ROTATELLER

Submitted by Will Arscott

 

 

We met in the Main Dining Room of the Saskatoon Club. Past-President Gary Rusu was our MC.  Member sang O Canada led admirably by our MC.  In the absence of a prepared blessing Gary led us in the singing of the Rotary blessing: “May Rotary friends and Rotary ways help serve thee all our days.” We should use this blessing more regularly as I suspect many of our new members are not familiar with it. The meal consisted of a great chicken in sauce.

 

Cashier was Wayne Palmer. Technology was ably handled by Paul Gauthier sitting in at the last minute.   Greeter and introducer of guests was Kent Smith-Windsor.  As always, a special thanks to Avis Hardy for organizing and communicating the roster.

 

 

For the second time in two meetings, we had a good number of guests and visiting Rotarians who were introduced by Kent.Smith-Windsor. We welcomed: Dale Worrall and Anne Luross from the Meeswasin Rotary Club. Brynn Campbell from Morocco and an associate of the Nutana Rotary Club. Randy Weekes who was our speaker and was formally introduced in the program.

Henry Chan was back as a prospective new member as were Patrick Origbe and Christine Biata. 

 

 

No report at this meeting.

 

 

Our next meeting will be on November the 17 in the evening.  The meeting will be a potluck supper at Mayfair United Church on 33^rd Street beginning at 5:30. To date, 31 people have confirmed their attendance.  If you are coming, please check the summary sheet to confirm what you are to bring. Paul could use a few people before and after to help with set-up and clean-up.  It should be a great night and will honour two people who have contributed greatly to our club.

 

The next club project is helping at the Friendship Inn on November 24. Please contact Gary Rusu if you can help. 

 

We still need members to volunteer to be scribes for the Rotateller. It is not onerous once it is prepared you simply email to Avis for publication. If help is not forthcoming it may be necessary to miss issues in the future.  Please consider helping; several volunteers will make a light load for everyone.

 

The Craft Fair took place on Saturday with wonderful weather.  Linda Petrow reports there were 677 attendees, down a little from last year. Many of the participants were very pleased with their day. A final report will be given in the next several weeks. Thanks again for your work, Linda.

 

We welcomed Anne Luross and Dale Worrell to make an announcement on behalf of the Meewasin Rotary club. Their annual wine night will be on December 4 at the Delta Hotel.  The evening features a four-course meal with wine pairings, live art, and Martin Janovsky on the piano. Non-alcoholic wine will be available. It should be a good time and all Rotarians are encouraged to attend. Tickets can be purchased by going to the Meewasin Rotary website.

 

Grocery cards are available from Donna Gauthier. As the holiday season begins to approach it would be great to reduce the club inventory.

 

We were a generous bunch at this meeting and made a significant contribution to Polio Plus which will be multiplied by the Gates Foundation and others.

 

 

Gary spoke briefly about Rotary’s signature project Polio plus. This devastating disease strikes children and disproportionately very young children. It is present in many countries and is associated with poor sanitation. Rotary has had the goal of eradicating Polio since 1979. In that time the rate of polio has fallen by 99.9%. We have been very close to ending polio for a decade now. There is just a couple of stubborn areas like rural Pakistan and Afghanistan where the disease persists. There is also a concern about Gaza as the situation there continues to deteriorate, and the sanitation infrastructure is destroyed. To date Rotary has put in 2.1 billion and governments have put in 10 billion. Rotary grants are now being matched by the Gates Foundation.  [This makes the money we raised at our meeting through happy and sad even more meaningful]

 

 

Randy was introduced by Maureen Torr. Randy is a very proud son of Biggar Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Saskatchewan where he studied agriculture. He served twenty-five years in the Saskatchewan Legislature as an MLA, in various cabinet positions, and finally as the 27^th speaker of the House. Since his retirement from the political scene, he has continued to farm.    Randy has an interest in philanthropy in general and has attended conferences of the Canadian Philanthropic Association (CPA).

 

Randy stared his presentation by speaking about the oath he took to be speaker of the legislature.  In the oath he promised to be even and fair. This was something he took seriously. Our society is not always fair and there is still way too much overt racism.

 

After his retirement, Randy decided to work to strengthen parliamentary democracy. To this end he has created a foundation through the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation. The name of the foundation is “The Honourable Randy Weekes Strengthening Democracy Legacy Fund.” 

 

The Legacy Fund is uniquely focused on providing financial assistance to motivated students in the University of Regina’s Bachelor of Arts programs in Political Science, international Studies, Public Administration, Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) programs and related fields.  These fields emphasize themes of democracy, justice, and the environment, making these educational pursuits essential in safeguarding the future of a just and democratic society.   It is anticipated that the initial value of the scholarship will be $1,000 annually.

 

In time, Randy would like to establish a similar scholarship at the University of Saskatchewan.  The U of S has a higher threshold to manage a scholarship and requires a three-year commitment on the part of the donor. The scholarship specifically states that minority groups are to be favored in the awarding of the scholarship.

 

Randy was thanked by Past-President Gary and the regular donation will be made to Bethany Homes. It was great having Randy to our meeting and now that he has chosen to live in Saskatoon perhaps Rotary will be in his future.

 

Next meeting dates:

 

November 17 – Foundation Potluck Dinner.

December 1 – Wayne Durksen on Strategies to Increase Rotary Membership.

 

Adjournment