Peter Gill, from Chalmers Community Services, was our guest speaker this week. Here is past-president, Linda Main, presenting a donation cheque to Peter.
Proud to also serve Puslinch Township
Come together as strangers, work together as friends
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We meet Thursdays at 7:30 AM
Springfield Golf & Country Club
Springfield Golf & Country Club
2054 Gordon Street
Guelph, ON N1L1G6
Canada
Guelph, ON N1L1G6
Canada
Email:
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Debbie Allen
I am thrilled to be this years President of the Rotary Club of Guelph South!
Being part of this incredible group has been such a pleasure for me. I never thought doing my part would be so much fun! I have always been civic minded, but until I joined this group, I looked at it as my duty! Now it is the best part of my life! This group accomplishes so much for such a small group and they do so with joy and determination. I hope to live up to their standards and am excited about the year ahead!
Charlie Barnes has ridden in tne Tour de Guelph several times and, each year, he manages to convince an enormous number of friends and family to sponsor his ride.
In June 2019, Charlie achieved a new record - the largest sponsorship amount ever collected by a single rider in the 6-year history of the Tour de Guelph. Charlie collected $8,500 in sponsorships!
Congratulations - and sincere thanks - from all of us.
Congratulations to our own Charlie Barnes on his induction into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame. The HoF is located at the far end of the Old Quebec Street Shoppes on Wyndham Street in downtown Guelph.
July 31st 2019 marks the 18th anniversary of the chartering of Rotary Club of Guelph South (originally Rotary Club of Wellington South). Our club – the newest of the 4 Guelph Rotary clubs – was sponsored by Rotary Club of Guelph-Trillium in order to service the growing south end of Guelph and neighbouring Puslinch Township.
“Coming together as strangers, working together as friends”
The original group of 20 individuals, committed to Service Above Self, has grown and still counts 7 of the original Charter Members as members today.
The original group of 20 individuals, committed to Service Above Self, has grown and still counts 7 of the original Charter Members as members today.
Charter President Bill Hammond + Presidents of the other 3 Guelph Rotary Clubs - 2001 Charter Celebration
The Charter Members plus Ralph Marziano (Rotary Club of Guelph-Trillium) - 2001 Charter Celebration
Welcome to our new Board of Directors for 2019-2020. They are (from left to right): Frank Oudesluys, David Turvey, Blaire Rennie, Hazel Dickie, Linda Craig, Peter Clark, Russ Powell, Linda Main and Debbie Allen.
July 1st marks the start of the new Rotary year, and that means a new President! Deb Allen will lead our Rotary club for the next year, very much following the lead of Past President Linda Main whose term just ended and who had a most successful year.
We meant it when we said this would be our biggest and best ride yet. We are announcing our BIGGEST Prize Promo yet for youth riders who fundraise!Guelph South Rotary member Bella Hodgkinson (a.k.a. Idabelle, a.k.a. Idie) has secured two children’s mountain bikes, courtesy of Canadian Tire Saskatoon East.
Matteo Furfaro, from Bishop Mac High School, was one of the Camp Enterprise students that attended the 2-day workshop at University of Waterloo in May. He spoke to our members about his experience and of winning the team prize for best business model for a start-up organization. He told us that his biggest learning from this experience was the chance to be exposed to business leaders and how they manage complex business issues.
VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION BRUNCH
The Rotary Club of Guelph South kicked off National Volunteer Week
With a Volunteer Appreciation Brunch at the Cutten Fields Club . One hundred volunteers from 10 local charities were recognized and honoured for their generous and dedicated hours of contribution to our community. Each charity also received $1,000. This years Recipients included Community of Hearts, Elderdogs, Foods4kids, Focus on Nature, My Kitty Café, Parish Nurse Program, Royal City Quilters, Rotaractors of U of G,
The Seed and The Shoebox Project.
The University of Guelph's Rotaract Club held its annual Gala on March 2nd, and this year selected Food4Kids to be the beneficiary of the proceeds.
They attended our weekly meeting on March 21st to present $5,000 how amazing is that??
We are grateful to the Rotaractors for their support of this important project being championed in Guelph by the 4 Rotary Clubs.
We were thrilled to be able to formally induct 2 new members today: Martin Litchfield (sponsor Russ Powell) and Charlie Barnes (sponsor Linda Craig). Both have a long tradition of volunteer service, and becoming Rotarians is a natural progression.
