Minutes of June 9, 2014 meeting

Special Guest/Presentation

Nash presented our Club’s honorary member- Mayor Dave Barrow - with a Paul Harris Fellowship on behalf of Rotary International and the RH Club. This was given in appreciation of his support of the Club and  his leadership in the RH community. The Mayor was born and raised in RH and attended RH High School. The Mayor thanked Rotary and was humbled in receiving this recognition.

The Mayor had a few words before he had to leave for a town meeting. The priority now seems to be in working with business leaders in the town to help create jobs. It is difficult for the town alone to do this-but the key is to build partnerships and find solutions for all businesses. Dave feels that job scarcity will be the biggest public issue for the next 20 years. The tech sector is eliminating old jobs but also creating new ones. Most university grads now will have to create their own jobs by being creative and innovative. Richmond Hill has a small business enterprise centre  to support upcoming businesses. Businesses like RH for a number of reasons- including great quality of life, skilled workforce with a positive economic climate

Announcements

Nash- see current Rotary magazine for a number of Rotary Fellowship groups that are organized on common interests of the group.

Turnover Night- June 28-please fill out the RSVP list and let us know your food contribution. Dave will be sending out an e-mail for this night

International Night- Just short 0f 300 attended. Overall $32k in revenues. RH Club brought 172 attendees. Net profits after expenses is $15k. Our Club will clear close to $11k. Thanks to Paul T. and his team!!

Golf Tourney- June 17- Cyril- need volunteers to show up at 9:00am that morning to set up.                               

            Lunch              11:30-12:30
           Shotgun start   1:00pm
           Dinner             6:00pm
Cardinal Golf Course(EAST COURSE) Newmarket- Highway# 9-just east of Highway #400..

Glen- represented the Club at all candidates meeting. Great questions were given. Others there were Jason, Dr. A. and Arya.
Susan- Heritage Village Festival this Sat. Will have a booth-Needs a team there by 8:30am.
Jason- we have a newly signed Auction letter that can be used
Beer Fest- July 17- Arya has posters and tickets. Yelp is onboard and will donate 500 beer cozies.
Cam- has given out cheques to distribute at graduations. A few night changes made.
Ted-70 golfers for his son’s golf tourney this week. Lots of items donated. Hope to make $3-4k for Jean Do Fund. Thanks to David O. and Rick for donations.

Special  Rotary Visitor

Glen introduced John Kirkwood , a visiting Rotarian from Uganda. We have been supporting a Rotary project there. Nash presented John with our Club`s  pennant. John spoke briefly about the need for support of their Tofta Educational Trust. This trust helps to educate youth in Uganda, especially with vocational training. In the last few years 2000 kids have been helped.

Special Speaker- Major Dave Pearo- Salvation Army

Nash introduced Dave, who has been a Salvation Army Pastor for 22 years, the past 11 years in the Richmond Hill community.

Dave started off by giving credit to his wife, Beth, as the best thing that has happened to him. Together they have 3 amazing kids- and will soon be empty-nesters. Their first position was in Montreal pastoring to a Spanish-speaking congregation-even though Dave could only speak English..
Their community church has an acute social conscience. Last Christmas for example- 434 families were served, including 802 children for a total of 1202 altogether. Many of the concerns in Toronto are now spreading out to the GTA and ``hidden poverty`` is becoming more prevalent. In the last kettle campaign $147k was raised- all going back into the RH community. With the help of Rotary they gave out 60 winter coats to kids from 16 different schools. A total of 273 coats have been given out.
Other programs run are-Woman`s Breakaway- for women new to Canada, Mom and Tots camp, Community Garden( 10% of everything grown goes to the RH Food Bank). SA Jr. Hockey League(265 kids play every Sat. morning)- 10% of spots are reserved for high -risk kids. For these 10% there is no registration fee and they get free equipment..

Matt Delaney( Youth Pastor) runs a Restorative Justice Program in the schools in the area. They also support a school backpack and supplies program.

Other Salvation Army Services-
Counselling, housing support, clothing, food assistance, addiction assistance, spiritual care and settlement support for new Canadians.

Rick S. thanked Dave on behalf of the Club and assured him of our Club`s continued support.

50-50 winner- Cam.