March 16, 2017

Posted by Nick Aroutzidis on Mar 16, 2017

March 23, 2017: George Henry “Chippewa of the Thames” in London area giving us a perspective on local First Nations issues. Guy Bellehumeur will introduce our speaker and Rheo Thompson will thank our speaker.

Head Table: Our President Kevin Silver, invites, Guy Bellehumeur, John Kechnie, Bryan Lapier, Bill Lemmon, Steve Lichty, Bob Lighfoot and Gary Lingard, to join him at the head table.

Club decorated for St Patrick’s Day compliments of Junior Achievement group and Tracy Van Kalsbeek.

Junior Achievement group showing their “Scent Packs” for sale as fundraiser. Their web site is www.ecoscentja.weebly.com

Junior Achievement group attended the club flanked by their supervisor left and our President on the right. Rotary helps sponsor the group.

This Week: Today we had an update from the Junior Achievement program with Rotarian

Tracy Van Kalsbeek introducing some of the local members. They demonstrated their fundraising product, an eco-friendly, two-stage, odour eliminator system, highly recommended for gym bags, available now for $10. A cheque for $1000 was presented on behalf of the club by

President Kevin to provide continued Rotary support for this important organization.

Rotarian Gezahgn Wordofa, the founder of the Multicultural Association of Perth-Huron (MAPH) was recognized for his 2016 Sovereign Medal for Volunteers, awarded March 9 at the Governor General's Award ceremony, which was featured in the Stratford Beacon Herald this week. In addition to this award, he has been honoured with the Ontario Government's Newcomer Champion Award, the Governor General's Caring Canadian Award and the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award. Congratulations Gezahgn!

Sydney Fuhrman our guest speaker speaking on her NGE exchange to Britain

Sydney Fuhrmann, who is the daughter of Rotarian Linda Bathe and David Fuhrman and the granddaughter of Rotarian Walt Bathe, shared many great stories and memories from her recent New Generations Experience trip to England, and beyond. After a six-hour "delay" in Heathrow airport, she was able to spend approximately a month and a half in fantastic Biggleswade. Most of her time was spent in Bedfordshire, which is renowned for its lace and rich history. She was an intern at the Bedford Royal Archives as well as at the Higgins Bedford Museum, which is located in a former brewery. She had a lovely host family and host cat.

She shared exciting stories of her many short trips to places such as Cambridge, Leicester and London. While she was there, she interacted with three Rotary clubs and made it onto a local radio station to share her story and background. One of the highlights of her time was the Keech Sleigh Ride. As Sydney had some "extra time" after her six weeks in England, she ventured over to Germany to visit her brother Graeme, who is with the Hamburg Ballet. They both travelled up to the far north of Sweden by train. She also found time to visit Rome with Rotarian Elizabeth Gaffney's daughter, Sara Brown, and finally, Paris. She summed it up well by saying that it had been a wonderful and amazing experience.

Sydney will now attend the University of Victoria where she will study for a M.A in Public History. Sydney drew her own number in the Foundation draw!

In honour of St. Patrick's Day, the meeting was closed out with the playing of Danny Boy.

Sydney was introduced by Peter Roach and thanked by Bob Lightfoot.

Scribe: Philip Schroeder

Family portrait of our speaker flanked by her parents Linda and Dave .

Guests: Today we welcome; David Fuhrman, Kelly Williams, Alan Schroeder, Rhyss Glenfield, Justin Vandersat, and Eric Miller from Junior Achivements.

Draw: The prize today donated by Dan Scarborough and won by Sidney Fuhrman.

Make-ups: Angus MacDermid, March 15, at the Rotary Club of Fort Walton Beach.

March’s Attendance Committee: Jo-Anne Hood Tidman (I/C), Rob Russell, Jim Scott, Dave Bean, Walt Bathe, John Wright, Andrea Page, Chris Thomson, Al Wakelin.