MEETING RECAP - December 21st, 2015

Submitted by Will Arscott December 22nd, 2015

The meeting was presided by President Bev D.

Cashier - Bill J.

Guest Piano Player - Betty Ann Arscott

O Canada was led by Betty Ann A from the piano

Grace - John D reminded us that Christmas celebrates God's redemptive love coming down to mankind. For Rotarians it should be a time to increase our service to our fellow man.

Announcements - President Bev D.

- Thanked Bill J. for his hard work organizing our Christmas luncheon. She expressed pleasure at the very large turnout.

- There will be no meeting next week December 28th. The first meeting of 2016 will be on Monday January 4th. The speaker will be John Cross on a subject to be announced but John can be relied upon to be a very entertaining speaker.

Visitors and Guests

- Guests and visitors were announced by having the microphone passed from table to table with a member announcing the family and visitors at each table.

- There were many family members in attendance and it is impossible to recognize everyone present. Many families were represented by spouses, children and grandchildren. However no family was as well represented as the Byers/Giesbrecht clan. It is great to see they got everyone out. Another notable in attendance was Stan Hodgins a very long-time member of the club On a sadder note Jack B. had to bring Peter Z. as his date to the luncheon.

- At the end the members (a minority in the room) rose and sang the Hello Song to the assembly.

Gift to Bethany Homes

- Major Leanne was present to accept our annual Christmas donation to Bethany Homes. This gift is made in recognition of the effort of all our guest speakers over the course of the year. There was also a table of gifts from our members to be taken back to provide much needed supplies to the clients of Bethany House. The club thanks Wayne M. for all his efforts in this project.

- Major Leanne accepted and thank the club for our gift. She also indicated here intention to become a member in the near future. President Bev noted her delight with having the Salvation Army again represented by a member of our club.

Carol Singing

- Betty Ann led our carol singing from the piano backed by a wonderful choir of children, family and Rotarians. The choir even included one ringer from the Dubois family. For some reason the choir was missing Wayne M. who seemed to be on a very long comfort break. A good mix of traditional carols and Christmas songs was sung. The children seemed to particularly enjoy doing the echo on Rudolph.

- To a really loud rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town and great the saint magically appeared from the back of the room. Our club is indeed honoured that each Christmas Santa takes the time just before his busiest night of the year to visit.

- Amazingly Santa seemed to know not only what children were present but had something for each of them. All of the children seemed to enjoy meeting Santa and were willing to get up on his knee. The one concern would be with our exchange student Samuli who jumped up on Santa's knee but when asked to tell what he wanted for Christmas would only whisper it in Santa's ear. This writer is afraid Samuli may want something from the naughty list. I guess we will have to trust Santa's discretion and assume he will not bring an inappropriate gift.

- Given that Santa seems to appear at our meeting each year the club should try to get him more involved in Rotary. Next year he should be asked to give a proper Rotary vocational talk as many members are keen to find out how this North Pole business works.

The meeting was ended with President Bev wishing all a very merry Christmas.

Next Meeting: No Meeting December 27th​

January 4th 2016 Speaker John Cross Subject TBA