President Rajbir opened the meeting. Katie Watson read the 4-Way Test and Vanessa Stevenson read an Invocation.

 

Ivana served as SAA and reported 16 Rotarians in attendance (3 were Zoomers) along with guest Shane who is Katie's hubby. 

 

President Rajbir recognized Remembrance Day and all who served for our freedom with a Moment of Silence. Dr Murray then led us into a rendition of O Canada. Thanks, Murray. 

- Bulletin Editor Todd corrected himself on last week's bulletin by confirming that it was President Rajbir's daughter and NOT son that was recently called to the New York state bar. He also noted that it was Treasurer Tom and NOT Dr Tom that has an additional grandchild (welcome to the world, Little Wilfie!). Little did the Toddler realize that both Toms could have extra grandchildren they don't know about!

- Ann-Marie reported on her first Bingo night experience and said is was a both good fun and well run. Thanks for volunteering for this, Ann-Marie!

Ann-Marie introduced guest speaker Jim Estill who joined us via Zoom. Jim is the President and CEO of Danby Appliances as well as a Canadian technology entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist. He started his first computer distribution business from the trunk of his car while in university and grew that business to $2 Billion in sales.

 

Jim is a true Humanitarian and was involved in bringing more than 80 Syrian families to Guelph a few years ago. His current goal is to bring 50 Afghanistan families to our countries and today's talk was all about people supporting growth. Jim shared a few staggering stats with us:

Bringing refugee families to Canada is no easy undertaking and Jim learned a great deal of what works and what doesn't work through this role in sponsoring Syrian families a few years ago. He emphasized the importance of being grateful for what you have and not ungrateful for what you don't have or for what you have lost. Jim quickly learned that government funded sponsorship took much longer and was not as effective as private sponsorship. And so, Danby has become a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) that takes responsibility for people during their first year in Canada.

 

This is no easy task and requires a team who basically offer 'settlement support.' Each refugee family is assigned FIVE mentor families and a checklist used to help them with things ranging from setting up a bank account to getting a bus pass to finding employment via a Job Coach. Danby strives to ensure at least one of the five mentor families speaks the same language as the refugee family and that at least one other family has children of the same age.

 

Jim noted that kids under 10 have a much easier time adapting to our culture and language than teenagers. The challenges for teens lies in the fact that many of them have not been in school for up to five years and they tend to maintain an accent when learning English which makes them less likely to feel like they fit in. 

 

As sponsors, Danby works closely with Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, Mission Thrift, Hope House and the Clothes Closet to help get families set up with food, clothing, housewares and furniture. Jim made arrangements for safety shoes to be donated to refugees in order to help equip them for employment and Danby offers 90 days of light employment at their site in order to provide ESL classes to refugees and to introduce them to our culture.