Our Rotary club is looking forward to hosting the 2024 "Brunch at the Arboretum" in support of 5 deserving charities. If you haven't bought YOUR tickets already here's the link for you to do so: https://tinyurl.com/32e3n2ac
Hope to see you there!
Time flies when we're having fun! Hard to believe but July 31 2024 was the 23rd anniversary of our being chartered as a Rotary club (originally "Rotary Club of Wellington South"). Since then we have worked hard, played hard, and contributed to the communities we serve both locally and internationally. We changed our name to "Rotary Club of Guelph South" and we created a separate Charitable Foundation. Starting from $0 in July 2001 we have worked hard and have since made donations approaching - if not actually exceeding - $650,000. We have supported disaster responses in Haiti, Ukraine, Pakistan and British Columbia. We have facilitated projects in Haiti, Nicaragua, Mexico and in an Ontario First Nations community.
This morning a group organized by the Eradicating Human Trafficking committee gathered at St. George's Square in downtown Guelph and marched, carrying the "Stop Human Trafficking" lawn signs, to Guelph City Hall. They were met there by representatives of the Guelph Police Service, Guelph Ward 6 Councilor Dominique O'Rourke and Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie. The Mayor spoke on this issue and then raised the "Stop Human Trafficking" flag on one of the flagpoles outside of Guelph City Hall. Following the event both Councilor O'Rourke and the Guelph Police Service made posts on X (formerly Twitter) in support of the committee's efforts. A photo album has been created and can be viewed at the link here: photoalbums/2024-stop-human-trafficking-flag-raising
Our own Charlie Barnes sent through this thoughtful message to the organizing team for the 2024 Tour de Guelph event:
"I wanted to thank everyone for making the Tour de Guelph event possible and all the hard work y'all did for this great cause. My contribution was fundraising and cycling 25 Km. My donors helped me reach $28,425 this year and my total over the past 7 years has reached $102,425! An all time high by a country mile! I had 193 donors this year, from across 9 time zones from San Francisco to Rotterdam! Every contributor to my ride who donated $100 or more will get a bottle of our very own Cedarcrest Farm maple syrup. Our team, the Guelph Triathlon Club, raised $44,300 topping all other teams. Looking forward to 2025!"
Charlie is 86 years old, and has been a Rotarian for 5 years, continuing decades of community service and raising funds for causes such as Guelph General Hospital and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Effective July 1 2024 Food4Kids Guelph unified its services with the operations of the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington for a more coordinated approach to their programs, and became known as the "Keep Kids Fed At Home" program, continuing to bridge the weekend and holiday gap. Food4Kids Guelph was originally a project developed and managed for the past 5 years primarily by Guelph Rotarians. It involved a great deal of volunteer time and effort, and all those volunteers - including many from our Rotary club - deserve our thanks for how successful the program became.
July 1st marks the start of a new Rotary year, and for 2024-2025 President Stephanie Urchick, a member of the Rotary club of McMurray Pennsylvania USA. Her Presidential Theme is "The Magic of Rotary" and actually represents the last of the Presidential Themes...Rotary International is eliminating the annual theme change after June 30 2025. Thanks to Rotarian Debbie Vance for this wonderful Presidential Theme graphic!
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