President Joan suggested reading this article on How The Taliban Is Thwarting The War On Polio
Meeting of October 16, reported by Wendy Townsend
President
Joan Peggs called the meeting to order and bravely
started off our National anthem, sans piano. As a group our a cappella could
use a little work, but we got it done! Dallas
Chapple provided the Invocation.
Ron
Cooley introduced our visiting Rotarians: Bonnie
Goodwin and Ramona Kaptan from White Rock Rotary Club and John Samsom visiting
from Harbourside. Next the guests were introduced: Nalin Dhillon (guest of John
Jordan – Rotaract), Flo-Elle Watson and Lainey Clark (guest of Bonnie Goodwin)
and Sharon Hall (guest of Heather Aked).
President Joan shared with us a lovely
collection of photos in a slide show commemorating Mary Canty's 90th birthday celebration held October 13,
2012. She extended our best wishes to Mary again for sharing her big day with
all of us. Mary added that she had a wonderful time and managed to stay on her
feet for 10 hours; she just didn’t want to miss a thing!!! “A lovely Rotarian
Indeed”.
Announcements
Heather
Aked reminded us about the Rotary Meeting at
Victoria Golf Club on October 30th. Please sign up and pay the $20
now, or at the door.
Leslie
Rogers-Warnock donned her Santa’s cap to remind us
of the 33rd Annual Merrython coming up on Sunday December 2nd.
This is our 2nd year of participating and already many Rotarians
have signed up: Along with Leslie, Heather Aked, Ron Cooley, Jim Force, Lynne Murray, Jessica Van
Der Veen and Tricia Timmermans are Rotarians on the committee. More participants are welcome as runners, joggers,
walkers or volunteers!
Of note were the well dressed members:
David Sills, Brian Lamb and David Philips...all wowing the crowd with their
suits and ties.
Fines
Master
Vicky
Pitt was in fine form and inadvertently, or maybe
with purpose, set the theme for the meeting: feet, legs and shoes. John Snively wore a
dashing pair of red shoes and many of our attending gents lamented over their
inability to obtain red shoes, only finding the usual dull black and brown.
Then stockings were brought up... something to do with the weather and happy
and sad dollars. I inferred that the sadness was the rain and cooler
temperatures, but the happiness was not wearing the stockings??? Still to be
clarified, maybe best at a Pub night meeting! Jack Petrie furthered the stocking
leg/foot theme by sharing a story about 2 men in a bar. One turned to the other
and said “I can’t wait to go home and rip off my wife’s stockings!” The second
man replied: “Why would you do that?" To which the first man replied: “They’re
just too tight and uncomfortable.” OK...it
loses something in the writing, but for all who attended with Jack doing the
telling there was a wave of laughter.
So, fines were collected and the sad and
happy dollar stories shared.
The lucky winner of the draw ($16.50) and the
pot ($92.50) was Bob Schelle.
Brian
Lamb introduced our Guest Speakers, Ramona Kapton and Bonnie Goodwin, seen below
Trekking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela
Bonnie
Goodwin and Ramona Kaptan (White Rock Rotary Club) shared
a photo presentation of their journey trough Spain walking the Camino deSantiago (The Way of St. James).They embarked upon the walk to
raise funds to eradicate polio. Their trip began in Paris with 4 people but due
to injuries ended with only our two speakers. The presentation began with a brief history of the walk.
The
Way of St. James has existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most
important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times.
During the Middle Ages, the route was highly travelled. However, the Black Death,
the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th-century
Europe led to its decline. By the 1980s, only a few pilgrims per year arrived
in Santiago. Later, the route has attracted a growing number of modern-day
pilgrims from around the globe. The route is one of a UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.
Today
thousands of pilgrims and
many other travellers make their way to Santiago de Compostela. Most travel by
foot, some by bicycle, and a few travel on horseback or by donkey. Many people are
undertaking a religious pilgrimage, but the majority are travellers and hikers
who walk the route for non-religious reasons. Many consider the experience a
spiritual adventure to remove themselves from the bustle of modern life. Bonnie
and Ramona only got lost once, and could almost laugh now about the 10 kilometres they
walked out of their way.
Bonnie
passed around her “pilgrim’s passport", the credencial . The credencial is a pass which gives access to
inexpensive overnight accommodation in refugios along the trail. The book can be stamped with the official St.
James stamp of each town or refugio at which the pilgrim has stayed and
also serves as proof to the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago that the journey is
accomplished according to an official route. It makes a very colourful
souvenir.
Throughout their 40 day adventure, only 3
of which were marred by rainy weather and muddy trails, they enjoyed meeting
other travellers, and were happy to meet many other Rotarians too. They saw the
wealth of centuries along the route, not only in architecture and art, but in
the customs, celebrations and cuisine of the people of Basque Country and
Galicia. The churches, scenery, and villages along the
route were all magnificent. They also shared
some of the funnier stories including Bonnie showing up
for dinner in her nightie one evening as her clothes were all drying; she
acknowledged that after so many days on the ‘road’ that “boundaries get
blurred”. In total they walked 666 kms, averaging about 18 – 20 kms per day,
walking about 6 hours a day. The Camino
is also known as ‘The Way’ and it is an excellent metaphor for life,” says
Bonnie. “I’ve done it twice and feel I got it right the second time around.” Click here for a map and pictures of the walk.
Bonnie and Ramona clearly endured some
difficulties, but overall they were thrilled to have accomplished what they set
out to do. They raised $2,000 for the charity Eradication of Polio Worldwide.
There was a Q and A following the
presentation. Jack Petrie commented on how hard physically it must have been.
Ramona explained how important it was to have proper shoes, that it wasn’t
necessarily training that was needed, but good fitting and comfortable
boots. (Again, keeping with today's meeting's theme!)
Bonnie will be leaving her wine making
business soon to spend more time working on Rotary projects and Ramona is the
Incoming Chair of the White Rock/Surrey Chapter of CARP – A New Vision of Aging
for Canada.
Pablo
Diemecke thanked Bonnie and Ramona for sharing their
trip with us with a “Muchas gracias”.
The meeting closed with God Save the Queen.
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