Rotary of Woodstock-Oxford has been working to see how it can help alleviate Homelessness in Woodstock for some time now.
A group of Rotary members have been helping out at the Community Free Table for about a year and a half now.
Through helping out with the table we were exposed to the hardship that some members of our society have to go through in life.
Homelessness is one of the things you will hardly see until you start working at the Community Free Table and start talking to the people being served by the table.
Here we see people coming to the table that have no shelter with heat and safety, we see people with frozen hands, were there fingers are pure white and swollen that it is scary to see, were their skin is starting to peal off their fingers because of the frost.
Most persons in daily life never see these things.
And they are not the only people that show up, also people that have an apartment but don't have enough money left for food.
Some people come to have someone to talk to.
It is for this reason the Rotary of Woodstock-Oxford has started a process to see how we can help the shelterless people and others. It all started because one member( Adrienne Augustine) of the Rotary of Woodstock-Oxford, her vision is to align with our community to help form a PathWay Into Prosperity. Through consultation we found Woodstock Tiny Homes Community to be the most urgently needed stepping stone to help people transcend out of homelessness.
Today was a beautiful sunny day with as many as 50 or more person coming out to take advantage of the Community Free Table.
Thanks to the volunteers and persons that donated food, there were hotdogs, Kentucky Fried Chicken, salads, yogurt, coffee, store supplied cookies and cake, and vegetables like potatoes, lettuce, peppers, carrots, apples, pears, tomatoes and other items for people to take home free of charge.
Every person that is in need of food is welcome to come and get some for free.
Since there are many persons that have landed on hard times, these donations are very much appreciated.
If you would like to participate in volunteering or want to donate money or other items, please contact us.
Yesterday our first shipment of urgently needed medical supplies was taken to the logistics warehouse in Mississauga to pack and shrink-wrap boxes on skids for air transport to Beirut.
It has been a challenge to ensure the documents and consignee details are accurate and done in such a way as to ensure items get to their proper destination, but thanks to the tenacity and many phone calls by Dr Brad Petrisor, the shipment is now ready to go.
Here is your opportunity to join with Woodstock-Oxford Rotary to help provide necessary assistance to families, children and the homeless. Since our Fish Fry fundraiser was cancelled, we need your consideration.
All funds received are being matched by W-O Rotary for local community needs.* To donate online click on this link https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/12109 or you can go to WoodstockOxfordRotary.org and follow the links to Donate. CRA tax receipts will be issued via email.
Woodstock Rotarians need your help. In the past we have supported youth projects, such as scholarships and YMCA activities. During the past few months we have supplied a BBQ and food, each Saturday to the Community Free Table and items to the Circle of Friends table.
More recently, we have donated a total of $8000. locally for food vouchers, groceries and toiletries, going to those in need during these challenging times. ($4000 donations + $4000 Rotary match).
Please support your neighbour at: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/12109 with an online, tax deductible donation. Proceeds will be used toward funding Rotary Community projects. (*up to $8000.)
We has a great meeting and presentation by local best selling author, Elaine Cougler with an interesting topic of Behind the Scenes Terry Fox Run.
She has a new book recently published outlining how Thamesford resident Ron Calhoun colaborated with Terry Fox and the Canadian Cancer Society to coordinate this great initiative.
Elaine Cougler is a local author who has a trilogy series of books on the Loyalists who in her 3rd novel brings in information researched of possible events within Oxford County. She will be speaking to us on her just completed latest book "The Man Behind the Terry Fox Legacy."
The Man Behind the Marathons:
How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity.
For many years our Club coordinated and sponsored the Terry Fox Run in Oxford, so the subject matter was of particular interest. Elaine is an interesting presenter and her presentation was very interesting.
Entrepreneurs and Family Business members are invited to join us for this special meeting, featuring our own Doug Vincent. He is a well known and trusted advisor to Family Business Corporations. See more at TheFamilyBusinessAdvisor.com
International Award Winner shares her strategy for membership results. * * Join us to learn how . . . Wednesday, October 17, 2018 * * Oxford Gardens - 6:15 pm dinner ($20) followed by program.
Membership is a concern for many organizations and we will have a great speaker from the Philippines. Come and learn how she recruited over 75 new members into her Kiwanis district this year.
Please share as appropriate and RSVP to dougv@dougvincent.com
Join us for this exciting presentation on Making a Difference for Youth in Oxford. Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at Oxford Gardens. Rotary dinner 6:15 pm ($20) then program. Please RSVP to: dougv@dougvincent.com or 519-537-3753
Madi Langdon is a 17 yr old, grade 12 student at St. Mary’s High school in Woodstock, as well as an aspiring actress who can been seen in the upcoming season of the hit tv series The Next Step!
Madi’s other passion is Making a Difference in the world, which she will speak about at our upcoming meeting. She has represented her school at youth leadership conferences and most recently was selected to attend the Me to We advanced leadership training in Tucson, Arizona.
She will share how this experience left her inspired and determined to make a change in the world. Madi looks forward to sharing her thoughts and experience with Woodstock-Oxford Rotary and guests, with the possibility of working with Rotary members and Oxford County Youth to make changes right here at home.
The youth in Oxford need our support so please join us to help extend a caring hand for their future.
This week, Wednesday, August 8th, we will listen to our members who attended the International Rotary Convention in Toronto this year. They will share pictures and their highlights of the Convention. So if you could not attend it will be interesting as well as when you are guest it will be great to be inspired by listening to these stories.
This week we have a fun night. This means that after dinner we will do some games that are available at Oxford Gardens: mini golf, cards, shuffle board etc.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - 6:15 - 8 pm Dinner ($20) & Program
All welcome. Oxford Gardens 423 Devonshire Ave, Woodstock Please RSVP for meal count to: John Narcisian narcisian@yahoo.ca (519) 532-0443
Betty Rowe is Program Coordinator at Fanshawe College and she will come to explain a new Business Course: Entrepreneurship and Management. Everybody is welcome to attend,.
Join us: Wed, Jan 10, 2018 - 6:15 pm Dinner ($20) followed by program. Oxford Gardens, 423 Devonshire Ave, Woodstock, ON
Please RSVP for meal count to: John Narcisian narcisian@yahoo.ca (519) 532-0443
"Inside the World's Toughest Prison" - An exciting presentation on how Rotary manages the Belize Federal Prison complex, under contract with their Federal Government.
An interesting report by Doug Vincent on his recent visit to this unique project in Belize. Learn how Rotary is making a difference, turning inmates around to a positive direction.
...
Join us: Wed, Jan 10, 2018 - 6:15 pm Dinner ($20) followed by program. Oxford Gardens, 423 Devonshire Ave, Woodstock, ON
Please RSVP for meal count to: John Narcisian narcisian@yahoo.ca (519) 532-0443
PS - Also watch Netflix for January release of a documentary on this same topic. The 'businessmen' mentioned in the film are Rotarians.
This weeks meeting our president Grace will show us this 2-DVD program that is designed to give local Rotary clubs insights and strategies for engaging the next generation of members. It is critical for clubs and Rotarians the world over to embrace the challenge of engaging the next generation of members. Everybody is welcome to come out and listen to this presentation.
The meeting starts at 6.15 pm at Graigowan Golf Club. Costs for a meal is $ 20.00
This week our speaker is Dave Williams from the Mitchell Rotary Club. Every year for the past five years the Rotary Club of Mitchell visits 800-1,000 Grade 5 students in Huron and Perth counties to inform them they are the future.
It may be difficult for these students to believe, but they are the most impressionable and can learn and understand an anti-drug message – that the use of methamphetamines (or meth) is dangerous.
Dave will explain all the details of this project of what they do and what they try to achieve.
This meeting is open to the public. Meeting will be at Craigowan Country and Golf Club on Highway 59 just North of Woodstock. Meetings starts at 6.30 pm and costs for a meal is $ 20.00.
Join us at Rotary this coming Wednesday, September 13th for an exciting program. 6:30 pm dinner ($20) at Craigowan Golf Course, followed by a great speaker. Please RSVP to John at narcisian@yahoo.ca 519-532-0443 for meal count.
For over a decade, Kevin Bulmer worked in the auto racing industry, including time as the Marketing Director and General Manager of the first-ever NASCAR-sanctioned weekly race track in Canada. In addition, his 15 years of media experience, working dir...ectly with branding and business marketing, has taught him how easy it is to fall into the trap .... of Racing in Circles.
Many of the people and organizations Kevin has met, have shared admirable traits like: 1. They worked hard and most had a positive mindset with good intentions 2. They were incredibly creative and resourceful 3. They took massive amounts of action
With so many positive attributes in play, why was there so much frustration at attracting new customers, sponsors or new participants?
Learning from the racing metaphor, there are only three of four crucial things you need listed above. A fourth key ingredient is missing. When driving on the track with a loose tire, you can’t hide from a bad vibration. Ignore it, and you eventually crash. You need the fourth tire, with all of them tight and balanced to run the race. Kevin will talk about the fourth tire and help us review how many of our tires may be loose in our life or organization. Then we’ll learn how to tighten them.
This is your opportunity to hear a unique slant on preparing yourself and our organization to run a winning race.
General Bio: Kevin Bulmer is a professional Speaker, Certified Life & Executive Coach & Host of “Journeys with the No Schedule Man,” a weekly podcast featuring conversations on personal and professional growth, available worldwide on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube and at NoScheduleManPodcast.com.
It was a great event as we celebrated our Rotary achievements for the past year and shared appreciation with many of the community organizations and individuals who have supported us in serving the needs of our community.
During the program, several (see list below) were acknowledged and presented with Appreciation Certificates. Rotary could not accomplish what we do for the community without their ongoing support. It is always a highlight of the year to see what has been accomplished.
In addition to celebrating the past year, we turned over the reigns to our new leadership team (as of July 1st). Incoming President Grace did a wonderful job of outlining her vision for the club during the coming year. The evening concluded with a great song "Go Make a Difference" in keeping with our new Rotary motto "Rotary . . Making a Difference."
Thanks again to those recognized: Giant Tiger, Heart-FM, Hendrik Mulder, Woodstock Museum, Springbank Cheese, Pharmasave (Wdstk & Ingsl), Leon's, Scott's noFrills, Tirecraft, Jacob's Auctioneers, Kelsey's, Royal Bank, Total Rentals, Bobcat of Brantford, Woodstock Boy Scouts, Dwight Blok, Rod & Karyn Liddle.
Join us at Rotary this week to learn from some of our own members who attended the neighbouring District 6330 Conference. They will report on lots of Rotary fun, fellowship and new ideas that were shared. Many new friendships were also started.
Short presentations by: PDG Doug Vincent, John Narcisian, Linda Taylor and Leigh & Alma Yates. Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at Five Star Buffet on Norwich Ave, 6:30 - 8 pm. Your're Welcome!
Join us for dinner or a cocktail at Ody's Restaurant @ 6 pm Wednesday night for our weekly social hour.
Did you know JA London runs several youth programs here in Woodstock & Oxford County?
At 7:30, we meet Melissa Derbyshire to find out details about Junior Achievement London, how they deliver programs, the impact of these on our youth, AND how you can get involved with JA in our community... Meeting starts @ 7:30
This week our speaker, March 8, will be Jay Heaman of the County of Oxford. He will present to us the plans for Oxford County to have zero waste and use 100 % Renewable energy in the coming years. This process will involve a lot of steps and challenges and Jay will tell us about that.
We live in a time of transition where there will be considerable changes in our environmental footprint. Very exciting and lots of opportunities ! Please mark your agenda's and invite others ! Please rsvp to duizer@silomail.com.
Social time and a meal starts at 6.00 pm at ODY's in the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. You can also come for the business part only. This starts at 7.30 pm. If you would like to learn more of the future Energy and Waste policies of Oxford County this meeting will be very interesting.
This week president Sylvie will learn us the ins and outs of Social Media and how to use and navigate some of the key Rotary websites. We are looking forward to a fun and learning experience ! This evening is open to everybody.
We meet for dinner at 6.00 pm in Ody's Restaurant at the Quality Hotels and Suites. If you are interested in the seminar only then you can come at 7.30 pm to the William Board Room.
This week our social Media whiz, president Sylvie, will learn us the ins and outs of Social Media and how to use and navigate some of the key Rotary websites. We are looking forward to a fun and learning experience ! This evening is open to everybody.
We meet for dinner at 6.00 pm in Ody's Restaurant at the Quality Hotels and Suites. If you are interested in the seminar only then you can come at 7.30 pm to the William Board Room.
Join us this Wednesday, February 8th from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. in the dining room at Ody's Restaurant, found just inside the Quality Suites and Conference Centre, 580 Bruin Blvd, Woodstock. Order your own fare or enjoy a cocktail. This is our social time - we'd love to see you and catch up or meet & greet some new faces!
We gather in the Wellington after dinner for BOVINE LIVES MATTER!, a presentation by Chris Keane on cow comfort & care.
Always looking to meet new - and greet familiar - faces. Order your own fare.
Join us for dinner or come for a cocktail.
Ody's Restaurant... (inside Quality Suites & Conference Centre)
580 Bruin Blvd., Woodstock, ON
Our club business program starts at 7:30 in the William Boardroom. This week - January 11th - Rotarian Peter Stam will present a photo library and 1st hand account of his recent mission trip to the Carribean, aiding in projects started some 20 years ago. Flanked by poverty and weather-related destruction, local residents in many areas have struggled to survive. Come see how we have made an impact in this community!
Everyone is welcomed. Please do RSVP to President Sylvie at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226.228.8390 to reserve your seat.
Join us at 6pm on Jan. 4th at Ody's Restaurant, Woodstock (located inside Quality Suites & Conference Center) for a meet & greet. Order your own fare or just come for a social.
The Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford is seeking good people to do good works in and around our community. We have some big projecys coming up as we start into the new year. Bring your fundraising ideas, talents, and skills to our group. You'll be impressed... with what Rotary - locally & worldwide - has to offer you in return.
The world NEEDS Rotary ~ and Rotary needs YOU. Let's talk!
We made Santa's "nice" list! Joyful & triumphant we are!
Please join us for dinner and Christmas cheer this coming Wednesday, December 14th @ 6.30 p.m. at the house of Rosalinda and Kevin Taylor, 61 Sioux Crescent in Woodstock. Come for the dinner and cocktails, stay for the fun & friendships!
The more the merrier - but please RSVP to Sylvie Morin, smtmorin@gmail.com
This week we have our annual meeting for the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary club and our Benefit Trust. We have this meeting once a year. Everybody is welcome to attend. This meeting will make very clear what we all do and our financial statements will be explained.
Meeting is at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Social time and meal from 6.30 pm to 7.15 pm. Cost for a meal is $20 but you can also come after the meal at 7.15 pm to attend our Annual Meeting. We hope to see you on Wednesday !
Join us, this Wednesday September 14th to learn about . . . "Rotaplast" - Medical Mission trip to Bangladesh, by Jean Aitcheson.
6:30 - 8 pm Dinner ($15) and program at Quality Inn Hotel & Suites, 580 Bruin Blvd (at Hwy 401 & 59), Woodstock, ON.
Several times each year. Rotarians sponsor these plastic surgery mission trips to developing countries, providing much needed medical services to young children with cleft palates and other facial deformities.
You have seen the shows on TV and now is your opportunity to hear it in person. Public Welcome.
Please RSVP for meal count to DougV@DougVincent.com or 519-537-3753.
This Wednesday we will end our summer meetings at the house of Peter and Edie Stam. The last Wednesday of the month there is no Rotary meeting because of the Toy show and Auction in the weekend before that.
Everybody is very welcome to join us, this is always a great meeting. If you like to swim, go for a walk, pedal around in a pedal boat or just enjoy the food and fellowship of a great group of people then this is a great opportunity to come out. Meeting starts around 6.00 pm.
It is handy to bring a lawn chair. Cost for a meal is $ 15.00. Everybody is welcome but RSVP is appreciated to peter@mankar.ca
GPS directions 656441 15th line, East Zorra-Tavistock
Cell # 519-532-2181
If you don't use GPS, take hwy 59 north to Hickson, turn right at the flashing light at Hickson. go towards Bright. about 3 miles out of Hickson is the 15th line, there you turn left onto the 15th line and then the 3rd farm on left with the trees. Fire # 656441
Wondering what the Toy Auction and Show is about?.
Come out on August 27 and 28 and see for yourself, the auction part is a charity auction, where people like you, can consign scale farm, truck and construction toys to the auction.
The auction which often features many hard-to-find items. It starts Saturday morning at 9:30 am and is open to everyone. There is no admission fee other
than a small buyer’s premium for purchasers. But buyers actually get a bargain since there is no sales tax charged. That is because it is a charity event sponsored
by the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford. The Rotary Club uses the commission and buyer's premium for their humanitarian projects.
If you happen to have any farm toys or memorabilia that you’re thinking of parting with, this is a great place to do it.
Just contact Peter Stam at 519-532-2181 or peter@mankar.ca to consign your items.
Our summer meetings continue. This week we visit the Rotary Club of Tavistock. District-Governor Bill Proctor will visit and outline his plans for the coming year at the District level.
Meeting location will be at Quehl's restaurant, 33 Woodstock Street South in Tavistock.
This place has an excellent reputation for excellent food. Everybody is very welcome to join us.
Join us @6pm next Wednesday, Aug. 10th at Riffs Music Lounge in Downtown Woodstock for pub fare & fellowship. Everyone 19+ welcomed. Order your own fare.... (...and stick around for Karaoke starting at 9pm)
August is here and we have another summer meeting this week.
Join us this Wednesday at 774481 Oxford Road#14, Woodstock at Wim and Caren Duizer (for GPS you might find it under Norwich or Eastwood). Go south on Highway 59. In Curries go left (East) on Curries Road until you hit Oxford Road#14. Go left (North) and first house is after two km. on the left side.
Pool is open and farm tour available for those who are interested. $15 (meal included). Please RSVP to duizer@silomail.com
Volunteers needed for our upcoming Container Loading Event in Exeter
On behalf of the Rotary Club of Grand Bend - Global Literacy Program I would like ask for you assistance once again. We are set to load one container of school supplies headed to rural schools in South Africa.
Location: This loading will take place Friday August 5th at the Hensall District Co-Op warehouse located at 210 Wellington St. W, Exeter ON.
Time: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm approximately
We require packers, stagers, documentors and dis-assemblers for the morning and afternoon shifts.
During July/August we have less formal meetings and usually meet at member's homes or other outdoor venues. This week, we are trying something new at Woodstock Meadows Golf & Country Club.
You are all invited to a BBQ at Brian Bennett's home - (Assistant Governor/Tavistock Rotary Club). This will serve as our official meeting for this week.
Our special guest will be Brian's granddaughter, Nicole Cooke, who will share her experiences at the Adventure in Citizenship in Ottawa this past May. We will be joining members of the Tavistock Rotary club.
Food and drinks provided (the standard $15 per person stipend applies)
Come celebrate the achievements of clubs from all across the District, enjoy the fellowship of fellow Rotarians and guests, have a great meal, and help to honour Will Pugh and usher in Bill Proctor as your next District Governor.
This year our celebrations will be at the beautiful Whistle Bear Golf Course in Cambridge, easily accessible from the 401.
5:30 pm - Reception and Registration
6:30 pm - Program Begins
Use the link on the left to register. Please indicate any dietary restrictions or allergies in the comment box that appears on the registration screen.
This is the last meeting of this rotary year. In July a new year starts with a new president. Everybody is very welcome to attend this meeting to listen to our President Chris as he will reflect on this past year. There will also be a ceremony to induct our new President Sylvie.
Start meeting: 6.30 pm at Quality Hotels and Suites in the Burtch Room
This coming Wednesday, Jun. 15th @ 6pm, we are pleased to welcome all of you for some silliness and fun! Yep - it's Trivia Night!
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Chris Dennis at chris.dennis@sudsjiffy.com or call 519-788-4758 to reserve your seat
Quality Hotel & Suites
580 Bruin Blvd Woodstock, ON N4V 1E5
Event Description
An annual event, Rotary Clubs of Ingersoll, Tillsonburg, Tavistock, Woodstock & Woodstock-Oxford present this year's bursary awards to students throughout local high schools who are good students, have demonstrated excellent moral character, have been active in school activities and have made worthy contributions to the life of their schools. These recipients exemplify characteristics, abilities and interests which make them both worthy representatives of their schools and personify the Rotary motto "Service Above Self".
This evening we will watch a movie how a container with school supplies loaded here in Canada will be shipped and used in South Africa. It will give an insight how all these supplies make a difference to the children in the country where the container is being shipped to.
Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at Quality Hotels and Suites in the Burtch Room
This week's speaker is Terry Jarvis, a member of the Rotary club of Guelph. He is speaking to us as an ambassador of Shelterbox Canada. Shelterbox Canada provides emergency shelter and vital supplies to support communities around the world overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis. He will explain all aspects about this important work.
Everybody is welcome to join and listen to this presentation.
Meeting starts at 6.30 om at the Quality Hotels and Suites in the Burtch Room
It's that time again...We are going bowling Wednesday night!
Come cheer us on - it's all for fun and in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Woodstock & District's annual Bowl For Kids Sake, Wednesday, May the 4th, 6ish pm - 9ish pm @ C & D Lanes.
Work & Play - gotta love Woodstock-Oxford Rotary! Join us.
Please reserve this date ! May 7, starting at 8 AM at Maple Lane school in Tillsonburg,
we will be loading 2 containers 40 ft long with school supplies from this school. The past year Maple Lane school closed, this school has all kinds of furniture that was not needed anymore. The items are school desks, chairs, books and other items. The Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford, Friends of Rotary and with the help of many other Rotary Clubs in the Rotary District 7080 has been able to obtain a Global Grant for the Philippines to refurbish 5 schools that were destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan, the total Global Grant is for $140,000 USD. As part of this Global Grant, we are planning to ship these 2 containers with school supplies to these schools in the Philippines, we will also send some medical equipment and 6-8 pallets of food from the Ontario Christian Gleaners in Cambridge. In the Philippines, in an average year they have 29 Typhoons, so you can imagine the constant need they have. Please sign up to come and help us with the loading of these containers.
We are looking for about 30-35 persons for preparation and loading. We are also looking for some persons to take charge of preparing items for coffee break and lunch time. We are looking for a person or company who is able to donate the use of a tractor trailer with closed Van trailer to pick up about 12 pallets of books from the Thames Valley warehouse in London at 951 LEATHORNE STREET , LONDON, Ontario, N5Z 3M5. on the Friday May 6 or before.
Please contact us if you can help. Peter Stam Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford. 519-532-2181 or peter@mankar.ca
This week we can use your input to help determine a key future project. Past President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen will facilitate this meeting. What we need is an open mind and new ideas. This meeting is open to the public and it will start at 6.30 pm in the Burtch Room at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $15.00
So much work & time goes into the preparation and execution of an event like this...
...and it was all worth it!
Woodstock-Oxford Rotary wishes to thank all their neighbouring Rotary Clubs, partners, sponsors, suppliers, supporters, friends and family for their part in the near flawless execution of our 35th annual fish fry fundraiser. And what a great night it was!
The community has once again gathered on a Saturday night at the Woodstock Fair Grounds for another installment of our biggest annual fundraiser. With anticipation for Knechtels of Port Dover's famous perch dinner, and a live music party kick-off by well-known music group "Ferguson-Drive", event goers were lined up early to enjoy this long-standing, inter-generational community event. In a long-standing partnership with Woodstock & District Developmental Services (WDDS), they enhanced the evening with a silent auction and a special kind of draw for 3 big ticket items up for grab. Event attendees were privileged to purchase special keys among a limited number available; 3 of which opened a door related to each of the big prizes.
Of course, one of the main attractions to this event was the midnight draw for an all-inclusive trip for 2 to Cuba, courtesy of Pharmasave Woodstock & Ingersoll locations. Again, our congratulations to Nicole Mathias, winner of the trip to Cuba!
We hope to have a tally of the monies raised and look forward to distributing those funds to worthy projects.
This week we have the pleasure to get to know Rosalinda (Linda) Taylor a little better. Linda is our newest member and she will share with us some things of her life story. Friends and family are welcome to attend. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in the Burtch Room.
Our speaker this evening is Lindsay Nadeau, Board Chair of Kedesh Maternity Home a Registered, Non-Profit, Charitable Organization with the vision of providing shelter and support to pregnant and parenting women in Woodstock and Oxford County.
Everybody is welcome to learn more about Kedesh Maternity Home. Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm in the Burtch Room at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
Rotarians and friends . .
Please join us this Wednesday for 6:30 pm dinner (Quality Inn) and a very interesting speaker on our Ontario Health Care delivery system.
The Ministry of Health is reviewing coordination and delivery of health care in the province and through the LHIN (Local Health Integrated Network) your views are welcomed.
...
Details below. Please RSVP to DougV@DougVincent.com
Join us Wednesday, March 9th for "Rotary's work in Mexico".
A Shoebox Distribution and Dental Mission Trip report.
Quality Inn, Dinner 6:30 pm ($15) followed by presentation.
This will be a presentation by our own Doug & Grace Vincent on their recent humanitarian activities and our Rotary involvement, helping in poor areas of Mexico. Public Welcome. (Please RSVP for meal count)
This Wednesday, Feb. 17th @ 6pm join us to learn about Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a sustainable and better fuel source. Murray Logan, of Faromor in Shakespeare, ON, will share with us the many benefits of using this source of energy for vehicles
.
$15 for dinner. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President-Elect Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390 to reserve your seat.
This Wednesday, Feb. 10th @ 6pm join us to hear great stories and adventures as experienced by Clarence Cormier during his tenure with the Canadian Air Force (CAF).
$15 for dinner. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President-Elect Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390 to reserve your seat.
Please join us in congratulating long standing Rotarian Leigh Yates in receiving his Paul Harris Society member distinction in recognition for his generous contribution to the Rotary Foundation.
Pictured here, flanked by PDG Syd Harmon (left) and President-Elect Sylvie Morin, Leigh was proud to wear his coveted new pin accessory.
This evening Past District Governor Syd Harmon will speak to us about how to become a member of the Paul Harris Society. The Rotary Foundation is the organization that manages all Rotary finances worldwide. Becoming a member of the Paul Harris Society is one way of contributing to the Rotary Foundation. Syd will explain to us what it means to become a member of the Paul Harris Society and which privileges it will give.
Meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in the Burtch Room. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
Next Wednesday, Jan. 27th @ 6pm, we are pleased to welcome Cheryl Gregory of the Oxford Presbytery Refugee (United Church) Sponsorship Committee. Join us to learn about their plans to sponsor a refugee family and what it REALLY takes to pull it all together.
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Chris Dennis at chris.dennis@sudsjiffy.com or call 519-788-4758 to reserve your seat.
This week our speaker will be Sylvie who will have a presentation on membership recuitment.Sylvie is a strategic thinker and a communication specialist. She is strong in networking and she would like to share how we approach others with the good news of Rotary.
Everybody is welcome to come out. Meeting starts at 6.30pm in Burtch Room in Quality Hotels and suites. Costs for a meal is $15.00
January 20 meeting: Sylvie Morin on membership recruiting
Tonight we will be reviewing and voting on the various positions that are open in our organization. Our organization is very transparent and members are encouraged to participate in Board positions. Great way to be active and learn a lot! Meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
January 13: Review of club Officers and Benefit Trust nominations
This Wednesday, Jan. 6th @ 6pm join us as we welcome speaker and written word artist Peter Wright who - after a series of unfortunate events and hardships - tells us his story about finding peaceful new beginnings in Canada.
$15 for dinner. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President-Elect Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390 to reserve your seat.
We made Santa's "nice" list! Joyful & triumphant we are!
Please join us for dinner and Christmas cheer this coming Wednesday, December 16th @ 6 p.m. and wear your best "FUN" Christmas outfit! Come for the dinner and cocktails, stay for the fun & friendships!
The more the merrier - but please RSVP by Monday Dec.14th.
This Wednesday, Dec. 2nd @ 6pm join us as we welcome the lovely Kelly Gilson, Executive Director of United Way - Oxford who will share the agency's success in raising big local monies for big local benefits.
$15 for dinner. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President-Elect Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390 to reserve your seat.
On Wednesday, December 9, 2015, our own PDG Doug Vincent will report on his recent travels to the Philippines. During his time there, he visited our humanitarian projects and spoke at the Manila Zone Institute, where senior Rotary leaders gathered from across Southeast Asia.
He will share his shocking experience of finding Joel - the Man in a Cage - and his emotional roller coaster ride while trying to free this man from his pris...on.
Through his UN and Rotary network, he was able to negotiate with a mental treatment facility in Cebu to accept this victim for assessment and treatment. He also was able to visit an Air Force General, who assisted in planning the evacuation with a medical team.
This is sure to be an exciting adventure as we ride along with Doug, sharing his Rotary service experiences and our club's work. Doug is a highly rated speaker across the Rotary world and we are fortunate to have him share his humanitarian activities.
Please invite friends and colleagues to learn more about what Rotary and our Woodstock-Oxford group does, on an International scale.
Public welcome. $15 dinner event. Please RSVP to Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390.
On Wednesday, Nov. 25th at 6pm please help us welcome 2 new members: Past President Erik Tremblay of Unisource and proud new father Mike Li of BDO (Woodstock). 7080 District Governor Will Pugh and Assistant Governor Brian Bennett will be among us to celebrate!
We will also be enjoying testimony and photographs from Shayna Oosterink who experience her 2014-2015 Student Exchange Program year in Thailand.
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President-Elect Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390 to reserve your seat today!
Say Cheese!
We are ready to receive your SpringBank Cheese orders.
Just in time for Christmas, staff appreciation gifting, goodness for gathering among friends, perfect for the hostess with the mostest! Get yours!
Contact a member of Woodstock-Oxford Rotary or comment below to be contacted for your order.
...
This fundraising effort is to support world-wide Polio Eradication (and we are so close).
This is a reminder that we will be loading 2 more containers of surplus school supplies on Saturday November the 28th and are still seeking volunteers to help stage or pack in the morning between 8:30 am and 12:30 pm, or 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm, or both.
Location: 210 Wellington St, Exeter ON (Hensall District Co-Op Warehouse)
Time: 8 am - 4 pm
We also require 8-10 people to help pre-stage and dis-assemble items in the warehouse Friday November 27th at 9:00 am
Please bring some work gloves and rugged footware to ensure your safety.
Correction- Join us this Wednesday, Nov. 18th at 6pm we will have the annual meeting for our Club and the Woodstock-Oxford Benefit Trust.
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President-Elect Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390 to reserve your seat today!
This coming Wednesday evening, Nov. 11th, we welcome District Foundation Representative Brian Clark, who presents to us the ins and outs of The Rotary Foundation, what it is, how it works, where the money comes from and goes, why it's so important, and how you can help.
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President-Elect Sylvie Morin at smtmorin@gmail.com or call 226-228-8390 to reserve your seat today!
This coming Wednesday evening, October 28th, we will travel to Habitual Chocolate, 389 Dundas Street in Downtown Woodstock to tour their facility, learn about their operations and sample some tasty treats! .
$10 event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Past President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your spot!
A great shout out to Giant Tiger Woodstock for graciously donating several items to help make a difference in our world. Packing for Philippine mission trip.
Last week we had an excellent presentation by Doug on the new Rotary Branding that is being promoted, following extensive research into what Rotary means to the average person.
In addition to discussions on what branding is all about, we reviewed ways that Rotary can do a better job of sharing public awareness in our community. Projects with public exposure, social media, signage, wearing apparel and good publicity from hands-on activity are all things that can be done to en...hance awareness. (See comments on photos).
We also discussed membership and the fact that people want to know more about "the cause" of Rotary and what we do to make a difference in our troubled world. Then they will be anxious to join us and help.
As requested Doug has shared the slides taken from his power-point presentation.
Saturday October 17 Rotarians in the region gathered to load their 50th and 51st container of school furniture and equipment. Led by Grand Bend Rotary, members from London and Woodstock-Oxford Rotary also have been involved assisting.
