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.

 

Hector introduced himself to the club with a description of his life in Columbia and his immigration to Canada.

 

He is from a large family of seven children.  He has two grown sons and three grandchildren.

 

Hector started working in banking after High School and attended University while working at the bank.  He graduated from University as a system engineer, continued to work for the bank and also taught at University for ten years.

 

After immigrating to Canada, Hector set up a computer consulting business for several years.  This led him into a manufacturing company for systems work where he was promoted to General Manager.  The recession caused the manufacturing company to have troubles and Hector decided to change careers.  He gained his insurance broker credentials and is now a broker at Sutherland Elliott.

 

 

Hector has set some goals for himself as a Rotarian.  He want to work at developing a satellite club for the Hispanic community and work on projects helping children and elders.

 

To find out more about Columbia Hector provided two youtube links:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YVl-aixyfs

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxRL6HJq_Es

 

 

Hector is a welcomed addition to our club and has shown his willingness to  get involved right away. 

President Anette, Elise, Brenda, and Linda presented out donation to the Northbrea Public School which will allow then to upgrade the school yard with ling painting for basketball and other games.

 

The August 7th meeting was a Club Assembly with lots of topics covered.  The clubs efforts on Interact clubs was updated by Kathleen.  DG David brought us the news of Jennifer Jones becoming RI President  in 2023, The back to school backpacks project raised $600+ , the Strategic Review was discussed , on a sad note Lorna advised she was moving to the Hyde Park Club.  On a very important and happy note Hector Silva Rodrigues  was inducted to our club as our first corporate member.

This was our first change over meeting conducted by Zoom.  President Joanne's Rotary year was a success under challenging conditions due to Covid 19.

The year started out normally and changed in March.  Despite the challenges of figuring how to hold a meeting by Zoom under Joanne's leadership the club did not go dark, but thrived in new ways.  

 

Under the success column Joanne's leadership resulted in 1) a success youth exchange with Duda who charmed everyone with her enthusiasm for exploring her host country; 2) start up of a new Interact club at Central and continuing support for the existing Interact club and Rotaract clubs; 3) Work on a satellite club focusing on the Hispanic community; 4) ongoing strong community support including, dictionaries, science fair, backpacks, pancakes at White Oaks Public School and a project of significance to upgrade the WOPS library with new furniture and books, turkeys to NGOs for distribution to provide food security, and more 5) continuing international support for Days for Girls, Sleeping Children and others, 6) Strong fundraising under difficult conditions for ECKP, Internet auction, Christmas ornaments, and golf; 6)  meeting and exceeding our goals for the Rotary Foundation's annual giving [more than double our goal] and beating our polio goal.

 

 

 

Under Joanne's leadership we all pulled together and stayed together-  THANKS FOR A GREAT YEAR and helping us to stay connected.

 

 

 

Nancy Howard presented information about ELUCO and the programs provided to the East London and the impact of these programs on low income community members. East London has high levels of unemployment and poverty.  ELUCO advocates for affordable housing, food stability, affordable transpiration and good schools.

 

Among the programs they offer for children and families are Growing Chefs, family story time, books and crafts, reading buddies, mad scientist, baby sitting courses, Christmas and pumpkin carving.  A special post secondary scholarship has been successful and several graduates have launched ther careers with the help of ELUCO.

 

 

 

Our May 29th meeting featured Ubong Umoh from TechAlliance.  TechAlliance is part of the Regional Innovation Centre and helps Tech companies start up or improve their business through training, counselling, and collaboration.  There are 150 active clients who are learning a range of skills such as "the 60 second pitch", Entrepreneur 101, and peer engagement.  They are moving from the innovation park to a new location downtown.

 

At our May 1st meeting Jon Deactis brought us up-to-date with the programs the pandemic have put under additional  pressure.  The Centre of Hope is not just a shelter it provides extensive services to people who come to it for help.  As a shelter it is the largest in London.  A list of the services is shown below this story.  At the same time that the Centre is under pressure for services, it is facing a financial challenge because of its aging building-the roof needs replacing, the elevator has problems and the building is just old.  The Centre provide needed service to the most vulnerable in London.

We held our first zoom based club meeting on 27 March and shared ideas about how to help in the community during the COVID shutdown.  Sargent at Arms David managed to extract a few virtual bucks. 

David Knoppart and Dr. Aman Rai from the Hyde Park Rotary Club presented an overview of their medical clinic trip to Nicaragua.  On the "Commit to Nicaragua " trip they worked on medical clinics to help remote villages with health issues such as dealing with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other medial issues.  Dental clinics, vision care, hearing care, educational issues and community agricultural development were also part of the mission.

 

An additional program was part of the trip was to encourage building simple cinder block stoves for cooking and eliminating cooking on open fires.  Smoke from this type of cooking causes chronic lung conditions and other medical problems.  The Rotary Club of Hyde Park is working on a grant proposal to develop 250 stoves for this part of the country.  David outline the grant proposal and welcomed our help.