Being met at the door by the “cash-man” cheerful Paul, and with Bill J. greeting, we saw President Elect Mark call our meeting to order with a thoughtful grace (as always) delivered by Al M.

 

Avis introduced our visitors and guests, Assistant District Governor Colin Taylor and his spouse Brenda, member prospect Cody Podhordeski (ScotiaBank) and Graham’s much better half Darcelle.

 

PE Mark announced that the Rotary Charitable Trust Fund meeting will be Thursday, January 26 at the Millennium 3 Properties’ Boardroom at 6:30 PM.

Sergeant at Arms Gary R. rallied the troops starting with a quiz on Al M.’s Archival trivia about the Happy Gang and Sally Rand, a famous burlesque dancer of yesteryear.

 

Happy dollars were harvested from:

• Mark for the NFL results
• Peter Z. who is selling Lotto tickets with a grand prize of a VIA Rail trip to Vancouver; he is looking for volunteers to help in selling the tickets at $10 each
• Gary E. for the Blades' win record and the recent Rush game that raised $202k in the 50/50 pot!!
• Peter W. for a great Rush performance

 

Sgt. Gary then went on to help Graham and Darcelle raise donations to the Canadian Cancer Society in support of their “Goldy Locks” hirsute pursuit. Both have been growing their hair this past year to 8 inches, soon to be captured and cut for Cancer Wig donations. The room was incredibly supportive raising a total of approximately $1,000 in cash, cheque and pledge donations to the Canadian Cancer Society. Graham will be managing the cash and cheque website input to ensure charitable receipts are issued accordingly to the contributors. A special “Thank you” to all our contributors Peter Z., Wayne M., Paul G., Gary E., Peter W., Gary K., Gary R., Mark G., Wayne P.,  Joanne F., Graham and Darcelle,(and maybe President Jack when he returns all tanned and all.) Graham promises to post before and after shots in an upcoming Rotateller.

 

 

 

Assistant District Governor Colin Taylor and spouse Brenda spoke on the Ripple Effect program, taking the Club through a very fascinating and informative slide show of their October  humanitarian travels to Guatemala to help with rural school upgrades and construction.

 

The Ripple Effect (“RE”) program is named after the visual picture of a stone dropped in a pond, causing outward flowing concentric “ripples.”  In other words, if a Rotary Club can start and support a program like the Guatemala school project, local businesses, communities and governments will often times get on board with further “ripples” of support.   

Colin sits on the Canadian RE committee and is grateful for the continuity of devoted volunteers that have made multiple trips to projects like the Guatemala schools  project. The Rotary Club of Meewasin has been a very active contributor to local Guatemala schools, one of which bears a “thank you” plaque to the Club (including a very quaint spelling of Saskatoon). The Regina Eastview Rotary Club also helped build a school in Yalu, Guatemala to a very good standard. This school yard includes a cinnamon garden helping to improve the nutritional value of the local diet.
 

Schools in El Rosarios, Los Paladines and Los Pinos  (population approx.. 450) are several of the schools  being supported. Conditions are often times very primitive, with no indoor plumbing or running water either at the schools or at the students rural home. While Rotary has helped install fiberglass toilets in the school outhouses, privacy is minimal, and security is non-existence. As a result young girls often times stop going to school once they start menstruating, which leads to a cycle of under-education, poverty  and oftentimes early pregnancy. No soap is available in the schools or at home which leads to sickness. However a pilot project is underway to make homemade soap from ash, lye and fat.

 

The Rotary Club of Los Paladines (“Rotarios”) helped build a nearby school in their surrounding area to a very decent standard with concrete floors, secure walls and a leak-proof roof.

 

However the usual standard of rural schools shows a building that is very rough, where the roof leaks badly in the heavy local rains. Class rooms are usually not protected from the elements as using old recycled rough lumber leaves gaps in the walls. Most kids come to school malnourished, as the diet is poor, consisting mostly of beans, with little rice that would help improve protein intake.

The Government is somewhat supportive with teacher funding being made available,  but Government funding falls short regarding building infrastructure. The parents, many of whom are illiterate, strongly support schooling for their children as a means to end the poverty cycle.

School supplies are also needed and volunteers will usually bring them in from a larger Guatemala city center, rather than bring them in luggage.

Recycled computers are actively being sought with the local Charity refurbisher Funsepa playing a vital role in refitting hard-drives and refurbishing over 21,000 donated laptops for distribution to the school system, as well as providing technical teacher training. But with typical poor school construction, securing these computers can be a challenge.

Showing a “concrete” example of the Ripple Effect in action, a local cement company recently donated $4,000 of cement for construction of one of the new school projects.

Colin and Brenda report that $45,000 cdn needs to be raised for the next big push in Guatemala, with the focus on schools and bathrooms. There is a possibility that World Community Service grants might be added to this program. Colin has invited our Club to participate if possible through our World Community Service program.