Rotary Club of Oak Bay Meeting 6 September 201 - Trudy Pauluth-Penner - UVIC

Reporter: Alyx Valdal

Master of Ceremonies: Jim Force

Jim started us off with a reading from “Oh, the places we’ll go” as part of September’s “Basic Education and Literacy” theme and we sang “O Canada” along with a funky new beat that threw Jack off a bit.

Invocation: Pablo is thankful for the musicians and other guests who joined us today.

Introduction of Guests: Dallas introduced Tom, our visiting Rotarian today, and guests: Thuli Kamohelo (Naida); Edilberto Vela, Alejandro Bernal, Hector Ocampo (Pablo); Ben Anderson (Brian); and Michael Stevenson (Tav).

Rotary Moment: Today we inducted Donna Chow into the club (welcome back!). She will be mentoring with Tav and helping to develop the new mentorship program within our club.

Announcements: 

• Janna, Ryan and Garon welcomed our newest and youngest Rotary member: a baby boy born Sept 2nd.
• Vicky spoke about scholarships – Rotary is one of the largest grantors of scholarships in the world. Our distrIct has given out $400,000 in scholarship money through the District, Global and Peace Fellows programs (Peace Fellows being a full scholarship). Rotary invests $15, 000-60,000 in students and young people through these programs and the return is amazing. If you know of anyone who is interested in doing master’s studies, who is involved in the community and has the promise to go further, please let Vicky know.
• Lorna has rescheduled the kitchen party. $30/ticket and we need a minimum 40 people to make this the best kitchen party of the fall! New date is October 22nd at Bob Schelle’s house. 6-7pm social, 7-8pm delicious donairs, 8-9:30pm live music and even livelier dancing.
• Jack serenaded us with a few beats of Motown to get us excited about the Thanksgiving concert coming up October 8th at The Dave Dunnet Community Theatre. The Gospel choir’s usual $2,000 fee has been donated and we’re on our way to makeing $10K that will go towards youth programs. $25/ticket and Jack’s keen to see who will sell the most! The silent auction is being organized by Joan Peggs; please get in touch with her if you have a donation or know a business that can donate.
• Bob Schelle asks that all flags are returned (dry) to the hotel storage room so inventory can be done.
• Peter pointed out the brochure for the concert Pablo and his musician colleagues are putting on at St. Mary’s as a fundraiser Sept 7th. It is the first in the fall/winter concert series raising money for literacy and Syrian Refugees. The upcoming dates are Oct. 22nd, Nov. 19th and Dec. 10th.

Celebration Master: Edwin Taylor celebrated with fines, including fun children’s literature trivia (we ran out of time for the French literature questions!). One notable question was about James Matthew Barrie’s “The Adventures of Peter Pan” as the Rotary Water Park at Carnarvon was originally called “Peter Pan Waterpark”. 

Happy Dollars: We had many dollars collected for Happy/Sad dollar announcements.

Jack – happy $2 for Bob Schelle’s superb organization on meeting locations and other changes. 

Dallas – $5, which is all she has left after the $62CAD  G&T she enjoyed in Zurich, after her river cruise.

Joan Peggs- $2 as a thank you for whomever put the room away two meetings ago.

Joan Firkins – Many dollars as she’s happy she’s headed to Edmonton for a Rotary meeting then a European cruise. Sad because she’s missing the next 3 weeks of Rotary.

Pablo – Happy $10 for being back in Victoria and having his fellow musicians here.

Heather – Happy dollars that Alexander is back at school (but she’s not sure when it actually starts as he there only 2 hours today and dragon boating as well this week).

Rod - $50 for his 20th year of Rotary. Happy that his daughter has also attended some meetings (first time when she was 2.5 months old).

Wendy – Thanks everyone for coming out to lawn bowling last week! Let’s do it again!

Eugen – Happy he’s back from a month in the Alps where he went paragliding.  He recommends everyone experience jumping off the top of a mountain and soaring over Lake Geneva.

Jack won the 50/50 and picked a clear marble. Better luck next week!

Guest Speaker: Wendy introduced our speaker, Trudy Pauluth-Penner. Trudy is currently a doctoral candidate in the University of Victoria’s interdisciplinary Social Dimensions of Health program combining narrative gerontology and applied theatre (fun fact: she is also a performing puppeteer!).

The ‘Memory Café - Remembering Our Canada’ project is an intergenerational mentorship program spearheaded by the Eldercare Foundation. This program is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program and receives collaboration from many different groups.

Sept 6th is the start of phase 3 – “Remembering Our Canada” at Oak Bay Lodge. Interact club members and Rotaract from OBH are still involved and will play a critical role. The Memory Café format is a tea room at the lodge where older and younger individuals will be paired up and Trudy will facilitate with questions, such as “When I think about Canada, I think/feel/wish”. Some actors will be there who can spontaneously act out various stories.

Phase 4 will be in Jan/Feb 2017, developing theatre & art exhibitions; followed by an exhibition and performances in March at The Dave Dunnet Theatre as well as Oak Bay Lodge. Theatre, visual arts, photography, music (composing and recording; Daniel Lapp and others are involved), literature, intergenerational dance evening, documentary video. Reminiscing is vital to healthy aging as is Life Review and this project will help seniors and the community on many levels.

Heather thanked Trudy with a brand spanking new (it was even wrapped in plastic still!) Rotary mug.

Lori was eager to get back on the mic and shared Dwayne Reed’s Welcome to the 4th Grade” as a back-to-school tribute.

Reminder! Next Tuesday’s meeting (13th) will be at the Victoria Golf Course. Arrive early to ensure parking.