Reporter: Peter Lawrie
Photos: Coming
Photos: Coming
A small
but robust crowd showed up enthusiastically at the Oak Bay Rec. Centre. Several (at
least 6) showed up following a brief guest appearance at the wrong venue - the Hotel!
The
meeting was very professionally co-hosted by President Jim and Sanjay. In the
spirit of the June theme of “Fellowship” we heard some background and some
thoughts from Sanjay and President Jim shared a recent letter to the editor of
the Rotarian magazine, from our very own Giles, and the letter divulged some background from
Giles most of us likely didn’t know. Check it out and ask Giles about it.
Jim
advised that through June he would be co-hosting meetings with some of our
newer members. What a great idea!!
Phil
gave the Grace.
Guests included: Madeline Larsen who was a guest of Bob
Schelle’s; Sam Duke our speaker; Visiting Rotarian was Dr. Johnny Snively our
long lost prodigal son. Guests were heartily welcomed.
Announcements included:
- We now have almost 250 flags sold/installed this year up from 209 last September. Good job everyone!!
- Encouragement to volunteer for car moves and raffle ticket this weekend (Tea Party weekend!). Overall our club is doing well filling shifts and completing sales and we are on our way to a very successful year and project;
- Saturday afternoon is a fund raising concert by Pablo’s group at St. Mary’s on Elgin Street. Net proceeds will be generously donated to our club. Where else can you enjoy a fabulous concert by one of our own and raise funds for our club projects at the same time? The concert starts at 2:30; Pablo also has a wonderful concert planned for Sunday afternoon in Sooke at a private location and admission by donation. It is a different program than Saturday. Contact Pablo for information and directions.
- Reminder that next week’s program included speakers from the Interact club who attended Adventures in Citizenship and RYLA this year. Come and be inspired by the recipients of some of your hard earned volunteer $’s. These young leaders are good examples of why it makes a difference to support our youth work in the community.
Health of the Club:
Mary
reported that Neil’s surgery was completed and a card was being circulated
wishing a speedy recovery. We
haven’t heard from David and Batya in Israel for a bit. Please reach out and provide
some support.
Celebration Master: Tav
Tav
extracted funds from everyone!! He was happily, maniacally merciless in his
work! Among the many single awards included Janette for not getting last week's bulletin out; Jim Laing, Giles, those
that made brief appearances at the hotel on their way to the rec centre. There
were many other individual and mass penalties levied – most to good cheers and
some to unheeded, raucous protests.
Birthday
wishes were extended and sung to Vicky and to Janna.
Club
anniversaries were announced by way of demonstrating June was a traditionally
good recruiting month. This tired old scribe was unable to catch and write all
of them down but I think David Sills, Heather, Jim Laing, and Vicky were among them
but there were many more!
Janette
chose the winning ticket. Jim Laing was holding the winning ticket narrowly
beating out this old scribe by a single number!
Happy
and Sad dollars covered a wide spectrum including Brian Lamb noticing that
Thrifty ads in the paper are now including
“Rotarians for Food Rescue”!! Good work Lorna and Brian and others for
creating and building the partnership through the Car raffle. We are filling Dinners not Dumpsters!
Guest Speaker: Sam Duke on
Sam
Duke informed us and reminded us that organ donation is a crucial conversation
to have with yourself and your family. The way to ensure your wishes are
carried out is to sign on to the organ donor registry and tell your family
about it. While no one wants to confront their own mortality, failure to do so means the loss of an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives and adds stress to
your love ones at the most critical time.
80%
of British Columbians, when polled, agreed with the notion of organ donation,
but less than 20 % actually register. Past sign ups when renewing you driver’s
licence or on your Carecard is no longer official. One has to register on the
organ donor registry. You can check your status and/or register online HERE
Under
certain conditions your donation could help as many as 50 different people!
Canada
has one of the worst rates of organ donor registration in the developed world. Encouraging news is that Vancouver Island has one of the highest rates in the
country and has a rate of participation similar to Spain. Spain is one of the
best in the world. There is no expenses in donating. Most religions support the donating of organs.
Sam
told us a great story about a 92 year old who donated her kidney, some years ago, and
it is now a successful 114 year old kidney!
Sam
read a wonderful poem called “To remember me I will live forever” which deals
with organ donations and transplants. One of the lines was to not call it my
death bed but to call it my life bed. We were reminded that “the good we do for
ourselves goes with us and the good we do for others continues to live through
others”.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:25 by President
Jim
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