Since 2008 (but with a break for COVID in 2020) our Rotary club has hosted a Christmas Kettle for Salvation Army at Stone Road Mall, and our members have stepped up to greet and thank those making donations. This year our volunteers covered 5 shifts, between 10am and 8pm, including first-timer "Friend of Rotary" Andrea Bardos. Thanks to everyone who volunteered, some photos follow....
Our club was invited to partner with Hammond Power Solutions in a holiday community service project - working with some of their staff to pack 120 drawstring bags with personal necessities, to be donated to Royal City Mission.
With help from our Rotary club members, as well as a monetary donation from the club itself, our Service Projects committee team was able to buy everything on the list of items provided for the 5 families that we "adopted" for this Christmas! These 5 families represented 8 adults and 15 children (age range: 6 to 18) who now will have a more joyful Christmas with these gifts.
Tis the season for giving and our Rotary club has been donating Christmas Gift Bags to the Chalmers Centre in Guelph since 2014. For both 2023 and 2024 we were able to increase our donation to 50 bags filled with essential items for community members in need. Thanks to Service Projects committee chair Veronika Sorek and her team for making this all happen!
We love getting together, enjoying each other’s company. On November 23 Bella hosted us for a holiday dinner where we also presented Paul Harris Fellow awards to Sharron Riley-Persson and Past President Shelley Adlington. Thanks again to Bella for her hospitality!
At this morning’s weekly meeting we had some special guests! District 7080 Governor (2024-2025) Sohail Naseer made his first in-person visit to our club and gave a presentation on his goals for his year, along with some personal anecdotes on his involvement with Rotary since he originally joined, in Pakistan, in 1989. Sohail’s interests include supporting youth, so it was opportune that the Secretary of the University of Guelph Rotaract Club, Connor Kosnaskie, was able to join us as well. In honour of DG Naseer’s visit our club is donating $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation’s PolioPlus Fund which will be matched 2:1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to be used towards the project to eradicate polio around the world for once and for all.
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