Thanks to a good working relationship with the Thames Valley School Board, surplus desks, chairs and other school items are donated to Rotary for shipment abroad. So far, containers have gone to Haiti and South Africa, with Philippines also on the list for rehabilitation of schools damaged from the typhoon disaster(s).
Authors Lauren B. Davis, Farzana Doctor, Terry Fallis and Martí Sales read from their latest works at the Knox Presbyterian Church on October 21 at 7pm, followed by a question and answer segment.
Join us this Wednesday, October 14th at 6:30 to 8 pm in the Burtch Room at Quality Hotel & Suites, 580 Bruin Blvd. Woodstock, for another great program!
Our own PDG Doug Vincent will be speaking on the recent research and importance of Rotary branding. Guests welcome. Dinner $15 followed by program.
Jack Bingham has been a member of the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary club since 1982. We invite all, near or far, who know Jack and his wife, Sally to join us in celebration of Jack's 32+ year tenure as a Rotarian. Friends and guests also welcome to join us.
Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites (Burtch Room). Cost for a full meal is $ 15.00 per person.
"Be a gift to the world" is this years Rotary theme and we welcome our District Governor, Will Pugh, to inform us of his plans for the coming year at the District and International level. All members are encouraged to bring their spouse and/or a friend of Rotary. For people that are interested in Rotary this is a great evening to come out. If you would like to come please RSVP to Chris Dennis: chris.dennis@sudsjiffy.com
The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites and costs for a dinner is $ 15.00. We hope to see you on Wednesday.
At this week's meeting we will be discussing the vision for our Club par two. This is an important process and all members are encouraged to attend and give their opinion. Also guests are welcome because we all have different ideas about what is important in efficient Service Club. This will be our final meeting about this topic and after this our Board will evaluate all the information and formulate a plan for the coming years.
The meeting wil start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
At this week's meeting we will be discussing the vision for our Club. This is an important process and all members are encouraged to attend and give their opinion. Also guests are welcome because we all have different ideas about what is important in efficient Service Club.
The meeting wil start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
This Wednesday evening, September 9th, members will learn more about Interact and Rotaract clubs with a view to possibly starting one at a local high school. Public are welcome to join us.
PDG Norm Bindon has a wealth of experience in working with Rotary Youth Programs and Ed Broeders is current Chair of Youth Service for District 7080. We may also have a former Interactor to share her experiences. See more details below.
$15 dinner event. Guests, please RSVP for meal count to DougV@DougVincent.com or 519-537-3753 to reserve your seat today!
Can't believe how fast the summer weeks have come and gone? Soon we'll be sharing the roads with school buses and waving to our local crossing guards... To my horror, I've seen some tree leaves turning to fall colours already. Oh - the tell tale signs that summer is almost over. But not quite yet. Let's hang on for a couple more weeks!
We worked so hard at the 2015 Ontario Toy Show & Auction this last weekend of August, so we will NOT have a meeting scheduled for September 2nd. That will allow us some down time and a chance to tally our fundraising efforts.
We will resume our regular dinner meetings at the Quality Hotel & Suites (Burtch Room) September 9th , 2015 at 6:30pm. Be sure to send regrets with a club official to advise if you cannot attend a meeting - out of courtesy - otherwise, we will be expecting you! We would love to welcome new faces - so please do extend invitations to family, friends and prospective members to join us!
Coming up this Wednesday, August 26th, our last of the summer meeting series will be hosted by Sargeant-At-Arms John Narcisian and his wife, Josie. Our feasting and gathering will take place at their home located at 46 Beaver Place in the northeast part of Woodstock (near Algonquin School/Springbank & Landsdown areas).
We will be discussing the upcoming Toy Show and Auction, tying up a few loose ends in preparation for this very important fundraising event.
BYOchairs, $15 for your meal contribution, dress for the weather and proudly wear your Rotary pins, a few bucks for the 50/50 draw, a few more for a happy/sad buck sharing session, and your friendly disposition!
Friends, Family and other fun guests are always welcomed by invitation from a member or click here if you'd like to join us.
WORK & PLAY REALLY DO GO TOGETHER!
August 26 meeting: Last Summer Meeting at the Narcisian home
This week we will have our meeting at Peter and Edie Stam's house. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm and it is always handy to bring a lawn chair. Our summer meeting's are a great time to meet Rotarians, talk about Rotary and all the good things that summer bring to us here in Ontario. Everybody is welcome to attend but it is appreciated if you RSVP to peter@mankar.ca.
GPS directions 656441 15th line, East Zorra-Tavistock
Cell # 519-532-2181
If you don't use GPS, take hwy 59 north to Hickson, turn right at the flashing light at Hickson. go towards Bright. about 3 miles out of Hickson is the 15th line, there you turn left onto the 15th line and then the 3rd farm on left with the trees. Fire # 656441
Tomorrow evening at 6.30 pm we will meet at Kelsey's in Woodstock. Everybody will pay for there own food. While we wait for our food our president Chris will discuss some Rotary business. Then we will have dinner and after that there will be a short presentation to thank Heart FM for their contribution to the Fish Fry and also Simon of Kelsey's in Woodstock.
This will be informal and fun meeting. Everybody is welcome to come out. Please RSVP to Peter Stam: peter@mankar.ca
This week Wednesday we will meet at Wim and Caren Duizer. Address is 774481 Oxford Road#14 in Woodstock (Look under Norwich on your GPS device). The pool will be ready and people that are interested can have a look on the farm.
Please RSVP to duizer@silomail.com. The weather looks great and we should have a good time!
For this weeks meeting we would like to meet at the Roth Park pavilion at 7pm.
Have dinner at home. We will start the evening with a brief meeting and then we go for a stroll down one of the waters edge trails to pick up some garbage. Bring your own garbage bags please. Please wear a Rotary shirt if you have one so that we may draw some attention to ourselves.
Everyone is invited, so encourage family and friends to join in!
The visioning meeting for next Saturday has been canceled so instead we will have a meeting this Wednesday. We are planning a potluck at Southside park at the pavilion beside the navy cadet building at 6:30 pm. There will be a bbq available for those who want to bring something to cook.
Everybody is welcome to join us for this meeting. The summer meeting are a great opportunity to get to know one another better and have a good time. We hope to see you on Wednesday !
This week we will be holding our meeting in Southside Park at 7 pm. All members and guests are invited and we hope to see you there.
This week we will be incorporating our monthly board meeting into the regular meeting. This will give everyone a chance to see how a board meeting is conducted and what topics are typically discussed. Although members and guests are not allowed to vote on any issues discussed there may be an opportunity for you to give some feedback on the items discussed or ways to make our discussions more effective.
We would like to provide an ice cream treat for this event and it would be very considerate if you could let me know if you plan to attend(edwinvw8@gmail.com). No one wants to risk missing out on ice cream!
Please come out and support our new President Chris Dennis as he begins his term of office!
Everybody is invited for the last meeting in this Rotary Year as president for Edwin VanWeerdhuizen. Edwin has done a great job this year to Light up Rotary. He has made a number of positive changes in our Club. He was leading our weekly meetings in a refreshing way, well prepared and with a lot of new ideas.
He has done a good job working together with other clubs, discussing what everybody responsibilities are, acknowledging what individual members do, finding worthwhile goals for fundraising. So this meeting will be a little celebration what Edwin has done for our Club. We also hope to acknowledge sponsors that helped us throughout the year. And last but not least we will end this meeting with a new President. We are excited with our incoming president and invite everybody that would like to celebrate this evening with us. Please RSVP to edwinvw8@gmail.com. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
So happy to announce the 2015 Special Edition replica to commemorate the Ontario Toy Show & Auction. This detailed IH 1026 tractor has never been produced befo...re. It features pedals, levers, ROPS & canopy and promises to be a popular edition to the OTS Canadian Show series.
Order now via details below.
This week there will be no regular meeting at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Next week on June 24 President Edwin will chair his last meeting and we will thank a few of our sponsors in this past year.
June 17 meeting: No regular Rotary meeting at Quality Hotels and Suites
This coming Wednesday evening, June 10th, we welcome Regional Coordinator of HIV/AIDS Services Carlen Costa, who comes to us from the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection in London, for a special presentation about the workings of this gem of a community support & resource.
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Quality Hotel & Suites
580 Bruin Blvd Woodstock, ON N4V 1E5
Event Description
An annual event, Rotary Clubs of Ingersoll, Tillsonburg, Tavistock, Woodstock & Woodstock-Oxford present this year's bursary awards to students throughout local high schools who are good students, have demonstrated excellent moral character, have been active in school activities and have made worthy contributions to the life of their schools. These recipients exemplify characteristics, abilities and interests which make them both worthy representatives of their schools and personify the Rotary motto "Service Above Self".
This coming Wednesday evening, May 27th, don’t miss this one-time opportunity to hear Greg, a professional speaker, corporate trainer and change leader. His company, Unique Training & Development Inc. is in demand across North America helping clients grow to higher levels.
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
This week Sylvie, John and Leigh will present what they have learned this past Saturday at the District Leadership presentation. Everybody is welcome to attend this meeting. This presentation will inform you what Rotary does and how much you can learn at the District Leadership course.
The meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
May 20 meeting: Sylvie, John and Leigh will present
This week will be the first of a number of Rotary information series. We will discuss our website. The idea behind this series is to clarify what we would like to achieve and what is expected from the persons involved. As a group we can only succeed if everybody knows what needs to be done. Guests are very welcome to attend this meeting. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites.
Join us this Wednesday evening, May 6th, to hear about Rotarians Grace and Lynn's recent mission to the Philipines, to provide much needed aid where devastation by the tremendous Typhoon has left people in remote areas still in need of relief efforts. See how Rotary continues to support after an initial call for help...
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Woodstock-Oxford Rotary - Nepal Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund
You may have read or seen the news about the devastating earthquake in Nepal. Many people have perished or are missing. Homes are totally destroyed or too dangerous to be inside of them. Late today, we had some shocking photos shared by a friend on facebook.
The need of receiving assistance will be very high and we assume people will be asking “What is Rotary doing” to help. We have contacted Rotary friends who live in the affected district. We anticipate they will give us a firsthand report on what local Rotarians are doing to help and what the priority needs are. Let’s not just assume we know what they need and start arranging to ship items until we know their priority needs.
In the meantime, Woodstock-Oxford Rotary has set up a “Nepal Disaster Relief Fund” where people can donate online and receive a Canada tax receipt.
Anyone can go to www.woodstockoxfordrotary.org and at the top click ‘Donations’ then ‘Donate to our Charity’.
That links to an donation page where you can ‘Select your preferred fund,’
from a drop down menu. ie: Earthquake in Nepal
Then fill in the amount and credit card details.
You will receive an emailed receipt within minutes.
or
Send a cheque to Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Benefit Trust
c/o Peter Stam, Treasurer 656441 15th Line, R7 Woodstock, ON N4S 7W2
Please include an email address if possible for your tax receipt to be sent.
If no email it can be sent regular mail.
We expect to work with known Rotary contacts and friends in the affected area, to ensure we are satisfying their priority needs and to oversee delivery of relief items with proper stewardship of our donated funds.
Donations through our Benefit Trust do qualify for the Government match. This will be for all donation done between April 25 and May 25.
There is also consideration being given to a Rotary Foundation matching grant to help rehabilitation efforts. In this way we can leverage our donations 4 to 1 for maximum effect.
How to Recruit New Members and Strengthen Your Club - A Membership Matters! Webinar on 6 May 2015
It’s here: the final webinar in the Membership Matters! webinar series. As someone who has expressed interest or attended a previous webinar, we are specially inviting you to join us on Wednesday, 6 May 2015 at 10:00am CDT/Chicago time (UTC-5).
This webinar will feature two Rotary leaders who will share some of the exciting ways clubs around the world are growing and strengthening their membership using creative strategies for attracting new members.
Rotary International Director-elect Jennifer Jones – Jennifer Jones is a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland in Canada and has been a Rotarian since she was 27 years old. A popular speaker and trainer at Rotary events, Jones has served as Club President, District Governor, a multiple-time District Conference Presidential Representative, and a leader for several Rotary Committees. She will continue her commitment to strengthening Rotary’s membership during her term on the 2015-16 RI Board of Directors.
Rotary Coordinator & RIBI Membership Chairman Robin Brown – Robin Brown is a member of the Rotary Club of Crewkerne District in England and has been a Rotarian for almost 25 years. He has previously served Rotary as an Assistant Rotary Coordinator, Chairman of the RIBI Leadership, Development and Training Committee and as District Governor, where he successfully oversaw net membership growth during his term. Brown was selected by RI President Gary Huang as one of his District Conference Presidential Representatives.
May 6 Webinar: How to Recruit New Members and Strengthen Your Club
A presentation of the Global Literacy Program from a South African perspective including a full length screening of the Documentary “All that Hope Contains” followed with a talk by Charles & Colleen Deiner from the Middelburg Rotary Club, South Africa. There will be time for questions and an opportunity to meet the Deiners over coffee afterwards.
Admission is free. Seating is limited to 80.
Please register now to assure your seats.
Donations in any amount to the program are always welcomed.
As some of you know, a Rotary “flame” was launched in December in Chennai, India, to commemorate India becoming polio-free and to promote the need to go the last mile in the battle to eradicate this horrible crippling disease. The torch has made its way through several countries already, and will pass through all three polio endemic countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria – before arriving at the 2015 Rotary Convention in São Paulo 6-9 June.
On May 11 the flame will arrive during the meeting at the Woodstock Rotary Club. Meetings starts at noon.
The lunch at Quality Inn will be a cluster event with DG Patsy Marshall present as well as Hajra Wilson. Elaine Hutchison, a polio survivor from Oxford County will bring in the flame. All interested in this event should attend as this will be a wonderful meeting. Let president Edwin know by May 08 if you are interested to come out (edwinvw8@gmail.com). Lunch will be $15.00
Join us this Wednesday evening, April 22nd, to learn about student life in Cremona, Italy from our special guest Rotary Youth Exchange student Maria Bellestriero. Will she be bringing home good memories and fun stories from her stay here in Oxford County this past year?
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Frank wanted to have a wine & cheese event at Parkwood when he was living there, but didn’t manage to get one arranged before he passed on.
Son Tom, other Springbank Cheese employees, and Parkwood Institute staff members thus decided to host a Celebration of Frank’s Life Wine & Cheese Event for family members and friends. We hope that you will attend.
Club Assembly. So what do the various positions do in our Rotary group?
Chris and Edwin will be going over the responsibilities of the various positions within our group. At this time we will also be seeking volunteers for our various committees and projects that we undertake through out the Rotary year. If you are a guest and you would like to volunteer you can also let us know at this meeting and we will add your name to our volunteer list for projects. This is a very rewarding experience and you will learn on the way.
Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at Quality Hotels and Suites here in Woodstock at the 401. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
As always our meeting starts at 6.30 at the Quality Hotels and Suites. After dinner we will go to Operation Sharing which is located at College Avenue United Church, 22 Wilson Street. The start time is 7 pm. There is parking behind the building which is accessible off of Peel Street.
Everybody is welcome to attend. Operation Sharing has a lot of great programs running for all people in Woodstock that need extra help for their food and housing.
Join us this next Wednesday evening, March 25th, as project enthusiasts from Stratford, ON tell us about a different kind of blue box that can change filthy, contaminated water into SAFE drinking water. AQUABOX - it saves and transforms lives!
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Join us this Wednesday evening, March 18th, to learn about Woodstock & District Developmental Services. After providing services for more than half a century in Oxford County and area, WDDS is still growing strong!!
$15 dinner event. Please contact Woodstock-Oxford Rotary President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Join us this Wednesday evening, March 11th, to hear about home life in Jaraga do Su, Brazil from a young man's perspective. Rotary Youth Exchange 2014-2015 student Eric Nunes de Oliveira is experiencing student life right here in Oxford County and has made several visits around the region. Outstanding opportunities for youth within Rotary - come find out about them!
$15 dinner event. Please contact President by email at Edwin Van Weerdhuizen at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Join us this coming Wednesday evening, March 4th, to learn from our guest speaker Dr. Matt Walker, Veterinarian at Oxford Bovine. In a presentation stemming from his November 2013 travels, Matt tells us what bovine farming in China is like. This was the second time he visited China. As a dairy farm consultant he has also been to Russia three times, two times in Mexico, several times in the United States and throughout Canada.
Matt is a partner in Oxford Bovine, the largest dairy veterinarian practice in Canada.
$15 limited seating dinner event. Please contact President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen by email at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Presenting our 34th Annual Fish Fry Dinner & Dance. Got YOUR tickets yet?
Contact Peter Stam @ 519-532-2181
Marj Gibbons @ 519-536-9555
WDDS @ 519-539-7447 Ext. 244... or email us at rotary.fishfry@gmail.com
Our pride & joy annual event - this year in support of Indwell local housing solutions and other humanitarian Rotary projects.
Saturday, April 11th, 2015
Doors open at 6 pm - Dinner served at 7 pm.
Featuring live music by "Ferguson Drive" and" Nova Star", an auction event, and a chance to win tickets to warm & sunny CUBA!!
What a super fun gathering of some of our Woodstock-Oxford Club members and friends in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl For Kids Sake fundraiser! Some pretty impressive scores, some terrible bowlers, some fabulous cheerleaders, lots of laughs and all heart! Way to go gang!
Over 40 organizations participated in our first Volunteer Fair today to display and share what their organizations do in the Woodstock area community. Many people attended to learn and gain more knowledge about volunteer opportunities that are available.
Thanks to Sylvie Morin, a new member in Woodstock-Oxford Rotary for coordinating this event. We hope to make it an annual show so please let us know if your group wants to be included next year. Great work Rotary!
Just a reminder that this week we will be going to the bowling alley to bowl for kids sake and support Big Brothers and Big Sisters. If you have not advised me that you will be joining us please let me know so I can make sure we have enough space for everyone (kevinjclarke55@gmail.com). If you do not want to bowl we would be more then happy to have you come cheer us on. Also I have reserved a table at The Charles Dickens for 8:15 and everyone is more then welcome to join us there.
See everyone there !
Kevin Clarke
There will be no meeting at the Quality Hotels and Suites this week
Governor Patsy Marshall will be our featured speaker for Rotary this Wednesday, February 18, 2015. In addition to officially welcoming two new members, she will share reasons why people join Rotary and how it can bring lifetime enjoyment.
Patsy will also review the reasons why Rotary participation can be a significant part of one’s life, such as: personal growth, leadership development, networking with friends and making a difference in the community on a global scale.
Join us this Wednesday evening 6:30 to 8 pm. $15 dinner event. Please contact President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen edwinvw8@gmail.com or 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
Join us this Wednesday evening to learn from our speaker guest Lisa Woods, of the Woodstock Fire Department, to learn about basic fire suppression!
$15 limited ...seating dinner event. Please contact President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen by email at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
This Wednesday we will have a Club Assembly. Everybody is welcome to attend. All members are strongly encouraged to come. This evening the club will be informed what the Board has been doing and what their plans are for the rest of the year. There will a discussion for which organization we will raise funds this year. Input from members is important.
Several comities will give an update about their activities. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $15.00
Natasha will be presenting information on the Indwell organization and how they are transforming the Harvey Woods building to serve the Woodstock community. This is a very ambitious project and it will be a very interesting story. Everybody is welcome to come and listen. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites (Birtch room). Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
Passionate about our city and its future, Mayor Trevor Birtch shares his vision for Woodstock and his mission to make a difference.
Join us this Wednesday @ 6pm for a Meet N' Greet with the Mayor.
$15 limited seating dinner event. Please contact President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen by email at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
On Wednesday, December 10th, join us for a Meet N' Greet with New York Yankees 3rd Base Coach, Rob Thomson.
$15 limited seating dinner event. Please contact Club President Edwin Van Weerdhuizen by email at edwinvw8@gmail.com or call 519-532-0972 to reserve your seat today!
November 19 we will welcome Helmut Schneider, president of the Oxford Community Energy Cooperative (www.oxford-cec.ca). The Oxford Community Energy Co-op was conceived as a partnership project between Prowind Canada, Ontario Sustainability Services and IPC Energy in August 2013.
Our Rotary meeting on October 22nd will be at the International Festival of Authors at Knox Presbyterian Church. Details:
The International Festival of Authors Returns
Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at 7:00 pm
Tickets $15.00
IFOA Ontario will visit Woodstock to present an evening of author readings, followed by a lively question and answer segment and discussion.
Don't miss this literary evening in the spacious sanctuary of Knox Presbyterian Church. The event will be followed by a reception in the Library, featuring local foods and wine, where you will have the opportunity to experience our vibrant local culture and meet and talk with the authors.
Tickets are $15 and can be reserved at the Library or at Merrifield Book Shop,
About the Visiting Authors
Lois Leveen (United States) is a novelist, poet, educator and historian. Her work has appeared in numerous literary and scholarly journals such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Bitch magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic and on NPR. Leveen gives talks about writing and history at universities, museums and libraries around the United States. Leveen presents Juliet's Nurse, a reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet from the perspective of the nurse.
Helen Humphreys (Canada) is the award-winning, bestselling author of four books of poetry, six novels and two works of creative non-fiction. She is the recipient of a City of Toronto Book Award, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry and is a finalist for the 2014 Trillium Book Award. She was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence in 2009. Humphreys presents her haunting memoir, Nocturne, an intimate self-examination and exploration of her grief after the sudden death of her younger brother, Martin.
Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer (Canada) is the author of the novels Perfecting and The Nettle Spinner, as well as the story collection Way Up, which won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She is also an award-winning instructor with the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, The Walrus, NumeroCinq, Joyland and Storyville. Kuitenbrouwer presents All the Broken Things, a spellbinding novel of exceptional heart and imagination about the ties that bind us to each other.
We hope to see you on Wednesday!
October 22 meeting: International Festival of Authors
Gary Baumbach is the Chief Executive Officer at the Woodstock Library and he will tell us this evening: What's going on at the library. This will be an interesting evening for everybody living in and around Woodstock. The library has so much to offer! Please feel welcome to come and listen. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
October 1 we welcomed Connie Lauder as our speaker. The title of her presentation is: Why Woodstock is important to me. She spoke not so much as a past member of city council but why she cares so much about Woodstock.
Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen
Over the next few minutes I would like to enlighten you on why I am so passionate about my community we all call Woodstock. Sit back while I tell you why I like to brag about this great City.
The Global Literacy Team has been able to secure funding for 2 more containers that will be loaded on Saturday October 4th. This will require a few more volunteers than usual. We will be loading 2 containers side by side with furniture and books from pallets. We need a crew inside each container, and a crew that brings goods to the container. Taking this approach will make everything more efficient with less start/stops.
Location: Hensall Co-op, Exeter at the old cannery at the corner of Wellington St and Marlborough.
Time: Beginning at 8:30 am, planned completion 4:30 pm
AM Shift: 8:30-12:30
PM Shift: 12:30-4:30 shift
Full Shift: 8:30-4:30
We are also in need of 10 volunteers for Friday October 3rd to do some furniture disassembly. This work will begin at 8:30 am. Please bring along some screw drivers, sockets for your use.
If you can help on one or both days, please reply and indicate which days and whether you plan to help for the full day, AM or PM shifts so we can plan accordingly.
This week's speaker is Norm Watson and he is a member of the Rotary club of Stoney Creek. This club raffles a Harley Davidson heritage-softail-classic. Tickets are $20 each and there are 3,500 Tickets printed.
Delta Hotel & Conference Centre
50 Stone Road, West
Guelph, ON N1G 0A9
Canada
The theme for the 2014 District Conference is The Magic of Diversity. It will be a great event with speakers and entertainers representing many different societal groups and aspects of Rotary.
"Light Up Rotary" is this years Rotary theme and we welcome our District Governor, Patsy Marshall, to inform us of her plans for the coming year at the District and International level. Patsy is a warm person and engaging speaker. All members are encouraged to bring their spouse and/or a friend of Rotary. For people that are interested in Rotary this is a great evening to come out.
The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites and costs for a dinner is $ 15.00. We hope to see you on Wednesday.
September 17 meeting: Visist of District Governor Patsy Marshall
Tomorrow president Edwin will present his budget for the coming year. All members are encouraged to attend to take part and support the budget discussion. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00. Guests are welcome to come out.
The city of Woodstock is going under road construction on Juliana Drive located in front of Bruin Blvd to Norwich Avenue; beginning at 7am on September 15, 2014.
This construction can take up to 2 week’s; therefore there shall be alternate routes for entry and exit for our guests and employees. Below are the directions we need to adhere too;
1. Entry and exit for Cars only shall utilize from Norwich Avenue must enter and exit the Wendy’s and Tim Horton’s entrance and travel through to Bruin Blvd to come to the Hotel.
2.Entry and exit will also be available when traveling east on Julianna drive and enter on Bruin Blvd to come to the hotel. Cars can also utilize this entrance/exit; transport trucks can only utilize this entrance during this road construction.
This week we will have our first meeting back at the Quality Hotels and Suites again. Our president Edwin has a lot of great ideas and he and his Board of Directors are excited to start the new season. This week our first speaker will be Rachel Martin, Secretary of Fundraising committee for Eastdale Public School. We welcome everybody to come out to our first meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites.
Costs for a meal is $ 15.00 To avoid making a voluntary donation to the Sgt. at arms bring your favourite sunglasses!
This week there will be no meeting because we participated with the Dragon Boat race this past weekend. Our team, the Woodstock-Oxford Wreckless Rowers got first price in our league. After a rough start in the first race we won the second and third race. It was again a fun day and we would like to say a big thank you to Lisa (and Chris) Dennis for organizing this year's team. Also a big thank you to Jeff for being patient with us and an awesome coach.
Also a big thank you to Leigh and Alma and Frances for supporting the team.
Tomorrow evening our meeting will be organized by Kevin Clarke and Chris Dennis. The meeting is at 644 Hummingbird Cr in Woodstock. If you would like to join us for this meeting please contact Kevin: kevinjclarke55@gmail.com or Chris Dennis: chris.dennis@sudsjiffy.com.
This week we will have our meeting and dinner at Banana Leaf restaurant. 'Come on in and indulge your senses with the many tastes of Thailand. From sweet to spicy and every spectrum in between'. This is how Banana Leaf Restaurant invites its guests.
Everybody is welcome to come out to this meeting. As usual the meeting will start at 6.30 pm at 369 Dundas Street in Woodstock. We hope to see you on Wednesday.
This week our speaker is Ron Fraser, past police chief of the city of Woodstock and current counsiler of Woodstock. Ron is the president this year of Woodstock Rotary. Ron is a very engaging speaker and he is open for questions about everything that is going on in Woodstock. Everybody is welcome to come out. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm. at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
The five Rotary Clubs in Oxford County present bursary awards to graduating students from each of eight secondary schools. One male and female student from each high school in Oxford County are awarded for their contribution to their school and community.
This year's Rotary Medals awards will be presented on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 at 6:30 pm at a banquet at the Quality Hotel and Suites, Bruin Blvd., Woodstock.
Elaine Cougler is a Woodstock writer and resident who has turned a former teaching career into one of writing. Her novel of historical fiction, The Loyalist’s Wife was published in June last year. It’s publication is timely for it represents a fresh look at the American Revolution from the point of view of those loyal to the King. When American colonists resort to war against Britain and her colonial attitudes, a young couple caught in the crossfire must find a way to survive in the wilds of New York State.
The author herself is a descendent of Loyalist settlers. With vivid scenes of desperation, heroism and personal angst, Elaine Cougler takes us back to the beginnings of one great country and the planting of Loyalist seed for another.
Terry Fallis, Stephen Leacock medal winner and author of The Best Laid Plans had this to say: “Elaine Cougler has written a page-turning novel of the American Revolution through eyes of a conflicted loyalist soldier and his indomitable wife. You’ll feel the hardship of homesteading, the fear of the enemy, the blows of battle and the pain of separation. You’ll be transported through history. This is not just a novel written about another times, it seems written in another time.”
We are very pleased that Elaine will speak to us. Guests are welcome to come out. Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
Rachel has been our outbound exchange student to Brazil. This evening she will share with us her experience over there and how the Rotary exchange program influenced her life. This will be a fun, interesting evening for everybody. If you or one of your children is interested in the Rotary exchange program then this will be a great evening to attend. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm with supper at the Quality Hotels and Suites.
May 28 meeting: Rachel Dennis with her Brazil presentation
Jackie is the membership District representative for District 7080. She is also a member of the Ingersoll Rotary Club. This evening she will explain the core focus points for the District membership committee. This is a great meeting for everybody to get new ideas what Rotary can do in your life. Everybody is welcome to the Quality Hotels and Suites. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm.
May 21 meeting: What does Rotary mean in your life ?
Meredith Maywood is the Tourism Specialist here in Oxford County. Maywood’s formal education in tourism and geography is augmented by past experience in tourism, marketing and economic development at two other municipalities, a conservation authority, and a private sector business in the food and wine industry. This evening Meredith will be talking about the Tourism Industry in Oxford County including its successes, potential and direction.
This week is scheduled for a Club Assembly. President Kevin and incoming president Edwin are encouraging all members to be there and speak up about anything they would like to discuss about our Club activities. If preferred members can email topics they would like on the agenda to Kevin.
There will be a brainstorm session for new fundraising ideas and what will be our fundraising efforts for the next Rotary year. The members make the Club so in order to make a strategy for the new year it is good to have input from the members.
The meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites.
This week's meeting we will have an evening of fun. This evening we will play euchre. Members are encouraged to bring their spouse. Also friends are welcome. The meeting will start at our regular time at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites.
This week our speaker is one of our chartered members: Jack Bingham. He will share with us what he did during his professional career. Some of his life values and a short reflection as a long time member of the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary club.
Jack is a very engaging speaker and for some of our younger members it will be an opportunity to learn something from Jack. Also friends are very welcome to come out for this meeting. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
The day is almost approaching for the installation of brand new playground equipment at Eastdale Public School. This has been a major fundraising effort for our Rotary club this year. If you would like to help out to finalize this project please confirm a date that would work for you to Kevin Clarke: kevinjclarke55@gmail.com
Saturday May 3 @ 9 am.-? Installing boarder and pea gravel
Saturday May 10 @ 8 am. -? Installing the two playgrounds and putting down mulch.
Construction of new playground at Eastdale public School
I just received this in response to our fundraising for Typhoon Haiyan relief, below you can click on the links to see where the matching funds are going.
In this fundraiser initiated by the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford altogether over $70,000 was raised, we received donations from all over Ontario from individuals and other Rotary Clubs and even some from the USA, although the USA money did not qualify for the matching from our government it still adds in to our fundraising.
Thank you all for your support.
Folks,
Sending this out to everyone who provided an email on their THRF declaration forms.
This week Rotarian Peter Stam will inform us about his recent mission trip to Cuba. Peter and his wife Edie have organized several mission trips to Cuba over the last 10 years. They have a passion for the people and the country of Cuba. Peter will give us a little update why there is such a need in Cuba. Also he will share what they have done on this recent mission trip. Everybody is welcome to come out to this meeting. If you would like to learn about Cuba and Rotary this will be a great evening to join us.
Meeting is at the Quality Hotels and Suites and starts at 6.30 pm in the Burtch Room. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
On April 9 our speaker will be Jennifer Belleth who is the volunteer Engagement Coordinator for the Canadian Cancer Society, Oxford County Community Office. She would like to share their mission information about who they are and their impact in Oxford County. Also one of the Youth Students from Youth Troop will share with us why she wears a Daffodil. April is Daffodil Month for the Canadian Cancer Society. Everybody is welcome to come out and learn more about this great organization.
This week our newest member Edwin van Weerdhuizen will give his vocational speech. That means he will share with us what he does for a living. Most likely he will share some of his personal background too. It is a nice way to learn a little more about each other. If you are not a member of Rotary you are most welcome to come out to our meeting. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
This week there is no regular meeting at the Quality Hotels and Suites. We will go and see: 'I was a Greenhouse' directed by Adrian Konstant. He has spoken to our Club earlier in the year. The movie will start at 6.30 pm. at the Twin Princess Cinema, 46 King Street North in Waterloo.