(l-r: Russ Powell, Martin Litchfield, President Linda Main, Linda Craig, Charlie Barnes)
We're pleased to announce that Food4Kids Guelph has received confirmation of its non-profit incorporation, and is in the process of getting its charitable status finalized. This exciting news is accompanied by their new logo and new website www.food4kidsguelph.ca - we hope you'll check it out!
Tickets are still available for the April 2nd fundraiser breakfast being held at Cutten Fields. Help us ensure that more kids have their weekend food needs met by attending the breakfast or making a donation.
Tickets are now available SOLD OUT for the upcoming fundraiser in support of the @Food4KidsWW program in Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin. Help the Rotary clubs in Guelph as they address the issue of the 1500-1800 children in local schools who experience severe food insecurity in their homes. Thanks to everyone for their support!
Many local school children already benefit from weekday, in-school nourishment programs such as breakfasts, snacks and/or lunches that are available to all children in the school. But for the children facing severe food insecurity at home, there is a serious gap in their access to food over weekends and during school holidays. Local food banks and food pantries are not able to cover this gap adequately, despite their best efforts due to the inability of families to access the food they require. When children are nourished consistently their opportunities for a better future increase and their health and well-being are positively affected. They feel like they belong in their environment, whether it is the school classroom, playground or in the greater community.
Join us for breakfast, donate a silent auction item or become an event sponsor....contact us for more information and THANK YOU!
On February 8th 2019 we hosted our annual fundraiser to benefit Sunrise Therapeutic Riding & Learning Centre, along with other worthwhile Rotary projects.
The sell-out crowd of 240 guests enjoyed delicious all-you-can eat food, fellowship, door prizes, raffles and a silent auction boasting a wide range of items to be bid on.
While final numbers aren't in yet it's looking as if net proceeds will exceed $9,000 - a record for this event.
We are so grateful to the table sponsors along with the donors of silent auction/raffle/door prize items.
Their generosity went a long way towards making this event the huge success it was.
We used the event as an opportunity to make a $5,000 donation to Sunrise Therapeutic Riding & Learning Centre, along with a $2,800 donation to Childrens' Help for Uganda.
A photo album is on the club website home page (right side) along with a photo carousel (left side). Thanks to the volunteers, sponsors, prize donors and especially our guests!
Our Rotary meeting theme this week was "GivingThursday" and we spent it donating contents & packing 10 Christmas Gift Bags for @ChalmersCentre, which we do every year, along with something new this year - 5 shoeboxes for @ShoeboxGuelph #ShoeboxProject. Great fun & felt good too!
As usual our members enthusiastically participated, both with the donated goods and the packing of the gift packages. Guest Nicole Greco jumped right in there as well, helping with the packing and taking left over donated goods to Hope House for us...thanks Nicole!
This week Guelph General Hospital had its official ribbon-cutting for its new CT Scanner. Marianne Walker, GGH president and CEO, said the machine will improve the quality of care, create increased efficiency and will save money.
The previous CT scanner was 13 years old and performed over 300,000 scans. It frequently broke down and need repairs. It will be refurbished and used in a developing country. A year ago the hospital put a new CT scanner at the top of its wish list.
Cost of just under $1 million was paid for primarily through donations and fundraising in the community, including the Tour de Guelph community cycling event.
Rotary Club of Guelph South President Linda Main represented the club at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Thanks to everyone that supported Tour de Guelph, YOU were part of this too!
Again in 2018 we enjoyed hosting a busload of youngsters from the Shelldale Community Centre at Sunrise Therapeutic Riding & Learning Centre. These city kids had an opportunity to whoop it up in a country setting, enjoying the fresh air, the animals, the BBQ and food, the swimming pool and the sports activities. A group of volunteer Rotarians, along with Sunrise representatives, supervised the youngsters during the visit. We're grateful to Sunrise for making their facility available for this event, and we know that the youngsters had a really good time!
On July 12th the District 7080 Director for Rotary Foundation and Past District Governor, Norm Bindon, attended our weekly meeting and presented the Club with a cheque for $4,597.00 representing proceeds from the Rotary Foundation as a District sponsored grant, towards the work done at the Olive Tree Projects birthing and maternal health in Haiti. In January 2018 four Rotarians from our club (Peter and Celia Clark, Geoff and Deb Allen) went to Haiti in order to do renovations to their kitchen and install solar panels on the clinic roof in order to provide a more consistent source of electricity. Donations to the Rotary Foundation are invested and after 3 years are available to clubs, both at the District and International level, to assist clubs in financing worthy projects like this.
