Submitted by Will Arscott 

 

 

This was an in-person meeting held in the upper lounge of the Saskatoon Club with nine additional members joining us by Zoom. There were not any significant technical problems. Thanks to Mark, Marc, Paul, and Gary Rusu for setting up the hybrid meeting. Thanks to Gary Rusu for arranging the crew to do the various duties.

Wendy Cooper was our volunteer MC for the meeting and did a great job. Hopefully more of our members (men and women) will volunteer for this position. Our cashier for this week was Wayne Palmer.

Wayne McGillivray joined us by Zoom and led the singing of ‘O Canada’. There was not any break-up in the signal and those of us at the venue were able to sing along rather effectively. Mike Giesbrecht led an appropriate blessing and asked us to remember our place of service in the world. He also asked, with several elections in the offing, that we find leaders who work for the common good.

 

Visitors and Guests  

Rotarian Earle Newton of the North club joined our meeting.

 

Donna Gauthier had grocery cards. It is not too early to get them for the holiday season. They can be purchased with a cheque or with a credit card.

The city has declared October 24^th as World Polio Day. There will be recognition in local media.  Thanks to Vic Dubois for this initiative which raises the profile of Rotary in Saskatoon.

The club will serve lunch at the Friendship Inn on Dec 7. We need about ten people, so mark your calendar.

 

 

H- Mark Gryba for the convocation of his son as a Chiropractor. A small celebration was held. It had to be reduced due to COVID-19 restrictions. Mark also thanked

the club for allowing him to borrow our technical AV equipment.

H- Earle Newton is glad to be visiting our club. Also pleased with the progress of the Joy’s project which he spoke about later in the program.

H- Will Arscott for the Saskatoon Summer Player’s production of the Addams Family which will be taking place this Saturday at Persephone Theater.This will be a one-time streamed performance available on Saturday evening. The link to purchase the link is on the Saskatoon Summer Players website.Will reports that he is much older than anyone else involved in this production and is enjoying the energy of the cast, crew, and orchestra.

H-  Gary Rusu for joining eight other members of our club in serving lunch at the Friendship Inn last Tuesday.Our Board has approved this as an ongoing project, and we will serve again on December 7^th. Mark your calendar. It is a good service project and allows for good fellowship as well.

H- Mike Giesbrecht was also happy to participate at the Friendship Inn. He was also happy about a school project his son had done about Rotary.

It reminded him that Rotary does good things in the world.

H- Graham Pearson put in 50 happy dollars for logging in an hour late to our last meeting. Graham has been generous, and it is great he can participate from B.C.

 

The Local Community Service Committee met last week and approved one project and started the exploration of other projects.

 

A local project was approved to fund the St. John’s Ambulance Therapy Dog program. These dogs visit hospitals and care facilities to comfort patients and residents. We have agreed to fund 5 teams (dogs) for a five-year period. This is about the length of service for one of these dogs.  We will be able to place a Rotary crest on the vest the dogs wear when they work. The total cost of this program will be $2,000. Already three members have stepped up to make personal donations in support of this program, if more members make donations more money will be left to use in other local community projects. Our total budget is only $2,500 for local community service. If you would like to donate, please make your cheques out to the Saskatoon Rotary Charitable Trust Foundation and a tax receipt will be provided.

 

Attention is also being given to find a replacement project for our Centennial Project (the pavilion in Rotary Park). There is a possibility under consideration though no decision has been made to date. The city is redeveloping the property about Nineteenth Street and Avenue H that had been the home of the Saskatoon Lawn Bowling Club. This club has not operated for several years and their building has become dilapidated. The city intends to tear this building down and build a new building. It is to be the center of an urban agriculture project. The plan is to teach people to grow food in an urban setting and eventually to market their produce. The building is to include a community kitchen. Our club may be involved in equipping that kitchen or in other aspects of this project. At present this is still under study and no decisions have been made.   However, the city is looking for community partners and it may be a good way to raise the profile of Rotary in Saskatoon.

 

Earle brought greetings to our club from Maureen Torr who is in Uganda. With the COVID-19 pandemic she has been left there since the outbreak in March. This has resulted in some real hardship for her and her family. She has been able to oversee the implementation of the Global Grant. This grant was to be used in three parts. The first two parts are completed or very nearly completed.

In the first part a well, 150 meters deep, has been dug. Solar power has been installed to run the well and pumps have been installed. Joy’s Project now has running water. In the second part of the project washrooms have been built and are now ready for inspection prior to going into service.

Once the inspections are completed the third phase can get underway. In this phase attention will be given to cleanliness and the related issues experienced by girls and women.    

Rotary International has reviewed the progress of the project and is pleased with the results.   The pandemic has hit Uganda, but school is continuing with more social distancing and masks.   It has also created additional pressures: The cost of food has risen significantly in Uganda and the project will need to organize how to grow more of its own food. Fortunately, the project holds about thirty acres and now has some ability to irrigate. Even so there will be additional financial pressure on the project. Travel has also become more expensive. It is a major trip into Kampala and Maureen has had to go back and forth extensively.