We will meet at 5.30 pm. at the Quality Hotels and Suites and I try to set up a carpool. Please let me know if you are planning to come: duizer@silomail.com. This way transportation and ticket sales can be arranged. The costs for a ticket is $ 12.00.
Please join us for dinner this evening at 6:30pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock. Following dinner we will carpool to the Woodstock Art Gallery, 449 Dundas Street, Woodstock, Ontario at for a tour starting at 7:15pm. Stephanie will give us information on upcoming classes and events as well as show us their current exhibitions, All But Not, and Facets.
This is a wonderful opportunity to tour our very own Art Gallery. Guests and friends are always welcome!
Power of HOPE Community Organization is a registered not-for-profit organization that helps families in the communities of Wellington County, Kitchener/Waterloo Region, Perth County.
Karen Geerts will speak to us this evening. She is the Director for Woodstock and surrounding area Oxford County.
Power of HOPE provides essential items such as pajamas, toiletries, towels, hats, mitts, socks, slippers and soft toys to families in need, including children and women in crisis as well as men, women and children with little or no family income. Through the generosity of friends, families, local businesses and fundraising events, HOPE was able to collect 2,000 stuffed toys and 585 pairs of pajamas in 2011.
Power of HOPE Community Organization's mission is to provide support with compassion and integrity to families in need throughout the local community’s .What they raise in a local area stays in that local area.
Please feel free to come out and listen to Karen as she will have a good presentation. Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
This Wednesday evening our Club will Bowl for Kids Sake with Big Brothers and Big sisters. We do not meet at the Quality Hotels and Suites. If you would like to join our team please contact me: kevinjclarke55@gmail.com. This is a great event with a lot of community groups participating. We will bowl from 6.30 pm until 8.00 pm. Feel free to come out to support this great cause.
We are looking for volunteers to sell tickets for the 'Golf gives back Lottery' on Saturday February 22 and Sunday February 23 from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. We have divided the day in two time slots from 10 am to 1.30 pm and from 1.30 pm until 5.00 pm. Please contact President Kevin when you can help out with this fundraiser: kevinjclarke55@gmail.com;
This week we will watch a Rotary video about membership. It is a very inspiring video. Everybody is welcome to come to the meeting to learn more about Rotary. What it means to be a Rotarian. Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
This week the incoming exchange student from the Woodstock Rotary Club, Maria Verona speaks to our Club. She comes from Finland and will share with us her exchange experience so far. Everybody is welcome to attend. If you know of somebody that would be interested in youth exchange please bring them out. This evening we can hear first hand what the exchange experience is all about.
Meeting starts at 6.30 pm. at the Quality Hotels and Suites and costs for dinner is $ 15.00
Januari 22 meeting: Maria Verona (Edwin Van Weerdhuizen)
SCREENINGS:
Monday, March 3rd 2014 - 6pm
Tuesday, March 4th 2014 - 6pm
Wednesday, March 5th 2014 - 6pm
Thursday, March 6th 2014 - 6pm (pending ticket sales)
LOCATION:
Princess Twin Cinema
46 King St, North. Waterloo. ...
ITINERARY:
6:00pm - 6:15pm - Thanks to the people involved.
6:15pm - 8:00pm - Screening of film
8:00pm - 8:30pm - Cast and Crew Q & A
Movie: I was a Greenhouse directed by Adrian Konstant
The New Year has started and on behalf of the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary club I wish you a great 2014 and I hope you can stay warm with these extreme cold weather. Tomorrow we will have a Club Assembly. There will be committee updates, project updates and questions that can be asked about every aspect in our Club. Everybody is welcome to attend.
The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
This week our speaker is John Utting. He is a banker at CIBC here in Woodstock and he will give a presentation on modern banking. Everybody is welcome to attend the meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
The first Ontario Toy Show was originally founded in 1986 by the Vincent family. Since then, it has grown into Canada’s major Farm Toy Collector event, attracting many hobbyists from across Canada, the United States and abroad. It is held annually in Woodstock, Ontario on the weekend prior to Labour Day weekend.
Through the years a reception, dinner and toy auction has been added and the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford has become involved with the event as a fundraiser for their community service projects.
The weekend regularly attracts dealers and collectors who search for or bring rare and high quality toys to sell or trade.
We are collecting your cheese orders today to raise funds to immunize children against polio!
Cheese is the perfect gift for this Christmas season and our annual cheese fundraiser is off to a great start! Proceeds support Rotary's PolioPlus Program. There are still 3 countries remaining for eradication of Polio: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Our blocks of cheese and gift boxes are the perfect addition to your Christmas party smorgasbord! Do you have staff or customers you'd like to show your appreciation to? Give a gift you know they would enjoy.
Please submit your orders to Jantine TODAY via email jtstam@hotmail.com or at our Rotary meeting this evening. Thank you!!
This week our own Mr. Doug Vincent will share his knowledge about Rotary with us. A fireside chat is especially done for new members and their family but everybody that wants to know more about Rotary is welcome to come out to the meeting. This will be a very informal evening where you can learn what Rotary is all about. As always the meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
This week Deb Roloson will give us an update on everything that is going on at WDDS (Woodstock and District Developmental Services). Deb is very passionate about her work and we look forward to hear about the progress of new projects at WDDS (Young street and others).
Everybody is welcome to come out at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
This week we have an interesting topic. Our speaker, Harold Offenhammer, will educate us about clean air. A lot of times the air we breathe in our houses or the places where we work is not clean. He will explain to us what is all in the air and how we can improve this. Our Benefit Trust will also have a short annual meeting this week.
Everybody is welcome to attend our meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
This week our speaker is Stephen J. Smith. Stephen will present a slideshow relating to the local military. Stephen is a Military Historian & Researcher. His specialties are the 168th Battalion CEF "Oxfords Own" & Oxford County Military Contributions. He is the Youth and Education Chairman, RCL Branch #55, Woodstock, Ontario.
In this week where we remember those who have fought for the freedom we enjoy today, Stephen is a very fitting speaker. Everybody is welcome to attend our meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
November 13 meeting: Stephen J. Smith (Remembrance Day)
As the central Philippines recovers from Typhoon Haiyan, the death toll continues to rise. It is believed more then 10,000 people have died because of this disaster.
As you may know, the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford has raised funds for victims in the Philippines before for another disaster and a partner of one of our members is from the Philippines, so we have close connections to that country.
It is reported that most of the damage has been caused by huge and strong winds, rather than water flooding. Of course the streams and rivers are overflowing and full of rubble and many homes have been swept away. All of this is on top of the recent earthquake and the recovery that everyone is dealing with. You can see a report by clicking here.
We understand that many people are missing and others are living outside in makeshift tents. Government buildings are still not used until engineers can assess their structural integrity. You can see a slide show and news report here.
Our Rotary Club is collecting disaster aid which Rotary Clubs from the Philippines will oversee there. Anyone wishing to contribute can make a cheque out to Woodstock-Rotary Benefit Trust and note “disaster activities” or online go to www.woodstockoxfordrotary.org at the top click on Donate to our Charity, it will bring up and drop down menu, then click on Disaster Relief Fund Philippines and you can fill in there. or click on the following link. Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Donate Page (In either case, Canada tax receipts are issued). The Woodstock-Oxford Benefit Trust is on the list to receive the Canada matching for Philippine disaster. So every dollar you donate will be matched by the Canadian Government.
Peter Stam
International Services Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford
This week we will have our annual meeting. All club business will be discussed. Also we would like to vote on a budget for this coming year. It is very important for all members to come out and vote to support the proposed budget. Also this is your opportunity to give your opinion about all Club business and projects.
Meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00. Also non-members are welcome.
This coming Saturday we will be loading the last container coming out of the closed Norwich public school on 9 Elgin street in Norwich.
We hope to start at 8.30 AM., stop for lunch and work at it until the loading is finished. If we have enough people, we should be done around 3 PM.
When you are coming to help, (We still hope that more people will sign up)please confirm with me that you are coming so we can keep organized and have enough food there.
We ask that if possible, to bring some tools like screw driver, battery power drill, vicegrip and some wrenches to dismantle some tables etc. You may want to bring a camera if you like to take some pictures.
As you may know, this container will be shipped to South Africa, as a group, we have shipped over 30 container loads to Haiti and South Africa where the supplies are being distributed among about 600 schools in Mpumalanga where many schools have hardly any tables, desks, chairs and books, in this container we also hope to ship 26 pallets of school books donated by the Thames Valley Board of Education because the books are surplus.
Check the blog from July this year and October last year to read a little of where the supplies are going.
Our speaker this week is Erin Van Weerdhuizen who has been a Rotary exchange student to New Zealand. She will share her experience with us. You are welcome to come out and listen how this experience has enriched her life. Erin is the daughter of Edwin who will become an official member of our Rotary club in this same meeting. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm. at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
This week Edwin Van Weerdhuizen will be installed as a new member of our Club. This is a very exciting event and we congratulate Edwin and welcome him. All family and friends are welcome to witness this event. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
This weeks meeting is extremely interesting for everybody that is involved in agriculture and also for everybody that would like to learn how modern agriculture works in a sustainable way to preserve our environment.
Our speaker, Matt Wilson, is the Nutrient Management Program Lead for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and the Ministry of Rural Affairs. He works out of the Guelph head office and is responsible for the overall administration of the Ontario Nutrient Management Program. He will explain to us what this program is trying to accomplish. Of course he is an expert in everything involved in Nutrient Management Programs.
Everybody is welcome to come out at 6.30 pm. at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is 15.00.
This week Mr. Mike Gauthier will speak to our Club. He is the District Governor of our District 7080 for this Rotary year. If you want to know more about Rotary this is a great meeting to attend. Everybody is welcome. All Rotarians are encouraged to bring their spouse or partner. Friends of our club are encouraged to come out and have a great evening.
The meeting does start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites and the cost for a meal is $ 15.00.
This week our speaker is Hubert Singh. He is the chairman of the District Membership Committee and a very engaging speaker. He will give us tools to help us to attract new members. Every member should try to be at this meeting. Also all friends of our Club are welcome to come out to the meeting. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm.at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is 15.00
One of our Rotarians, Jantine Stam is getting married to Adam Steward on Saturday October 12th @ 2:30 p.m. at Old Saint Paul’s Anglican Church in Woodstock. If you would like to witness this joyful event you are welcome to attend the ceremony.
This week we welcome Steve McInnis from the Canadian Food Grains Bank who is going to show us a presentation of their trip to Rwanda and Kenya. Steve is a member of Knox Presbyterian Church. Learn more about the project he is chairing. Everybody is welcome to come out at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
Preparing for another Container load of school supplies to go to South Africa.
As most of you know, with the combined Rotary Clubs and Friends of Rotary, we have been involved in shipping containers of school supplies to Haiti and South Africa. http://middelburgrc.blogspot.ca/2013_07_01_archive.html
The school supplies are being donated by the Thames Valley and Maitland school boards where schools have been closed and they have no further use for some of the desks, chairs, books etc.
Up to date, there have been over 30 container loads shipped to the above countries where the need is very high as in many schools there, the students have to sit on the floor because they have no desks or chairs.
The next container will be loaded in Norwich where we have loaded before, but there is more left to be loaded. At the moment, the loading is being planned for the end of October, as soon as we have the finances in place, we can set an exact date.
For each container the cost is around $5,000 and we have commitments of $3,000 this far.
We welcome any Rotary Clubs or Friends of Rotary who want to help us raise the funds, we do issue official tax receipts which you can use as a write off for donations.
his week we will receive an update what is new at the United Way of Oxford, what the goals are for the coming fundraising year etc. Kelly is a very passionate speaker and the United Way of Oxford raises over 1 million dollars every year. This money is going to several agencies in Oxford County.
Everybody is welcome to come out. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Cost for a meal is $ 15.00
This week at Rotary we will see and hear a presentation about a program running at St. Mary's High School called "GST" which stands for the Good Samaritan Team.
Sandra Standish, teacher, coach, Student Council Advisor and PHE/Athletics Department Head co-founded this program in 2007 with her Vice Principal Stan Verschoore. The program is now entering its 6th year and is largely student run.
The program works to combat bullying behaviours that take place in our schools and to promote building and maintaining harmonious, supportive, inclusive relationships with others. Some of the school-wide mottos and slogans the school has worked with in the past include: "One Person Can Make a Difference, but Together We Are Powerful!", "Love & Lead Out Loud", "StandUp 2 Bullying: If You See It, You Can Stop It!".
Sandra still oversees GST at St Mary's HS and has appeared this past year on Rogers TV "What's Happening in Woodstock". She was also asked to run a workshop at last year's annual "When Faith Meets Pedagogy" conference in Toronto where over 2,000 Catholic teachers across the province come together to learn and grow as educators to better meet the needs of our children. The workshop spurred other teachers to start a program to promote a sense of belonging for all students and staff in their schools.
We look forward to learning more about this successful, engaging program. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
The budget presentation that was scheduled for this week has been cancelled. This will be done later this year. Instead there will be a video presentation of the Rotary Convention. Everybody is welcome to join us for supper at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
September 11: Video presentation Rotary Convention
Welcome back to our first meeting of this new Rotary Year in the Quality Hotels and Suites. Everybody is welcome at 6.30 pm. Costs for a meal is still the same at $ 15.00. This evening we will have a short update from representatives of Eastdale Public School about their playground equipment. Also Mr. Ray Taylor will give an update about the upcoming District Conference.
Don't miss out. There is only one first meeting of the year !
September 4 meeting: Eastdale Public School and Mr. Ray Taylor
Mark your calendars and save the date! The 2013 District 7080 Conference is around the corner and will take place on Friday October 25- Sunday October 27 at the Waterloo Inn (475 King St N, Waterloo). Note-worthy events include the District's inaugural Collaborative Action for Serving Humanity (CASH) panel, which will reward meritorious Rotary, Rotaract and Interact projects with district funding (think the Dragon's Den), and back by popular demand, the George Stroumboulopoulos- styled Conversation Across Generations hosted by Mark Cashin. Also look out for the Right Honorable Paul Martin, who will give an interactive, sure-to-impress keynote address. For more information and regular updates, please visit the conference website at: http://www.districtcon7080.com/2013/index.html
As you know, district conferences are not just for fellowship and celebrating accomplishments
Saturday August 10, 2013 we participated again with our team, the Reckless Rowers, during the Dragon Boat races at Pittock. The Woodstock Rotary Club did an awesome job organizing this event. It is a true community event that brings people together. The weather was fabulous and the pressure was up because our team won a gold medal in our category last year.
After a shaky first race the Reckless Rowers managed to win Gold again and our winning time was close to a second faster than last year. Thank you for all who participated in making this a fun day.
The Gates Foundation will match two-to-one, up to US$35 million per year, for every dollar Rotary commits to reduce the funding shortfall for polio eradication through 2018,” said Jeff Raikes, the foundation’s chief executive officer, in a prerecorded video address shown during the plenary session on 25 June. “If fully realized, the value of this new partnership with Rotary is more than $500 million. In this way, your contributions to polio will work twice as hard.
Every $1.00 anyone gives through the Rotary Foundation will become $3.00 and you will receive a tax receipt for your donation.
The Rotary Foundation is not just for Rotarians, many persons that are not member of Rotary, but want to support Rotary's projects are donating to the Rotary foundation. The Rotary Foundation has a 92% efficiency in fundraising and listed as #48 on the list of best Foundations to give to on the Forbes List of best charities.
This past Rotary Year our Club participated in a project that is helping Children with Cerebral Palsy in Hermosillo, Mexico to learn motoring and other skills so they may be able to get meaningful work.
You can see some results of what the assistance from our Rotary Clubs in Oxford County and Mexico can do for children in need.
Please click on the link below or copy and paste into your browser.
http://youtu.be/Y2nkAzC0R8E
The link below is from the Rotary Club Mileno in Hermosillo of what they have done this past year.
http://youtu.be/kUC5fXEIQPY
Our Rotary Club's participation with Cerebral Palsy Project
This week Wim and Caren Duizer will host the meeting. Everybody is welcome to come out. If you want you can bring your swimming gear to use the pool and if people are interested they can have a little farm tour.
This week our summer meeting will be hosted by Jantine and Adam. Their address is 853 Sloane Street. Across from the portables of Roch Carrier School. Their Lane fits 5 cars and the rest can park at the school. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm. Please RSVP if you are planning to come out to: jtstam@hotmail.com
Directions: From Clarke Street turn west onto Sloane. They are up the hill on the right.
July 10 meeting: Summer meeting at Jantine and Adam
We would like to invite all Friends of Rotary to come out this evening to witness our current President Peter Stam handing over the gavel to incoming President Kevin Clarke. Peter has put in great effort in his second term as President of our Club and it is nice to celebrate this evening with each other and have a good time. Peter will evaluate the past year and Kevin will slightly touch his plans for the upcoming year. Above all this evening is to have a good time. Spouses and friends are all welcome.
So feel free to join us for dinner at 6.30 pm. at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Costs for dinner is 15.00.
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians and friends to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.
The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.
As Rotarians, we are encouraged to donate yearly to this Foundation where we also receive a tax receipt for the donations anyone makes.
It are not only Rotarians that donate to this Foundation, there are many friends of Rotary donating to this great cause.
Yearly, people donate to this Foundation approx. $200 million plus and a tax receipt is send out to the person donating.
The Rotary Foundation has a 92% efficiency in fundraising and listed as #48 on the list of best Foundations to give to on the Forbes List of best charities.
If you are ever considering to donate to a Foundation, please check out the website below where you can read more about the different projects.
This year again, the Annual Rotary Fish Fry and Silent Auction was a big success.
There were about 650 people in attendance and many of them see this as a yearly meeting with some good fellowship, a great meal by Knechtel's (fresh perch) and great music by Ferguson Drive and Mister E.
WDDS (Woodstock District Developmental Services)organized the Silent Auction with their volunteers and many great donations which in turn sold well, The silent auction and donations raised over $16,000 thanks to the donors and buyers.
The live auction was another success with a set of tires sponsored by Al's TireCraft , a value of $1,000, a television set sponsored by Leon's of Woodstock, a value of $600.00 and a weekend away in a cottage, a value of over $1,000 sponsored by the owner of the cottage.
The midnight draw, ( it was a little later)2 draws for trips to Las Vegas was what everyone was waiting for, it made some very happy people, have a good trip guys. The trips were sponsored by Pharmasave Woodstock and Pharmasave Ingersoll.
The dance evening finished at 1 PM, looking around at the crowd, everyone had a great evening.
The Fish Fry evening raised over $15,000 for the Rotary Club to be spend on local and International Humanitarian projects.
Between the Rotary Club and WDDS the total money raised was over $31,000
Thank you to all who attended, donated, purchased, sponsored and volunteered, without you, it would not happen and because of you, we can help many people in need.
If ever, you want to know more about Rotary or want to join our club, or just help with some projects once in a while, please feel free to contact us.
This is a very interesting meeting. Also for Friends of Rotary. We are going to the Oxford Archives at 6:30 pm.
The County of Oxford Archives acquires, preserves, and makes accessible inactive public records created by, for, and about Oxford County.
These records include:
administrative
legal
fiscal
historical records of the County of Oxford 1850 to the present, and its predecessor, the District of Brock, 1842 to 1849.
The address is:
County of Oxford Archives
Governor’s House, County Square
82 Light Street,
Woodstock, ON
N4S 6H1
T: 519-539-9800 x 3918
We will be leaving there around 7:15 pm. and going to Charles Dickens for dinner. Please sign up for dinner with Frances. Email to: francesandsigi@rogers.com
This week our speaker is Rose Roi. After retirement, she took the horticultural program that is required to become a Master Gardener at the University of Guelph & currently belongsto the Stratford group.
If you would like to get free education in gardening then you are welcome to join us for this evening at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for dinner is $ 15.00.
The five Rotary Clubs in Oxford County present bursary awards to graduating students from each of eight secondary schools. One male and female student from each high school in Oxford County are awarded for their contribution to their school and community.
This year's Rotary Medals awards will be presented on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 6:30 pm at a banquet at the Quality Hotel and Suites, Bruin Blvd., Woodstock. Costs are $25.00. Contact Paul LeRoy of the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford to book attendance, 519-537-3611 or email pleroy@smithleroy.com.
This past Saturday, June 1, Woodstock-Oxford Rotarians Chris Dennis and Kevin Clarke, participated in this annual fundraiser to raise funds for Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (DASO) at the Woodstock Museum Square. This year’s event, which attracted approximately 100 people to Museum Square, raised about $7,500. All funds go to Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (DASO) for the shelter’s sexual assault and abuse counselling program.
This evening Rachel Wolfe and Renee Ballard will speak to us about the Eastdale Public School playground. Eastdale Public School is the only public school in Woodstock without playground equipment. We'll hear about their initiative to obtain accessible equipment
This evening the topic is not about the YMCA. Our speaker is Barbara Wright from Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (formerly Women's Emergency Centre - Oxford). DASO is committed to ending the cycle of domestic abuse and helping families make the transition to lives free from violence and abuse.
Barbara will promote the 'Walk a Mile in Her shoes' event and share with us what it is all about and what the impact of DASO is in our community. Everybody is welcome to join our meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for dinner is $ 15.00.
Update on May 15 meeting: Barbara Wright, Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (DASO)
If you do like to attend this evening you have to buy a ticket before 10.00 am. on May 29. There are still a few tickets available and they are sold on a first come first serve basis. Please contact Ron Fraser at 519-533-2141.
This week our speaker is our outbound exchange student Rachael Dennis. Rachel is going to Brazil later this year. Rachel will present to our Club the presentation she has prepared for her host Rotary club in Brazil.
Rotary Youth Exchange programs are open to students ages 15-19. To qualify, applicants should be above-average students who have demonstrated leadership in their community. Candidates should also possess qualities such as flexibility and a willingness to try new things that will enable them to fully experience life in another country and become excellent cultural ambassadors.
Rachel is sponsored by the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary club and we would like to invite you to join our meeting at 6.30 pm at the quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for dinner is $ 15.00.
May 8 meeting: Outbound Youth Exchange Student Rachael Dennis
This evening our speaker is Gordon Britton member of the Rotary club of Grand Bend. The rotary club of Grand Bend leads the container loading project. They coordinate that all usable school supplies from schools that close in South West Ontario are loaded in containers and shipped to South Africa.
He will show us a video what happens with the containers once we have helped loading them. Everybody is welcome to listen and learn about this wonderful project. The meetings starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
This week our speaker will be Howard Pell, a member of our District 7080 Training Committee. In addition to sharing Rotary information and President-Elect training, this committee coordinates many training opportunities for members.
Howard will review the Club Leadership Training and Rotary Leadership Institute which contain a wealth of personal and leadership development opportunities in addition to the Rotary content which helps to make our club stronger.
You are welcome to join are meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
April 24 meeting: Leadership Training Opportunities with Rotary
Please join us this evening as our guest speaker is Clarke Bovaird-Roberts, our inbound Youth Exchange Student from New Zealand.
She has a special presentation prepared for our club about her home country, her family, Rotary Youth Exchange, and I'm sure her friends! Clarke is an ambassador of New Zealand and is here to promote peace and understanding. If you are interested in learning more about New Zealand and Rotary Youth Exchange, this would be the perfect night to join us for dinner! If you know of a Youth who is possibly interested in Rotary Youth Exchange (ages 15.5- under 18 by Sept. 2014), a neighbour, friend, niece/nephew, student, please ask them to join us!
If you are interested in experiencing an exchange here in your own home, how about becoming a host family! This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about another culture, and share ours. This is a unique experience to positively change a young adult's life forever! Join us tonight for more information.
Dinner is $15 and begins at 6:30pm. Only have time for the presentation? Join us at 7:10pm in the Burtch room at the Quality Hotel and Suites. Our meeting adjourns at 8:00pm
Rotary Youth Exchange Student Clarke Bovaird-Roberts from New Zealand
Three more days until our much anticipated 32nd Annual Rotary Fish Fry! ~ Eat until your bellies are full and dance until your legs are tired ~
Advance purchase only?? That's right! Tickets are available only in advance, and we still have a few left!
Here are the Details:
When: THIS Saturday April 13
Where: Oxford Auditorium, Nellis Street, Woodstock
Time: Doors open at 6pm. Dinner starts at 7pm
Price: $40
How Do I Get Tickets: Call Peter @ 519 532 2181
or email stamnurseries@cwisp.ca
Delicious LOCAL Perch from Knechtels in Port Dover Shooting for the Stars Silent Auction by WDDS supporting Youth Summer Camp.
Live Music from 9 P.M. to 1 A.M. by local musicians Ferguson Drive and Mystere
Live Auction of a set of car or light truck tires, donated by Tirecraft
and a large TV set donated by Leon's.
Midnight Draw of a trip to Las Vegas(must be present to win)donated by Pharmasave.
Proceeds of this event are going towards Young Street housing Project by WDDS and other Rotary Humanitarian projects locally and International.
Some past and present Rotary supported projects are, Oxford County grade 3 Free Dictionary program, Little Healing Heart operations, Flood and Disaster victims in the Philippines, YMCA, Woodstock Museum School, Oxford County Nutrition programs, Salvation Army Angel Tree, Operation Sharing, WDDS, Hurricane Sandy victims in Cuba, Mexico Cerebral Palsy support program, Polio Eradication and many others.
Last Chance for Tickets for our 32nd Annual Fish Fry
Oxford County Rotary Clubs, including our own club, deliver dictionaries to Grade 3 students throughout Oxford County.
We love this program as it encourages and promotes literacy in our local schools. Each student receives a dictionary that they may keep for them self.
Frances and I visited a French immersion school in Woodstock yesterday and handed out about 30 dictionaries to a group of happy and engaging students. We were able to take a picture of some of the happy students (this is their goofy pose). The students shared with us their stores of how they help others, and we shared with them what we all have in common. We played a fun guessing game of how many Rotarians there are in the world. Do you know the answer? About 1.2 million! One young girl in particular had a wonderful reaction when the class was told by their teacher that we were bringing a 'cadeau' that they could keep.
This is just one of the wonderful ways you can be involved with Rotary and positively affect a young child's life in Oxford County!
Aldo Villanovich is a Civil Engineering Project Manager with many years of water and sanitary projects experience in rural Canada and has guided a previous WaSH project in Gualan, Guatemala. As a member of WASRAG (Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group) for the Guatemala Rotary Regional Team, he can provide much information on ongoing Projects/Programs & proposed future Projects/Programs.
The supply of good quality water will be a big challenge for the coming years in the world. Feel free to come and listen to Aldo. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
One of Canada's Nuffield Scholars and a well recognized Public Communications expert will share her ideas on how we can enhance our Rotary Club image and communications in the local community. Karen Daynard of KD Communications is a well recognized Agri-Marketer from Guelph, having worked with many well known clients for several years.
Karen will share her thoughts on the management of public image and public relations with reference to how a service club can elevate their status in a community. The by-product advantage is creating awareness of what Rotary does and attracting member prospects who want to be part of helping us making a difference.
Feel free to come out. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
We have ended our 'Golf Gives Back' fundraiser. We have sold over two hundred tickets for $ 20.00 each. The final weekend of our tickets sales was at the London Golf show on February 23 and 24. A big thank you to all members that came out to sell tickets that weekend. A special thank you to Peter Van Wees who proved once again that he he is a true salesman.
Also other members that have sold tickets and of course all the people that have bought tickets to support this fundraiser. We have raised $ 2,000 for WDDS.
If you would like to see the list with prize winners click on the following link:
Frances will tell us all about her recent trip to Israel. She has lots of pictures with her and she is a good speaker. Please feel welcome to come out the Quality Hotels and Suites. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm and costs for a meal is $ 15.00. Please note that the meeting has been moved from the Burtch room to the Altadore room on the lower level. The heater for the Burtch room is not working properly.
This week we will watch two stories. First one is called 'Breaking the Cycle'. With help from 30 Toronto-area Rotary Clubs, the PACT crime reduction program transforms the lives of at-risk youth.
Second story is about Dr. Rahim Muljiani and A.H. Tobaccowala. At a free clinic in Rural India, two Rotarians show that humanitarian service can take many forms. Feel free two join the meeting at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm. Cost for a meal is $ 15.00
Using our RC Foundation for Effective Rotary Service� and AGM
In addition to our Foundation AGM, Ray Taylor, Ernst Young Tax Expert and Treasurer of RC Kitchener, will share suggestions on how we can use our benefit trust to promote more effective Rotary service.
By encouraging community tax deductible donations, disaster relief and humanitarian aid mission trips our club can be more efficient and active in this role helping others. It can also enhance our public awareness in the community.
Ray is a senior CRA tax expert and works with his Rotary Club and Church in administering project visits and humanitarian activities. Lately our RC Foundation has become more active and this should continue to develop with Ray�s input and suggestions.
Everybody is welcome to join our meeting at 6.30 pm. at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Costs for supper is $ 15.00
February 27 meeting: Ray Taylor tax expert/annual meeting Benefit Trust
We plan to bowl for BBBS on WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 20th at 6:30pm. We need 6 bowlers, but if we have 12 we can bowl in pairs. We'll be bowling 5 pin, from 6:30-8:00 pm in Woodstock. They are asking for $75/person.
I hope if our club donates their usual Rotary meal cost towards this, and with a few outside donors, we should be able to reach this goal! This will be a fun night and an opportunity for us to have fun outside our our regular meeting and meet members in our community with similar values. We plan to go out for food/drinks afterwards.
If you'd like to donate online, you'll receive your tax receipt immediately. If someone would like to donate cash/cheque, anything $20 and up will receive a receipt.
Tim Hortons, Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kids Sake is back in Woodstock and we're celebrating 100 years of mentoring in Canada. Help make 2013 the year of Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Please join my team, lace up some bowling shoes, and dress in the style of your favourite decade throughout the last 100 years!
Simply go to http://woodstock.kintera.org/bfks click Register to Bowl, select Join an Existing Team, select my team and register!
We’ll have a great time, while supporting an amazing cause!
Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Woodstock and District Association Inc.
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Some email systems do not support the use of links and therefore this link may not appear to work. If so, copy and paste the following into your browser:
http://woodstock.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=1047711&u=1047711-375804979&e=6500640760
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Wednesday we will have a special Valentine's meeting at Bronson's Steakhouse in Woodstock. This evening is open to all members and their partner and friends of Rotary and spouses. Everybody can choose their own items from the menu. A price indication for the main course is between $ 15- $ 25. Drinks will be on top of that. (if you would like to see the menu go to http://www.bronsonssteakhouse.com/dinner.html).
You can arrive between 6.00 pm and 6.30 pm. At 6.30 pm. we will order our meal. This is a fun evening in a nice setting. If you want to come please RSVP us by replying to this email.
We hope to see you Wednesday !!
Tim Koetsier and Wim Duizer
Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford
This week Grace will give a presentation of her recent Humanitarian trip to the Philippines. She has been visiting some of the disaster relief projects that were supported by Canadian Rotary friends. In addition, Grace has been helping to distribute relief items to those in need, which were shipped from Canada.
Everybody is welcome to come to hear first hand what Rotary and Grace have done for the Philippines. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Costs for dinner is $ 15.00.
A little while ago we filled in our Club Evaluation Forms. This evening there will be a summary and discussion about how we are doing as a club. It is important that all members come out this evening to be a part of the discussion. Also non members are welcome. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00 and we meet at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites.
Annette Broschinski of RR 1, Princeton has completed a two-week course in Permaculture Design at the Whole Village Farm and Ecovillage in Caledon. As Annette described it "Permaculture is about that - ensuring communities are thriving, reaping a good harvest of life and vitality. People helping people, not for financial gain, position or power, but to experience joie de vivre" (zest for living).
There are three ethics guiding permaculture: care of the earth, care of the people and sharing surplus.
If you are interested to learn something new please feel welcome to come out. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00
Michelle Franklin from the United Way will be our guest speaker this evening. She is going to talk to us about the impact their fund raising has on the community and how they measure it. We are hoping we will be able to use the same measuring system for our own fund raising and anyone could benefit from this information.
