President Rena opened the meeting with a land acknowledgement.  Ivana did the 4 way test (mostly by memory) and Chris Wood (who, according to Todd, last attended a meeting in June 1994 after getting a ride to the club in a white Bronco) gave the invocation.  SA Nancy Yule said there were 26 members plus the very shy Randy Cole who once again joined by Zoom.  Our 3 guests were Sally, Laura and Sheh, visiting from India.

Rena let us know that Vanessa is celebrating her 3rd year in Rotary. 

This week the room loudly shouted, "LOSER!" to both Milja and George whose misfortunes have helped increase the pot to over $1,000.

Sunrise Club's Trivia Night is Friday, April 26 - $20 and a cash bar, BYOF (food).  The Women's Team Captain, Rena has a stellar team with Cathy Everett being the Anchor. The Men's Team's Captain, Jim McPherson is looking for a few more members - no skill required.  

 

District Conference is Saturday, May 11.  A fun, family-friendly and informative event in Milton. Mr. Todd Lyons is the MC.  The club will cover the $75 fee for those wishing to attend.

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Golf Tournament is May 27.   Contact Randy, Andrew or Vanessa if you can help with auction items and/or sponsorship.

 

Earth Day Sunday April 21.  More details will follow from Dr Tom and Dean Fitzgerald who will be looking for volunteers to help with a community cleanup.  According to Dr. Tom, an expert in Piaget's Theory,  the trees are still too early in their psychological development stages to be planted at this time. ???

 

Tuesday, April 16 at 7:45 is the confirmed date for Andrew, Todd, Adam, Ryan and Steve to help Jeff move appliances up the stairs at the Cambridge Food Bank following a recent fire where existing equipment was damaged beyond repair.  On Monday, Jeff will send out a reminder text to all the brawny Rotarians listed above.

 

Sunday, May 5 at the Gaslight District Condos, Club Muse and Dancer Nancy Yule will be hosting the Art Play for Hope fundraiser for the Cambridge Food Bank. Limited tickets, including lunch and all supplies will be available. Price to be confirmed.  Nancy says the day will be filled with fun, creativity, playfulness, experimentation and DANCE. She guarantees that at some point everyone will say, "WOW" (her way of saying there will be no refunds). 

 

Rotary Leadership Institute is Saturday, April 27.  District 7080 will cover the cost of registration for Rotarians of less than 2 years. Deadline for registration is April 19th. More details and registration can be found at here: https://rotary7080.org/event/rotary-leadership-institute---part-1.

 

Friday April 12 is the Champions for Charity - The Brawl at Tapestry Hall.  Jim said he had a couple tickets to the sold out event and Ivana grabbed 2 of the 3.  In celebration of Jim and Erica's heroic training efforts for the event, President Rena supplied each Rotarian in attendance with the "Golden Food for Champion Boxers" aka Lady Glaze donuts. Thanks Rena

 

Ivana thanked the Gala Committee for producing an incredible evening at Tapestry Hall.  She and Rena highlighted the contributions of Todd for being such a professional emcee and of  Heidi for also being a professional in her upside-down, inside-out, backwards corset.  Details on how much was raised will follow.

 

On April 8th, 2024 Rotarian Hank Nykamp passed. For his obituary and funeral service details please visit https://obituaries.therecord.com/obituary/hank-nykamp-1089547409

Fellowship:  Access our membership directory in Clubrunner.  Select a Rotarian at random and wish them a wonderful day.  You will both be glad you did.

 

George has 4 tickets to great seats next Tuesday's Blue Jay game to share. I think he said to share? Perhaps he was just bragging that he had such great seats?

 

Larry is celebrating 27 years of sobriety (way to go Larry) by having surgery on his ankle.

 

Tucson, Arizona is famous for its dramatic beauty, mountains, starry nights, beautiful trails and the rarely seen Chris Wood.  This year, Chris will spend her time in Tucson, Cambridge and Asia.

 

Rena opened up about her anxiety with public speaking and the power she pulled from Rob's 'hockey story' to challenge herself and speak at the gala.  The sharing of good news can positively affect others in ways we never expect.

 

Rena also shared her joy in viewing the eclipse at the cottage - However, she found the sun to be extremely bright and since the eclipse Todd has witnessed Rena swimming into cement walls (you had to be there to understand).

Keith introduced our speaker, Sally Sarachman of Camino Wellbeing and Mental Health and had the room in shock when he first said that Sally would never be invited to attend our golf tournaments.  Apparently, in her days in media, Sally had the markers removed from the golf green to get a better shot for the cameras-but not a better shot for the golfers. The winner could not be determined. We all laugh about that now. 

 

Sally opened by commenting how we did not disappoint and were the rowdy crowd she expected.  She explained how Camino is an amalgamation of KW Counselling, Monica Place and Carizon. 

Their mission is to support individuals, families, and communities as they work to strengthen their wellbeing and mental health.  Supporting journeys to wellbeing.

The unification was an intentionally slow 18 months so that all stakeholders would be involved and no staff would be eliminated.  The purpose is to reduce barriers to mental health by reducing wait times by 1/3, reducing numerous access routes by streamlining navigation of the mental health system and by reducing individual's having to retell their traumatic stories while seeking help.  Sally is also quick to point out that conversations regarding mental health help to reduce stigma. Healthy connections is one of Sally's key messages.

 

Sally provided an engaging presentation and highlighted some key programs and some incredible successes such as assisting pregnant teens graduate high school, creating safe spaces for 2SLGBTQ+ youth, supporting all members of a family with a high needs child, breaking the cycle of poverty through educational resources, offering translation services at doctors appointments (and more), offering quick response counselling and shedding light on the often incorrect assumptions regarding Fetal Alcohol Symptoms. 

 

I could list all the statistics I took notes on, but I think the greatest service I can provide in this bulletin is directing you to https://www.caminowellbeing.ca/ where you just may discover a resource helpful to yourself or a friend (or an enemy).  Sally also distributed these wonderful tools:

 

 

Through questions we learned that Camino will never turn anyone away and while most are funded through employee assistant programs, Social Worker Student Interns offer free services and support is generated through donations, sliding-scale fees, etc.   Camino operates in Waterloo Region while partnering with Guelph to offer services to the 2SLGBTQ+ community.  Camino is considering warm referrals to outside counsellors to help reduce some expenses. 

 

Once again, please take the time to visit https://www.caminowellbeing.ca/

 

Heidi thanked our speaker and Todd provided a closing joke about a damned blind fish.

However, Rena was funnier when she closed the meeting by saying that Rotarians are tools......for bringing hope into the world.