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| The Wheelchair Foundation - Changing Lives |
Reporter: Sabrina Corraini
Greeters were Lynne Murray and Ron Cooley.
The meeting opened with “O Canada” after which Lynne Murray said grace.
Health of the Club – Mary Canty
Mary spoke with Hans and reported that he’s not feeling up to having visitors. He’s set to start chemotherapy soon, so we wish him all the best.
Introduction of Visiting Rotarians – Ron Cooley
1. Linda Whitehead, Strategic Planner of the Semiahmoo club (also our guest speaker).
2. Jarrod Clayton, President of the Edmonton-Strathcona club.
Announcements
Car Raffle – Perry Bamji.
Please continue to sign up to sell tickets for the car raffle either on paper (folder circulating at meetings) or online. If you sign up online, email Perry to let him know what shifts you signed up for so that he can keep track of all the Oak Bay Rotarians who help with this.
Social BBQ – Sabrina Corraini
The BBQ is at David Maxwell’s house (1590 Wilmot Pl) on July 10th at 6 PM, and the sign-up sheet is circulating at meetings until then. Guests are welcome and the cost is $15/person at the door. Food is included in the price, but please BYOB.
Club in a Pub – Jim Force.
Club in a Pub is this Thursday at 5 PM at the Penny Farthing Pub on Oak Bay Ave.
Move to Oak Bay Beach Hotel – Lynne Murray
With the impending move to the Oak Bay Beach Hotel next week, Lynne Murray reminded us all that it’s very important going forward that she be informed when you are not able to attend a meeting, as the Hotel charges Rotary for the number of people projected to attend, whether they’re present or not.
Remember to bring your laptops to next week’s meeting because the speaker will be doing a demo about Facebook for Rotary; it will be more of a workshop. If you have your laptop with you, you can follow along! There will be wifi access available for the meeting. Tricia will answer ClubRunner questions and demonstrate its use.
Jim Force presented Jarrod Clayton with a “Certificate of Amazement” for the Edmonton Strathcona club’s donation of 100 flag sets to our club and thanked him for their faith that our club would be a good investment. [104 of the 100 donated flags were sold!]
Brian Lamb called to the front Bryon Ewart, Supervisor, Food Services/ Catering for Oak Bay Recreation. He thanked Bryon for the service and quality of food that has been provided at the Sports Deli over the 7 and a half years since our club left the old Oak Bay Beach Hotel, when it closed for reconstruction.
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| Bryon and Brian |
Fines, Birthdays and Anniversaries, 50/50 Draw, and Happy and Sad Dollars – John Snively. To begin, John told a quick story about a conversation that had come up recently among his “Spokesmen” cycling group that gets together on Thursdays and Sundays. They were discussing the impact of violence on TV and he said it had reminded him of watching TV in the 50s when he used to get up on Saturday mornings to sit in front of the TV and watch Tales of the Texas Rangers, a Cowboys and Indians show. While he did this, his father would get a dustpan and brush and go behind the TV to sweep out all the dead bodies!
Ron Cooley and Jane are celebrating their 4-year anniversary; Will Carter is celebrating 17 years as a Rotarian, and Barry Mutter is celebrating 8 years as a Rotarian.
John led the club in a game of “Heads or Tails” for a bottle of Italian wine and some cards he had made. David Philip won and subsequently sold the wine to David Maxwell for $5!
Lori McLeod gave happy dollars because she found her name-tag after someone had tried to hide it and have her fined. Jessica Van Der Veen had a birthday cheque made up of the appropriate number of happy dollars to celebrate her recent birthday. Heather Aked chipped in some happy dollars, too, because her son Alexander graduated from Grade 5 today.
Lori McLeod won the 50/50 but pulled the black marble, so didn’t win the big pot. She came away with $12.
Guest Speaker, Linda Whitehead – Introduced by Cory Burger
Linda said that she met Joan Peggs at the District Assembly where she was invited to speak to our club about the wheelchair project. The Wheelchair Foundation is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The project provides brand new wheelchairs free to people around the world, primarily in developing countries. The two main components of the foundation are 1) public education/raising awareness, and 2) delivering the chairs. In their 10 years, the foundation has provided 32,000 chairs to people in need in 40 countries. 2,000 of the chairs have been donated by district 5020, which is a significant number.
She asked us to think about mobility, and what it means to us in our day. In developing countries, 99% of people’s time is spent surviving. People with disabilities are seen as non-contributing members and get left behind. They’re forgotten. The need for a chair arises from disease, accidents, and aging. Disease and accidents are very prevalent in developing countries where proper infrastructure isn’t in place.
The estimated need for wheelchairs is approximately 100 million people around the world. Only about 15% of those people (mostly those residing in the developed world) have access to wheelchairs. Each chair costs $150, including delivery. An NGO on the ground in each location (medical facilities, Rotary clubs, community leaders) has already identified the recipients of the chairs prior to their arrival, so each one is already accounted for by the time it is shipped.
Many of the issues that they come across are spinal-cord related, so a Kanga Chair, that provides greater support, comfort and protection for the recipient, was developed. These chairs cost about $500.
It is estimated that 10 people in proximity to those who surround a chair recipient are positively impacted, which means that this project has changed about 350,000 people’s lives for the better so far!
Some countries have been returned to more than once, such as Mexico (in various communities). They have provided about 10,000 chairs to Mexicans and the repetition of going back to a country multiple times enables them to know who the leaders in the communities are and forge friendships that last a long time.
Linda showed us a video of Rotarians helping people into their new chairs in Panama. She explained how there is nothing quite like the feeling of being able to do that for a person. Many Rotarians have told her that that was when they “became” Rotarians – the act of delivering a wheelchair was so moving.
A quote that Linda left us with, which was originally said by a physician who lives in the USA, was this: “There’s no exercise better than reaching down and lifting people up.” Rotary International recently introduced their future vision, and the wheelchair foundation touches on most points of this vision, including child and maternal health, literacy and education, and sanitation.
Heather Aked (left) thanked Linda for speaking about the The Wheelchair Foundation and recalled when she first heard about it that she had bought a few chairs for children in other countries. She gave Linda a Rotary Club of Oak Bay bookmark with the promise that the club is making a donation on her behalf to Polio Plus.
We sang “God Save the Queen” and then President Pete concluded the final meeting at the Oak Bay Recreation Centre, where Lemon Meringue Pie was part of our meal.