Please feel welcome to attend this meeting. The meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
This week we will learn about new plans for expension at WDDS. Feel welcome to learn about this project. Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
On our first meeting of 2013 Kerrie Gill will talk to us about the Woodstock Museum School. All schools in Woodstock can apply to participate in this program. This program provides elementary students with a valuable week of learning and discovery. This innovative approach to education allows teachers to move their classroom to a museum setting for a full week of curriculum-based experiential learning. As you all know we have supported the Museum School financially and some members volunteered their time to guide the students.
Feel welcome to learn about this project. Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal is $ 15.00.
Wishing you and your families a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
This year has come and gone, and it went fast.
When I look back, it is amazing how many things have happened this past calender year.
In January we started with helping loading a container of School supplies heading to South Africa.
In February, The Philippines had a Flood disaster and we raised with friends and the community over $9,000.00 to help people that were effected by that.
This week we will have our Christmas Party at the Bingham's. If you want to attend you are welcome. Please RSVP Wim Duizer: 519-532-2411.
Our next Club meeting will be January 2 at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Our speaker is Kerrie Gill and she will speak about the Museum School Woodstock - A Creative, Educational Experience
West Allis-West Milwaukee School District in partnership with the West Allis Rotary Club Skype Mentoring Program
Vision: Students will be provided with the opportunity for academic enrichment by being paired up with a mentor through the use of Skype to extend their learning and build relationships within the community.
Process:
• Students were identified at the Intermediate School level that may be in need of academic support
• Mentors from within the Rotary Club were assigned to a student to tutor in math
• Mentors and students meet twice a week for a half hour. Dates and times are determined by schedules of mentors and students. Each mentor is asked to briefly log the date, time and lesson covered from each session.
• Students are asked to bring homework, quizzes, tests and questions to the sessions
• The math mentors all were given Teacher Edition textbooks to help guide their instruction
Benefits:
• The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District is promoting the use of 21st Century Skills and 24/7 learning through the use of technology
• Students are offered one-on-one academic support
• Flexible scheduling in case student/mentor needs to reschedule
• Relationships are built with prominent community members throughout the City of West Allis-West Milwaukee.
Future Plans:
• 2012-2013 school year: plans to expand the program to all two Intermediate Schools.
• Mentors will continue to be paired with students to build community relationships
This week Becky Schneider will speak to our Club through Skype. A few months ago this did not work out and now we will try this again. Hope to see you all at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal are $ 15.00.
With great happiness and pride, Rotary India Humanity Foundation announces the inclusion of Christian Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, as a partner hospital in Saving Little Hearts. 3 children have been admitted to the Hospital on 30 October 2012 with sanction from TRF, consent & presence of DG Mr Upkar Singh Sethi (RI D 3070), sponsonship by MG 77513 (RC Chowrenghee & RC Woodstock-Oxford), presence of IPP Ms Urmi Basu (RC Chowrenghee) & representatives of The Indian Army.
Thank you God & Rotary,
Warm regards,
-- Sushmita Dasgupta
Another Hospital is doing heart surgeries in India
This week Ross Brewitt is our guest speaker and he is here to promote his newest book: Just Another Hat Trick. If you love hockey you don't want to miss this evening. Ross is a very entertaining speaker. Please feel welcome to come out to this meeting. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Costs for a meal are $ 15.00
About Ross
Ross Brewitt has three Canadian best-sellers to his credit, two more books published in the U.S. In 2012 he has written his first novel.
Early years
Born in Schreiber, Ontario, hard by the shores of Lake Superior, he spent his early childhood there, then moved to Fort William. Married to his wife Sylvia, they raised three children there before moving to Toronto in 1966.
Hockey Night in Canada
There he joined Hockey Night in Canada as an advertising salesman with their marketing arm, Maple Leaf Sports Productions, and quickly moved up the ladder, eventually becoming General Manager.
He added the expansion Buffalo Sabres to the company roster and the publications of all nine CFL Teams and the Grey Cup magazine.
ProStars…
Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky with Ross Brewitt.
Going out on his own in the promotions field, he formed the ProStars, sponsored by Molson’s, a five-year summer touring fastball team made up of active Leaf players: including Sittler, McDonald, Palmateer, Boudreau, Valiquette, McKenny, Ullman, Boutette, Ferguson, Favell, Shack, Turnbull.
… and OldStars
Brewitt then turned to hockey, taking a team of recently retired ex-NHLers on the road – criss-crossing Canada and the U.S. over six winters – including Ullman, Pilote, Stapleton, White, Tallon, Edestrand, Edwards,
All members received a questionnaire this week. Please take a moment to fill it out and bring it along with you. We will discuss the outcome of the questionnaire at our meeting. This is your opportunity to have a say in what our Club is doing. Also, the Board of Directors will explain what their duties are this Rotary year.
Everyone is welcome at 6:30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites for fellowship and dinner. The cost for dinner is $15.00.
Our speaker is Syd Harmon, Past District Governor and member of the Brampton Heart Lake Rotary Club. In district 7080 Syd is chairing the Rotary Foundation Committee. The Rotary Foundation started in 1917 with $ 26, the first donation was to Easter Seals. It is now $55 million and growing. So far in our district there are about 90+ members of the Paul Harris Society that are adding $90,000per year plus the members & clubs contributions. That is only in our District.
Please come out and listen what the Rotary foundation is doing around the world. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for a meal are $15.00.
The Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford has set up a fund to help victims of Hurricane Sandy. If you would like to make a donation, please to go www.woodstockoxfordrotary.org. Click on 'Donate To Our Charity' on the top of the page. The first fund in the drop down box is for Hurricane Sandy.
The Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford will distribute the funds through local Rotary Clubs who have assessed the needs of those affected. A charitable tax receipt will be provided immediately from our website.
Hi Rotarians and friends:
Dateline: New York, Friday November 2, 2012
They say that if you get handed a lemon, then have a positive attitude and make lemonade. So that is what we have been doing the last couple of days here in New York, since some of our meetings have been either postponed or cancelled. With vehicle restrictions and media reports keeping people away, visitor activity is lower than normal. That means we have enjoyed great prices on Broadway shows, such as Jersey Boys @ $27. and Phantom @ $40.
We also had the opportunity to participate in a TV show taping of Anderson Cooper who has been placing a lot of focus on the disaster and people affected by it. We saw two sisters who both lost their homes all positions. There was a man from NJ who lost his home in a massive fire of over 100 homes, . Yet all of these folks seemed thankful for the safety and health of their families.
This presentation is made by Dr. Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General for Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration, World Health Organization.
Right now we are at a watershed moment in the polio eradication initiative. If you look at a map for 2012 of polio you will find only 4 countries, and just part of four countries, where this disease still exists: Northern Nigeria, part of Chad right on its border, in Pakistan and right on the border with We're this close to a polio-free world finally. With India going polio-free this past year, we now have one billion more people who are no longer at risk of getting paralyzed by polio or at least the polio virus from their country. Come out to listen what needs to be done to eliminate polio.
Everybody is welcome at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Cost for a meal is $ 15.00
This week's meeting Tim Koetsier will tell us about Mercy Ships. He will share some personal experiences since he has served on board of a Mercy Ship. Also Rotary International has a partnership with Mercy Ships.
Everybody is welcome to attend at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for dinner is $ 15.00.
Our regular meeting on Wednesday October 31st will be canceled and in its place we are having a Curling Social on Saturday October 27th at Woodstock Curling Club at 2pm! This is going to be a fun afternoon for Rotarians, our spouses and our friends to socialize and learn something new!
The curling club will provide experienced trainers who will teach us the rules of the game and we will have on opportunity to show off our new moves as well. Experienced curlers and past Rotarians are warmly invited! We will be able to have up to 40 curlers, and 30 watchers. There is a warm room for those who would like to come out to socialize and watch. Following our lessons and game, we plan to defrost with coffee, tea and snacks. The cost per person depends on how many are in attendance, but should easily be under $15/person.
Join us for a fun afternoon. I guarantee there will be many laughs as we learn a new sport together!
Please RSVP to jtstam@hotmail.com or francesandsigi@rogers.com.
More details will be provided in regards to attire and footwear. Curling equipment will be provided.
In Rotary,
This evening our speaker is Tad Milmine and he is a RCMP officer. His presentation is about bullying among children. Many children have a good idea of what bullying is because they see it every day! Bullying happens when someone hurts or scares another person on purpose and the person being bullied has a hard time defending themselves.
So, everyone needs to get involved to help stop it.
You cannot miss this meeting. Feel free to bring out friends or your spouse. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock and costs for a meal are $ 15.00.
Tomorrow we will have a Club Assembly. A budget will be presented and there will also be a vote to approve the budget.
Also the chair of every committee or program will give a recap of their activities in the past year, financial statements and plans for the coming year. For the new members this is a great meeting to hear what is happening in our Club. For all members this is your change to give your input on the activities in our Club. Meeting will start at 6.30 pm.
Growing are membership is an important goal for every year. With more members we can do more projects and have more fun. This evening our speaker is George Szczepski, member of the Rotary Club of Cambridge. This year he received the Membership Recruitment Award in his club for bringing in 12 new members.
It will be very interesting to listen to this inspirational speaker. Meeting starts at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and suites. Cost for a meal is $ 15.00
You do not want to miss this evening if you like technology. At 7.15 pm there will be a live presentation through Skype. The speaker Becky Bzdak will explain us how we can integrate Skype in our Rotary projects. Meeting will start as usual at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Costs for dinner are $ 15.00.
As a Rotary Exchange student, you will spend one year living in another country, usually with three or four host families. You'll learn a new way of living, experience different foods, study different subjects, enjoy a new culture and maybe even learn a new language. In addition you will learn a great deal about yourself and gain confidence and self sufficiency. You'll also be an ambassador, teaching people you meet about your country, culture, and ideas. You can help bring the world closer - and make some good friends in the process.
The most powerful force in the promotion of international understanding and peace is exposure to different cultures. The world becomes a smaller, friendlier place when we learn that all people - regardless of nationality - desire the same basic things: a safe, comfortable environment that allows for a rich and satisfying life for ourselves and our children. Youth Exchange provides thousands of young people with the opportunity to meet people from other lands and to experience their cultures, thus planting the seeds for a lifetime of international understanding.
You will attend school in your local community, as well as participate in Rotary activities and civic functions. At the same time you will make new friends, see exciting places and experience adventures that will take a lifetime to recount. Rotary's Youth Exchange Program is recognized by participants, parents and schools as the best student exchange program in the world. It is the largest of its type in Canada and is backed up by caring and dedicated Rotarians who provide the infrastructure of the program. You will stay with three or four host families who have been screened by Rotary. These Rotary accredited families are volunteers who will welcome and care for you, supervise your year and introduce you to their culture and lifestyle. You will become part of those families and their community.
The Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford is hosting an information night for student's and their families on Friday September 28th at 7PM at the Holiday Inn, Woodstock. If you will be between 15 1/2 and under 18 years of age by September 2013, you are eligible to apply for this exciting opportunity!
Please RSVP for this information night to Jantine jtstam@hotmail.com
Rotary Youth Exchange Information Night: Fri. Sept 28, 7PM
Our club is welcoming a youth exchange student from New Zealand in January 2013. Her first host family has been arranged, and we are looking for 2 more host families.
A host family is a vital part of the cultural exchange, immersing the student in a variety of activities while in the host country. The host family plays a large role in offering the student a view of another country and gains the opportunity to learn about a new culture from a young leader.
Hosting is a tremendous experience in which you can share in a young person's hopes and dreams and develop a lifelong connection with a student and family from another country. It can be challenging to help a young person transition to a new culture and ease into surroundings but the rewards are immeasurable.
Host families in the Youth Exchange Program come in all shapes and sizes. They can be Rotarians or non-Rotarians, and may include young children, older children, or no children at all.
If you would like to apply for this rewarding opportunity, please contact Jantine Stam jtstam@hotmail.com, 519 788 7826. If you would like to speak to a couple who have hosted before, we can easily arrange for that.
If you think a game of golf is a great way to do fundraising then you definitely do not want to miss out this evening. Colin Gray will explain to us this evening how a Club can join them and raise funds. The meeting will start a t 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. The costs for a meal are $ 15.00
Everybody is welcome for our first meeting in the new Rotary year at the Quality Hotels and Suites.
Well, the Toy Show is past and it was a successful one.
It started with people asking for donations at different businesses, delivering flyers to Dealers and other Toy Shows.
Setting out the signs in Woodstock, set-up Friday evening and Saturday morning.
Signing in people, administrative work, billing, showing Toys, balancing the books.
Setting up Sunday, unloading Toys, cashier at the doors, helping people load up again Sunday afternoon, taking the signs down throughout Woodstock.
You have all been part of something that was done this past weekend or past weeks.
Here we are using the "Service Above Self" slogan and it fits you all.
With the money we raised, we are putting it to work where there is suffering, illiteracy, do operations for children, Polio vaccination and other needy projects.
I want to thank you for all you have done for the Toy Show and Auction, there is a Dutch saying, many hands make work light or light work.(veel handen maken licht werk)
We could not have done it without you.
I hope you will participate again next year.
At our next meeting I hope to have a financial statement for the Toy Auction.
Our 27th Annual Farm and Construction Toy Auction and Show is coming up this weekend on August 25 & 26.
On Saturday August 25th the Toy Auction will start at 9.30 A.M. The room is open for registration and viewing at 8.30 A.M.. At noon there will be a auction of donated toys from local equipment dealers and other farm related businesses. 100 % of the proceeds of this auction goes towards Rotary and will be spend on our projects,
Like past years, it promises to be another great event with many different Toy show collectors and vendors, ie: John Deere, Case, Ford New Holland, Massey Ferguson and other Toy Tractors and Equipment.
The Toy Show is on Sunday August 26 from 10.00 A.M. to 3 P.M. were collectors and vendors will have tables set up for the public to come and look and purchase their products.
Please do come out and enjoy the Toy Auction and Show.
Just a reminder of our Wed night meeting this week. We need to know how many are coming to plan food.
Thanks for letting us know asap please at: rotary@teamvincent.com
Hosted by: Vincent's and Dennis'
744797 County Rd 17 (1 1/2 mile west of traffic circle on Hwy 59 N)
6:30 pm - Bring lawn chairs
Featuring a selection of International Foods
and fresh Oxford County Corn Roast
Partners are invited and welcome join us.
Looking forward to seeing everyone there,
Doug, Grace, Chris and Lisa
August 22: Summer meeting hosted by Vincent's and Dennis'
Just a last reminder that the meeting is at the Stam's this evening starting at 6.30 pm.
If you think of it, bring a lawn chair. The summer meetings are very informal(shorts/t-shirts) if you think it is too hot for you you can bring your swim wear and jump in the pond.
Please send a confirmation to us if you have not done so yet, so we know how much food we need to prepare.
We will also have vegetarian food available.
GPS directions 656441 15th line, East Zorra-Tavistock
Cell # 519-532-2181
If you don't use GPS, take hwy 59 north to Hickson, turn right at the flashing light at Hickson. go towards Bright. about 3 miles out of Hickson is the 15th line, there you turn left onto the 15th line and then the 3rd farm on left with the trees. Fire # 656441
Starting next week we'll be hopping from yard to yard for our casual summer meetings! Think of it as a relaxing night off from cooking, that is, if you're not the host!
We always enjoy our summer meetings as they are informal and very social. Please check the side of this page under 'Speakers' to see where our next meeting is at! Guests are always welcome and the cost this year is $10/meal.
Join us this Wednesday June 27th as we celebrate our accomplishments from this Rotary year! We are also recognizing our many volunteers as they are a very important part of our club and functions.
Please invite your better half to celebrate with us as they too are an integral piece of our club. See you Wednesday at 6:30pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock.
This will be a great evening to learn more about Chris and his family. Everybody is welcome to attend the meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Inn and Suites in Woodstock. Costs for a meal are $ 15.00.
This evening we will be having some teachers over that have been using this program that is designed to help students young and old to inprove their skills in reading and math.
This program is endorsed by Rotary and through Rotary the schools can get a substantial discount when enrolling students.
When we were delivering Dictionaries at Rehoboth Christian school about 3 years ago, Principal John Heikoop asked us if Rotary had a program available to assist students that needed to upgrade their skills in Reading and Math. http://www.autoskill.com/rotary
This is where it started, please come out and learn howmuch this program can help students, the speakers are teachers from Rehoboth Christian School.
The meeting starts at 6.30 PM at the Quality Hotel with a meal, cost $15.00 and the meeting should last until 8 PM or a bit longer depending on the questions that may come up.
This evening we welcome Cpl. Darren Morgan and Sgt. Steve Kielt. They are both leading members of the London Customs and Excise Unit of the RCMP.
Contraband Tobacco has a significant impact on Canadian society. Persons involved in contraband tobacco, including the end users, are undermining global and domestic health objectives, contributing to the expansion of organized crime, inviting criminals into their communities, undermining the local legitimate economy and evading taxes that support Canada’s social programs.
Tackling the illicit tobacco trade requires more than law enforcement, which is why the RCMP and its partners also work together to raise awareness in the public of the consequences of purchasing and possessing contraband tobacco.
Please feel free to come out to this interesting meeting at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. As always the meeting will start at 6.30 pm and costs for a meal are $ 15.00
"Hello everyone, just letting you know that I'll be doing a speech at my Rotary Club about my exchange year in Woodstock! All our members are supposed to "share a cross cultural experience" so....going
Peter and Edie visited the RI convention in Bangkok this month. When they were there they traveled through Thailand. This evening Peter will share with us a presentation about this beautiful country and his update of the convention. Everybody is invited to join us for supper at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock. Cost for supper is $ 15.00.
May 16 meeting: Peter and Edie Stam's recent visit to Thailand
Haiti has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the Western Hemisphere. Rotarians around the world are working to reduce these rates and improve access to essential medical services for all mothers and their children.
The Rotary Foundation provided a fully equipped medical Jeep for midwives to use to reach some of Haiti’s most remote villages. Watch a video about this project.
In honor of a special mother in your life, please consider making a gift to support Rotary’s work to help women and children everywhere.
This week Woodstock has a cause to rally behind. Acting Mayor Jim Northcott on Thursday proclaimed April 22-28 as Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness week.
This evening Joanna Mitchell will inform us why organ donation is so important. Joanna's six-year-old daughter Ryley had a heart transplant when she was a baby. Please join us for dinner this week at 6:30 pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites. Dinner is $ 15.00 and you will be witnessing a very inspiring story.
My name is Fernanda and I'm from Santiago, Chile in South America. I am 18 years old and I have a little brother of 16, my mom is a psychologist and my dad is an electrical engeneer.
I have had a lot of fun in Canda and I want to become a doctor.
Fernanda is going to speak and show some pictures about her home country Chile, feel free to come out and join us for a meal and listen to what Fernanda is going to tell and show us.
Meals are $15.00 each and we start our meeting at 6.30 PM.
April 4 speaker: Fernanda Bahamonde Goldberg from Chili
In February Rama together with his brother went for a trip to visit their country of birth India. This week he will share with us a presentation about all the beautiful sites he has visited. He will also explain how this country has developed over the last 40 years. The enormous economic growth but also the challenges people are facing here today.
Everybody is welcome to join for this meeting at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites. Dinner is $ 15.00 and the meeting will be adjourned at 8.00 pm.
Sue and Chelsea will be present from the Canadian Diabetes Association.
Their mission is to lead the fight against diabetes by helping people with diabetes live healthy lives while we work to find a cure.
Their mission is delivered by:
- providing people with diabetes and healthcare professionals with education and services
- advocating on behalf of people with diabetes
- supporting research
- translating research into practical applications
They will speak about a program they have called Camp Discovery. For more details check them out online
Dr Grace Balankig will share a firsthand report on the devastation caused by the recent Typhoon storm and flooding in the Philippines. She recently visited the affected area which is also home to some of her family members. Her brother had one of their family farms wiped out, in addition to over 2000 deaths of friends and neighbours. Her report will include the work of Rotary providing aid in this area, including our local Rotary Canadian donations assisting those in desperate need.
Please feel free to come out for this meeting. Supper will be served at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotels and Suites in Woodstock.
March 14 meeting: Philippine Typhoon Disaster Relief
Our own Doug Vincent and Dr Grace will share experiences of their recent Rotary travels, helping provide humanitarian aid to those in desperate need.
This will include reports on our Club’s involvement in the Guatemala Medical Mission and the Healing Little Hearts surgeries in India.
It promises to be an excellent opportunity to learn what our Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club and community donors have done to support those who need our help.
Partners and interested friends are invited to attend. Hope to see you Wednesday at 6.30 pm at Quality Hotels and Suites.
By Dan Nixon
Rotary International News -- 27 February 2012
The World Health Organization has officially removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries. Ghulam Nabi Azad, India's minister of Health and Family Welfare, made the announcement at the Polio Summit 2012 in New Delhi on 25 February. Azad said that he had been informed of WHO’s action by its director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan.
"It is a matter of satisfaction that we have completed one year without any single new case of polio being reported from anywhere in the country," said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the summit, which was organized by the government of India and Rotary International. "This gives us hope that we can finally eradicate polio not only from India but from the face of the entire mother earth. The success of our efforts shows that teamwork pays."
We are excited to announce that we will be inducting two new members next Wednesday March 7th: Alma Yates and Frances Gottschlich! This is an exciting moment as our female population will be tripled in size.
I’m bowling in the 2012 Tim Horton’s Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl For Kids’ Sake (BFKS), on Wednesday February 22nd from 6:30pm-8:00pm. The goal of BFKS is to provide services in the form of mentoring to every child in Woodstock and District that needs a positive role model in their lives. I NEED YOUR HELP!
It’s easier than ever to sponsor me and help a child. Take the time to sponsor me online, it only takes a minute and you receive your tax receipt instantly!
Each time we pair a child with a volunteer we start something incredible; a life changing relationship built on trust, friendship and empowerment. These children are more likely to graduate high school, have better self-esteem and are more likely to give back to the community when they are adults. Imagine being part of something so great, and with your donation, you can have the chance to START SOMETHING BIG!
Thank you for your consideration in sponsoring me in this event.
We are looking for Rotarians to join our team! We have canceled our regular Rotary meeting to support this event. We are hoping to donate our regular meal money this evening to BBBS Woodstock! If you'd like to join our team simply go to http://woodstock.kintera.org/bfks click Register to Bowl, select Join an Existing Team, select my team and register!
Thank you for your support!
Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Woodstock and District Association Inc.
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Some email systems do not support the use of links and therefore this link may not appear to work. If so, copy and paste the following into your browser:
http://woodstock.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=998694&u=998694-351330959&e=5410892046
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Jantine Stam
February 22: Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl For Kids’ Sake
WDDS provides an annual 8-week summer camp for young people aged 13 to 19 who have a developmental disability and reside in Oxford County. The participants are able to enjoy a traditional summer camp experience with numerous opportunities for self expression, social interactions, and community exploration. Activities include, but are not limited to crafts, music, sports, cooking, computers and access to specialized/adapted equipment!
This non government funded camp is provided through fundraising efforts, community sponsors and individual donors. WDDS is very appreciative of any support, financial and otherwise, to ensure this much needed camp becomes a reality each summer!
A big fundraiser for the Youth Camp is the Silent Auction at the Fish Fry. Come out to hear what Deb has to say. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm at the Quality Inn and Suites.
As you know, we have been collecting donations for families that have been effected by the Floods in the Philippines recently.
This far we have been able to send $6,000.00 to Rotary Clubs working with the families in the Philippines, with another $2,000.00-$3,000.00 to follow.
Donations were received from residents of Woodstock and surrounding area's, from different Rotary Clubs and members of the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford
We want to thank all of you in the name of the Flood Victims for participating with this fundraiser and be assured that you are making a difference in their lives.
For the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford
Treasurer Peter Stam
This week we have our first ever Cluster Conference which will be held at the Quality Inn and Suites. If you could register at the attendance table that would be greatly appreciated! Meeting will start at 6.00 pm.
Join us for our cluster version of a District Conference! The 5 Rotary Club's of Oxford County will be getting together for dinner. We have a great Rotary themed guest speaker arranged through our Dictrict. This is an excellent opportunity to meet other Rotarians in Oxford County and share accomplishments and project ideas.
All clubs will be cancelling their meetings to encourage attendance to the Conference! We are very lucky to have it on our regular Rotary night at our regular location! Also this is a great evening to bring out guests and prospect members to learn something about Rotary.
Last week we had the privilege of skyping with Mark Hemsworth, Founder and Director of Rent-To-Own Africa. www.rtoafrica.com
Mark has now been in Africa for 3 years, and founded his business in 2009 to facilitate access to productive assets - such as irrigation pumps and ox carts - for Southern Africa’s growth-oriented entrepreneurs.
From Mark's blog http://markhemsworth.blogspot.com "The business has 105 people living in rural Zambia who owe us over
$100,000, and my team of people are working hard to collect this money
and grow this amount to $300,000 by October".
Our club has been following Mark's progress in Africa from the beginning and are so proud of his accomplishments. His business has certainly grown and is successful. 88% of his customers succeed with their contract with Rent-To-Own!
Mark has been recognized for his achievements and has become a Rainer Arnhold Fellow. Rainer Arnhold Fellows are people with good ideas about change in places that need change the most. http://www.rainerfellows.org/?q=node/55
Congratulations on this achievement Mark!
This week our speaker is Mark Hemsworth. As you all know Mark is a son of Tom Hemsworth. If you want to read some of his stories you can go to his blog: www.markhemsworth.blogspot.com.
It has been three years ago that Mark went to Zambia for Engineers Without Borders (www.EWB.ca) This has been a life changing event. Currently he is a business owner of Rent-to-Own. A company that helps local people to start their own business with micro credit.
Mark will tell us about his past experiences and plans for the future. Hope to see you all this coming Wednesday in the Quality Hotels and Suites. Our meeting starts at 6.30 pm.
January 18: Mark Hemsworth about his business in Zambia
This coming Wednesday our speaker will be mayor Sobeski. He will address the issues Woodstock is facing in the coming year. Also he is open for all questions. So please feel welcome to come out for dinner this week at 6.30 pm in the Quality Hotels and Suites.
We had a grand time last Saturday! Three of us from Woodstock-Oxford joined the crew in Ingersoll and loaded 2 containers - one headed to Haiti, one to South Africa.
The weather was wonderful and chose to cooperate on a day where a lot of the work was done outside. Inside the school, the temperature was more like the countries that the supplies were heading to. Victory Memorial in Ingersoll was the location of our small project. The cost to ship one container is approximately $5000. Our club donated $500 towards this, and has provided many volunteers over the last year.
The Rotary Club of Grand Bend spearheaded this project and I believe these were containers 16 & 17. These containers were loaded with children's desks, chairs, teacher's desks, filing cabinets, wheel chairs, crutches, sleeping mats, and many books! We even found some books for the adults in some of the boxes which were swiftly given to one of our local ministers to dispose of!
It was a super day and we met Rotarians and volunteers from all over: London, Grand Bend, Ingersoll, etc. This was just another example of Rotary making a difference, and we would never succeed without the help and support from all of you! Thank you!
”Nothing is Impossible” is the subject of our speaker’s
message this week. Murray Coulter, long time Woodstock lawyer (now retired from
the firm of Nesbitt Coulter), active community supporter and world traveler will
be our guest speaker for this meeting. Murray’s dynamic message about individuals who “ got things done” and achieved outstanding results for their efforts is both informative and inspirational and one you and/or your spouse/partner won’t want to miss. Don’t be shy about bringing a guest to hear this “feel good” message.
This week's meeting December 7:"Nothing is Impossible"
Hi Folks, Come join us tomorrow, Wednesday November 30th, at Boston Pizza in Woodstock! Our Rotary Club will be serving the customers between 5 and 8pm. 10% of the meals sales during that time will come back to our club and will fund our Oxford County Grade 3 Dictionary Program and our Rotary Medals High School Bursary Program.
This is a great night to treat your better half to a night out, and delicious food. Their menu has many delicious choices (not just pizza). There is also a family restaurant section so feel free to bring kids/grandkids out.
Coming up we've got an exciting speaker, our Christmas Party and a tour of the Art Gallery. Click on the dates on the side of this page for more details!
This week our speaker is an associate Professor of Medicine of the University of Western Ontario School of Medicine. Division of Radiation Oncology - Department of Oncology University of Western Ontario
Dr. Venktesan is a Staff Radiation Oncologist at the London Regional Cancer Program and his current practice is Radiation oncology with special interest in head and neck cancer and genitourinary cancers. He also is very knowledgeable in mouth and throat cancers.
You can ask any question about cancer to this high profile speaker !. This is going to be a very interesting evening so please join us for dinner at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites.
Speaker November 16: Dr. V.M. Venkatesan, MD, DLO(E), FRCS(E), FRCPC
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Canadians are asked to pause in memory of the thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives in military service.
At public gatherings around the country, Canadians pay tribute with two minutes of silence to the country's fallen soldiers from the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Afghanistan conflict and peacekeeping missions. Please make time this week to remember.
In October we inducted Chris Dennis to our club. Chris is managing 2 locations for Jiffy Lube, one in Stratford and one in London. He is married to Lisa and they have two daughters. We got to know Chris and Lisa this summer with the Dragon Boat races. Their daughters helped out with the Toy Auction. They are both very passionate about being active in their community. Welcome Chris to our club.
After a farewell party two years ago Peter Van Wees has decided to rejoin our Club again. He was reinducted on november 2 and we are very pleased that he is part of Woodstock-Oxford Rotary again. Peter is a master salesman and married to Truus. They have 5 grown up children and reside in Princeton. Welcome back Peter.
This meeting we will listen to the exchange student from Chili ,Fernanda Bahamonde Goldberg. She is hosted by the Woodstock Rotary Club. A Rotary Youth Exchange student will spend up to a year living with host families and attending school in a different country. Of course this is a huge life experience for the student but it also enriches the lives of Rotarians that host the students or have a chance to meet and talk to the students.
Come out this Wednesday at 6.30 pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites to meet Fernanda. For $15.00 you will receive a meal and an interesting evening.
October 26 meeting Fernanda Bahamonde Goldberg, exchange student Chili
The Group Study Exchange program is sponsored by the Rotary International Foundation. The idea behind this exciting program is to give young business and professional men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 a unique opportunity to experience a cultural and vocational exchange. The program provides travel grants for a four person team and a Rotarian team leader to travel to RI District 2060 in the area around Vincenza, Italy from May 12—June 10, 2012.
We are looking for an experienced Rotarian who wishes to use her or his team building, leadership and communication skills to provide guidance and management to an enthusiastic and focused group of non Rotarian team members be- tween the ages of 25 and 40. The exchange requires a month out of the country and preparation for the exchange re- quires weekly meetings from the time of team member selection to the departure date for the Exchange.
After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.
Rotary has to raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.
As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.
Please feel welcome to join us for supper at 6.30 pm at the Quality Inn in Woodstock to listen what Hajra has to say.
October 5. 2011 speaker Hajra Wilson: Polio eradication update
Please join us for dinner this evening as we learn about what Welcome Wagon does here in Oxford County. Dinner is at 6:30pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock. This cost is only $15 and our program concludes at 8:00pm.
In response to the humanitarian crisis in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, The Rotary Foundation (Canada) has established the Rotary Horn of Africa Famine and Refugee Relief Fund, which will support recovery projects in the affected areas. The worst drought in 60 years has gripped the Horn of Africa, leading to acute famine in parts of Somalia, where hundreds of thousands of people are now fleeing to Ethiopia and Kenya for aid. More than 10 million people are affected in the drought-stricken countries, including 3.7 million who are at risk of starvation. Use the attached form to contribute to this fund and mail a cheque to The Rotary Foundation (Canada) mark Horn of Africa Fund.
Thank you everyone for your support during our Toy Show and Auction last weekend. We had many volunteers from Supermodels to Money Takers and Car Parkers to Sign Setter Uppers. Our very organized ladies behind the computers and money machines did a great job. We promise to provide an update on our success when the information becomes available.
