February 2, 2017

Posted by Nick Aroutzidis on Feb 04, 2017

February 9, 2017: Ms Anita Gaffney “Update on Festival “. Our speaker will be introduced by Jo-Anne Hood Tidman.

Head Table: Our President Kevin Silver, invites, Jo-Anne Hood Tidman, Rick Orr, Guy Chadney, Carolynne Champagne, Stephen Chandler, Maryanne Cox Wilson and Bill Cozyn, to join him at the head table.

This Week: To-day’s program. Paul Finkelstein, Northwestern High School, teacher educator and mentor of youth, told us about his East End Project. Food, Well being and Friendship used as tools to connect kids from here to kids from there, there being our North, Baffin Island, Nunavut Territory, the kids being Inuit like Tommy Quvianaqtuliaq, who was here with Paul today. Paul said kids like Tommy are friendly and fit well with our kids. Heritage Canada National Trust funds the trips between here and Cape Dorset on Baffin Island’s coast. Expensive – 24 Inuit coming south to connect with our kids, as an example. Paul has taken three kitchens there which are used each trip to teach kids cooking. Kids are also taken grocery shopping. The whole experience.

Our kids going north see (and eat) Inuit traditional food. Tommy's favorite is cariboo. Lots of fish are consumed and Inuit like it with soya sauce. Frozen meat is preferred to non-frozen. There you go! In the fall north and south farming operations will be compared. Yoga is very popular. So is fruit taken north by Paul. It went by the handful. Cape Dorset - population is 350. The high school has 225 students. Lower school says 186, but Paul says 86 realistically.

Waterloo University and Health Canada (Minister Philpott) are interested in the Eat Fit project. Other areas in the north are being considered, including the Yukon, with visits including a cook and a yoga instructor to make friends and share skills. Fund raisers – the chef from the Bruce will be the attraction at one. Paul also credited Rotary's Northern Student Program. Particular students, Jennifer wants to be a chef. Paul will help at the school. Tommy is a very talented young artist. And one student is heading off to Fanshawe College, which is really great news.

The wind-up. The student mentor who created Northwestern's famous screaming avocado restaurant, developed organic gardens at Northwestern, holds bi-weekly dinners, is a columnist, restaurant critic, husband and father and has been taking kids to Cape Dorset since 2010, is a guy called Paul Finkelstein. Today, Past President Rob Ritz, not only introduced Paul, he got to be the fortunate one to give his friend a Paul Harris Fellowship.

Scribe: D.G.P. Q.C.

Guests: Today we welcome; Heather Carr, James and Lori Colbeck, Laura Pogson fro the FCRC, Colleen Brown and Steve Stacey.

Draw: The prize today was donated by David Martin (Fellinis) and Carolyn Blackburn was the winner.

Make-ups: Angus MacDermid February 1, at the Rotary Club of Fort Walton Beach

February’s Attendance Committee: Jerry McEwin (I/C), Michael Fox, Shawn Malvern, Ryan Erb, Rob Roes, Rick Orr, Elizabeth Gaffney, Dan Kane, Wendy Anderson, Michael Bellai.