Submitted by Will Arscott

 

[Editor’s Note: You may have noticed that the Rotateller has not been published in a while. This is because the only people doing the Rotateller are Secretary Steve and President Will. Both these people already have major responsibilities in the club. We really need members to step up and perform this role. The Rotateller is important:  It brings our members who are unable to make a meeting up to date with what is happening in the club. By posting it on the webpage we make our activities known to a wider community. The final product does not have to be extensive – it might well be better to keep it short. If you are willing to give it a try, we can provide a WORD template you can use. Please consider helping the club with this important function.]

 

 

We met in the Main Dining Room of the Saskatoon Club.  Past-President Wendy Cooper was our MC. The meeting began with members signing O Canada led admirably by Gary Rusu. The blessing was asked by Avis Hardy. The meal was a great chicken Ceasar salad.

 

Cashier was Wayne Palmer. was our cashier. Mark Gryba handled technology. Don Lepp took care of the banner and greeted our members. As always, a special thanks to Avis Hardy for organizing and communicating the roster.

 

We had two Guests:  Our speaker Darren Bohmann from RAP who was introduced later in the program and Kendra Mazer from Hope Restored who is familiar to most of our members.H

 

No report at this meeting.

 

Jack Brodsky spoke about the Gourmet Burger Night which will take place at the Saskatoon Club on Thursday April 30. It is meant to be a social event with a very short explanation of our club and what we do. Tickets are $50 each or 2 for $89. Since the meeting Jack has sent more information to club members. There is a poster to follow to share with your contacts. The success of this event depends on getting people from outside our membership to attend. There will be a 50/50draw. This event could raise some money and make our club known to more people.

 

Social Media Initiatives: Don Lepp spoke on this and thanked Clare Mugabe for her considerable effort in this area. We now have a new profile on Facebook, Linked In, and two other social media sites. There will be an email in the near future listing the sites so that you can share these sites with your contacts and friends.

 

Craft Fair:  Linda Petrow confirmed that this event will be held again this year on November 7 in Salon B of Prairieland Park. The cost for vendors will be unchanged if they register and pay early. Admission will remain at $5 per person. Watch for more information as the event approaches.

 

Grocery cards are available from Donna Gauthier. Donna was not able to attend this meeting, but I am sure you can obtain Scobey’s cards by contacting Donna.

 

 

The big news in the club was the marriage of Gary Rusu to Kathy Jo Simmie. The wedding had taken place the previous Friday at the Saskatoon Club. Many members know Kathy Jo from her extensive work as a Saskatoon North Rotarian. All the best to the young couple! Contributors in alphabetical order:

 

Will Arscott $20 Sad dollars for Friday’s concert at the Roxy when performers belongings were stolen from the green room. Also, congratulations to Kathy Jo and Gary.

 

Jack Brodsky $100 happy for the new couple. This was matched by another $100 happy from Don Lepp.  Kent Smith-Windsor and Maureen Torr also sent congratulations and contributed $50 happy dollars each. Gary Rusu accepted the good wishes and contributed $100 happy dollars of his own.

 

Randy Weekes contributed $50 happy for the birth of a new granddaughter.  The Weekes now have five grandchildren – all girls.

 

 

Avis Hardy re-introduced Kendra Mazer from Hope Restored.  Kendra has been a regular visitor to our meetings. Kendra took a few minutes to update us on the work of Hope Restored. The residence is always full, and they are having to turn girls away. In some cases, they have been able to help those they cannot house through the day program which continues to expand.  Our contributions have been greatly appreciated as it provides some money to allow the clients to purchase a few personal extras as they move through the program.  Avis presented our latest contribution to Kendra.

 

 

Darren was introduced by RAP Chairman Kent Smith-Windsor.  Darren has been in the education system for thirty-two years, first as a teacher and now as the longest serving RAP facilitator. He has also worked in the administration of RAP. As Darren moves towards retirement it is hoped he will continue to have some involvement with RAP as it continues to evolve.

 

Darren began by thanking our club for its commitment over many years.  He is aware the program began with our club and that many members have devoted countless hours to its development. He believes the need for RAP is as great as ever. The covid experience isolated our youth and made them experience the world through their devices. This is not healthy, but devices are a hard habit to break. Today’s students would rather communicate through their devices and often just having them talk goes a long way to resolve conflict. RAP work is up with more interventions particularly as the program becomes established in more schools. Bullying complaints are way up but many of these situations turn out not to be classic bullying but conflict between students. RAP maintains statistics on all student contacts.

 

The program continues to grow. There are full-time facilitators in more schools and only three more positions would be required to have RAP in all Saskatoon Schools and the Comprehensive in North Battleford.  With the addition of Evan Hardy, Aden Bowman is the only public high school without a RAP program. Money is the issue. The program has never wanted to expand without being sure it can sustain that growth and has never had to withdraw from a school once the program has begun. It costs about $100,000 per year to place a fulltime RAP facilitator into a school. The school must pay half this cost. The remainder comes from the provincial government and fundraising. The Saskatoon Police Service pays much of the cost of the overall administration of the program.

 

RAP is an important program of which our club should be proud. Darren distributed information about the RAP ‘70s fundraising event at Bethlehem High School. All members are encouraged to support Rotary and attend this event.

 

Darren was thanked by Past-President Wendy and the regular donation will be made to Bethany Homes.  

 

 

Next Meeting is on April 13. New members, Innocent Minegra and Samblo Marseille will give their introduction talks.