Due to your volunteering efforts at the Toy Show, this week's meeting has been canceled.
Next week Wednesday September 7th marks our return to the Quality Hotel and Suites, and we have our very own District Governor Brian Carmichael as our guest speaker. His mission statement is "Foster, Support and Inspire an environment in which clubs will succeed". This is a very special visit and DG Brian's positivity and enthusiasm will make for a great program.
As this is a special event, it won't feel the same without your better halves. We had a great time socializing with them this summer at our casual meetings, and we'd like to invite them all to our kick off meeting of the year.
See you Wednesday September 7th at 6:30pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock. Dinner is $15 and as always, guests are welcome!
This week our summer meeting will be at Peter and Truus VanWees' home, on Wednesday August 10th. You are welcome to arrive anytime after 6:00pm.
Their 911# is 687013 on Hwy#2 if you continue on to Princeton. For the GPS users their street address is 82 Dundas St. E, Princeton, Ontario.
Everyone is welcome to join us including friends and family of Rotary. Speaking from experience your belly will be full and happy. If you could kindly call Peter or Truus if you plan to attend that would be great. 519 458 4343.
We had a wonderful day August 6th at the Dragon Boat Races at Pittock Conservation Area. The Woodstock Rotary Club are the organizers of this fantastic event which hosted 49 teams!
Of those 49 teams there were 6 Community Challenge teams, WORR (our team) being one of them. After 3 exciting races of an average race time of 2:22 for the 500m, our team brought home GOLD! We are the Community Challenge Champions, and we won GOLD in the Silver Division!
For full results check out http://www.dragonboatwoodstock.ca/
We are so proud of our team! A special thank you goes out to our French Steersman whose many years of experience got us out of a cramped, dangerous but exciting situation!
I've attached a cool video from you tube from that day. If you watch it to the end you actually see our team (that won!) doing high fives beside their team.
The upcoming 5 weeks are a bit busy as we also have the Youth Exchange Weekend on September 10-11, 2011. We will be hosting the new incoming Rotary Exchange students again at our Farm.
There is going to be an information session for the students, Counselors and Host Families in the morning. In the afternoon the Woodstock Rotary Club is making their Dragonboats available for practice and a race.
At night we are planning a BBQ
and everyone in the Cluster Clubs are invited to come and meet the
students and the BBQ will be at cost. This is a family event.
On Sunday we are doing breakfast and free time for the students to get to know each other.
We will need a few volunteers to help. If you're interested, please speak to me.
Please join us this Wednesday, following our dragon boat practice, at 8pm at Doug Vincent's home for a corn roast and dessert. Doug is just around the corner from Pittock Conservation Area on County Road 17. His 911# is 797. If you head north on Hwy 59, go left through the round about (west), he's on the right maybe a km down the road.
If you could kindly RSVP to Doug at dougv@teamvincent.com, that would be appreciated!
This week's meeting is at the Tremblay's residence at 45 Sioux Cres. in Woodstock.
If you enjoy a good dinner you should attend this meeting !! Cost for dinner is $ 15.00 and please phone the host Erik Tremblay if you plan to attend: 416-220-3414.
We're competing for Gold (or at least best sportsmanship) in our brother club's Dragon Boat Festival at Pittock Park. It will be held on Saturday August 6th. Chris Harris is our new team leader so if you'd like to sign up please contact him. Cost is $30, and the money goes towards a very good cause, Rotary! We'll need at least 8 girls on our team, but looking for around 24 people!
Our practice is scheduled for Wed. Aug 3rd at Pittock from 7-8pm. All members are invited to join us for practice, or come out and have some laughs watching us!
Just a reminder that the meeting is at the Stam's this Wednesday eve. starting at 6.30 pm.
If you think of it, bring a lawn chair. The summer meetings are very informal(shorts/t-shirts) if you think it is too hot for you you can bring your swim wear and jump in the pond.
Please send a confirmation to us if you have not done so yet, so we know how much food we need to prepare.
We will also have vegetarian food available.
GPS directions 656441 15th line, East Zorra-Tavistock
Cell # 519-532-2181
If you don't use GPS, take hwy 59 north to Hickson, turn right at the flashing light at Hickson. go towards Bright. about 3 miles out of Hickson is the 15th line, there you turn left onto the 15th line and then the 3rd farm on left with the trees. Fire # 656441
Please join us this Wednesday for our President's Change Over meeting. Wim will speak about his year as Club President.
We are also happy to be handing out some cheques to organizations in our community tomorrow as well!
This is the perfect opportunity to bring your spouse along as it's our last meeting of the year at the Quality Hotel. Our fun and social summer meetings begin next week and we always enjoy the company of your better half at our summer meetings too!
On a side note, I'd like to thank the volunteers who came out last Saturday to help the Grand Bend Rotary club load their container to Middleberg, South Africa. It was nice to learn about their programs in SA last week at our Rotary meeting with Charls Diner as our speaker. It was neat to load the container beside him on Saturday as he enjoyed choosing the items for his school in SA.
Thank you everyone who came out last Friday to celebrate our 30th Anniversary. We were able to hand out a handful of Paul Harris Fellowship recognitions, as well as a thank you plaque to our charter members. In total we had 10 charter members in attendance that evening! What a blessing. Photos will be posted on our website soon.
In preparation for the 30th Anniversary on June 24th, we would like to fill up another big book with Woodstock Oxford Rotary Club collectables!
Do you have crafty fingers? Do you enjoy history? Or do you enjoy lending a hand when needed? If you said yes to one of these questions, you've been accepted. We are looking for two people to put our Rotary Collectables into an archive book. We already have two made that can be used as guidelines, however you may design the book however you please.
We have compiled some collectables from the 1992 onward that are looking for a permanent home in the pages of this book. Please contact Jantine at jtstam@hotmail.com if you'd like to volunteer. If you are a friend of Rotary or spouse of a Rotarian, if this is an interest of yours we would love your help.
Canada Mold Technology is a world class supplier of injection molds and tools for the automotive industry. Last week we had a very organized and informative tour of the Woodstock business.
Canada Mold Technology Inc.
primarily designs, builds and maintains plastic injection molds for the
automotive industry. Canada Mold Technology Inc. designs and builds
plastic injection molds both for interior and exterior components such
as instrument panels, instrument panel substructures, instrument
clusters and bezels, interior door panels, consoles, A, B, and C pillar
sills, knee bolsters, exterior bodyside moldings, bumper fascias, air
dams, step pads, wheelwell liners, wheel flares, front grilles, screen
cowls and more.
We would like to thank President Yutaka Fukada for the tour, along with Veljo Kljakic.
Please join us this Wednesday at 6:30pm for dinner at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock. Dinner is $15 and guests are always welcome.
Following dinner we would like to go and pick up garbage in our Friendly City of Woodstock for half an hour. This is a great opportunity to bring your spouse or kids along, or a friend who is interested in learning about Rotary.
Please dress in comfortable clothing and weather appropriate. There will not be a fine for dressing down!
Garbage bags will be provided but if you'd like gloves please bring them along.
Canada
Mold Technology is a world class supplier of injection molds and tools
for the automotive industry. They are located right around the corner
from the Quality Hotel at 1075 Ridgeway Road.
Please join us for
dinner at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock this Wednesday May 18 at 6:30pm. Dinner
is $15. Following dinner at 7:15pm we will mosey over to Canada Mold for
a personal tour with the President himself, Yutaka Fukuda. They will
provide safety glasses and they ask that everyone wear safe footwear.
No heels or open shoes please.
Guests are always welcome!
Take a moment to view our upcoming speakers and events on the side of this page!
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to
enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace
through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the
alleviation of poverty.
The Foundation is a not-for-profit
corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians
and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.
Please
join us this Wednesday May 11th as our very own Doug Vincent educates us about The
Rotary Foundation. PDG Doug leads many work shops in our district and
neighbouring ones for President-Elects and Leadership Training. He is a
charter member of our club and travels often for Rotary on speaking
engagements and volunteer projects.
Guests are always welcome. Dinner is $15 and begins at 6:30pm. Our meetings conclude at 8:00pm.
We are holding a special meeting tonight for those of you that have an interest in serving your community, locally and internationally. You are invited to join the Rotarians of the Woodstock Oxford Rotary Club for dinner at the Quality Hotel and Suites at 6:30 pm. The cost is $15 and the reward of being a Rotarian is priceless.
Rub shoulders with those who have witnessed first hand the gift of life through Rotary funded heart operations on children in Calcutta. Or those who have donated a Saturday to load a container of school supplies in Oxford County Schools that are headed to South Africa. Meet someone who has traveled to Hermosillo, Mexico to see the Breast Cancer Detection Program we funded. Or ask about the joy of meeting our local grade 3 students who are the recipients of their very own dictionary.
We have also arranged an interesting guest speaker from the RCMP who's topic will be "Control Your Risk of Loss from Fraud and Counterfeiting"
Here
is your opportunity to be informed and minimize financial risk to
your hard earned money and business success. You
may be at risk, handling counterfeit merchandise from questionable
suppliers. You may be suffering a loss of sales due to competitors
promoting counterfeit goods. Or you may unknowingly be using
counterfeit items to promote your business. All of these lead to
breaking the law and economic loss for everyone involved.
Fraudulent
activities are also a risk, with recent examples of business owners
losing over $100,000. through employee or customer falsification
activities. Money, credit card and internet scams are rampant, so we
owe it to ourselves to be informed and educated regarding these issues.
If you would like to join us, kindly RSVP to jtstam@hotmail.com or 519 788 7826.
Here's a quote from the Rotarian July 1952, Eventually...Gradually
"The things that are worthwhile take time, and it is not the I's of the world but the We's who achieve them".
By Arnold R. Grahl
Rotary International News – 27 April 2011
The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees has selected Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, to host a new Rotary Center for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution.
During their April meeting, the Trustees agreed to negotiate an agreement with Uppsala University to house the seventh Rotary Peace Center , which will join those in Asia, Australia, North America, South America, and the United Kingdom.
"We are excited about this new partnership with Uppsala University
to take the Rotary Peace Centers program to the next level," says
Foundation Trustee Chair Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar. "We are confident that
our Rotary Peace Fellow alumni, actively engaged in peace-building and
conflict prevention and resolution around the world, will agree that
partnering with Uppsala University to host a Rotary Peace Center is a
winning strategy."
Thank you to everyone for their support of the Fish Fry last weekend! We had a great night and will report back soon on how much we raised! Because of the Fish Fry, our regular Rotary meeting this week is canceled.
Do not dismay, we have an extra special meeting lined up for Wednesday April 27th! We hope to have 15 guests out at this meeting who have an interest in learning about Rotary and what we're all about. If you are one of those that are curious what we do each week, and why we meet each week, please join us on the 27th.
Here
is your opportunity to be informed and minimize financial risk to
your hard earned money and business success. Plan to attend "Control Your Risk of Loss From Fraud
and Counterfeiting" RCMP presentation, hosted by Woodstock-Oxford Rotary
Club, April 27, 2011, Quality Inn at 6:30 pm. Learn what the RCMP is
doing locally to protect you.
If guests could kindly RSVP to jtstam@hotmail.com, that would be greatly appreciated!
No meeting this week, but extra special meeting next week!
More than 350 pounds
of Lake Erie perch was served up by Peter Knechtel and his crew from The Beach
House in Port Dover at the 30th annual Oxford Rotary Club Fish Fry Sat., April
16
Please click on the side of the page to see our great line up of guest speakers! We are happy to arrange these speakers for your enjoyment. Please note next Wednesday night, April 20 our meeting is canceled in lieu of the Fish Fry this weekend!
Wanting to help others? Join us for a meeting. We meet Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm for dinner and a speaker. Our meetings adjourn at 8:00pm. Guests are always welcome!
Are you a business owner? Or interested in learning about the current fraud trends? Click on April 27th under speakers!
Four days ago we loaded another container of school supplies that will be sent to Middleburg, South Africa. This project was perfect: short, sweet and satisfying.
6 of us started our day in Princeton, packing up what was left behind from the previous container. We then joined the rest of the group in Norwich and spent the day lifting, grunting, carrying and during coffee breaks, sun tanning. The beautiful sun tinted our pale winter faces as we worked as a group to accomplish what looked like a huge job!
The Rotary Club of Grand Bend spear headed this project. Also present was Bruce from the downtown London club who had a good eye and experience packing the container perfectly. His club sends containers to Haiti.
Thank you to all our volunteers: the students, friends and family of Rotarians! This was a perfect job for the whole family and we were happy to have everyone helping us!
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is Rotary's
leadership training program for young people. RYLA participants can be
ages 14-30, but most clubs and districts choose to focus on a narrower
age range, such as 14-18 or 19-30.
RYLA emphasizes leadership, citizenship, and personal growth, and aims to
Demonstrate Rotary's respect and concern for youth
Provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders
Encourage leadership of youth by youth
Recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities
Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club has chosen Greg Borris as our RYLA participant this year. Greg is a returning grade 12 student from Ecole Secondaire Ste-Marie.
Greg is the first ever student Assistant Director at the Grand Theatre
and St. Mary's High School. He is a composer, director
and choreographer, having created an award winning ballet for the Sears
Drama Festival.
He has been deeply involved with student parliament and
is graduating this year as Prime Minister. He has also served as a
legislative page and participated in mock parliamentary sessions at
Queen's Park in Toronto. Greg has maintained an above 90% average
throughout french first language high school.
Congratulations Greg! We hope you enjoy your week of learning and friendship in Orangeville this May.
About a month ago a group of volunteers from Woodstock and beyond donated their day to load school supplies from Princeton Public School into a container. That container will be going to South Africa.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?fbid=147571191969132&id=123617607697824&aid=29959 You can also search for our club by entering "Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club" on Facebook.
Photos are posted on our facebook page if you'd like a closer look. Thank you to all who donated their time! You are appreciated!
Thank you to EVERYONE for supporting us last Wednesday night! Our 5-pin bowling team raised around $400 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Woodstock! It was a fun evening of costumes, games and prizes.
If you were unable to make it out last week, you are welcome to join us for a Rotary meeting. We meet every Wednesday and book a wide range of interesting guest speakers to enlighten us each week.
Our meetings are at the Quality Hotel and Suites beginning at 6:30pm adjourning at 8:00pm. Dinner and dessert is only $15. Wondering who is speaking this week or next? Click on the speakers on the side panel of this page to see their topic. New and experienced guests are always welcome!
Please scroll down the side of the page and click on the speakers to view our exciting line up of guest speakers! We are happy to provide an interesting array of speakers for you to enjoy each week!
This week we have Mayor Pat Sobieski as our guest speaker. This is the perfect time to come out to our intimate and fun meeting where you can ask our mayor that question you've been dying to ask him!
If you are a guest and would like to join us, you are more than welcome! We meet each Wednesday at 6:30pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites. Our meetings begin with dinner followed by our guest speaker and conclude at 8pm.
Wanting to help others but feel like you can't do it alone? Join us for a meeting and see what Rotary is all about!
Thank you to everyone who came out last week and supported us at Boston Pizza! We had a great night and discovered some Rotarians who have a knack for serving and others who have a knack for socializing!
Thanks to you we raised $275 in a short time of 3 hours! This money will be spent wisely on one of our many projects: Grade 3 dictionary program, highschool bursary, Healing Heart Operations in India and Polio Eradication to name a few.
Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford Donates $10,000.00 to Polio Plus.
Rotary
Club of Woodstock-Oxford launched their Drive for Polio Eradication
Campaign to raise funds for Polio Plus on July 30, 2008. The objective
of the project is to promote awareness in the community regarding
Rotary's involvement with Polio Eradication and to raise funds for the
$100 million dollar Gates Foundation Challenge Grant.
Please join us tonight at the Quality Hotel and Suites at 6:30pm for a
delicious dinner. Following dinner we will tour over to the Southgate
Centre at 191 Old Wellington Stree S.t, right behind the park.
The
Southgate Centre is Woodstock's 50+ Recreation and Community Centre.
They have a smorgasbord of daily activities designed just for you as
well as workshops and even meals! If you've been too shy to check it
out, please join us for dinner tonight and come along for the ride.
Friends are always welcome!!
Southgate's Mission Statement: To enhance the
quality of life of adults 50+ in Woodstock and
surrounding areas addressing recreational,
physical, educational and mental well being;
opportunities for social connections and promoting
appreciation for ALL.
Check out our upcoming speakers on the side of this page under the heading 'Speakers'. We have some fun events and speakers arranged for your interest and enjoyment. If you've never been to Rotary before but think you would enjoy serving at Boston Pizza, speaking with the Mayor or meeting Dan Henry from Heart FM, then feel free to join us. Questions? Email jtstam@hotmail.com
A HUGE thank you to Jack and Sally for hosting our Christmas Party this year!
There were a few surprises including a karaoke machine with blasts from the past! Dr. Grace Balankig serenaded us followed by a few brave club members. It was great to see members of Rotary past. Thank you everyone for your delicious home made dishes. It was a great evening!
If you'd like to see evidence of that night, please go to our home page and scroll down to our Photo Album.
Saturday November 9 we loaded the container headed for Schools in South Africa.
Just wanted to thank all of you for coming out on Saturday and help with the container project to South Africa.
Norwich Brick and Tile for trucking the books to Norwich, Tim Hortons for supplying the coffee, Neil Scholten (Woodstock Total Rentals)for supplying the loader, Gerrit Bouman (Stam nurseries)for dropping off the skids of mats and the use of the cube van. Leigh, Alma and Edie for making the sandwiches and soup.
The Rotary Club of Tillsonburg, Rotary Club of Ingersoll, Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford, Rotary Club of Palgrave, Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar, Rotary Club of Burlington East and Friends of Rotary for donating the funds to pay for this container to ship to South Africa.
Without all of you, this would not be possible, all of you are making a difference in someone's life as these children in South Africa receive these supplies. For many children these may be things they have only dreamed of getting to their schools, and now they will have some of these things. The schools that receive these items are out in the country and in the mountains and the further the are away from the Cities, the less they receive from their school boards.
I figured out roughly 15,000 books went on this container and about 800 chairs, many desks, soccer shoes and other items. I may be missing some people and I hope you will send their email to me and also if you took pictures, please forward them to me also
Frank Moore, Jack Parker, John Gilvesy, Vicky Parkhill, Ann Lofthouse, Ann's daughter, Dennis and Jane Albert, Graham Hart, Robin Ferro, Bill McLeish, Yutaka Fukuda, Edwin VanWeerdhuizen, Leigh Yates, Alma Yates, Paul and Mark LeRoy, Clarle Bouvaird Roberts, John Ryksen, Chris Vanhal, Jos Hanson(both from Kitchener), Peter Twynstra, Brian Hall, Paul Wilson. Brian Kleen (Norwich Brick and Tile), Neil Scholten(Total Rentals) Deb Bull from the Thames Valley Board of Education.
How school closings in Ontario, being a sad occasion, is being turned into a happy event for students in South Africa where the need is very high.
As you may know already, we are in the process of organizing another loading of 2 containers of school supplies coming from schools that have closed in Burgessville, Norwich and Otterville.
The Thames Valley Board of Education is allowing Rotary to empty the schools, taking the supplies that they are not re-using in the new schools.
This far, 8 containers have been loaded and send to South Africa, where local Rotary Clubs are receiving the containers of school supplies and seek out schools that are in high need of desks, chairs, books and other items they don't have.
At many rural schools in South Africa, the students sit on the ground while gathering for class.
So, here we are again getting ready to load more containers.
Following is a tentative schedule.
Thursday April 18 afternoon at 1 o'clock at the Burgessville school, we are hoping to get about 15 volunteers to help out with preparing desks and other items, which will be loaded into the containers on Saturday.
You need to bring an electric or battery operated drill, screwdrivers, pliers and some other tools that may come in handy.
We may divide the group to go to the different schools if needed.
On Friday April 19, we need a tractor trailer, with a 53 foot enclosed van trailer, to go to the Thames Valley Board warehouse in London to pick up 25 skids of books that we use to fill in all nooks and cranny's in the containers, so there is no empty space being shipped to South Africa, and bring the trailer back to the schools for Saturday's loading of the containers.
Saturday April 20, we hope to start loading at the Norwich Public School on 8 Elgin Street West around 8.30 AM. Here we hope to have 25 volunteers to help us load all the materials into the container.
In a meantime, we also may have to send some people to the other schools to go and pick up items for the container in Norwich, as we don't have enough material at each school to park a container.
Between the 3 schools we have 2 containers.
This event is a project of the Rotary Clubs of Oxford County, London and Grand Bend
Please consider helping out with this most worthwhile project, where you can make a difference and reply by email to me.
Thank you,
Peter Stam
Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford
School closings in Ontario, Happy event for South African students.
Congratulations to PDG Doug Vincent for receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Only a limited number of distinguished Canadians were selected for this special recognition, honouring our Queen in her 60th year of reign. Doug is a charter member of our club with over 30 years perfect attendance and many other Rotary leadership awards to his credit, including the Four Avenues of Service and coveted Service Above Self citations.
It is bad when a disaster strikes anywhere, but when it strikes people that have nothing to start with and their neighbours can't help either because they don't have much of anything to give, then it is a real disaster. On their own it will take years to recuperate.
About 14,000 homes were completely destroyed, and 200,000 homes damaged in the Santiago De Cuba and Holguin area during hurricane Sandy.
A container is going to be send there in December. If you are able to help out, we will be collecting the following items:
-Clothes and shoes in clean, good condition
-Kitchen materials of all types, small kitchen appliances, bed sheets, towels, pillows, mattresses (new or very good condition)
-Radio, CD players
-Soap, shampoo, detergent
-Toothbrushes and toothpaste
-personal care and hygiene products
-Tools (manual & electric)
-new building materials (metal roofing, lumber, doors and fasteners)Maybe you can contact your supplier of roofing steel if they have something to give, if you have roofing steel, we need to include nails or screws also because they are not available either in Cuba.
-Duct tape and other fastening materials
-Waterproof tarps
-Dry food in original packaging
-Vitamins
-Garbage bags
-Small lamps and other related household products, emergency kits. Please contact us and we can arrange to have these items picked up or give you a drop off point.
Here's a wonderful way to support Rotary! You can help Rotary win up to 10 million United Airlines travel miles. It won't cost you a penny - and the miles will be used to help numerous Rotary projects.
In the past Charity Miles have provided transportation for Rotary International's Gift of Life surgical teams. Last year, these teams traveled to Haiti and El Salvador, where volunteer doctors and nurses from the United States performed life-saving heart surgery on many children and provided important training for local doctors. Charity Miles have also helped Rotary International transport Iraqi children with birth defects to U.S. hospitals for treatments they cannot receive at home.
Charity Miles are also used to send volunteers to help immunize children during National Immunization Days. And, Charity Miles provide airfare for financially disadvantaged Rotary youth exchange students so they may live and study overseas for one school year, enabling 8,000 secondary school students to study abroad in 80 countries around the world.
All you have to do is go to http://10millioncharitymiles.com/charity/39 and vote for Rotary International. You can vote once a day until December 25th. Rotary is currently leading with 505 votes.
And don't just vote yourself! Share this message with your network of friends. If you are a Facebooker, a Twitterer or a Texter - get cracking and spread this message. Remember, by winning these Charity Miles, we can bring smiles to the faces of thousands of underprivileged children!
District 7080 will be having a reciprocal Group Study Exchange (GSE) with District 4640 in Brazil. The approximate dates for the outbound exchange will be May 11th through June 8th 2013.
We are looking for an experienced Rotarian who wishes to use their management and people skills to provide leadership and guidance to an enthusiastic and focused group of four non-Rotarian team members between the ages of 25 and 40. The team will be selected with your help in the fall of 2012.
The application form can be downloaded here and should be submitted to Randy Seager at randy.seager@rogers.com no later than Friday, November 30th, 2012 by 9:00 pm. Team Leader applicants will be interviewed on Thursday, December 6th , 2012 in Cambridge. If you have not received confirmation that your application has been received within 2 days please contact me immediately. More information about the program can be found on the Rotary International web site:
The Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford has made a commitment to 'End Polio Now'. Polio is a viral disease that can affect nerves and lead to partial or full paralysis. At present, there are 3 countries awaiting eradication: Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
How can you help us eradicate polio? With Cheese! Proceeds from our yummy fundraiser supports Rotary's Polio Plus program. The purchase of one block of cheese will cover about 2 oral doses of vaccine. Cheese is a wholesome and nutritional food product that is a good source of calcium. This is a wonderful idea for those parties you'll be attending this season and food is always a nice gift for customers or staff.
The blocks cost $7/piece. If you would like to place an order, please let us know by Wednesday November 28th. We'll have the cheese available Wednesday December 12th. Helpful hint: the most popular blocks are hot pepper and onion and parsley!
Congratulations to Doug for this prestigious award, please see the invitation below.
A new commemorative medal is being created to mark the 2012 celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II accession to the Throne. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal will be a tangible way for Canada to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country. At the same time, it will serve to recognize significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.
The Canadian medal, which will "honour selected Canadian volunteers," is administered by the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall and will be awarded to citizens and permanent residents of Canada who made a significant contribution to their fellow countrymen, their community, or to Canada over the previous sixty years. Presentation ceremonies of the Diamond Jubilee Medals will take place in 2012.
Description of the medal The obverse depicts a crowned image of the Sovereign, in whose name the medal is bestowed. The reverse marks the sixtieth, or diamond, anniversary of the accession to the Throne of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The anniversary is expressed by the central diamond shape, by the background composed of a pattern of diamonds, and by the two dates. The Royal Cypher consists of the Royal Crown above the letters EIIR (i.e., Elizabeth II Regina, the latter word meaning Queen in Latin). The maple leaves refer to Canada, while the motto VIVAT REGINA means “Long live The Queen!”
The ribbon uses a new arrangement of the blue, red and white colours found in the 1953 Coronation Medal, the 1977 Silver Jubilee Medal, and the 2002 Golden Jubilee Medal. The design of the Diamond Jubilee Medal was created by the Canadian Heraldic Authority, as part of the Chancellery of Honours.
This coming Wednesday we welcome Phyllis Grier and Chris Byrnes who will inform us about all the youth activities our district 7080 is involved in. There will be a special emphasis on Youth Exchange. If you believe that our youth has the future than come out to learn what Rotary offers for our youth.
We are a non-profit, community based organization dedicated to providing agricultural, environmental and cultural programs to children and families in the Region of Waterloo. Settled in 1833 by John and Esther (Bleams) Steckle, it has been designated a heritage property by the City of Kitchener. Steckle Heritage Farm is a unique working farm and educational centre dedicated to providing a combination of hands on farm experiences and educational programs to youth, their families and the community.
At Steckle Heritage Farm we want to ....
CONNECT people with the agricultural heritage of Waterloo Region, from early Mennonite settlers to the farming in our community today.
EDUCATE and provide opportunities for youth to have hands on experiences with the wonders of our natural environment
GROW and care for our environment and provide a place where people can learn how to connect to their food and its source.
INSPIRE the city to appreciate the value of farms in their daily lives and within the economy of the Region.
Come out and listen what Krista has to tell us about educating the public about farming !!
September 21, 2011 Krista Buck of Steckle Homestead
2011 RI Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 21-25 May
Register early now to receive the best rates and accommodations, and Let the Good Times Roll … Again! Watch the promotional video and register online at www.rotary.org! This will be an awesome event!
In the spirit of Remembrance Day we have arranged a very special guest speaker for tonight. Mike Pritchard has 20 years of peacekeeping experience and would like to share his story with us.
We would love to have some more guests out tonight to welcome Mike and thank him for his service. Our dinner meeting is at 6:30 pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock. Dinner is only $15 and I believe you will not be disappointed of the hour and a half you will be spending with us tonight! Looking forward to seeing you!
We would like to welcome Chris Harris as our newest member of the Woodstock Oxford Rotary Club. He is a recent University Graduate and has started his career as the Acting Deputy Clerk at City Hall.
Welcome to our club Chris! We are happy to have you join us in our goal to fight hunger, and to promote literacy, peace and understanding in our community of Oxford County, and worldwide.
Interested in becoming a member? Join us for a meeting and see what we're all about. We meet for dinner Wednesday nights at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock at 6:30pm.
Take a second to glance through the side panel of our lively lineup of guest speakers! This week we're having our annual general meeting so if you are a member, please make a special effort to attend. Your input is very important to our club.
Next week, on November 10th in memory of Remembrance Day, we will hear from a 20 year veteran peace keeper. Be encouraged to invite a friend or two to our meetings or don't be afraid to come alone! We're a friendly bunch!
We all share a common goal of "Service Above Self" and the more people we have working with us, the more we can accomplish!
Our meetings are held at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock, and begins with dinner at 6:30pm. Dinner is $15 and our meetings adjourn at 8pm.
We have had a great week socializing with our 5 new friends from Chile! The week is far from over and this Wednesday September 29th (tomorrow), our Group Study Exchange Team will be speaking at our Rotary Club.
Dinner is at 6:30pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites. This GSE Team is visiting Canada for one month and are spending 6 days with our club. They will be touching on many informative topics regarding Chile, including the recent earthquake. They are a fun and lively group and we would love to see you there tomorrow to welcome them to our awesome country!
If you are bringing a spouse/guest please let me know. If you have never been out before, please let me know if you plan to attend as we'd like an estimate for dinner. Dinner costs $15, but the experience and information is priceless. RSVP to Jantine at jtstam@hotmail.com.
Please join us tonight Wednesday October 6th at 6:30 pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites. Lynda Metcalfe, Program Coordinator of Oxford County's School Nutrition Program, will be speaking about her successful breakfast program.
Children who don't
eat breakfast or an early morning snack often find it
difficult to concentrate and learn, and may even have trouble
behaving in the classroom. Schools that adopt a breakfast or
snack program help improve the learning abilities of their
students while instilling healthy habits that can last a
lifetime. This program requires a community effort of many volunteers.
We would love to have you out as a Rotarian or a guest. If you have never been out before or are a returning guest who would like to attend please contact Jantine at jtstam@hotmail.com.
Please join us this Wednesday September 22 as Colin Kennedy will be speaking about "Fire Works - how do they do that?"
Our dinner meeting begins at 6:30pm and ends at 8pm. Guests are always welcome and this week it seems that guests who are fascinated in fire are encouraged to come!
Please check the side panel of our homepage to see future speakers. Next week is a special meeting if you have an interest in Chile. We have a group study exchange of 5 people visiting our club from Chile. They will be doing an interesting and fun presentation. Rotarians, please check the side panel to see when you are responsible for arranging the guest speaker and forward the information to Jantine.
Our Drive Against Polio campaign at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show last week was a success. In total we raised about $2,700 which will purchase over 1,620 vaccinations against polio.
Thank you for your help in eradicating polio worldwide. We are almost there. We'd also like to thank our volunteers and our master salesman who trained us all and helped us succeed.
This Wednesday Frank Smith from Operation Sharing will be our guest speaker. Please join us on Wednesday September 15th at 6:30 pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock. Guests are always welcome!
Operation Sharing is a Christ Focused Community, committed to living
out the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through service of love and justice, as they work with the impoverished of Oxford County. For more information check out their website http://www.operationsharing.com
Come visit us this week Tuesday to Thursday "Where Farmers Meet"! We'll be exhibiting at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show just North of Woodstock.
We will be promoting our "Drive Against Polio" Campaign. For $5.00 you receive a sleeve of golf balls and tees. The golf balls symbolize the polio vaccine and your purchase will inoculate children against this disease. After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all.
Visit us at the show and we can tell you more about what we do as a club in our community and world wide. If you have a few hours to volunteer this week, please let Rama Murthi know.
A community with a Rotary Club is better than a community without.
Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club's 25th Annual Ontario Toy Show & Auction
of Farm, Truck and Construction Toys is on August 28 and August 29 2010.
This event will be held at the Quality Inn, Hwy 59 & 401 (exit 232
North).
The auction will be held on Saturday August 28th with viewing starting at 8.30
A.M. The sale starts at 9.30 A.M.
