Rotary Club of Oak Bay Meeting 12 May 2015 - Mardi Gras Postscript and Car Raffle launch

Reporter: John Jordan

Photos: Steve Sharlow

Joan Peggs opened the meeting .

This being a Club Day there would be no invited speaker.

Tom Croft said grace and our three guests led us to lunch.

Guests: We welcomed visiting Rotarians:

Ronald Quigley, of The Boundary, Stanstead, and father of our own Gordon Quigley.

Delone Krueger, of Moses Lake, Wa. with whom we exchanged club banners.

Mandi Pui 

Jim Laing conducted himself assertively in collecting contributions – especially from those who had not been participating in recent club activities.  He also highlighted these laudable activities:

Jack and Brennan celebrated their 15 wedding anniversary

Vicky and Tim celebrated their 35 years anniversary

Niel Rawnsley will go in for surgery next week and we are all hoping for a great recovery.

Wendy is off to Paris next week.

Announcements:

President Jim made several announcements regarding upcoming schedule:

• Rotary will have a float in the Victoria Day parade next Monday and all Rotarians are encouraged to join the group marching the route.  The excitement and cameraderie will repay all investments of time.  Speak to Jim about the meet-up venue and time.
• June2 meeting will be at the Oak Bay Rec Center on Bee St.
• June 16 meeting will be at the Victoria Golf Club
• June 24 we will not meet for lunch and instead we will have the Induction Dinner.
• June 30 we will hold no meeting but members are encouraged to find each other at the Willows Beach evening concert.

Neil auctioned off some bottles of  wine which were eagerly pursued by bidding buyers: Janette won the first at $35. Wendy and Heather each got theirs for $40 and as the stock became rarer, the price went higher.  Lorrie got one for $45 and Jim Laing went to $55 for the last.

One Mystery Bag that went unclaimed at the New Orleans dinner was auctioned to Janette for $35.

Lorna was the speaker today:

Lorna provided a summary report of the outcome of the Mardi Gras dinner.

We raised $13,500 in our auctions; $6000 in other raffles; $2000 – $3000 on the dinner tickets.  This pushes our total funds raised by annual club dinners over the last  six years to over $100,000 worth of benefit projects to our home community.  The Oak Bay Teen Center has been the primary beneficiary.  The modular unit we sponsored years ago has now been retired and arrangements have been made to convert it to a library for a First Nations reserve.   Funds raised will outfit the new Teen Centre with equipment that will make it a dynamic and desirable place for youth to gather for fun and engagement.

The Thrifty Foods Car raffle:

The car raffle, which in the last two years has also provided the club with substantial funds for projects in our own community, has already unofficially begun its 3 month run.  The official launch is at Thrifty Foods on Cloverdale Avenue.  Members were encouraged to attend in a show of interest, especially for the benefit of the press and our Thrifty partners. 

With a vision to create a much larger impact in the community, Rotary is partnering with the Food Share Network  of Victoria, comprising of 40 social service and food banks.   19,000 people visited community services for food last year in greater Victoria, 40% of them children.    While the plan is still in development, it seems clear that it will involve refrigerated collection and storage for centralized distribution of the vast quantity of food that is otherwise consistently lost.  Hence, the name for the Rotary fund raising effort: The Food Rescue Project.

In this expanded plan, 9 clubs have joined together to increase sales while lessening the burden of filling the schedule.  

The project has such high profile that Thrifty Foods has donated about $40,000 for the car and other prizes and the Victoria Foundation will match every dollar we bring in through our raffle up to $100,000 .  So, every time we sign up to sell tickets, we are building a highly leveraged capacity for our community.  Thanks for all the hard work Lorna!!

Ended with God Save the Queen