President Mark opened the meeting, asking John D. to deliver a well prepared and thoughtful blessing. As usual John's professional training in this area is always a delight to behold.
As we had no guests today, Mark moved right into announcements of upcoming events:
- June 11th - A presentation by Mr. Colin Farnan on spinal cord injury
- June 18th - Club Assembly
- June 25th - President's Dinner 6pm at the Saskatoon Club. See Paul G. for tickets at $60 each
- July 2nd - No meeting - Canada Day
- "Dues be due!!" June 15th is the deadline. Please pay to Wayne P.
- The Lobster fest last Saturday night was a great success and made $900 for the Club.
- A World Community Service meeting will be held Tuesday June 12th at the Saskatoon Club at 8pm
- Jim W. will hold a BECAS meeting June 13th at 7:30 at Jim's house. (Dos Cerveza por favor)
- Gary R. will be our new Program Director – thanks Gary!!.
- The Membership committee needs new members. See Jim W. for details. Wayne P. volunteered - thanks Wayne
We had no Sergeant at Arms today so in lieu everyone chucked a buck at the kitty – meow!!
Our program today was quite unique in that President Mark presented a You Tube video very professionally shot, directed, edited and narrated by Dolapo Fadare, a young woman of Canadian and West African heritage.
She was raised in Regina and is a U of S student in Commerce and Economics with a special interest in International Development.
Following a Youth Ambassador role in 2017, she approached our club looking for support towards a Cambridge Fellowship she had won opposite hundreds of applicants. Following due consideration of the program's international values that are consistent with Rotary, we agreed to a subsidization.
The Fellowship has taken her to Silicon Valley for training and then she was sent on to an internship in Shang Hai, China to work at a technology company.
She described in the video how the language of the city being primarily Mandarin, presents interesting challenges in everyday life, including ordering food that she describes as amazing. She showed shots of the high tech office environment in which she works, and the incredible sights.
Dalapo will be producing further You Tube videos which we await with interest. Thank you Dalapo for sharing this incredible journey.
Mark then played a further video titled "8000 Kilometers to Peace" focussing on immigration to Amherst, Nova Scotia from Lebanon and also from war torn Syria. It describes the incredible strength these families display in relocating to a completely foreign environment and their ability to adapt to life, language, food and even ice skating!
Mark summed up the meeting by highlighting the deep courage these people have in moving to a foreign and unknown land for the sake of their families.
We then adjourned the meeting, but as an aside I learned some interesting facts about a couple of our venerable members today.
- Did you know that Mike G. is currently billeting a duck?? Part of a school project apparently.
- Did you know that John D.’s father-in-law was once a professional soccer referee in Venezuela in the 30’s? In one particular game, a home team point blank shot on the opposing team’s open net struck a dog that had run onto the field! The ball did not go in. The dog did. His father-in-law, aware of the home team’s likely vigorous reaction if the wrong call was made, called it a goal. Classic story. John should write his memoirs!