The toy show will be on Sunday August 29th starting at 10 A.M. open to the
public with an admission fee.
For consignments please call 519-462-1873, Fax 519-462-2367. advance
consignments required.
For Hotel rooms call 1-800-667-4466
Commissions going to Rotary Community Projects.
Thank you to all those who joined our dragon boat on Saturday August 7th. We had a FABULOUS time! Our team did great and placed 3rd in the Bronze division. Our final 500m race time was 2:23.39! Each race our time was better. Our final race time actually beat teams that raced competitively!
We are very proud of our team and had a great day. Thank you for your support of Rotary, and a special thanks to those who donated food/drinks to our team. We're looking forward to next year!
Our practice run for the Dragon Boat Festival is this Thursday at 8pm at Pittock Conservation Area. Drive into the park and continue straight at the bottom of the hill to the launch area. You will see the launch area on the right.
If you tell the gate attendant that you are there for the Dragon Boat Festival, there is no entry fee.
If you are rowing with us this Saturday for the Festival you are invited to join us. We are still looking for more people to join our team. If you are not rowing, you are also invited to join us as I'm sure there will be space in our boat.
Please join us on Saturday August 7th at Pittock Conservation Area for the Caressant Care Woodstock Rotary Dragon Boat Festival!!
Our club has entered a team, however we need to fill our boat! If you like to have fun, like to be splashed, and have a little competitive spirit running through those veins we want you on our team.
We usually race about 3 times and the earliest the day could start is 9am. Seats are filling up so if you'd like some upper body exercise and great fellowship please call or email me asap as the festival is under 2 weeks away!
Please copy and paste the link below to watch a part of the opening ceremonies at the Rotary International Convention in Montreal that was held in June. This clip is from a group of Inuit Dancers.
This evening we have a short business part in our meeting.
The meeting will be opened for nominations for the last time for the Benefit Trust charitable foundation of our club and after there will be the voting.
As it stands now, Wim Duizer as President and Peter Stam as treasurer are automaticly in the board, Tim Koetsier, Paul Turner and Jantine Stam let their name stand.
In total we are hoping to get 6 people on the board.
Please come out.
Before and after the business part there will be lots of time to enjoy each others company.
Wednesday at 6.30 pm we will meet at the Tremblay's residence on 45 Sioux Cres. in Woodstock. It will be very much appreciated if you email Erik if you are coming (etremblay@unisource.ca) or you can give him a call: 416-220-3414.
For business we will have elections for the Benefit Trust.
This coming Wednesday you can hear and see the presentation being made by Karen Laing, the Program Co-ordinator for the new Woodstock and Area Community Health Centre which has newly located in the former TD Canada Trust building at Dundas and Brock Sts. This Health Care Centre is a new venture for our community in offering health care, so it should be interesting to hear how they fit in with the total health care being offered between doctors, hospital and Community Care Access Centre (C.C.A.C.). Karen will be bringing one of the nurse practitioners with her to answer any medical questions you may have.
A message from Rotary International President, John Kenny.
In February, I attended the celebration
of the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Club of St. Paul, Minn., USA.
After dinner that evening, a young lady came up to me and asked, "Of
everything you have seen this year in Rotary, what has touched your
heart the most?"
For such a simple question, it was nearly
impossible to answer – only because I have seen so much that has touched
my heart so deeply and made me so proud to be a Rotarian. These past 12
months have given me the opportunity and the privilege of observing
firsthand how our service touches the lives of others, and how great are
the needs we address.
It is one thing to see photographs of the devastation in Haiti caused by
January's earthquake. It was another thing entirely for me to walk
among the rubble, to see the collapsed buildings, to understand that the
true scope of the tragedy will never be known.
Please look under the heading speakers on the side of this page
for our upcoming and interesting line of special guest speakers for the
month of May and June.
Coming up we have a: tour of Fusion Youth Centre, speakers about Habitat Build, Rotary
Medals bursary night, speaker from Woodstock and Area Community Health
Services, Tom and Peter's trip to Zambia and beyond and our President's
change over meeting!
If you'd like more details please click on the speaker on the side of
this page! If you've never been to Rotary but would like to join us one
of these nights, we would love to have you. Dinner begins every
Wednesday at 6:30 pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites in Woodstock.
Please join us for our usual dinner meeting on Wednesday April 21st at 6:30pm at the Quality Hotel and Suites.
Following dinner we will visit Dan Craft Stairs at 1280 Seagrave Road. Turn East off of Landsdowne onto Bysham Park Road and Seagrave is a new steet at the end of that road.
Tim Koetsier will give us a personal tour of the woodworking shop. Dan Craft Stairs builds stairs and railings for new homes. You are invited to join us, especially if you have interest in woodworking.
As per Rotary guidelines, this posting is to advise members of the application of a prospective new member, Mr. Leigh Yates. Any questions should be directed to our president, Erik Tremblay.
Drury School 215 Ontario Street South Milton, ON L9T 4N5 Canada
Club Leadership Training. The Club Leadership Training prepares incoming club leaders for their year in office. The meeting is also an opportunity for club leaders to meet with district leaders (the district governor-elect, incoming assistant governors, and district committees) who will support club projects and activities. Convener: District governor-elect
Who participates: Incoming club leaders: presidents-elect and incoming secretaries, treasurers, and committee chairs and members
Please join us on Wednesday March 31st for a games night!
Our evening always starts with dinner at 6:30 pm for $15, at the Quality Hotel and Suites in their restaurant meeting room. After dinner we are having a game fest! There will be sjoelbak (wooden shuffle board) crokinole, blockus, and maybe a few surprise games!
Bring your favourite game, your favourite spouse buddy or friend and join us!
If you are planning on attending, please let Jantine know at 519 788 7826 or jtstam@hotmail.com (so the chef can arrange enough food).
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. - John Quincy Adams
Our 29th Annual Fish Fry is just under 2 weeks away! Right now each and every one of us from the Woodstock Oxford Rotary Club have been plugging away, inviting people by email, phone and face to face. We have a great goal this year: to get 800 people out!
If we dream big, big things will happen! I wanted to offer a note of
encouragement to all my fellow club members and faithful Rotary
friends. In order to make this event a success, we need to have
premium attendance. Our evening on April 10th has all the key features
of a successful event: delicious perch, entertaining bands, organized
bar, an awesome silent auction (with a great variety of items).
All we need now are the people! YOU - yes you! Invite
As Chair of the Host Organizing Committee, this is my invitation to all of you to join us for the celebration of the internationality of Rotary in Montreal, June 20 - 23, 2010. We will be celebrating 100 years of Rotary being an international organization as a result of the first Rotary club meeting outside the USA in November, 1910, in Winnipeg, Canada. You will live 'An International Experience' everywhere you go within the city.
By participating in an RI Convention, you'll gain a broader appreciation of Rotary's global impact and strengthen your commitment to service. And seeing a convention may move your invited guests to become Rotarians too. Here are some other great reasons to attend a convention:
Service projects. Find out how fellow Rotarians developed their service projects by visiting club and district project booths. You can also partner with other Rotarians in an international project or exchange.
The Rotary Foundation. Learn more about PolioPlus and other Foundation programs during plenary sessions and workshops that show how Rotarians take humanitarian action and promote peace and understanding throughout the world.
Development of future club leaders. Expand your network of international contacts by getting to know Rotary leaders and members from your own district, and become more involved in district plans.
Club administration. Attend a special workshop for incoming presidents and the Presidents-Elect Luncheon, where you can meet and exchange ideas with fellow leaders.
Family fun. With so much to do around the event, you and your family can plan a memorable vacation around the convention.
Continue reading to learn more about maximizing your convention experience
Mark Hemsworth was our guest speaker tonight. Mark's no stranger to our club. He was here last year informing us of his honey farming project in Zimbabwe. There are now 6000 farmers in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana farming honey. Mark worked on a management team of 4 people. Last year production was 240 tonnes of honey. Production has now spiked up to 600 tonnes.
This project is basically completed for Mark. Their next step since production is high, is infrastructure. They are wanting to connect with a NGO for funds for infrastructure. Mark was happy to inform us the average farmer doubled their income from 40 cents/day. Continue reading to learn about his current project.
Thursday December 31st 2009 our Woodstock-Oxford rotary club lost one of it's great Rotarians. Mr. Keith Sherman passed away while visiting family in New York City.
Planning to attend the Montreal convention this coming June?
Find registration details http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_pdf/c10_registration_form_en.pdf
Barbara Fisk is a member of the Rotary Club of Guelph-Trillium. She joined the club in 2002 and since then has been Treasurer, Rotary Centennial Project 4 Club Chair, Vocation Chair, Foundation Chair and is currently President Elect.
Barbara is here today in her role as District 7080 RI Convention Coordinator and is going to share with us the
"Nitty Gritty of RI Conventions."
The theme of this evening is 'Discover Rotary'. This will be a very interesting evening for everybody that would like to know more about Rotary. Our guest speaker will be Ken Grabeau and he is one of 17 RI Board of Directors who will lead us into the future during 2010-2012.
This is going to be a big event with guests coming from whole South Western Ontario.
Merv Roe is a Navy veteran and speaker on this "Remembrance Day".
Merv Roe served in the Navy from 1942-1945. Please join us this evening to remember those who served.
They were: Paul van der Eyk, Nico Reyeneveld, Jisk Schuurmans, Jan Kappers, Floor Duizer, Arie Duizer, Alfred and Marleen Wolf, Arend vandenBurg, Klaas Dekker, Tony Goud, Lammert Brons, Chris Vandenberg, Michel Slech and our visiting Rotarian Tom Hemsworth.
Thank you all for coming to listen to Ehren Jones and Andrea Clark who presented the Canadian Solar company's Solar program.
Ehren thanked Rotary in general for giving him the chance to go on Rotary Youth Exchange to the Rotary Club of St Geoges Terrace in Perth, Western Australia. It was a life changing experience and he said it shaped his life into what he is now.
This was a special evening because Kevin Clarke was inducted into the membership of the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club.
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and in particular, to encourage and foster:
First: The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
Second: High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness
of all useful occupations; and the dignifying by each Rotarian of his occupation as an
opportunity to serve society;
Third: The application of the ideal of service by every Rotarian to his personal, business and
community life.
Fourth: The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a
world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
I charge you to judge yourself by the Rotary Four-Way Test of the things you think, say or do:
First Is it the Truth?
Second Is it fair to all concerned?
Third Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Fourth Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
It's always nice to witness the induction of new members and be reminded of why we each chose to join Rotary. Welcome Kevin!
Our guest speaker tonight was a video sent by snail mail to us by Rotarians in Scotland. You may remember a group of Rotarian Curlers from Scotland visited us and toured Eastern and Southwestern Ontario. They were a blast and created this video.
Emily Stott was our speaker this evening. Emily was an outbound exchange student from the Woodstock Club who returned this summer from her Rotary Youth Exchange in Austria.
Emily did such an awesome presentation that I'm going to have a hard time putting it into words that compare to hers! I think I'll start at the end. We asked her to rate her Rotary experience, and she rated it a 10 out of 10.
This evening Lori Lupton from Pelee Island Winery, and Tom Hemsworth from Springbank Cheese were our guest speakers. They each touched on their respected subjects and the tasting began at 7:15pm. Tom did his homework and paired 4 Pelee Wines, each with 2 cheeses.
This week we welcome Marna Wilkerson from Picard's Peanuts here in Woodstock. She will share with us the succes story of the Picard family.
For more than two decades, families and friends have come from miles around for the fresh roasted peanuts and specialty products at Picard's Peanuts.
The home of the Canadian peanut, Picard's is owned and operated by the Picard family who pioneered the first commercial shelling plant in Canada. Processing over a million pounds of quality Jumbo Cocktail, Extra Fancy Virginia, Spanish and Ontario grown Valencia peanuts. Jim Picard Sr. knows how to grow the finest peanuts in the country.
This is an interesting evening so come out and bring out a friend.
Announcements: Erik mentioned that WDDS is having their 50th Anniversary Gala on October 1 at the Quality Inn. Erik has send the invitation around, so you can find all info there.
Drive for Polio Eradication at the Woodstock Outdoor Farm Show raised over $2900.00, thank you very much to all that gave their time to sell the Golfballs at the Show.
District Conference coming up on October 23rd to 25th in Guelph, please sign up for this is always a good event. Speak to Erik or go on the District Website.
The Terry Fox run on September 13 raised $8881.00 It has been run by our Rotary Club for 27 years and the organizers, Norm and Helen Narancsik have been spearheading it most of these years, Thank you very much Helen and Norm and all the Rotarians helping out at this event.
Jantine will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on November 7 for Remembrance day.
The District Youth Exchange Weekend at Pittock Conservation Area was a great success again, we had 27 exchange students from 14 Countries and 9 of the students were Canadian, which just returned from a year away to these Countries.
To begin the weekend we had a Student Counselor meeting after which Boston Pizza provided us with lots of Pizza. In the afternoon the Woodstock Rotary Club provided us with a Dragonboat practice and Race and a BBQ and some soccer afterwards. http://picasaweb.google.com/pstam12/RecentlyUpdated?authkey=Gv1sRgCL64ndmez7a45gE#
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader". John Quincy Adams
Our guest speaker this evening was Reg Cousineau, Certified Coach Practitioner from Guelph. You can read more about him below.
Wim did a great job as Sergeant at Arms
Announcements:
Youth Exchange Weekend at Pittock – 40 youth are coming this weekend to camp out over night at Pittock Park.
Wine and Cheese – we are having a special Wine and Cheese evening Wednesday September 30th here at the Quality Inn at 6:30pm. Lori from Pelee Island Winery and Tom Hemsworth from Springbank Cheese will be pairing wine with cheese and. This will be a fun social evening and we only have a limit of 50 people who can attend. Please let Jantine Stam know ASAP if you plan on attending.
Terry Fox Run – this was a successful event chaired by Norm and Helen Narancsik. They had 47 participants and were raised a nice sum of money for the Terry Fox Foundation. Thank you to all who volunteered that day.
Curling Invitation – speak to Norm if you are interested in seeing the curling National Championship in Guelph from January 6-10
Guest Speaker:
Reg Cousineau is not a stranger to Woodstock. He lived here from '82-'88.
Fines and Happy/Sad Bucks: This week's meeting opened with a nice fines session led by Jack Bingham. Norm told a story about some flying lessons he had on the weekend. Some happy bucks were given for kids that have gone off to school.
Announcements:
Terry Fox Run – this weekend the 13th beginning at Museum Square. Volunteers are needed. Norm and Helen Narancsik have been organizing this for 27 years now, and have decided to hand it over. We will approach the other Woodstock Club to see if they would like to take it on next year. Thank you Norm and Helen for your many years of service and for being a big part of raising lots of money for cancer research.
Outdoor Farm Show – September 15-17 we have a booth at the Farm Show for Drive for Polio Eradication. We require volunteers to sell those golf balls. The funds from the sale of our golf balls is our club's way of eradicating polio.
Toy Auction – we reviewed the financial statement for the Toy Auction. The statement is not complete as we require a few more bills to come in the mail. We had lots of volunteers on the Saturday of the sale, but we needed more volunteers for the Sunday. Many friends of Rotary volunteered for this event and we would like to give them a big THANKS! Also thank you to our club members who are on the Toy Auction committee for their hard work, and our members who also volunteered that weekend. The Toy Auction board is looking for another person for their committee.
We have a very special meeting on Wednesday the 30th of September. We will be learning about Wine and Cheese pairing.
Lori from Pelee Island Winery will enlighten us about pairing the right wine with the right cheese. At the same time Tom Hemsworth from Springbank Cheese will be speaking about pairing the right cheese with the right wine.
They will both be providing samples and love to speak about their passions so are open to any questions. Please join us for this fun, social and educational evening. Hot hors d'oeuvres are included. $20 per person, 6:30 start in our regular meeting room. Space is limited so please call or email me 519 788 7826, or jtstam@hotmail.com.
Looking forward to it
Jantine Stam
The Toy Auction and Show is coming up quickly, only 9 days away. Please set one of these days aside to help out where needed, we will resend the schedule again for sign-up.
The consignments are coming in, if you know of anyone that still wants to consign Farm, Truck and Construction Toys to sell, please let us know.
For details on the Auction etc. click on the Toy Auction in the left column of the Spoke.
We are pleased to tell you that the Matching Grant for the early breastcancer detection program is completed.
Through our participation with the donation, the Hermosillo Milennio Rotary Club received $18,000 U.S. to buy equipment to teach Women how to detect breast cancer at an early stage, because many women die unnecessarily for not nowing how to detect breast cancer.
As you recall when we were asked to go and be with the club in Mexico for the official opening of the program with the new equipment, we were not able to go there because of the N1H1 virus and also the timing was not good for us as we were very busy with our work.
July 15th's Rotary Meeting is at Steve & Susie Halyk's
714 Gladstone Drive, Woodstock Ontario
We will be supporting our Local Ontario Pork producers,
Menu
Pulled Pork and a Bun,
Garden Salad,
Greek Potatoes,
Desert
Rhubarb Crisp & Ice Cream
Please RSVP, asap – and bring your spouse, Pool is opened if you want to swim, bring your trunks.
Saturday August 8th at Pittock Conversation Area in Woodstock, we will be participating in the Caressant Care Woodstock Rotary Dragon Boat Festival.
No experience is necessary, but having a grand time is!!
Interesting in joining the "Woodstock-Oxford Reckless Rowers" for the day?We'd love to have you.
Contact Rama ASAP @ 519 539 3632 or email rama.murthi@frankcowan.com to reserve your seat! We already have a team, now we need to fill it!
This is a family event, so please bring your partner and kids along!
** What is Rotary all about? Join us Aug 8th and we'll show you **
This meeting was a special meeting, since we invited many guests to witness the celebration of Peter Van Wees, his retirement from Rotary and his 80th birthday coming up.
Many people spoke about Peter and his first love "succesfull selling", which has been a great help with our fundraising, Peter has been a great asset to The Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club, he has been a member since 1990 and was totally supported by Truus and the family.
Peter was totally committed to what he promised he was going to do, when he was not on holidays, you could find him at every Rotary meeting.
Peter and Truus, thank you from all members and the community at large for your support and friendship and we are sure we will be seeing more of you.
Guests: Tom Hemsworth, Daniella Vukobratic (Von Oxford) and John Goodbun
In Attendance: John G, Norm, Jantine, Steve, Paul L, Paul B, Paul T, Peter VW, Peter S, Gibson, Rama, Erik
Sergeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay There were many happy bucks due to a celebration weekend for curling, United Way Day of Caring, Steve and Sue's anniversary, John organized a successful Rotary Medal's event, Erik took Manon's van through Lion's Safari (and little damage), good pig roast, and a few sad bucks. Erik attempted to fine those who arrived late.
Announcements: Rotary Club of Guelph are selling Dream Home tickets - ask Norm Ingersoll Rotary Club is having a changeover on June 29th and Past RI President Wilf Wilkinson will be their guest of honour. GSE - Team Leader interviews will be held on July 30th for their trip to Korea next spring WDDS - celebration in Southside Park on June 14th at the boat house
Sakura House John Goodbun (chair of fundraising) and Daniella Vukobratic (VON Oxford) were our guest speakers this evening.
Attendance: Rama, Norm, Steve, John, Paul L, Peter VW, Paul T, Wim, Paul B, Keith, Al, Rick, Peter S, Doug and Jantine
Guests: Visiting Rotarian Tom Hemsworth, and Guest Speaker Judi Restemeyer
Fines and Happy/Sad Bucks: Erik did a fine job fining those who went away on vacations, and fining those not wearing their name badges
Announcements:
May 9 - "Stand up for Mental Health". This event uses stand up comedy as recovery for persons with mood disorders. Cost is $30 a ticket. See Norm is you would like tickets.
May 25 - Group Study Exchange (GSE) Team that returned from their exchange in Australia will be at the Tavistock Club. We have decided to Cancel our meeting for May 27 to attend the Tavistock meeting. $20 for tickets. 6:30 social, 6:45 dinner at the Legion in Tavistock.
Suthon Thukalm is the Inbound exchange student at the Woodstock Rotary Club. His nickname is "Nun". His family lives in Ubon, Thailand. Currently he is 18 and attending St Marys High School. He likes sports such as basketball.and enjoys playing the guitar and drums.
He will be doing a presentation about his Country (Thailand)
President Norm read the statement from Mike about the Toyota evening, well done Mike.
As usual, Erik had fun with suggesting voluntary donations for people that did not walk the line/i.e. advertising their business. There were also several people that had a happy buck. Jantine suggested a voluntary donation for people that did not donated blood this week.
As Chair of the Fish Fry, Erik asked for people to sell Fis Fry tickets as the event is coming up quick (April 18) and give him an indication by April 8 of howmany tickets each individual has sold.
On March 25, 2009 The Woodstock-Oxford Rotary club hosted a joint club meeting for all the Rotary clubs in Oxford County. The meeting was a great success with over 80 people in attendance. The speaker was Sandy Di Felice of Toyota Canada.
Attendance/Greetings: Peter Van Wees and Wim Duizer
Sergeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay
Guests: Tom Hemsworth and Don Hilborn
Present: Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Rick Kiers, Eric Tremblay, Jantine Stam, Paul Bradford, Rama Murthi, Doug Vincent, John Garton, Gibson Bernath, Paul Leroy, All Shipp, Tim Koetsier, Peter Stam and Norm Naranscik
Don Hilborn resides just North West of Woodstock and he recently participated in an observation tour hosted by the Christian Council of Mozambique. This Wednesday evening he wants to share his findings with us.
Ellen Hutcheson will be speaking on how she survived and dealt with Polio.
Ellen contracted Polio in 1959 after the vaccines were being given. After 3 months in hospital she came home with a wheelchair and was being fitted for braces and crutches. She attended IDCI in Ingersoll and The University of Western Ontario in London where Ellen received her Education Degree. Ellen worked as supply teacher for 3 years before she was hired at Huron Park SS. Ellen has taught here for 27 years. Polio only created little glitches in her life. It did not stop her from School, driving, or particapating in a number of recreational activies. Ellen said, maybe I should tell you that my family was assisted by the Kiwanis Club in Ingersoll during this time. There was no Rotary Club in Ingersoll. Without their help there are also many things I would not have been exposed to or been able to afford the braces every year and crutches and rides to London every week for therapy. Thanks, Ellen
In Attendance: Rick, Mike, Tim, Al, Keith, Norm, Steve, Erik, John, Peter V W, Paul L, Rama, Coral, Paul T, Peter S.
Guests: Jeff Workman, our guest speaker.
Happy/Sad Bucks and Voluntary donations: Erik realy went after people that had been on holidays and collected over $65.00 in voluntary donations. Several persons also volunteered a Happy Buck.
Announcements: We have a combined meeting coming up with the Tavistock Rotary Club in Tavistock.
Erik and Norm attended the Presidents meeting where there was talk about the District Simplyfied Grants Pilot project to start now for the next 3 years, ask Norm/Erik for more explanations if needed.
We are looking for a person up to 24 years of age to apply for an ambassadorial scholarship for 1 year to go outside of North America to attend school, the grant is for up to $25,000 dollard including living expenses.
A meeting coming up March 25th, our guest speaker will be someone from Toyota Canada, the meeting will be combined with other Rotary Clubs, more info to follow.
The Fish Fry is coming up quickly, april 18, tickets should be available soon.
In Attendance: Jantine, Norm, Paul T, Paul L, Erik, Rama, Rick, Wim, Gibson, Peter VW, Doug
Guests: Deb Roloson, our guest speaker
Happy/Sad Bucks and Fines: There were fines for those who arrived minutes late! Rama visited his son in Ottawa and attended Winterlude. Wim was happy he was going to go skiing in Quebec. Peter was happy that Obama was coming to Ottawa. Gibson has learned how to use ClubRunner! Jantine was sad that she lost a goat. Erik was happy he had his car back after an unfortunate incident. and a few more I may have missed!
Our guest speaker this evening is no stranger to our Club. We became closer to Deb when we decided to partner with WDDS at last year's annual Fish Fry. Deb Roloson has worked with Woodstock & District Developmental Services (WDDS, non-profit agency) for over 28 years and she's presently a Family Support Worker assisting families who have children with special needs living at home. She also assists WDDS with public relations duties including fundraising, community networking, student placements and special projects.
Attendance/Greetings: Coral Sheehan and Peter Van Wees
Sergeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay
Guests: Brendan, Andrew, Helen, Janet Naranscik and Olivia Frei
Present: Mike and Coral Sheehan, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Rick Kiers, Paul Turner, Eric Tremblay, Jantine Stam, Paul Bradford, Rama Murthi, Doug Vincent, John Garton, Gibson Bernath, Keith sherman and Norm Naranscik
Attendance/Greetings: Coral Sheehan and Peter Van Wees
Sergeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay
Guests: Bob Mcfarland and Tony DeJongh (guest speakers), Melinda Lowes and Larry Lake
Present: Mike and Coral Sheehan, Ramam Murthi, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Paul Leroy, Rick Kiers, Paul Turner, Al Shipp, Eric Tremblay, Gibson Bernath and Norm Naranscik
President Norm was back from holidays and chaired the meeting.
This evening we had as guests: Henk Eisen, Paul Edge, Ron Archer, all from the Ingersoll Rotary Club. Tom Hemsworth, our regular guest and friend from Calgary, Bob Aykroyd and Jim Donaldson from the Tillsonburg Rotary Club and Dave Harris from the Woodstock Rotary Club. Thank you all for attending our meeting as the weather seem to havoc with our attendance.
After our meal President Norm read some thank-you letters about the Landmine clearing donations.
A letter of thanks from Ingamo Homes for our donation to their fund.
A letter from "Are you ready" asking for a donation.
V.I.P. (Values-Influences-Peers) announcement of dates of graduation which our club supports, which are:
Tuesday Feb. 10th 12:30pm @ Hillcrest Public School.
Friday Feb. 20th 9:15am @ Northdale Public School.
Monday Feb.23rd 9:40am @ Hickson Central School.
Monday March 2nd 12:50 pm @ Southside Public School.
These are graduations you can attend and get to know what impact the V.I.P. training has on young children. Thank you to the Woodstock Community Police Constable Laurie-Anne for this service.
Our fines master Erik was in good shape this week as he was able to get many people to freely donate some loonies for happy/sad bucks and fines.
Doug Vincent's father is in the hospital in Buffalo and our thoughts go out to him and his family for a hopefull recovery and return to a local hospital.
TRF Direct for Polio donations can now be made directly and/or monthly from your bank account through direct deposit. When you sign up, you have a chance to win a free registration to the Montreal R.I. Convention for next year. If you have any questions, please speak to Peter Stam.
In Attendance: Gibson Bernath, Wim Duizer, John Garton, Steve Halyk, Tracy Hillier, Rama Murthi, Keith Sherman, Jantine Stam, Peter Stam, Paul Turner, Peter VanWees, Doug Vincent, Al Shipp
Happy/Sad Bucks and Fines: This week Tom Hemsworth was in charge of our fines session and did an excellent job! Erik will have a lot to live up to now!
Guest Speakers: Blain McCutchen is a young member of the Rotary Club of Tavistock. He is a Business Manager for a Family Health Team in Stratford working with 9 physicians and 7 allied health professionals. Blain is an active member of the Tavistock Historical Society and the Tavistock Museum.
Rita Westbrook is a Past President of the Cambridge Sunrise Rotary Club. She has traveled to India and West Africa for NIDs (National Immunization Days). She was a GSE(Group Study Exchange) Team Leader to Mexico and is a Paul Harris Fellow. To sum it up, she is a busy woman!
In Attendance: Jantine, Piet, Paul B, Keith, Coral, Mike, Doug, John, Tim, Erik, Gibson, Al, Peter, Rama, Paul L, Norm
Guests: Tom Hemsworth and Guest Speaker Mark Hemsworth
Happy/Sad Bucks: We had many happy bucks for trips that were well enjoyed, and trips that will be occuring in the next few weeks. Norm and John had some happy bucks for curling. Doug returned from the ShoeBox Program and spoke for a second about it's success.
More then a year ago Mark spoke to our club just before he was leaving to Zambia for Engineers Without Borders.
His time in Zambia has been spent developing management systems for a business which sources honey from 6000 small holder farmers in the North-Western forests of Zambia. The work of Engineers Without Borders is to improve the performance of organizations working with the rural poor by partnering to build their organizational capacity while communicating field realities upwards to the donors and project designers in hopes that donor money will be more effective. Mark has extended his placement for a second year.
As you all know Mark is a son of Tom Hemsworth. If you want to read some of his stories you can go to his blog: www.markhemsworth.blogspot.com
The website for Engineers Without Borders is www.ewb.ca
WDDS (Woodstock and District Developmental Services), a non-profit charitable organization, has been providing opportunities and supports for people with developmental disabilities in Oxford County since 1959.
Deb Roloson, program director for Woodstock District Developmental Services ( WDDS) will inform us this evening about the work of WDDS. She will highlight the Summer Camp they organize for teens.
The meeting was presided by President Norm Narancsik.
Attendance: Jantine, Norm, Paul L, Paul B, Peter VW, John, Rama, Coral, Mike, Paul T, Doug
Guests: Tom Hempsworth, and our guest speaker Brittany Theis
Norm started our meeting with some requests from members of our community. We'd also like to thank everyone who helped make the Scot's visit a success. They seemed to have a great time here in Oxford County, and all those who hosted a Scot and drove them around deserve a big thanks.
Guest Speaker: Our guest speaker tonight was Brittany Theis. Brittany is the Program Co-Ordinator of Are-U-Ready, Adaptive Recreation Equipment.
Attendance/Greetings: Coral Sheehan and Peter Van Wees
Sergeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay
Guests: Michael Harding (guest speaker), Sondra Turner and Tom Hemsworth
Present: Mike and Coral Sheehan, Keith Sherman, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Paul Leroy, John Garton, Rick Kiers, Paul and Sondra Turner, Al Shipp, Jantine Stam, Peter Stam, Tim Koetsier, Doug Vincent, Eric Tremblay
ARE-U-READY is a free of charge, adapted recreation equipment loan program, available to the residents of Oxford County.
Adapted Recreation Equipment is hard to source, expensive to buy and nearly impossible to rent. For those reasons, families and friends struggle to provide recreation to those who need it. As a result individuals often participate in more sedentary activities.
Brittany will explain how this program works and what is possible. We hope to see you Wednesday evening !
On Friday November 14th, 2008 the Rotary Clubs from Stratford and Woodstock hosted a wonderful Banquet at Craigowan Golf & Country Club.
Besides excellent food this was a very entertaining evening. All 22 members of the Scottish Curling team were there as well as several recent and older members of Canadian teams. Also several members of both Woodstock Rotary Clubs attended this evening.
There were great stories shared (this is the 52nd year of this event) and some great singing performances by the Scots. Also Steve Rae of the Stratford Rotary Club entertained with some good old fashioned Canadian songs.
Special thanks to John Garton, Norman Narancsik of the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club and Ian MacLean of the Stratford Club for organizing this evening.
Attendance: Wim Duizer, Steve Halyk, Rick Kiers, Tim Koetsier, Norm Narancsik, Jantine Stam, Peter Stam, EriK Tremblay, Peter Van Wees, Doug Vincent and Al Shipp.
Guests:Visiting Rotarian Bill McLeash, Irene Morris, Klaas Dekker, Mike Nickerson (guest speaker) and his wife Donna Dillman.
Shelter Box: The shelter box that we purchased was sent to Haiti to provide some relief after the hurricane and major flooding.
First Cheque: We received a cheque from a Montreal Rotary club to purchase some Drive For Polio Eradication sleeves. We also sold some to the Tillsonburg club.
Scotland Curling Tour: The Scott's will be here next week to do some curling and reclaim their trophies. There is a dinner at Craig Owen on Friday November 14th. It's $40.00 per person. Speak to Norm if you would like to attend.
Rotary Dictionary Program: We will be handing out 1350 dictionaries to grade 3 students in Oxford County. By participating, you will enjoy handing these out to the students! Please sign up with Peter Stam.
