November 15, 2018: Carolyn Drummond, “Classification”, Roger Black will introduce, and Colleen Devine will thank our speaker.
Head Table: Our President Paul Roulston, invites, Roger Black, Dan Kane, John Kechnie, Bryan Lapier, Bill Lemmon, Steve Lichty and Bob Lightfoot, to join him at the head table.
Today at Rotary: We held our club Remembrance Day program. Al Wakelin lead us in an opening two minutes of silence that followed a poem from the great war. Al also lead us in a fitting closing of the meeting with a reading of "In Flanders Fields" followed by the singing of God Save the Queen.
Our speaker today was Lisa Hutchison, a Stratford resident who recently received an international award for her book "Iron Annie" and who had much to share with us about being a refugee family in Germany during WWll.
Lisa was born in Berlin and came to Canada at age 12 after the war. She and her husband Robert have 6 children and 3 grandchildren.
Lisa's father was her hero. Trained to be a pilot by Hermann Goering, he flew for the early German airlines and became one of a small group of pilots who regularly flew Hitler to destinations throughout Europe. He managed to distance himself from politics although he did have contacts with high ranking members of the military. In Contrast, Lisa's mother was the rock that held the family together and who suffered unbearable hardship to do so. For example, as Berlin was being bombed to ruin, her family and many others were shipped to a city near the Russian border. As the Soviet forces advanced west. these families were forced to retreat west. It was winter, there was no shelter and food was scarce. Children died during this long difficult march. Later there was an opportunity for the family to leave by ship. The family travelled by train to the port where the ship was docked but the ship was bombed and sunk before they would have boarded.
The war ended and there was no food to be had anywhere. Germany was divided into four quadrants: Soviet Union. USA, Britain, and France. Children were issued soldier's mess kits to carry to school where they received soup. At the end of the day, they return home with enough soup still in the mess kit for the whole family.
Lisa's wish with her book and with her talk today was to tell the story of the families that become war refugees and the hardships that are experienced. Her book however, also tells the story of her father, the problem-solving hero. I know. I have read the book.
Lisa was introduced by Al Wakelin and thanked by Diane Sewell.
Scribe - Norm Bird
Loading COMMIT container for Nicaragua Nov 8. Thank you Rotarians Pat , Steve, Wendy, Colleen
COMMIT Fashion show Nov 7. Rotarians participating.
Guests: Today we welcomed Jane Whittemore, Reverend Robert Hutchison, Helen Mussell, Jean Aitcheson from the Festival City Club, Carolyn Champaign, Goderich and RL Read - Stratford.
Draw: Jim Snider was the recipient of today's draw which was a gift certificate from Designs by Kate.
Make-ups: No report.
November’s Attendance Committee: Jim Young (I/C), Marcia Matsui, Dave Skinner, Philip Schroeder, Gerry Thuss, Sue Wakelin, Clark Mitchell, Carolyn Blackburn.