Maureen’s presence on the ground has helped everything to go smoothly. Maureen has used a good part of her savings. The family in Saskatoon was forced to move on relatively short notice when the house they rented was sold. It is possible to fund member travel through World Community Service and our club has done so as part of the St. Vincent water project.  Maureen’s situation will be discussed by the World Community Service Committee. In the meantime, any donations to help Maureen would be most welcome.

 

 

Marc Cheriyan - Salvation Army Residence Manager 

Marc is the offspring of a Dutch mother and an Indian father and was born in Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit). Over his childhood Marc lived in many small settlements in the extreme north of Canada. Eventually he attended a residence high school in Yellowknife. After high school he came to live in the extreme south of Canada – Fort MacMurray, Alberta and then returned to the NWT.

Marc credits living in the far north for much of what he is today. In the northern society it was just assumed that everybody helped one another.  

Marc started his Post-Secondary education studying to be a teacher in Fort Smith and later finishing at the University of Regina. After University Marc returned to Cape Dorsett (the southernmost tip of Baffin Island) where his family had lived many years ago. People in the community still remembered his family and welcomed him.

Later Marc pursued a master’s degree and taught First Nation students near Broadview, Sask. It was in Broadview that he met his wife Shanna to whom he has now been married for twenty years. He became principal in Willowbunch and later received further training in Longbeach, California. He specialized in strategies to help at- risk students. He was involved in writing several books. One was written with his students and combined stories of regular youth and youth in the far north. This was followed by a time living in Lloydminster.

Marc has a daughter who is now a teenager and they lost a son Thomas at the age of one day. The loss of Thomas was an important event for Marc. Thomas may have only lived a single day, but he lived it surrounded by love.

The family moved to Saskatoon in 2016 so Marc could start a job with the Teacher’s Federation.  That job did not last, and jobs were difficult to find in the city particularly for a teacher of Marc’s qualifications. He subbed for a while until a job came up with the Salvation Army. He was hired as Director of Shelter and Residence services. In his time at this position Marc has inaugurated a men’s transition program to help street people learn the skills necessary to establish a more stable life. In this regard Marc works closely with the Lighthouse in Saskatoon.

Community is the center of Marc’s world. This goes back to his growing up in the North and continues today. Marc also lives a life of faith and the family is involved in a local church where both Marc and Shanna teach Sunday School.

Marc knew about Rotary because his dad was a member in Fort MacMurray. His first membership was in the Border City Club in Lloydminster. While in this club he was particularly involved with the student exchange program. He is still in touch with a Polish student who visited and whom he hopes to visit in the future.

 

Peter Voldeng - VDQ Energy Systems

Peter has been a member of our club for about five years. Over that period, he has been both more and less active as his professional life has allowed. He is the husband of Shirley to whom he has been married for 28 years. He is the father of two boys, Addison age 25 and Scott age 23 and a 21-year-old daughter.

Peter is an engineer with an interest in public safety. This fits very well with Rotary. He has been a farmer and engineer, a salesman and is now trying to solve the garbage crisis and make the world better place. Every crisis brings opportunity. Peter believes the world will get better not because we know we can make it better but because we know we can try. This saying came from the CFO of his company who is a paraplegic and who has never stopped trying.

Peter explained that every nation in Africa which has a seacoast imports garbage from the developed world. Much of this garbage is in the form of plastics. Plastics do not biodegrade and could be with us for many centuries. This is one of the ways the world has changed. In past times humans did not create garbage that did not degrade. On one hand this is a huge problem. On the other hand, it is an opportunity. Those same nations are short of fuel. Suppose that the garbage that is polluting these countries could itself become a source of fuel. This is what Peter proposes as the solution. Plastics are large polymer strings. Certain energy sources such as radio waves can be used to cut these large strings into much shorter strings. The result is that used plastic can be turned into a useful product such as gasoline. Peter says this can be done quickly and inexpensively. It can be done locally and provide employment.

Peter has worked on this for five years and formed his own company called VDQ Energy Systems one year ago. The company now employs seven people. His group is remarkably diverse: He employs two visible minorities; two first nations people and a CFO who experiences a disability. Unfortunately to date, there is only one woman on the payroll, but Peter is determined that this imbalance will be addressed in the future. The employees are also geographically apart and most do not work in Saskatoon.

At the end of Peter’s talk there were several good questions. The process Peter proposes does not qualify as carbon capture, but it is ‘very green’ nonetheless. If plastics can be used as fuel or even as new plastics, then humankind’s plastic is either in use or being burned off as carbon dioxide and water vapor. In either case methane gas is not created which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. In the end the purpose is to reduce the amount of new oil that must be pumped from the ground with its resulting carbon footprint.

 

                                                                       

Next Meeting - Monday November 2^nd at the Saskatchewan Aviation Museum. Lunch will be served with a tour to follow. Watch your emails for further information and directions.