Rotary at the UN: Peter Stam, Klaas Dekker and Doug Vincent will be attending the Rotary weekend at the UN in New York on November 7 and 8. Those that are missing this experience this year, will hopefully have the privilege to attend next year!
Attendance: Rick Kiers, Tim Koetsier, Keith Sherman, Jantine Stam, Norm Narancsik, Erik Tremblay, Peter Stam, John Garton, Peter VanWees, Paul Brandord, Wim Duizer, Paul LeRoy, and Steve Halyk.
Guests: Klaas Dekker and Al Shipp.
Sergeant at Arms: Erik had to make up in fines for the last few weeks, so there was a big fines session tonight. Tim was fined for a missing pig, but ensured it's safe return. Steve was wearing a nice work pin on his jacket. All those who did not attend the District Convention were fined. There were also a handfull of happy bucks.
Nominations for 2009-2010: We still have one week left of nominations.
New Member: Our new member is actually an old member of our club, and of the Woodstock Rotary Club. Al Shipp was inducted tonight as a member of the Woodstock Oxford Rotary Club. Congratulations Al, we are happy to have you back.
Rotary at the United Nations: November 8th we are invited to visit the UN in New York. Please speak to Doug or Peter Stam if you are still interested in attending.
WDDS Christmas Party: WDDS is having a Christmas party at the Quality Inn on November 28th. $25 includes a dinner and dance. The evening starts at 5:30p.m. If you are interested, see Norm.
Attendance:Wim Duizer, Jantine Stam, Peter Stam, Norm Narancsik, Rama Murthi, Rick Kiers, Erik Tremblay, Jack Bingham, John Garton, Doug Vincent, Peter VanWees, Keith Sherman, Paul Bradford, Paul Turner, Steve Halyk and Paul LeRoy.
Guests:Paul, Douwe, Klaas, Margreet, Sally, Irene, Al, Sondra, Edie, Remko, Shannon, Helen, Anne-Marie and Andy McDougal.
We just want to say Thank You to all the people that came out and supported our first Drive for Polio.
We also want to Thank Barry and Mary-Jane Howie for their attendance and their encouragement to continue with the Polio Eradication and wish them good luck with their next Polio Vaccination Trip. (by the way, if anyone is interested in going on a Polio vaccination trip , you can contact Barry or Norm)
Together we raised over $1000.00 net for Polio, which will vaccinate about 1300 children, that means with about 40 people that attended wednesday eve., we are preventing Polio for 1300 children.
When we receive the proper sleeves for the Polio Golfballs, we will start promoting the Polio Golfball sales, which if you sell one package for $5.00 minus our cost will vaccinate 2 children.
We can also receive straight donations for Polio Vaccinations and the Donor can get a tax receipt for the amount donated.
Copy and paste the address below into your browser if you want to know more about Polio.
Guests: Mary Gladwin (guest speaker), Bill McLeish, Joan Sherman
Present: Mike and Coral Sheehan, Norm Narancsik, Steve Halyk, Keith and Joan Sherman, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Paul Leroy, John Garton, Rick Kiers, Rama Murthi and Paul Turner
Attendance and Guests by Peter Stam: Former club member Jackie Pugh, our speaker Tom Creech and former club member and visiting Rotarian Tom Hemsworth. We had 11 members were in attendance this meeting.
Sergeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay, who asked the members for a voluntary donation if they were not sitting with a guest. Happy bucks from several members for Jackie and Tom being with us. Doug Vincent gave a voluntary donation for his preferred parking spot.
Announcements:
Tom Hemsworth mother past on this past week and we send our condolences to Tom and his family.
*August 24 to 24. Toy Auction
*June 11, Rotary meeting at WDDS on Landsdowne, call Erik if you plan to attend.
*June 13 Relay for Life, at CASS, Paul Turner thanked people for supporting him in years past and as many of us have been effected one way or another he asked if we would support him again for this year with a donation.
*August 9, Rotary day at the Blue Jays, see under events.
*June 4th, Rotary Medals, if you have not reserved your attendance, call John Garton.
Welcome: President-Elect Norm Narancsik opened the meeting. Jantine led the invocation.
In Attendance: Norm Narancsik, Jantine Stam, Pieter Stam, Wim Duizer, Erik Tremblay, Peter Van Wees, Rick Keers, Paul Bradford, Tim Koetsier, John Garton, Jack Bingham and Gibson Bernath.
Guests: Klaas Dekker, and our guest speakers Pam Antonio and Michelle Shannon.
News from Norm: Ingamo Family Homes has an upcoming event. Speak to Norm if you're interested in attending. May 31st - Terry Fox Organizers Meeting. So far no one from our club will be attending this meeting. If you are interested in going then please speak to Norm. The Terry Fox run in Woodstock this year will be September 14th. So far everything is set for that. Rotary Directory - If you haven't updated your info in our directory, please speak to John Garton. June 15th is the deadline to update your information. Sat. Aug. 9th - Rotary Celebration at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. There will be a reception for 1000 max people. This is a huge event. Peter will put info on our club website about the cost and how to purchase tickets. Bill & Belinda Gates - 100 million has been donated to Rotary to complete the Polio Campaign. As a club we will donate $1000/year for 3 years to match the 100 million. Rotary International Convention - the theme this year is "Literacy". If you would like to donate a children's book, please give them to Jantine or Pieter. Woodstock Sidewalk Days - this will be in the beginning of August. We will decide at the next board meeting if we would like to participate.
Erik Tremblay, Steve Halyk, Peter VanWees, Rama Murthi, Jantine Stam, John Garton, Tim Koetsier, Paul LeRoy, Jack Bingham, Coral Sheehan and Keith Sherman.
Guests:
There were no guests.
President Elect Erik Tremblay opened the meeting.
Steve Halyk led us in invocation.
Erik invited us all to go to Woodstock District Developmental Services for our June 11th meeting. We plan to have our dinner and a tour there. WDDS ran our silent auction for our Fish Fry this year. Erik will sign us up. If you are not attending that meeting please let him know.
John gave us an update about our Rotary Medals program. The evening is planned for June 4th at the Quality Inn. Please invite your spouses or significant others as this evening never seems to disappoint! The price is $20.00/person.
John also was ordering golf shirts with the Rotary Logo on them. The sale on those shirts has now ended. For more info talk to John.
Fines and Happy/Sad Bucks: This evening the Sargent at Arms was Jack Bingham. Tim - fined for making us rush home from our District Assembly early because he had a planned "social encounter". John - fined for being late, his excuse was that it was a Rotary reason? Steve - fined for wearing a pin from his place of employment Steve - a happy buck for his trip to Aruba. It rained twice. Two seconds each time. Peter - happy buck Rama - happy buck because he's going to Texas with Lada next week Jantine - happy buck for attending the Districk Assembly John - happy buck that daughter arrived at point of destination safe and sound Rest of the club - mandatory happy bucks Rama proposed a fine to Erik for all the troubles with the Kiddie Pool
I returned a few weeks ago from my trip south...Argentina was amazing. Words can't explain it.
Right afterwards I went on the Amazon trip. It was everything I ever dreamed it would be.
I've wanted to see the Amazon ever since I was a little girl and I wasn't disappointed at all.
I'll have lots of pictures and stories to share with you when I return.
Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity.
Jordan
This JOKEis compliments of
London West RC's "Jocoe's Journal" editor Tom Telfer, fellow member of the the
Fellowship of Rotarian Editors and Publishers. I hope you get this Brittish humour. -ED
Surrounded by food and family growing up ??" baked incessantly and learned early the satisfaction that comes from feeding people
Para-legal, married and entertaining regularly
Studied at the Cordon Bleu in England, then worked with Lucy Waverman at The Cooking School in Toronto ??" teaching and assisting. This also prompted my jump into recipe testing and developing for food companies.
Began catering when a friend asked me to cater her wedding. Custom catering for friends began from my home, perfect with kids.
Developed a complimentary team building approach for companies to offer catering and cooking classes to enhance team work and work efficiency or market products.
Moved back to Woodstock, purchased a bar/restaurant in Kitchener, began writing for the Sentinel-Review on a weekly basis, started up a local catering business while continuing the Toronto catering and team building and offered cooking classes from my home.
Now run custom cooking classes as well as classes out of Hurley??Ts Independent Grocer in Ingersoll, team building
In attendance were: President Mike Sheehan, John Garton, Steve Halyk, Rama Murthi, Jantine Stam, Norm Narancsik, Erik Tremblay, Wim Duizer, Peter Van Wees, Paul Turner, Rick Kiers, and Pieter Stam.
Guests: Nelson Simard, who was our guest speaker for the evening.
Introduction of our speaker John Garton introduced our guest speaker. Nelson Simard is Vice Chairperson of the Oxford Community Police Service Board. He was introduced as a former member of our club who wanted to catch up on his golf game.
Nelson had a very informative power point presentation. He started with some facts. Oxford Community Police Service (OCPS) was formed in 1999. It consists of 4 partners: Blandford-Blenheim Township, East Zorra Tavistock, Norwich Township and Woodstock. They service over 50,000 residents. They have 85 sworn police officers, 24 vehicles, 36 civilian support persons, and 24 hour a day patrol. They service 18 seperate fire departments.
He continued on about some programs they are involved with and the different units in OCPS.
Winner of 2007 draw sponsored by VIA Rail for 2 First Class Return Tickets anywhere along Windsor to Quebec City Corridor was Brian Kalbfleisch.<br>
We are currently advertising this years event which includes a fish fry dinner and dance, a silent auction by WDDS with proceeds going to their projects, Free Draw for 2 first class Via Rail return tickets anywhere along the Windsor to Quebec City corridor, (must be present to win)all at a cost of $35.00 per person <b>in advance only.</b> The dance features "Ferguson Drive" and "The Lost Boys" as our live bands. The date is <b>Saturday April 12, 2008 at the Oxford Auditorium in Woodstock, ON.</b> For tickets call Peter: 519-462-1873 or email stamnurseries@cwisp.ca Proceeds to go to Rotary Community Projects.
Coral Sheehan introduced our guests which were: Piers Evans, our outbound student to Finland from 2005-2006, Alex Prinzen, the outbound student from the Ingersoll Rotary club going to Finland, William Prinzen, father of Alex and Vicki Davey, from the Woodstock Hospital Foundation.
After the meal Piers spoke briefly about what he has been doing since he returned from Finland, he attended some semesters at college, returned to Finland for 4 weeks to see his host families and friends, Had an excellent time there and this summer is of to South Africa to see some Exchange students he met in his year in Finland. At the moment Piers is working at the new restaurant Bronson(old Copa cabana).
President Michael called for nominations from the floor for the 3rd week in a row, no new nominations were made. The persons nominated and letting their name stand are Paul Leroy, Rama Murthi and Jantine Stam, all for Director and Erik Tremblay and Wim Duizer for President elect.
The Annual General Meeting will be on April 2 2008 at our normal wednesday eve. meeting when the elections will be held.
Peter Van Wees introduced our Speaker for this evening was Vicki Davey from the Woodstock Hospital Foundation, she explained what is happening at the moment and how they hope things will move on.
On april 2nd we had elections for 3 director positions and president-elect for 2008-2009. For president elect 2008-2009 Eric Tremblay has been elected.
Since Eric was a director and is moving to the position of president-elect there was a need for 3 new directors. This resulted in the election of all three nominated members: Jantine Stam, Rama Murthi and Paul LeRoy.
Coral Sheehan remains secreatary by acclamation and Tim Koetsier remains treasurer by acclamation.
For 2008-2009 our executive will be formed by the following persons:
President: Norm Norancsik
President-elect: Erik Tremblay
Past president: Michael Sheehan
Secretary: Coral Sheehan
Treasurer: Tim Koetsier
Directors: Wim Duizer, Jantine Stam, Paul Leroy and Rama Murthi
Attendance/Greetings: Jantine Stam and Steve Halyk
Sergeant at Arms: Steve Halyk
Guests: Martin Nyland (guest speaker), Tom Hemsworth, Helen Narancsik, Edie Stam, Susan Garton, Gerrit-Willem Twynstra, Klaas Dekker
Present: Jantine Stam, Mike Sheehan, Norm Narancsik, Steve Halyk, Keith Sherman, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Paul Leroy, Tim Koetsier, John Garton, Gibsin Bernath and Peter Stam.
Our Guests this evening: Dr. Bruce Halliday- Rotary club of Tavistock
Howard Pell, our speaker- Rotary club of Waterloo
John Macklin, Rotary club of Brantford Sunrise
Bella Bernath, spouse of Gibson
Present were: Tim Koetsier, Jantine Stam, Wim Duizer, Norm Narancsik, Paul Bradford, Paul Leroy, John Garton, Steve Halyk, Coral and Michael Sheehan, Rick Kiers, Rama Murthi, Gibson Bernath, Erik Tremblay.
Sargeant at Arms: Paul Bradford
Fines: Wim for telling a long winded story, Steve for mis-spelling Rotary(blamed it on the computer or staff)Norm, for calling a Rotary meeting on Friday eve.
Happy bucks were many: Paul B. for coming holidays, John Macklin for being at our meeting, Norm, for coming in at 5th place in curling in Guelph, Mike for first baby sitting assignment(and survived it), John Garton for finding back a long lost necklace, Dr. Bruce for being at our club, Peter for a great Chile trip.
Present: Rama Murthi, Erik Tremblay, Tim Koetsier, Mike Sheehan, Coral Sheehan, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Paul Bradford, Paul Leroy, Jantine Stam, Peter Stam and Steve Halyk.
This Wednesday eve. meeting our speaker is Howard Pell, Please come and find out how shelterbox helps people in disaster area's as a first response, and find out how you can help.
"ShelterBox presentation"
Howard is the local representative of the ShelterBox program, he is also the Secretary of Rotary Club of Waterloo. Howard will do a presentation on the ShelterBox program. Team #1 is in charge, Rick, Doug, Anne and Peter
The meeting was presided by President Michael Sheehan.
We had 10 members in attendance and 3 guests, which were visiting Rotarian Wendy Jennings from London North with their exchange student Nicolas Delagneau from France, and Visiting Rotarian and our speaker for the evening Blain McCutchen from Tavistock.
Happy Bucks from Coral Sheehan for losing her braces, Doug Vincent for his successfull Mexico shoebox trip, Tracey Hillier for her student program about phylantrophy and her students to start raising funds for Malaria nets for the Red Cross.
Which also started a short discussion about which charity to donate to and as explained by Doug that with the Rotary Foundation 100% of the donation goes to the assigned project with the possibility of matching grants which could raise a donation from a person of $100.00 to $300.00, and with other charities most of the time you lose anywhere from 10 to 60% of your donation for administrative cost.,
Happy bucks continued, Wendy Jennings for being with us and Peter Stam for going on a holiday to Chile.
Doug spoke about the shoebox program that got started with about 300 boxes some years ago by our club and successfully continues and is up to 1400 shoeboxes now and on top of that a number of families that received food.
The program is continueing the whole year and they will keep shipping monthly into th U.S. where it will be stored for distribution at Christmas or New Year.
So please keep the donations coming if you feel inclined to participate, just contact Doug for more info.
Guests: Klaas Dekker and guest speaker Peter Overgauw
Present: Rama Murthi, Erik Tremblay, Tim Koetsier, Mike Sheehan, Norm Narancsik, Keith Sherman, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Gibby Bernath, Paul Bradford, Paul Leroy, Paul Turner and Jack Bingham.
Presiding: Erik Tremblay opened the meeting around 6.30 P.M.
Coral introduced our guests: Ann Mullen, waiting to be inducted as a member, Jennifer Johnson, our speaker and Klaas Dekker, prospective member.
Team #1 in charge of the evening.
After the meal
Sergeant at Arms, Rama Murthi went around and levied some fines to the people that went to the Rotary Day at the United nations, even Klaas got fined for some reason, sitting beside a nice lady in the train. Peter Stam got fined because as a group we went for a meal in Ithica on the way back and enjoyed Mexican food by invitation. Tim had a sad buck for Doug because of a parking ticked in New York.(that was not cheap),. Paul Turner had a happy 5 Bucks because he proposed to S
ondra Fyffe and they are getting married in the spring, congratulations Paul and Sondra. There were more happy bucks then I can remember.
Tracey Hillier asked if we still wanted to have a Christmas party at her house, Erik would investigate, time is running out for dates.
Presiding: President-Elect Norm Narancsik
Invocation: Jantine Stam
Attendance: Coral Sheehan
Sergeant At Arms: Erik Tremblay
Guests: Duane Blake who is our guest speaker, and Anne Mullen who is a prospective member.
Present: Tim Koetsier, Pieter Stam, Jantine Stam, Norm Narancsik, Tracey Hillier, Paul Turner, John Garton, Paul Bradford, Erik Tremblay and Coral Sheehan.
Our guest speaker was from First General Services Oxford, in Woodstock. He is a native of Innerkip and moved to Kitchener at the age of 5. He's been in the Property Restoration Business for 15 years, and started his business in Woodstock two years ago this coming February. He is an avid golfer and enjoys traveling.
Duane gave a great power point presentation with some really neat comedic photos of people stuck in funny situations. First General Services Oxford specializes in Emergency Response, Mould Prevention and Water Loss Protocols. Duane gave examples of typical emergencies. Three important things to know are: who to call when it happens, do your research, and be prepared.
The first step of a claim is: safety of the occupants, maintain documentation and communication, mould prevention and water loss protocols. We learned the definition of mould and the importance and different types of drying equipment. It's important to think about your personal property and ensure you have proper coverage of it. First General Services Oxford ensures rapid response and quality service.
There were many questions after his presentation about drywall, renovations, safety equipment, the list goes on.
Tracey gave our guest a warm thanks and had some interesting questions. Tracey was an Insurance Broker and shared a personal experience about dealing with Insurance Restoration Specialists.
Norm read a Remembrance Day Poem which he read in Scotland last November during his curling trip.
By Jantine Stam
Presiding: Past President Paul Bradford
Introduction and Thanks: Team 4
Attendance and Greetings: Team 5
Sergeant at Arms: Jantine Stam was the substitute
Guests: Flor Lopez, Our exchange student from Mexico
Klaas Dekker, Guest of Piet Stam
Sondra Fyffe �?" Guest of Paul Turner
Present: Peter Van Wees, Norm Narancsik, Rama Murthi, Jantine Stam, Peter Stam, Paul Turner, Tim Koetsier, Paul Bradford and John Garton.
Our guest presenter for the evening was none other than our own Exchange Student from Mexico, Flor, who made her final presentation to the Club giving an overview of her activities for the year since she arrived last January.
The event also featured a presentation by Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program graduate Richelieu Allison, of Liberia, who received the day's only standing ovation. "Rotary has become a passer of the light," Allison said. "The Four-Way Test has transformed my life. It can transform the world."
A comment of a Rotarian.
When I read about the exploits of Rotary and behold the marvellous things Rotary and Rotarians are doing in the World, I feel 10ft tall! ...I feel proud to be part of this life-changing and life-giving Organization! ...I feel challenged to continue to uphold the ideals of Rotary ...in everything I think, say or do. THANK YOU ROTARY!!!
Following are some websites you can copy and paste into your web-browser to see some of the projects talked about at the UN.
Rotary Day at the United Nations in New York. Our Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club was well represented at the Rotary Day at the United Nations. Present were: Doug Vincent, Rama, Omar and Lata Murthi, Tim Koetsier, Klaas Dekker and Peter Stam. Friday afternoon we had the privilege to meet with the Canadian Ambassador as he explained the work he is doing, and there was a chance to ask questions. Saturday we went to the United Nations building, we had quite a time to get there because the people were practising for the New York Marathon. This event was well worth going to as we learned a bit more how the United Nations and Rotary work together with their common goals.
Given that the top focus topics of Rotary International are: water, literacy, polio, and hunger; we found out these are issues related to the 8 UN Development goals:
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Following are some of the highlights. In Tanzania, villagers buy mosquito nets through a Rotarian-supported program that aligns with the United Nations' goal to reduce malaria. In Kenya, families build Rotarian-funded rainwater collection tanks, complementing UN efforts to prevent deaths, especially among children, linked to poor sanitation. In Romania, farmers receive heifers through an effort backed by a Rotary Foundation grant that goes hand in hand with the UN goal to fight hunger.
"Most ridiculous British law": According to Yahoo
1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down
3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store
4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day
5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter
6. A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the king, and the tail of the queen
8. It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour
10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow
Guests: Our exchange student Flor Mejia Lopez and Tom HemsworthÂ
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Present: Erik Tremblay, Jantine Stam, Tracey Hillier, Mike Sheehan, Norm Narancsik, Steve Halyk, Keith Sherman, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees,Paul Turner, Paul Bradford, Paul Leroy, Tim Koetsier, John Garton and Peter Stam.
This week Flor will be our speaker. Our exchange student will give her final presentation to the club. She will be doing a power point overview of her summer trip to the East Coast.
This years District convention was at Orangeville and started Friday eve. at 5-7 P.M. with the Meet and Greet session at the Best Western after which District Governor Dave and the R.I. rep.(Dave's brother inlaw) welcomed everyone.
At 7 P.M. the visiting Rotarians that signed-up for the Home Hosting, left to their Hosts for the evening meal and fellowship.
I must say, it was a great evening, our hosting family Graham and Fiona Ferguson welcomed Tim and me in their home together with 4 more Rotarians with a refreshment and goodies and after we had such a good meal, we could not have been treated better at the best restaurant.
We left at 10.30 P.M. and visited a hospitality room at the hotel for a while, which was hosted by the Orangeville and area clubs.
The next morning we went to the Fairgrounds for breakfast.
Attending Rotarians from our club were: Michael, Norm, Jantine, Flor, Tim, Doug and me.
The first speaker was with Dignitas/ Doctors without borders and spoke about the bad situation in Africa.
Especialy in Malawi which is one of the poorest Countries there and had one of the highest ratio of HIV/Aids positive people.
A very big concern is that so many health-care people die that they don't have enough nurses and also the young people are dying and the parents.
That leaves an age group of people from 15 to 25 years old to eventualy run the country.
You can click on this link or past it into your browser to learn more about Dignitas.
www.dignitasinternational.org
The situation there is much worse as we can imagen.
Guests: Our exchange student Flor Mejia Lopez and guest speaker Jeffery Van Haeren
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Present: Rama Murthi, Erik Tremblay, Doug Vincent, Jantine Stam, Tim Koetsier, Tracey Hillier, Mike Sheehan, Rick Kiers, Norm Narancsik, Steve Halyk, Keith Sherman, Wim Duizer, Peter VanWees, Gibby Bernath and Peter Stam.
Don't forget the meeting Sept. 5 2007 is back at the Quality Inn again starting at 6.30 P.M..
Our speaker this evening is Keith Hudson
Keith is a referendum officer at elections ontario.
He will explain the upcoming referendum and the 2 choices that we can make about electing members to the provincial legislature.
Please come and join us for this meeting.
If you are not a Rotarian and like to come to this meeting, please contact a Rotarian and come as her/his guest.
Hi Wdstk-Oxford Rotary friends:
I want to invite you to come with me to the United Nations for 'Rotary Day at the UN' on November 3rd in New York City. I've mentioned this was in the planning to some of you. You will also be invited to meet the Canadian UN Ambassador during a visit to the Canadian Mission on Friday afternoon, November 2nd.
The Saturday meeting is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at UN Headquarters and will include presentations and panel discussions addressing key humanitarian issues such as water, health, literacy, and hunger. Tours will also be available.
Under the theme "Rotary and the United Nations: Sharing," United Nations officials, representatives from key nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and Rotary International leaders will all address the group. There also will be a separate youth program for high-school age students, so plan to bring your teenagers.
Registration for Saturday is US$35. including a box lunch. You can download a registration form from the events section at www.rotary7080.org or www.rotary.org Please send your registration directly to the US address given. For the Canadian Mission visit, you must register with me via email. Note for security check reasons, this must be done by October 20th.
As I mentioned at the meeting Wed night, I wanted to let you know that we're planning a gathering for Rotary friends on Friday evening, September 7th, starting at 6:30 pm. Join us to experience a memorable evening in the country at the picture-perfect Walter's Family Estate. It is conveniently located just off highway 401 between Cambridge and Woodstock.
You'll enjoy a delicious country dinner buffet and then be entertained by a live country music performance. All of this takes place in a beautiful 180-year-old, wooden beamed barn theatre complete with comfortable theatre seating. See more at www.waltersfamilyband.com
I hope that you will be able to be with us and enjoy some fun and fellowship with those you may not have seen for a while. Please feel free to pass on this invitation to other friends and RSVP via email me asap. Then send $40 per person to: Doug Vincent, Box 131, Woodstock, ON N4S 7W8 by August 23rd.
Looking forward to seeing many of you there to enjoy a wonderful evening in the country.
The Toy Auction was a great success again, we started setting up Friday evening and finished with some late comers Saturday Morning.
There was a 30% increase in toys, so it made it for a long auction.
We also had more people in the audiance(buyers and lookers)that registered and from several people we heard that there is only one good Toy Auction and that is ours and they did not want to miss it
Total Sales for 2007 $24,221.00 for 2006 $18,821.00
Rotary's part 2007 $6,083.00 for 2006 $4,404.38
These are not net figures, we still have to pay some bills, but as you can see there is a great increase in our income. A special thanks go out to all people (Rotarians and Rotarian friends)that in one way or another helped out to make this Toy Auction a great success.
Without you it would not have been possible.
There will be a more up to date report to follow.
Thank you,
Rick and Peter.
This meeting was held at Nicole and Darryl's farm.
President Michael presided and welcomed everyone.
We had several guests, which were:
Tom Hemsworth from Calgary, Lisa Andrew(Prospective member), Anne McArthur, guest of Doug Vincent,Sondra Fyffe, guest of Paul Turner, Flor, our exchange student from Mexico, Wiebren De Boer, guest of Jantine.
This meeting, again we were treated with an delicious meal, which is very easy to get used to.
We will have to lower our expectations when we go back to the restaurant again.
Thanks very much Nicole and Darryl.
The business part was short, just some prep. for the Toy Auction.
Michael also spoke about the Youth Exchange certification meeting which was held at the Ingersoll club, every club that wants to be in Youth Exchange needs to be certified and follow a plan laid out by Rotary International, which includes Police checks etc.
This meeting was attended by Michael, Coral, Jantine, Peter and about 10 people from other clubs.
Norm spoke about the Terry Fox run for September 16 2007, please use your pledge sheets.
Norm also has Terry Fox T-shirts available for $15.00, order early.
After the meeting we were outside admiring the beautifull motor bikes from Nicole's parents and some of us would have liked to take them for a spin.
At the end of our evening we waved off Tim with 25000 golfballs, as he was leaving for Montreal for a delivery.
The meeting for this coming wednesday will be held in the morning at 7 A.M. at Michael Dean'sjust south of the 401 on hwy 59 on the left hand side.
Please come and join us there for an early breakfast.
This evening our meeting was at Erik and Manon Tremblay.
Past president Paul Bradford presided.
Invocation by Jack Bingham.
Guest introduction by Coral, our guests were: Harro Van Leyenhorst from Holland, guest of Peter Stam, Lisa Andrew, guest of Doug Vincent, Tom Hemsworth from Calgary, Mr. Utting, guest of Paul Turner, Lata Murthi, dear wife of Rama and of course our hostess, Manon, dear wife of Erik.
Manon and Erik put on a delicuous meal, I whish we could sign them up to do every meal, Thanks Manon and Erik.
The business part was short, the Toy Auction preparation is coming along. We still need a couple of people to help out on Sunday, consigment sheets need to be in the latest on Wednesday Aug.22th.
Thank you to all that are helping out and also to the people that are bringing in donations to the auction.
A vote was called in support to recind enactment 07-231 wich was passed by the council on legislation in April.
If you need to read up on it, the explanation of that enactment was send to you all by President Michael on July 24 2007.
The vote passed with no opposition.
August 21st(Tuesday eve.) there will be a Youth Exchange meeting at the Ingersoll Rotary Club at 7:00 pm.
Anyone that has an interest in Youth Exchange is invited, there will be some people from District explaning the Youth Exchange program and what we have to do to be a part of it.
Please talk to Peter Stam if you have any questions.
The meeting was at Lata and Rama Murthi's place in their backyard.
President Michael opened the meeting at 6.30 p.m.
We had several visitors, including Truus Van Wees, Joan Sherman, J Tremblay(visiting rotarian), Don and his wife(neighbours/friends of Rama), Jordan Bryson(our exchange student and her mother Cindy.
After the meal, which was barbequed by the Murthi family and Erik, President Michael whished Jordan a successfull trip and was saying how fortuned our club is to have such a wonderfull exchange student.
Jordan will be leaving for Brazil today(wednesday)and hope to stay for 1 year, goes to school there and will be living with several different families to experience their culture.
The Rotary Youth Exchange program's purpose is to create Peace and World understanding by experiencing different cultures.
Michael thanked Jordan for being our ambassador for Rotary, Woodstock and Canada.
Goodluck Jordan and please keep us up to date.
The Toy Auction and Show is this coming weekend on Aug. 24 to 26.
Most things are in place, we still need a couple of people on Sunday, if you have not signed up yet and you have time to help out then please contact me.
If there is anyone that would have a couple of carts to move toys from the vehicles to the rooms, we are in need of some.
To the volunteers, I have send a copy of your time slot(s), please be there at the assigned time.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Peter
Hi everyone, Following are the minutes of the meeting which we joined at the Ingersoll Club.
Thank you all for coming.
Don't forget to confirm with Rama if you will be at the meeting this coming wednesday eve., we hope to see you all, including spouses, partners and/or friends.
Just a reminder for the people that have not send in their Police check to me, I need to receive more than half of them yet, please bring them along to one of the meetings, thank you.
Peter.
Weekly Meeting July 12th 2207
Editor: Jackie Curry
About RYLA
Demonstrate Rotary's respect and concern for youth;
Provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders;
Encourage leadership of youth by youth; and
Recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities.
Hello All,
We had a packed room at the senior's centre today with 25 members and 11 Guests from the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary club in attendance. It was great to hear from our "RYLA" sponsor Jessica who attended the Rotary sponsored event with 30 other students across Ontario in May. She had a great time and felt that there were many speakers that she learned from throughout her time there. (There is more details about RYLA at the bottom of the email for those who are interested).
About RYLA
Each year, thousands of young people take part in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program worldwide. Young people ages 14-30 chosen for their leadership potential attend an all-expenses-paid seminar, camp, or workshop to discuss leadership skills and to learn those skills through practice. Rotary clubs and districts select participants and facilitate the event's curriculum.
Our summer meetings had a great start with 18 members/guests enjoying the warm hospitality of our hosts Caren and Wim Duizer. The day long rain showers did little to deter a great barbecue and sitting outside enjoying the beautiful view on the Duizer's back deck. I think I heard someone describe it as "The Field of Dreams". Innvocation was provided by Norm with President Mike providing the usual toasts. Following a delicious meal, President Mike discussed a few items of business. The club agreed that since we have no host for next week's meeting, we will attend the noon meeting of the Ingersoll Club on Thursday. Peter Stam will advised the Ingersoll Club and will put a notice in the Bulletin.
It was also agreed that Norm will provide two bottles of the left over wine from the fish fry to each host family for our summer meetings. President Mike provided a brief update on Bingos. As our summer meetings tend to be a great opportunity to relax and socialize, members and guests enjoyed the first of many summer meetings to come. Again, many thanks to Caren and Wim for extending their warm hospitality to the club. See everyone next week - Thursday, July 12th, Ingersoll Club 12:0O noon at the 'Senior's Centre' (Suzuki House?)on Ingersoll Rd, just north of CAMI
Hope to see you there!!!
.
Dear Fellow Rotarians,
Edie and I just returned from the Convention and following are some of the things we have experienced.