And, while Norm was there, he was honoured to be able to award a Paul Harris Fellow +3 Pin to Rotarian Brian Cowan. This pin with a special stone recognizes a level of contributions to the Rotary Foundation. Congratulations Brian!
The pilot project for servicing the Guelph area is progressing well, with the school year soon coming to a close. The project team has been working through the logistics of this new program on a smaller scale with the intention of being able to incorporate more volunteers and increasing the number of students that can be serviced starting this fall.
We are grateful to the project team for all their work in getting this project started, and are looking forward to a full roll-out that more of us can be involved with. Stay tuned!
(Members of the Food4Kids project team)
Rotary Club of Guelph South has, since 2007, sponsored senior students from Bishop Macdonell High School to attend the Golden Triangle Camp Enterprise 3-day residential business development program that is sponsored by 9 Rotary Clubs in the Guelph, Cambridge and K-W area. The program this year ran from May 1st through 3rd in Waterloo. This year we sponsored 4 students, and we were pleased to welcome 3 of them that were available to attend our May 17th weekly meeting and give us their impressions of their participation. Nestor Rivera, Happy Tran and Zachary Taylor shared how they were part of a break-out group that developed a business plan for a new business with a mens’ hair care product. They also spoke about their visit to the Velocity Project and in particular how much food was made available to the participants!
(Rotarian Frank Oudesluys, Happy, Nestor, Rotary President Bruno Marziano, Zachary)
In particular, Nestor expressed a desire to pursue involvement in a Rotaract Club after having observed the presentations by the Rotaractors. While none of them had known about Rotary, or Rotaract, before taking part in Camp Enterprise, they now have a better idea of what both are and appreciated the opportunity to be part of the group that attended Camp Enterprise. We were gratified to get the following feedback from their business teacher at Bishop Mac, Kevin Da Costa: “I have spoken to the 4 students from BM who went and they all loved it! Extremely positive reviews and they were very grateful to have the chance to go.”
On April 19th we had past member Cheryl Cowan speaking on her involvement with the Royal City Quilters Guild and our partnership with them in the creation of 200 "Comfort Quilts" over the past year. Cheryl displayed some sample quilts and advised on the disposition of the 200 quilts. She has since written an article for the upcoming RCQG newsletter that she has shared with us:
We are pleased and proud of our involvement with this worthwhile project of RCQG.
On Friday March 23rd the University of Guelph Rotaractors hosted their annual Gala, this year to benefit the Start2Finish Running & Reading Program in Guelph. Everyone, including the Rotary Club of Guelph South members that attended the event, had a great time and very much enjoyed the dinner. Their Facebook page has some photos, including these:
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Only 5 cases of polio worldwide so far in 2018! Be proud to be a Rotarian and part of the monumental 30 year effort to eradicate this disease for good.
The First National Health Week 2018 in Mexico will be held from February 17 to 23. The first National Health Week has as main activity the application of oral poliomyelitis vaccine ( Sabin ) to girls and boys from 6 to 59 months of age, with the purpose of keeping the wild poliovirus eradicated. A group of District 7080 Rotarians - including our own Frank Oudesluys - travelled to Mexico and joined other Rotarians in 2017 and again in 2018, to administer the vaccine to the children. Frank will give the club a presentation on the event at the April 5th weekly meeting.
Frank hasn't provided us with any photos - but we found one, with him, on the internet from the 2018 event!
We were pleased to formally induct 2 new members at the February 8th weekly meeting: Chris Pilgrim and Blaire Rennie.
Chris is well known to our Club through his role as Pastor at the Guelph Salvation Army Citadel - he, along with wife Claudette, has lived a life of service and joining a Rotary Club to extend the reach of his service is a logical extension of that tradition. We got to meet Blaire for the first time a year ago when she attended a meeting - she wasn't able to make a commitment to Rotary then but fortunately for us, she can now. Blaire was described recently by a group that she spoke to as a "serial volunteer", with a strong non-profit, volunteer and fundraising background.
Chris is well known to our Club through his role as Pastor at the Guelph Salvation Army Citadel - he, along with wife Claudette, has lived a life of service and joining a Rotary Club to extend the reach of his service is a logical extension of that tradition. We got to meet Blaire for the first time a year ago when she attended a meeting - she wasn't able to make a commitment to Rotary then but fortunately for us, she can now. Blaire was described recently by a group that she spoke to as a "serial volunteer", with a strong non-profit, volunteer and fundraising background.
Membership Chair Frank Oudesluys welcomes (above) Chris Pilgrim with sponsor Ann Caine (below) Blaire Rennie with sponsor Andreas Hug
