President Paul kicked off his second official meeting, asking Wayne M. to lead the team in O’ Canada, followed by a thoughtful and well delivered Grace by Avis. Steve recognized our Guest Speaker Stephanie Peachy and her Therapy Dog “Dude” as our guests today. Dude tactfully refrained from joining us in O’Canada.
President Paul then spoke to the following announcements that I have simply paraphrased from his most useful notes:
- A reminder that there is no meeting next week due to the Labour Day Long Weekend
- Earle Newton has informed us that Joy’s Holistic Health Project in Uganda (Joy’s Centre) has been accepted by the partnership between the government of Canada and The Rotary Foundation! That means we have that money ($25,000) to go with an equal contribution from our Saskatoon Clubs and DDF.
The next step is to gain the support of The Rotary Foundation in Chicago to reach our total of $82,500 USD. Paul does not know how long that may take. He will keep us posted.
- Susan Blum update – Paul spoke with Susan on Thursday last. Apparently her bicycle accident did not involve a vehicle.
She was at a bike festival in Little Red River Park near Prince Albert. They were doing laps on the trails when at one point her front wheel hit a tree root at stopped her bicycle instantly. Regrettably, the bicycle stayed attached to her and folded over her back. Frighteningly she spent 8 days in ICU and a total of 6 weeks in the hospital. She has sustained a fair amount of damage including some spinal cord damage and multiple breaks, bad cuts and bruises. She is now recovering as well as can be expected. She can now walk without a cane, but is experiencing much nerve pain. As she is a very active person, the recovery is not going fast enough for her but she says she has to learn to pace herself. Paul updated her on the data management partnership project RAP has with Saskatchewan PolyThec and told her we were impressed with the software capabilities and with the staff and students who are enthusiastically working on this project. Since RAP is a unique project, the performance management system is leading edge. The students just love working with real life applications rather than just theory. She is scheduled to be away from work for a year but hopes it will be much shorter than this. She is open to receiving calls from members. - Just another reminder of the Strategic Planning session scheduled for Saturday, September 15th. Open to all members of all Clubs. Details are on our website. Please register with Paul asap. We currently have 8 members registered.
- Grocery Cards – Board has decided to do this again. Wayne S. has agreed to coordinate. Wayne says cards will be available soon.
- Program – Desire for joint club meetings – discussed at President’s Council on August 20th. No interest expressed as yet in having five club meetings around a speaker program.
The following ideas were expressed for joint meetings.
i.November 22 – RAP Annual Meeting at Crossmount. A good opportunity for members of all 5 clubs to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of RAP and the Saskatchewan Premiers Service Club Award to Saskatoon Rotary Clubs.
ii.April 17, 2019 – Rotary Badge, Shield, Star (Wednesday)
iii.New Citizen Ceremony – Nutana Club has yet to set date for late spring 2019.
iv.Discussion ensued about the 5 clubs hosting a Blanket Ceremony. This is an interactive learning experience that teaches Indigenous rights history that we are rarely taught.
Bob Devrome (Nutana) will be approached. The Indian and Metis Friendship Centre was suggested as good place to hold this event. Further discussion to take place at September meeting.
v.Ideas on Fellowship among the 5 clubs:
- Brainstorming Fellowship on membership – held after the Strategic Planning Workshop.
- A game night - Bowling Night?
Sergeant Dave S. leapt to liberate loose loonies lying in likely locations. Happy dollars were offered up by many (not all of whom regrettably were captured by the editor) including Joanne for her continued recovery, good health and job promotion, Jim for his niece’s recovery from a serious illness, multiple HD’s for the Rider’s wins and Brooke H’s win, honey from Dave and Nils, the fishing trip success, Weddings for Mark’s son and Vic’s daughter and another grandchild born to the Beyer’s family.
Today’s Program
The presentation today was delivered by Stephanie Peachy and her Therapy Dog “Dude”, who were both introduced by Wayne McGillivray.
Stephanie and Dude are a volunteer team who provide Pet Therapy to people in various forms of mental and / or physical distress. Dude is her 15 year old, deaf, but very affectionate Shitzu cross (I think I got that right). Dude was jauntily dressed in a Red lettered Vest donated by the Meewasin Rotary Club. $500 is the cost to sponsor a dog, and all breeds are used. No cats are involved at this time.
The Pet Therapy program is overseen by the St. John Ambulance organization that closely evaluates both the proposed Therapy pets and their owners for suitability to the program and to see how they might get along with patients.
There are approximately 70 teams of dogs and handlers in Saskatoon providing visitation service to a variety of locations including the Crocus Coop Mental Health Clinic, The Crisis Nursery, Royal University Hospital, the Airport, nursing homes, and various Emergency Rooms. The service of allowing patients and people in need to pet and interact with the dogs has proven most therapeutic in calming anxieties. The Program is soon to be extended to Correctional facilities.
Stephanie estimates she and Dude volunteer about 100 hours per month with visits. Dude has even helped with extreme mental illness cases and individuals presenting a suicide risk. One of the new programs underway is a reading program for kids where they read to the dogs.
With the Humboldt Broncos tragedy, Dude played a helpful therapeutic role as the injured were brought into the ER. Extra pet therapy teams were brought in to help during this terrible event. The formation of a new Crisis intervention team is being considered to respond to these dramatic events.
Thank you Stephanie and Dude for not only an informative talk but also for the important service you both provided to our community.
