Jennifer Hassan, Branch Manager for St. John's Ambulance in London presented information about the organization's history and services.  While many are familiar with the first aid training they provide, the full range of services is impressive.  They provide medical first responders at events and a range of first aid training for specific environments such as law enforcement, marine, mine rescue, baby sitters, and pet first aid.  In addition they provide mental health training, wilderness training and therapy dogs.

 

St John's Ambulance's 900 year history includes working in 42 countries and started a priory in Canada in 1982.

 

This organization is a significant contributor to the quality of life in Southwestern Ontario and Canada as a whole.

Covid reduced the ability of St Patrick's students to share sports equipment.  The London South Community Service Committee provided funds to purchase Basketballs, Volley Balls, Soccer Balls and Tennis Balls to provide exercise opportunities for students.  Hector Silva-Rodriguez and family delivered the equipment to the school.

Allison Graham talked about mental health tips during the Covid pandemic.  Included in her new book "Take Back Your Weekend" she noted with the increased of  zoom and other social media, we do not have time to take a break and recharge.

 

Some of her tips to reduce stress included focusing on reducing the barriers to performance such as worry, self judgment, and negative self-stories.  To overcome these barriers she suggested increasing our self awareness of stressors, getting over trying to complete and ever expanding to-do list, and exploring our efficiency of we do.

 

To get over zoom fatigue her tips were to 1) hide the self view, 2) provide a buffer between meetings, 3) evaluate if another mode of communication might be better (phone calls, email, etc.) 4) have a different location for work zoom calls and social calls.

 

Paula Morand was our guest speaker on Feb. 5th.  She is an motivational speaker, author, and media producer and sales.  Paula talked about her new book and vision to be bold and dream big.  Her emphasis is to eliminate the reasons we fail.  Identify what holds of back from achieving our dreams and work on removing the obstacles 

 

John Saunders from SEEM presented key ideas for personal emergency preparations.  As individuals we need to have a personal plan for potential emergencies.  Most common emergency evacuations involve fire or weather events.  Among John's tips were:  1) conduct a "what if" , 2) have an evacuation and assembly plan, 3) have a contact list someplace safe,   4) scan important documents and photos that can not be replaced and put them on a thumb drive.  He suggested going to emergencyontario.ca for a check list.  

 

He also talked about generators as backups in power outages and "bug out bags".

 

This was a good reminder of how fragile our lives can be and what it takes to recover

Lt Col (Ret) Ian Haley gave us a short history of London's 1st Hussars and the Holly Roller Tank.  The 1st Hussars were established in 1856 and served in the Boer War, WWI,WWII, and peace keeping missions including Afghanistan 

 

The Holly Roller Tank, which sits in Victoria Park as a monument, landed at Juno beach on June 6th 1944 and fought to liberate France, Belgium, and Holland.  The 1st Hussars lost 346 tanks but the Holly Roller survived some damage, was repaired and fought to the end of the war in Europe. 

 

At the end of the war, the 1st Hussars were granted the privilege of returning the tank to Canada. It was located in front of the Armoury on Dundas and in the Western Fair prior to taking its current location.

 

The Holly Roller is in need of restoration due to corrosion that has damaged the interior of the tank.  In June of 2021 the tank will be transported to Fanshawe College for restoration.  A new pad for the tank will be installed in the park while the restoration is going on and it will be put back in place for the 150th anniversary of the Hussars.  

 

A major fundraising initiative is underway to restore the Holly Roller which is estimated to cost $250,000.  This tank is oldest of the 11,388 Sherman M4 tanks in the Western Hemisphere that was built in Grand Blanc MI.

 

The Holly Roller is an important monument to Canada's WWII efforts and needs to be conserved.

 

 

Steve Sauder from the Upper Thames River Conservation brought us up to date with the impact of Covid on the operations of UTRCA.  Some of the activities of the organization have been complicated by the social distancing requirements of Covid.  For example, soft shell turtle egg collection has been complicated since the collection process is usually carried out by two people working closely together.  Other activities dependent on volunteer have been reduced.  The Authority's office is restricted to 25% of staff, but many programs are outside and still in operation.  Significant  work in improving water quality on Cedar Creek was accomplished with dam removal and stream enhancement with riffles pool creation.  Work is underway to create an Oak Savanna at Kiwanis Park.  Steve described several special bird sightings.  While the work has been changed by Covid, UTRCA has found new ways of carrying  out its mandate.

 

PDG for District 4271 (Columbia) Sonia Uribe made a powerful presentation on the strength of Rotarians in action.  She told a story of Rotarians work to provide clean water in one of the poorer Departments of Columbia.  Rotarians were called "Gods Returning"  because they kept their promises unlike politicians.  In one community a water well gave people a new way of life - allowing women and children do other things instead of walking for an hour to collect polluted water, grow gardens, wash, and have water for animals.

 

Sonia also showed how her foundation benefited people with Spinal Bifita.  Individual were given mobility with wheel chairs that allowed them to get an education and the foundation provided virtual learning opportunities.

 

 

On November 6th we celebrated Remembrance Day early with President Anette leading the meeting with a reading of the tribute to the fallen.  Philippe Moran recited "In Flanders Fields" in both official languages.  Major Venables played Last Post.  Later we acknowledge family members who served.

This year's Ornaments have arrived featuring The London Life Building and Novack's.  A limited number of previous year's ornaments are also available for sale.  To purchase Click Here    #LdnOnTree   

 

Kathleen Naylor joined us from Dartmouth, NS and presented information on Child Marriage in Canada.  Marriage is a Federal jurisdiction but provinces are able to enact legislation as long as it conforms to the minimum standards set by Federal legislation.  The minimum age for marriage set by the Federal Civil Marriage Act is 16 years of age.  The legislation provides for penalties aiding or participating in the celebration of marriage of individuals und the minimum age (16) set by the act.  

 

Various provinces have adopted higher standard, for example 17-19 year of age.  However, marriage of individuals  16 and 17 year's old is legal.  In addition there is no prohibition of such young people living together with others but not in an "official" marriage.  There are various considerations now being studied around setting the minimum age at 18 which is the standard in most of Europe.

At our September 18 club assembly we reorganized our avenues of service in accord with the strategic review results.  Now we have two avenues of service - International and Community.  Club members selected the respective avenue in which they wish to participate and budgets were set and discussed.