Our regular weekly noon meeting was cancelled today in favour of an evening Cambridge Cluster Celebration -

 

We were brought to order by the MC, Matt Lantz - who's a Toastmaster member of the High Noon Club (that one sounds like fun...)

 

Matt then performed a mass memory test for all those in attendance...  only those close enough to the big screen (so they could cheat), passed

 

Our MC had some pretty good humour going on - let's leave it that when he comes to the Rotary Christmas party, he'll likely be in the same suit :)

 

Matt went through our impressive list of tonight's presenters, but I'm just going to surprise you as you read on....

 

 

Matt Lantz did an excellent job of keeping us ON TIME and moving right along - we went through some brief presentations:

 

- Greetings from Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry - had some sore feet...  after wearing sandals to all meetings for the past 18 months (on ZOOM...) this is one of the first times in high heels!  Well, better sore feet than cold feet

Prior to being Mayor, Kathryn was a nurse, and also very familiar with the work done at KidsAbility, and our support of them.

She also did her homework and listed many of our community events :)

 

- Gerry Menezes - surprised MCMatt with an extra syllable in his last name - he was presenting on behalf of the Rotary Club of Cambridge North's President Ken Denholm - Gerry listed their fundraisers, and it was great to hear Hams and Cakes is still going strong, and they had an extremely successful first annual Road Rally Scavenger Hunt.

 

- Jennifer Clarke - Past President of the Rotary Club of Cambridge Sunrise - they had some GREAT successes this year - namely:

   - home happy jars to collect good news money !!

   - they've 'adopted' a piece of Franklin Blvd - and did some clean up

   - hosted a Blood Donation Challenge

   - had 2,200 cars  through their 'drive through rib fest'

   - and still managed to add 3 new members!

 

President Rajbir Mann - talked a lot about fellowship, our current projects, and our new 2022 initiative, the Crystal Drops of Life Gala - coming to a February near you.

Pres Rajbir also offered our helping/collaborative hand to the other clubs, with our new 'Ask me about Rotary' cards, and our Satellite Club that will restart in the coming months.

Larry B - introduced the main event - District Governor Rudy Habesch

DG Rudy joined Rotary in 1994 in Jordan (me too!  except for the Jordan part...), and the Rotary Club of Oakville in 2009.

 

DG Rudy, here at this first District 7080 Cluster Celebration, told us a story about chatting with Mother Theresa for 3 hours in an England airport  (the EXACT same thing happened to me once, except for the part about meeting Mother Theresa, and being in England).

 

- Serve to Change Lives

- Do more to Grow more

- Each one, Bring one - this is the brain child of RI President Shekhar - the idea is not that every current member get someone to join our club, but for every member to simply invite ONE prospective member to a meeting.  Even if only 1 in 10 join, we'd be well on our way to building our membership.

- There is a new District Committee, challenged with improving our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - if you're interested in participating, please reach out!

- The Rotary Foundation - "the spine that holds Rotary together"

- DG Rudy's vision is "TOGETHER" - Rotary is not about what one person can do...  it's all about what we can accomplish together!

 

Einstein once said "Strive not to be a success, but to be of value"

 

DG Rudy wrapped it up with some important dates:

 

- Saturday May 28, 2022 - District Conference

- RI Convention - June 4-8 - Houston Texas

 

 

PDG Dr. Mike Lawrie - thanked DG Rudy for his presentation tonight, and for his leadership.

 

MC Matt then took control once again, to wrap up the evening 1 minute off of the scheduled time!

 

An incredible job Matt; a true testament to you, and to the Toast Masters program - well done!!