We arrived on Saturday. Sunday morning we listened to the Mormom Tabernacle Choir who have a regular Sunday morning radio broadcast. An amazing building which seats 22,000 people. (The choir wasn't bad either) That afternoon was the opening session of the Convention. Along with introductions of the board, including R.I. president Bill Boyd, there was fantastic entertainment by Donny Osmond, who still hasn't lost his charm. (says Edie) The rest of the week we attended the morning session which had excellent speakers, to name a few: Rotary World Peace Fellow, Brigitta from Germany told her story how Rotary has changed her life through a scholarship; William H. Gates Sr.,http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/convention2007/stories/20070619_plenary3.html the father of guess who? who told us to think big(he said, you are seeing now what happened to Polio because you were thinking big) Jenny Horton, from Australia. A success story which started because of Rotary youth exchange and got her involved in Polio.
We are enjoying a great breeze through the windows of Peter's office learning all the ins and outs about Clubrunner. Mike and I are the only two that showed up tonight. Don't know what happened to President Paul. Maybe he didn't check his email to learn that the date had changed from Thursday to Tuesday. Oh well. Too bad. I am practicing writing for the bulletin and hope all of you find this informative and enlightening.
Norm Narancsik served as Sargeant-at-arms and collecting fine and happy bucks and then informed the members about the club's historical books and encouraged us to look through them.Â
The annual Rotary Medals Awards Night was held on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at the Quality Inn. This wonderful evening was hosted by The Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club and the Ingersoll Rotary Club in partnership with Chartered Accountants firm Vanparys, Micacchi, Shippey & Warnick.
Seated at the head table were: John Garton (Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club) and wife Susan, Garry Honcoop (Vanparys Micacchi Shippey & Warnick), Ron Archer (President, Ingersoll Rotary Club), Paul Bradford (President, Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club) and wife Susan and Ralph Benedict (Past President, Ingersoll Rotary Club).
John Garton, Event Coordinator welcomed everyone and Ralph Benedict provided Invocation.
Following a wonderful meal each table introduced Rotarians and guests present. Garry Honcoop, filling in for Brent Vanparys, brought greetings and congratulations on behalf of his firm.
The meeting was Presided by President elect Michael Sheehan. Our guests, Carol Hemsworth, Julie Couwenberg, Jordan Bryson, Daryl Warboys and his wife and proposed new member Nicole were introduced. Erik is really getting comfortable with fining people, some for not going to Tuesday's meeting with R.I. President elect Wilf Wilkinson, others for coming in late and Tim for something to do with a log according to Norm. erik got himself fined for not introducing Dr. Dixit, our Guest speaker.
Announcements: Teusday evening, Meeting with Ingersoll club, Wilf Wilkinson. Wednesday evening, Rotary medals program
P.E. Michael inducted our newest member, Nicole Couwenberg. She was sponsored by Terry Hemsworth and works at Norwich Insurance. Terry also got the priviledge to pin on the Rotary pin, with everyone holding it's breath. Welcome to Rotary, Nicole and thanks for joining our club.
As most of you should be aware by now the Rotary Medals program will take place on Wednesday May 30 downstairs at the Quality Inn. - Time 6:30
Cost is $20 per person and we would like to see a good turnout. Spouses etc are encouraged to attend. We would ask that all attending dress in suitable business attire as we are all representing Rotary.
Because we have to guarantee the number attending for meals I need to know your intentions by Monday morning May 28th at the latest. You may respond to this email with your number or advise me on Wednesday night. If you say yes we will be charged for your meal whether you attend or not so no refunds will be given after the Monday morning deadline.
Our guest list will include 14 students and their parents and other guests along with 7 school representatives.
Past attendees will recall what a great evening it is as we listen to some of the areas future leaders and possible Rotarians in the making. If we want to make our club grow we need every opportunity to showcase Rotary. Please attend in full force.
John Garton
Chair Rotary Medals
Following is the criteria of how the selection is made.
Woodstock Oxford Rotary Club executive meeting April 2nd 2007 7:00 P.M. Call to order
Attendance: Paul Turner, Pieter Stam, Mike Sheehan, Coral Sheehan and Paul Bradford. Incorporation of District 7080: Motion By Paul TO. 2nd Coral S. To present resolution to membership to incorporate District 7080 with a recorded vote by show of hands. Passed.
World Community Service projects present total of six projects. Motion by Mike S. 2nd Pieter Stam to have Paul B. make presentation to memberships on two projects 1st Hermosillo, Mexico. Breast cancer screening equipment and education 2nd Philippines, to assist street children through education and mentoring to be free of poverty. Passed.
Letter from Woodstock Soccer for financial support. Motion by Coral S. 2nd by Paul T. to defer till after Fish Fry. Passed. Pres. Paul to advise Wdsk Soccer.
Terry Hemsworth to leave club and Join in Thornbury Rotary.
Texas Hold'n Fundraiser has been placed on hold until we get ruling from Ro Frazer OCP. Mike Sheehan to pursue. Treasures report: Paul T presented 6 month results to budget report . Only items of issue was $114. out of balance of Toy Show and needed report of Rotary Metals. Bingo's are being topped up by City for only $50m this year. Bingo's are needing less top up this year. Increased Reporting due to ministry . Report by Mike S.
Silent auction, donations are slow and will not accept donation after April 27. Report by Coral S.
Discussion around Rotary Club giving taxable receipts. Rotary Club of Blenheim gives out taxable receipts. Does the club has to be a foundation ? Pieter Stam to investigate.
Motion to Adjourn
Presiding: Paul Bradford Guests: Jordan Bryson, Flor Lopez, Tim Koetsier and Assistant Governor & Rotarian Henk Eisen. Sargeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay.
Fines and Happy Bucks:Sargeant at Arms, Erik Tremblay levied fines for not wearing pins and to people not sitting with a guest at their table. Happy bucks from Peter Van Wees, his grandchildren doing well in school.
This evening we were without a speaker, but had some important topics to decide on.
President Paul spoke about our Rotary District 7080 and the need for it to be incorporated, to safeguard against Libel suits against individual members.
This is a requirement brought forward by Rotary International. All clubs have to vote on this and a two thirds majority wins. After discussing the topic at length, it was the majority opinion that it does not harm anyone and it past with a majority.
Next was a presentation of two International projects< 1st: Hermosillo, Mexico. Breast cancer screening equipment and education of self-examinations. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in Mexico and the leading cause of death in the State of Sonora, which is the State of Hermosillo.
This project is mostly run by breast cancer survivors( all volunteers) 2nd: Philippines, to assist street children through education and mentoring to be free of poverty.
Please meet Jordan.
This year's outbound student is Jordan Bryson.
Jordan was choosen by our club last October and went through several District interviews and get-togethers with other outbound students.
Jordan attends ST.Mary's Catholic High School. She loves to travel, meet new people, experience different cultures and languages.
She also attended Camp Wanakita and there she met all other outbound and inbound Rotary Exchange students.
Last February at Brampton's Rotary Glen she found out that her destination is Brazil where she will be spending about one year with host families. This is through our Rotary Exchange Program and she will be leaving in July.
Jordan, thank you for applying for our Rotary Exchange program and we wish you a great year in Brazil.
From you friends at Rotary.
Welcome to Canada.
Please meet Flor.
Sara Floriselva Lopez Mejiia is our inbound exchange student from Mexico.
Flor came from Mexico at the beginning of this year and will be staying in Canada until the end of this year.
Shortly after Flor arrived, she went to Camp Wanakita in Haliburton with all the inbound and outbound Rotary
students were they build an Igloo and slept in it with 30 degree Celsius temperature below zero.
She said she had lots of fun, but it was very, very cold, you can Imagen when you are used to 30 degree Celsius above zero.
Flor has 3 sisters and 2 brothers in Mexico.
Flor's interests are architecture,languages and get to know other customs.
Her ambition in Canada is to learn English, meet lots of new friends and cooking.
Flor is currently hosted by the Halyk family.
Please make Flor feel at home and invite her out to some of the activities and outings that you may have planned.
We wish you a great year in Canada.
From your friends at Rotary.
Present - Gibson Bernath, Wim Duizer, Steve Halyk, Rama Murthi, Keith Sherman, Coral Sheehan, Mike Sheehan, Jantine Stam, Erik Tremblay, Paul Turner, Peter VanWees
Shoe-Box Gift Distribution in Mexico,
A Hands-On Project by Rotary Clubs in District 7080
A typical gift box includes $30 value of things like: school & craft supplies,
hygiene items, toys, T-shirt, toque, socks, mitts, hard candy, Canada
souvenir.
( Wrap lid & box separately so child can keep as a treasure box.)
We are looking for families that are willing to host our Exchange student coming fom Mexico, starting in January 2007.
Hosting consists of having the person stay with your family for 3 to 4 months and treating her/him as your own child, she/he will be going to highschool and will be attending Rotary meetings once a week.
If you are interested to know more about hosting, please contact Peter Stam at 519-462-1873 or Joe Odumodu at 519-539-4080
This was a special meeting as we had the Group Study Exchange team from Brazil with us today. They spent the day visiting and touring parts of Woodstock and Oxford County. The stops included the Botanix Oxford InstaShade nursery and tree farm, Woodstock City Hall to meet the mayor, and Wim Duizer's farm. Special thanks to Rama Murthi for his work in organizing and hosting their visit today.
The full duty rosters for the meeting schedule and the BINGO's are now posted in the members section of the website. After logging in simply go to "View Club Documents" and select the schedule you want to view.
When your wife is in bed and thinks that you are using the toaster, you better warn her to check the car.
This happened last week, the mercedes had been sitting overnight and at 7.15 A.M. it was on fire.
Outdoor Farm Show - Pieter Stam reported that the total income from the raffle of the lawn tractor at the Outdoor Farm Show was $3600.00. The proceeds/profit of $975.00 will be donated as part of our commitment to the Woodstock Hospital Foundation. A suggestion was made that if we do another raffle we should begin our plans earlier and consider obtaining more sponsorships in order to cover the total costs so that all ticket sales will be profit.
Pieter distributed a report on the Toy Show and reported that the total proceeds/profit raised was $3980.29. Of the proceeds, $800.00 will go to the Rotary Foundation.
Peter Van Wees gave an update on the raffle of the lawn tractor currently taking place at the Outdoor Farm Show. Two days of ticket sales have been completed and our costs are covered. The income from ticket sales tomorrow will be profit. The weather is expected to be better and so we anticipate that our sales will also be better.
Norm Narancsik presented a plaque and letter from the Terry Fox Foundation to Bill Gillespie in recognition of his faithful and continuous support for 25 years. Norm also presented a Terry Fox book to Bill from the club as a gesture of our appreciation. Bill gave a brief talk on the inspiration of Terry Fox.
Well, the 97th RI Convention kicked off as characters in historical costumes, dancers and the Crown Prince of Denmark welcomed Rotarians to the opening session. The stage came alive as a performer sang tunes from the musical film of 'Hans Christian Andersen'. Dancing around were people dressed as sailors, flower vendors, fishmongers, and street entertainers, all costumes that represent Denmark's past. The performance was projected on to eight screens that formed an octagon above the rotating circular stage, located in the center of the conference hall and surrounded on all sides by the audience. Then, a display of the country's break dancers and models took to the stage and performed to hip dance music.
President Pieter Stam announced that on Monday, June 19, 2006 the Rotary Club of Woodstock will be having a special meeting with David Patterson, Vice President of General Motors Canada as the guest speaker. It was decided that our meeting of June 21 would be cancelled in order to join the other club on June 19 at the Quality Inn. There will be a reception at 6:00 pm followed by dinner at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $25.00 per person. Tables of 8 or 10 are available.
Greetings D7080 Presidents, District Leaders & friends . . (written, Friday May 12th)
Further to my last message describing our Medical Mission activities, we've been busy enjoying the Mexican sunshine, hotel spa and start of D4170 Governor Olga Devlyn's conference. This is an impressive venue in Ixtapan with wonderful decorating, creating an atmosphere of great pride for Rotarians and participants.
Greetings D7080 Presidents, District Leaders & friends . .
As many of you know, I am currently in Mexico where we've been generously hosted these past few days by the Devlyn family in Mexico City. After spending Sunday sightseeing and Monday am with Frank and Jesse Devlyn at their corporate offices, we headed to Ixtapan where we've participated in a medical mission doing eye surgeries. Can you imagine seeing me in operating room in "scrubs" complete with hat and booties?
Attendance/Greetings:Ilene Buchanan, Peter VanWees
Sergeant at Arms:Paul Bradford
Guests:Barry Howie, Past District Governor and Rotary Foundation Trustee.
Present:Jack Bingham, Rama Murthi, Erik Tremblay, Paul Bradford, Coral Sheehan, Doug Vincent, Keith Sherman, John Garton, Wim Duizer, Ilene Buchanan, Peter VanWees, Paul Turner, Gibby Bernath and Peter Stam.
Sergeant at Arms, Paul Bradford collected happy bucks and levied fines as deemed appropriate.
Presiding: President Peter Stam Attendance: Ilene Buchanan, Peter Van Wees
Invocation: Coral Sheehan
Sargeant at Arms:Paul Bradford
Introductions:Erik Tremblay
Thank Yous -Garry Honcoop
Present: Michael Sheehan, Norm Naranscik, John Garton, Coral Sheehan, Gibson Bernath, Paul Turner, Peter VanWees, Keith Sherman, Ilene Buchanan, Terry Hemsworth, Paul Bradford, Erik Tremblay, Garry Honcoop.
I've just returned from my travels today so I thought I'd send you an email telling you what I did while it was all still fresh in my mind. I started my nearly three week bender of travelling with the Rotary tour of St. Petersburg, Russia. There we saw the sights of the city, including the Winter Palace, the Hermitage Museum (which was Huge), and the Pavlovsk Palace. Three days after returning from that trip I was off to England to meet up with my parents. While in England we travelled to York, the Lake District (some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen), Blackpool, Warwick, and Cambridge. It was nice to see my family again after so long and it was even more enjoyable to travel through England with them, even if I did have to endure my father's uneasy driving for a week, hehe. From England I travelled to Frankfurt, Germany and met my host parents. From the airport, our group of Finns (my host parents, some of their neighbours and me) took a bus down to Trier, wich is both the birthplace of Carl Marx, and the oldest city in Germany - established over 2000 years ago by the Romans. We spent 3 days there, and it was wonderful, the food and sights and people were great.
I want to thank all members and friends for working hard on making this Fish Fry a success again, especially the Fish Fry and Silent auction committee, you did a wonderfull job, and our friends for selling tickets, donating items and coming out to this event and supporting Rotary in our fundraising efforts.
President Pieter reported that there will be an outgoing GSE team to Brazil and the district is now looking for a leader. Anyone interested should contact Assistant District Governor Martin Ward. Rotary International is setting up a certification process for clubs to participate in the exchange student program. However, there may be some problems with the rules for clubs outside the U.S.A. We have sold approximately 400 tickets for the Fish Fry. Sell, sell, sell!
I thought that I'd check in and tell you all what's been going on with myself lately. It's almost Easter and I'm sure you all know how different cultures really like to bring out the old traditions on holidays like this. Well Finland is certainly no different.
To start from the beginning, last Sunday, the 9th, we had trick-or-treaters at our door around 9:00am. Thankfully my host brother warned me about this the night before or else I might have been quite shocked. They weren't tricking or treating, however, instead they were giving you an Easter blessing and a healthy year. They'd wave their wands (made from a stick and brightly coloured feathers and cloth) and say 'Virvon varvon tuoreeks terveeks tulevaks vuodeks, vitsa sulle palkka mulle.', after which you give them money or chocolate and then they're on their way again.
During the week they have the same sorts of traditions that we have in Canada with the exception of Ash Wednesday, they neither call it by that name, nor do they eat pancakes or any other special food. However, they certainly do have traditional food. Aside from chocolate and a feast on Easter Sunday, they have this dish called Mämmi which is a very deep Finnish tradition. It is made from rye flour, water, and yeast, which they mix together and then bake in the oven for 6 hours. It looks fairly discusting (I won't get into details) once it is ready, however it doesn't taste too bad with some vanilla cream. It is by far the most Finnish dish that I have tasted yet.
Our guest speaker was Kristi Cross, Manager of the Oxford County Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society. She shared some statistical information regarding this volunteer based organization. There are just three staff members in the Oxford County Unit, with the balance of the work provided by a variety of volunteers. Of the funds raised, 50% goes toward research, 42% to local community services and 8% to administration (which is the lowest in the charitable sector).
The meeting of March 1, 2006 was a club assembly. There was some general discussion about the membership drive and the packages available to give to potential members. We had a bit of a brainstorming session using the classification lists to determine names of potential members. Garry Honcoop spoke about the upcoming Fish Fry and the need for members to sell many tickets.
Hello Woodstock Rotary Club I went to the school dance. The Ball was great fun, I got to dance all kinds of dances, the waltz, tango, virginia reel, salty dog rag, and the school's very own dance. We performed for a surprisingly large audience, which made everyone a little bit nervous, but thankfully it didn't make us mess up too much. We took lessons at school, it was really fun to see the Finns loosening up and laughing at themselves for a change. My host parents were at my house in Canada on Friday night until Saturday morning of last week, they called me and told me that everything was great and they were having an amazing time. They are in Canada visiting their daughter who is on exchange in Burlington this year. I thought that it would be interesting for them to meet my real family so I suggested it and they had a really good time together so all worked out well :) The winter seems to have lasted only a couple of months back there. Here winter is (supposedly) coming to an end soon, and I haven't yet gone ice swimming, I guess I should get around to that....if I must...
- the insurance for the event has been arranged. - we will have specially labelled wine from Pelee Island commemorating the 25th Fish Fry. - the two bands are confirmed: "Splash" and "Radio". - earlier in the evening there will be a Vegas style impersonation show. - we are almost ready to print the tickets; just waiting for VIA to confirm prize.
President Pieter distributed a sample wallet card pamphlet entitled "What is Rotary?" Norm will have these available for members to give out.
Our guest speaker was Karen Huston, curator of the Woodstock Museum National Historic Site. Karen gave us an update on some of the current happenings at the museum. The current exhibit is about the history of the Oxford Rifles and a travelling exhibit has just arrived. It is "Passages to Freedom: Secrets of the Underground Railroad." On February 20, the museum will celebrate Heritage Day with three special speakers. A major focus of the museum is the 14 education programs. 4000 students participated in the education programs last year. Later this year there will be an exhibit on Woodstock's shifting landmarks. The museum is updating its database for the 10,000 photographs it maintains. These photos will help demonstrate the change of landmarks in Woodstock and how these landmarks give a sense of place, a sense of belonging in an individual community. Karen coaxed our members to recall various city landmarks.
President Pieter shared information regarding the Mexico project with the Rotary Club of Hermosilio Mileno. The contributing amount from us as the Sponsor Club has been revised to "up to CDN $3000.00." A motion was made by Paul Bradford (seconded by Rama Murthi) to accept the proposal for this international project up to CDN $3000.00. The motion passed.
There was a brief discussion regarding the upcoming Fish Fry on April 29, 2006 and Garry Honcoop requested a meeting with committee members following this meeting.
-Three Mexico projects were brought forward by Terry Hemsworth and were discussed. The board approved the proposed project to go ahead with, subject to member approval. -Rama Murhti volunteered to fill in as interim Director in the absence of Byron. Byron has resigned from his position of Director due to scheduling problems. -Steve Halyk looked into family membership and it is in the trial stages and will not be known before 2007 if it will become available. -Speakers, every person booking a speaker will be responsible to get a profile on the speaker and subject at the time of booking the speaker. -The board approved our goal to increase our givings to Rotary Foundation to $200.00 U.S. per club member subject to the success of the 2006 Fish Fry silent auction.
Hi everyone . . Yesterday was an exciting day as we distributed over 700 shoe box gifts to the poor children in Mexico. We had six travel to participate from Canada plus some other Rotarian friends from Arizona, in addition to the Mexicans. After a brief stay in Tucson, the day started out well in Mexico with everyone excited, including all of the children who received the boxes and their mothers, who were given bags of groceries. But the joy soon turned to disappointment when we started running out of boxes and grocery bags.
President Pieter Stam shared correspondence received from Ingamo Homes thanking the club for the Christmas gifts, and from the Woodstock Hospital Foundation thanking the club for the donation.
Our guest speaker was David Creery, City Engineer for Woodstock, who spoke to us about the implications of the major development happening in Woodstock.
The annual meeting of the Rotary Club of Woodstock-Oxford was held at 6:30 pm on December 14, 2005 at the home of Jack and Sally Bingham. After the meeting was called to order by President Pieter Stam, the invocation was given by Garry Honcoop followed by toasts to the Queen, Canada and Finland. Ilene Buchanan introduced our guest at the meeting, Sally Bingham - a guest in her own home!
The meeting included the election of officers for the upcoming year, resulting as follows: For the year 2006/07 (beginning July 1, 2006): President: Paul Bradford President Elect: Michael Sheehan Past President: Pieter Stam Treasurer: Paul Turner Secretary: to be determined Directors: Norm Narancsik, Coral Sheehan, Jack Bingham, Paul LeRoy
Garry Honcoop agreed to serve as Treasurer until Paul Turner takes over July 1, 2006.
Regarding the upcoming 25th anniversary of the club, Mike Sheehan approached the Sentinel-Review about considering a special supplement and the response seemed agreeable. We also need a special event or project to commemorate the anniversary. There was discussion about possibly holding a special evening or BBQ; about inviting previous exchange students, past presidents, and charter members; or donating a special flower garden or area of a park. It was agreed that the discussion would continue in January.
First I want to thank all of you for helping to make this a successful year for Rotary and the camaraderie within our Club, it is so good to see everyone share the workload and help each other to reach the goals of Rotary and Humanity. I know this year we've lost a few Good Rotarians (temporarily I hope) because of other commitments, but we are well on our way to start our recruitment plan. And as there are many people around that are willing To Lend A Hand, I am sure we will be successful. We already have some visitors (prospective members)that are coming to some of our meetings and I see that everyone makes them feel welcome.
This fall was busy. Our club completed the ticket sales for the ATV on which many weekends of your free time was spent. Thanks to all who participated we raised over $22,000 which was donated toward the new Woodstock Hospital. The winner of the ATV was Moe Welch, congratulations.
Our Rotary medals program also finished this fall with all chosen students receiving a check of $200.00 each toward their continuing education. We are looking forward to next year to meet the next excellent group of young people.
President Pieter Stam shared correspondence received: three letters of thanks from Roatary medals students for the bursaries they received; the Woodstock Hospital Foundation extending an invitation for the trip to Queens Park; a letter of thanks from the South Gate Centre for the donation which they will use to purchase a laptop; and a newsletter from the Probus Club (which initiated discussion about possibly co-operating with the Probus Club to donate to Ingamo Homes at Christmas).
A General Assembly was held at the meeting of November 23, 2005. The meeting was presided by incoming president Paul Bradford. The Annual General Meeting has been postponed.
Doug Vincent, District Governor and member of this club, attended our meeting on October 5. Although this was not his official District Governor visit, he was our guest speaker for the evening.
.** Law Enforcement GSE with Mexico ** On September 24th a GSE team from Mexico will arrive made up of members with the vocation of Law Enforcement. They will be here for four weeks, concluding their visit with the Rotary Roundup Discon'05 in Niagara Falls. The GSE committee is still looking for hosting club(s). Applications are also being taken for outbound Team Leader (deadline, Sept 9th) and Team Members (deadline, Oct 10th). Forms and more details on GSE can be found on the www.rotary.org website. For information contact: Kathi Smith at smithkathi@sympatico.ca or Tim Mau at tmau@uoguelph.ca
This year is off to a good start, already one month into the new Rotary year. I am just getting used to chair our club, it is not always easy to think of all the things that need to be done but with your patience and help we will try to make it a good year.
This club has accomplished many things in the past and has helped many people in need, i.e. locally Ingamo Homes, Women's Emergency Centre, Sunshine Foundation, Woodstock Hospital, Rewarding Young people for their leadership and community service through Rotary Medals, V.I.P. (Values, Influences, Peers) program in our elementary schools and abroad with water wells in the Philippines, Christmas shoe box program in Mexico, Polio Plus eradication Program which with all our clubs we raised more then $600.000.000 and other programs. You should be proud of all the things you have helped with your Service Above Self, and that is what Rotary is all about, people giving of their time and money by helping people in need without monetary rewards, but warm feeling inside after you the need of people and are able to do something about it. This year I hope we can continue that trend with your help.
Meeting Presided by Pres. Steve and commenced at 6.30 PM. Our guest of the evening were Paul Rigby (our speaker) and his wife Donna, Renan Barrios and Piers Evans our inbound and outbound exchange students.
Announcements
April 20 meeting cancelled because of Fish Fry. People hired for cleanup after Fish Fry. Outlook is good for the Fish Fry. Keith Sherman announced to put Sept. 21 on our calender for a golf tournament at Oxford Meadows, more to follow.
Fines Coral, Erik and Doug were fined for certain infractions
Meeting was presided by President Steve and was called at 6.30 P.M. After the toast to the Queen, Canada, Paraguay and Finland our guest were introduced by Keith Sherman, which were: Wendy Jennings from The London Hyde Park Rotary Club, Renan Barrios, our inbound exchange student from Paraguay, Piers Evans, our outbound exchange student going to Finland, Tom Hemsworth from the Calgary Rotary Club and Roger Labrash ,proposed new member. Nelson, our Sargeant at Arms asked for Happy Bucks, and these came forward: Gary Honcoop for a new grand daughter Pieter Stam for Edie's birthday Keith Sherman for family coming Norm Narancsik for the Jetsgo delay and extra time in Dominican Paul Turner for not being alone at his table Peter Van Wees for meeting Stevi Mae in South Africa and bringing greetings from her Nelson for his Name on the nomination list for City/County counselor
Our speaker did not show up for his talk this evening.
Gary talked about the Fish Fry, so far when we add up possible ticket sales we are at about 500. Rama encouraged us to solicit and bring in the silent auction items to make it successfull.
Our district convention will be held at Niagara Falls on October 22 and 23, 2005 Please keep these dates open as we are all expected to participate and help our incoming District Governor Doug Vincent. Please click on the address below or paste the address below into the browser to find out more about this event. http://www.clubrunner.ca/dprg/dxprogramhome/_programhome.aspx?did=7080&pageid=1862
With the outgoing and incoming board we have attended about 5 meetings to talk over what to change for the coming Rotary year, these meetings were fairly intense and satisfying meetings and a lot of ground was covered. To learn more about this we will be having an assembly very soon, so please keep your eye on the spoke for more information.
Comments: In recognition of Rotary Centennial Peter talked about Paul Harris and his legacy and accomplisments of Rotary around the world and in the century to come. Suggested we all read February issue of The Rotarian. Renan enjoyed the Raptors game and the sights. Reminder that the club is still looking for host families for Renan.
The Fish Fry on April 16 was very successfull, we thank everyone for all their hard work, next week we hope to have some final figures. Please bring in your money that was collected from ticket sales to our upcoming meeting this wednesday.
Presiding: Paul Bradford, Guest speaker arrangements and Introduction: Coral Sheehan Speaker: Melanie Folkema, Toastmasters Attendance/Greeting: Doug Vincent and Peter Van Wees Innvocation and Thanking: Michael Sheehan Sargeant at Arms: Erik Tremblay
Over the next 15 to 20 years StreetKeepers is hoping to expand from India into the African nations that are plagued with the AIDs epidemic.
The StreetKeepers project was introduced to our Club by one of our members, TomThirtle of Distinct Options.We have been granted a limited fundraising license to sell specific items for this project.Ten percent of the gross sales are being remitted to Rotary International.
As Executive Director for Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), John Oosterink is responsible for the delivery of home and community health care services to the residents of Oxford County.
The meeting was presided by President Steve, and called to order at 6.30 P.M. Our guest for this evening were: Carol Hemsworth, Wendy Johnston(prospective member)both guest of Terry, Piers Evans and Renan Barrios(inbound and outbound exchange students), Tom thirtle and Wendy Jennings. --Please contact Steve if you want to go to the Chicago Convention June 18-23, there are 6 signed up already. --Rick Kiers got called upon to receive his Paul Harris for the second time, the first time his name was misspelled. --Pieter Stam got fined one dollar for every airplane he was on since December. --Happy Bucks, Doug V. for his trip to Mexico, Arizona, California and his divorce settlement. Terry H. for his prospective member Wendy, John Garton for his daughter in curling, because she is doing better then him and is going to the provincial competition, Keith Sherman for his third anniversary of being out of the hospital and still alive today. --Blue tribe member Erik brought a special screwdriver to be raffled off and Byron won it(it cost him an extra buck because he did not have a ticket to prove it, bur no one else claimed it)
The meeting was opened by President Steve at 6.30 P.M. Nelson Simard recited the Invocation after which a toast was proposed to the Queen, Canada and Paraguay.
Erik Tremblay introduced our visitors, which were, Sam Purdy from the Cambridge Rotary Club, Renan Barrios our inbound student from Paraguay, Piers Evans(I think Erik forgot his name, which will cost you)our outbound student, Roger Labrash, prospective member and David Scott, also from Woodstock.
Piers Evans, our new outbound student revealed to the club that he was chosen to go to Finland, which was one of his choices, Congratulations Piers.
-Next week, our speaker Will be Wendy Jenning from the London Rotary Club and she will speak on the streetkeepers program.
Nelson was the Sargent at Arms and was out to get people because he was short of money and he was successful, because our newest member to be, Roger, was happy to help him and came up with a donation to the cause, several other members presented a happy buck also.
On Sunday February 20Th Piers, his father Peter, Renan and I went to Rotary Glen in Brampton, where all the exchange students gathered to find out which country the 21 outbound students are going to. It was a very exciting time for the outbounds, because the experience to go to the specific country for which they were chosen, will change their lives forever. Most of the destinations were accepted with a loud "yes" and a hug from the inbound student from that Country. We all should thank the District Committee for all their time spend on countless interviews and meetings to make this happen.
Our speaker for this evening will be Sam Purdy. Sam is the Volunteer Chair for 2005 Canadian Professional Golf Association Championship. Sam will share information about the event and also the Nationwide Tour they are organizing
Here is another picture of our Rotary party, check out the home page for more.
The centennial was held wednesday evening at the Southgate Centre, With many Rotarians, former Rotarians and Rotarian friends present from the Ingersoll, Tillsonburg, Tavistock, Woodstock and Woodstock Oxford Clubs The Speaker of the evening was Debra Vanbrenk from the London FreePress, who recounted the history of Rotary involving Polio Plus. Debra did a magnificent job, she spend counless hours researching Polio Plus.
annual general meeting of the Woodstock Oxford Rotary club tool place at the quality Inn on Jan 12 . Next years officers were selected President Pieter Stam . President elect Paul Bradford Directors Mike Sheehan.Byron Dorey ,Paul LeRoy,Coral Sheehan, Gibson Bernath,Norm Naranscik The financial statement and budget were presented (copies are available)
Please join us in saying goodbye to Stevi-Mae Krugger our current exchange student from South-Africa. WHEN: Monday January 10th, 2005WHERE: Mosaic Restaurant / Next to the train stationTIME: 6:30 pm to 9:30pmYou may join us for dinner (on your own) or for a beverage of your choice. If you have not already done so, please confirm via email on how many will attend to Nelson at nelsonsphotograph@rogers.com
Our meeting will be with the Woodstock Club on Monday evening, our speaker will be Barry Howie, who is totally involved with Polio Plus and will be speaking about his experience in going out and innoculate children in Africa etc.
The meeting was called to order by incoming president, Pieter Stam.
Our Guest for this evening were introduced by Coral, which were: Tom Hemsworth, Eric Tremblay and Stevi Mae, our Exchange student from South Africa
Our speakers are:
Janelle Koolhaas and Jose Angel Lopez Dominguez
Janelle and her husband Jose Angel came back from Mexico, where Janelle was a Missionary.
They will be speaking about life, education, ecomony and other topics.
This will be very interesting and educational,Bring out a friend to this meeting
We are having Tribe/Committee meetings at our regular meeting. Please bring whatever info you have about new speakers, upcoming events (christmas party, fishfry) etc. along , so we can plan our events at this meeting and share our information. Please come out, we need everyone at this meeting.