Relief Reporter: David Sills
Engage Rotary, Change Lives (President Peter)
The
theme for programs in April has been Change and Leadership. We have heard from
our Global Scholar Alexandra on the refugee camps in Jordan, from John Edgell
on youth projects in Mexico, from John Jordan on our Rwanda project and last
week from Memory on the progress at the Malawi Girls School in Africa. Today we
move closer to home as Ruby Tang tells
us about her experiences attending the RYLA gathering in Tacoma where special
emphasis was paid to Leadership.
Visitors
Lorna Curtis introduced these special guests, members of the
Interact Club of Oak Bay High - Anna Young, Camille Van Tassel, Aliya Conrad,
Grace Robson, Emily Kors, Michaela Bub, Julia Marshall, Mira Funder, Ruby Tang
and Gianna Dix. Also introduced were Rotarians
Steve Slater from Nepean, Kanata, and pictured at right, Steve Sharlow from Ottawa and Steve’s brother
Mike Sharlow.
Announcements
Joan
Firkins spoke to the need for two bar ticket sellers for the Mardi Gras New Orleans dinner
on May 10. Brian Lamb accepted the duty with his usual enthusiasm.
Joan Peggs
announced an upcoming Rotary seminar on May 24 – Strategic Storytelling, a program
developed by Paul Latour of Herowork to ensure that our good works continue on
in perpetuity. See Joan for details.
Joan Peggs on
the Flag program. It’s time to get out and sell those flags as the first flags
will be raised very soon. Victoria Day is May 19 this year, so the first placement will be on approximately Friday, May 16, so there is very little time left to sell subscriptions. It is hoped that all club members will buy a flag for themselves, and/or a friend/neighbour. To date we have 145 flags left to sell. Please take part in this fundraiser, which we hope to make as successful as last year's was.
Mr. Sou Back for One More Bow
The S-at-A employed a new tactic
for his final appearance. There were no arbitrary fines from the podium; all
fines were voluntary under the Happy / Sad banner. I think it was a winner for
the Club treasury as there was a rush for the microphone from:
Tom Lidkea - Black Press honoured
his wife and Lori McLeod as ‘Wonder Women’ of the year. Tom is waiting to see
them in their action outfits.
Jim Quigley – his daughter had an
exciting stay in Manhattan.
Joan Firkins – pleased to see that Donald
Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers, was fined heavily and banned from the
stadium for his racist comments.
Bob Schelle- his daughter is
getting married in Kelowna then he and Kathleen are off for a six week vacation
in Turkey.
Lorna Curtis – paid a crisp US five
dollar bill for her family month of babysitting in San Francisco.
Tom Croft – paid a crisp CDN five
dollar bill to announce the engagement of his daughter Jenna.
Mary Canty – Leland Cecco, our
former Exchange student, will soon be back from his teaching assignment in
Egypt and should have much to tell us about his adventure.
Jim Force held the winning ticket
but will have to wait until next week for the draw when, hopefully, the bag of
marbles will show up.
Tom Croft in Action
Tom then introduced Anna Young (right) who
is conducting a Shoe Drive on behalf of the Interact Club. They are collecting
‘gently used’ shoes from May 12 to May 23 and offering a prize for the most
shoes collected. It was suggested that Lorna may be a good source.
The Annual RYLA Meeting
to the RYLA Meeting in Tacoma. Ruby is a Grade Ten
student at Oak Bay High. Her regular courses include English, Pre-calculus,
Science, Social Studies, PE, Business and Information Technology. Add in
outside courses in Leadership, Peer Counselling, Strings, Concert Choir, and
Vocal Jazz and you have one mighty busy student. She also serves on the
Student’s Council, assists the school counsellor to settle new students from
China into the Oak Bay area and provides musical accompaniment in the community.
Ruby described her experiences at
the Meeting especially the sessions on leadership. The speakers emphasized the
importance of maintaining staying power in leadership development. One needs to
start small and constantly reset goals and to remember “What I am to be, I am
becoming. You will constantly be juggling challenges. Your goal is to improve
from juggling one to two to even three balls at the same time”.
The phrase “From stumbling blocks
to stepping stones” was a phrase she remembers from the group sessions.
The 150 attendees were divided into
groups and each group was tasked with the Marshmallow Challenge - to build the
tallest free-standing structure from strands of spaghetti topped with a
marshmallow. Her team won the challenge. Interestingly enough, the engineering
students had a tough time with this assignment.
Ruby’s goal as incoming President
of the Interact Club is to expand student knowledge of Interact within the
school and to increase their participation in our annual Merrython event and our
work at Oak Bay Lodge.
Corey Burger thanked Ruby with this
pertinent and succinct advise – no
matter how busy you are, there is always time for one more opportunity.
Force on Service
Jim Force closed out the meeting
with a personal confession. He hates selling tickets and really hates
door-to-door selling of subscriptions. But then he remembers that the funds
raised from these efforts ease the plight of the poor mothers in Africa who
trudge miles for water and of the refugees from the upheavals in the Mid-East.
It’s not so bad after all to ask your neighbours for their support.
President Peter closed the meeting with an International rendition of a Freedom song.
No comments:
Post a Comment