Posted by Nick Aroutzidis on Oct 20, 2018
October 25, 2018: Ms Jean Hewitt, “A Celebration of Canadian Women”, Diane Sewell will introduce, and Doug Brown will thank our speaker.
 
 
Keith with family at Rotary. An icon in the community and a loyal colourful Rotarian. We all have stories. We are terribly saddened by his passing.

Head Table:  Our President Paul Roulston, invites, Diane Sewell, Patrick Feryn, Ian Fisher, John Fisher, Michael Fox and Josef Frank, to join him at the head table.

Today at Rotary:  The club received our annual update on the 2018 United Way Perth-Huron Campaign. Ryan Erb introduced Martin Ritsma who with his wife Kathryn are this year's Campaign Co-Chairs. Kathryn was unable to be here for the meeting. Martin spoke about his life experience being one of 11 children coming to Canada with their parents after the war and beginning dairy farming in the Ottawa area. When 11 years old his mother died and their dairy herd was lost in a barn fire. They then settled in the Stratford area and here Martin married  Kathryn Kelly, a North Easthope girl. Martin attended Northwestern Secondary school and had a desire to be a veterinarian. However that wish did not materialize and after university he began teaching at Northwestern, later serving as principal at Northwestern and then at Central School.
 
 
 
Program speakers Ryan Erb  CEO United way and Martin Ritsma co-chair with his wife the year of the campaign speaking about programs involved in helping 32446 people in the area and the new Teen Prevention program for Mental Health.
 
 
Martin had a strong interest in the welfare of the students. Although recognizing that students generally strove to be the best that they could, some suffered from mental stress and some needed professional counselling. While guidance teachers can help, teachers need the support of professional workers in mental health when needed to avoid tragedies such as suicides. Martin pointed out that 1 dollar spent on help at an early stage will save 7 dollars spent later. Martin once read an epitaph "here lies the ashes of a problem student" He feels that this can be turned around with a good program to read "Here lies the ashes of a problem". Martin sees the possibility with United Way help to turn this problem into ashes.
 
Ryan Erb spoke about the United Way plans and goals for 2018, noting that there are 48 supported programs, 32,000 people served and there are social planning efforts, research projects and settlement issues. He thanked us for our support and encouraged us to practice "Local Love" which is what the United Way is all about.
 
Martin and Ryan were thanked by Jim Young.
 
Scribe - Norm Bird
 
Guests:  Today we welcomed David Braye and Dylan Drummond.
 
Members were encouraged to wear their NHL shirts
 
 
 
 
Draw: In place of the draw today. Arlene Pol, and Katherine Hahn did an information program on the Polio Plus campaign. Members were invited to donate and have their "pinkie" painted by Bob Gulliford. A total of approximately $1400 was raised and will be supported by a $1000 contribution from the club plus a matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation resulting in a total donation of approximately $4800. A few countries still experience new cases of polio. One such country is Pakistan where traveling families with children are easily missed in an inoculation campaign. Now there are special campaigns designed to do children who are travelling.  
 
 
Arlene Pol and Katherine Hahn collecting $1400 for End Polio campaign with matching grants to bring total to $4800 for our club.
 
 
 
Scotch Mist: Mike Gruszczynski. reported on another successful event  - raising approximately $25,000. Mike expressed a big "Thank You" to the sponsors and to the committee and the volunteers that made the event a success.
 
 
Mike Gruszczynski giving final total profits of Scotch Mist of $25,000 this year.
 
 
 
Bill Lemon off the curling bonspiel in Scotland.
 
Make-ups: Chris Thomson, September  20th at  Fairbanks, Alaska 
 
October’s Attendance Committee: Peter Roach (I/C), Peter Roach, George Schroeder, Doug Thompson, Angus MacDermid, Gary Wreford, Lynn McKone, Rob Ritz
 
November’s Attendance Committee: Jim Young (I/C), Marcia Matsui, Dave Skinner, Philip Schroeder, Gerry Thuss, Sue Wakelin, Clark Mitchell, Carolyn Blackburn.
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