needed for about a month. Anyone with a possible source is asked to contact Neil Swayze or Jim Brown.
President Adrian reminded members of our ongoing project to support the Food Bank’s current Full Bellies / Happy Hearts fundraising campaign. The link to make a donation is on our website or you can just click here ->
https://www.thefoodbank.ca/kitchenerrotary/.
Special Recognitions / Presentations
We were very pleased today to induct new member Marissa Watkin in the classification of Financial Associate Consultant. Her sponsor, Past-President Louise Gardiner provided a brief Bio of Marissa:
Marissa Watkin is a young professional in Waterloo Region working in the investing and financial world. After graduating from Conestoga College with her Bachelor of Public Relations degree, she knew that she wanted to work with people in the community and build connections through communication. After pursuing jobs in Marketing, it was obvious that she wanted a hands-on, people-focused business and set out to do so. Her time as a Board Member of Children of Promise Canada, a charity supporting South Sudanese orphans in Ethiopia, for the past three years made her realize the positive impact that giving back has on your on life.
Although Marissa’s day-to-day is filled with finance, she has a passion for graphic design, marketing, and food in the region, so don’t hesitate to reach out for a local spot to eat! She looks forward to bringing her expertise and meeting likeminded people through fellowship and service.
All members congratulate Marissa on becoming a Rotarian, welcome her to the club and wish her all the best in her Rotary experiences.
Our program today was an update on our Car Draw fundraiser. To begin, President Adrian made reference to information in one of our historical documents that talks about our very first Card Draw in 1930! So indeed, we do have documentation to support our claim that ours is the longest running Car Draw in Canada, now over 90 years old! However, Adrian noted that in many ways our approach to this fundraiser has not really changed in those 90 years – we still basically sell printed tickets in person at various events such as the Kitchener Market or at festivals. This approach is not the best use of member’s time and club resources and is proving increasingly more difficult to sustain. He indicated that we our about to enter a whole new phase of Car Draw, or actually, our Car Lottery.
Dave Chatson, chair of the Car Draw committee, then took over and provided information about the work the committee has done in meeting with various organizations and companies to find a new and better way for this fundraiser to operate and let us know that we will be moving to an online Car Lottery. Much work has gone on to ensure that this will be very successful event with minimal risk to the club.
During their meetings and research the committee became aware of a Rotarian, Steve Wallace, who has lead his own club, as well as several others, through many very successful online Car Lottery fundraisers. We have engaged Steve as a consultant to guide us through this endeavour and he joined us today to provide some details.
Here is a little bit about Steve:
Steve, among many others, is coined as Mr. Lottery, Mr. Corvette and Mr. Rotary in his community of Wasaga Beach.
He is a past president of the Rotary Club of Wasaga Beach and without question has been and is the "turbo" driving force behind his clubs annual sell-out Corvette Lottery. Steve has a busy history of service with his Rotary Club including organizing an humanitarian trip to Haiti, and actively being a multi-level Paul Harris Fellow.
He is a retired Pilot with both the Canadian Armed Forces and Air Canada and was instrumental in bringing the Air Cadet Squadron to his community in 2001. He was recognized as Citizen of the Year in his community for involvement in Rotary, Hockey and Air Cadets.
Steve has not only orchestrated a number of successful online lotteries for his club, but also continues to contract with other Rotary Clubs in Ontario to push their lottery to the finish line.
Steve then took us through the work that has been done so far.
The main goal of the committee was to. . .
- Resume our Annual car Draw in some form
- Achieve a net return of at least $50,000 to continue to support KidsAbility
- Provide additional funds to support the other charitable work of the club
In addition we were looking to find a process that would. . .
- Reduce the physical effort required by members
- Maximize the likelihood of success
- Establish and improve Lottery Brand recognition
- Promote Rotary and the Rotary Club of Kitchener
With the support of Crosby Audi our prize is a 2022 Q5 45 2.0T Technik Quattro. It is metallic blue in colour and comes with the top end interior package. It has a retail value of $65,829.87. It is the most sought after vehicle in its class and should be a very popular item!
Lottery Details:
- The lottery is fully licensed to operate throughout Ontario
- It will start on September 7 with a draw date of November 27
- Tickets will cost
- 1 for $20
- 2 for $35
- 3 for $50, and
- 7 for $100
- It will have a dedicated website and will be promoted through a Facebook page and Instagram
Although the physical work of selling tickets is no longer required, support and participation by members will still be critical to its success. All members are asked to follow the Car Lottery on its Facebook page, to like and copy posts and to share them with friends, family and colleagues. When sharing posts members are encouraged to add a line or two telling their own “story” – i.e., why the lottery is so important to us in support of the charitable work we do.
Another suggestion that has proven very successful in other online lotteries is Corporate Challenges. A member could purchase tickets to be given to their employees of the moth, say, and the member would then challenge other business in his or her professional circle with doing the same or more.
The car draw website is live and members are welcome to have an early look but are asked to not promote it until it goes live on September 7.
More details and suggestions for promoting the lottery will be forthcoming, stay tuned!
