As the annual District Governor club visits begin, Pat and I have been delighted to meet with clubs and Rotarians throughout our large District and have the in-person exchange that is Rotary at its finest. We especially look forward to hearing more about what clubs are accomplishing.
When the pandemic came to Squamish in March 2020, the local food bank could no longer have residents visit the facility in person due to COVID protocols, and had to transition to home delivery of food hampers. Rotary Club of Squamish contacted the food bank and volunteered to help. In April 2020, Rotarians began delivering hampers in the community every Tuesday and Friday. They continue long after the pandemic food bank "emergency".
In the 1600s, when the Europeans first explored Africa, they were met by men brandishing spears and women carrying buckets of water on their heads. It's now 2022 and the men carry cell phones and laptops, but the women are still carrying buckets of water on their heads. To liberate women to some extent in these communities where this practice continues, the hippo water roller was developed. The innovative hippo water roller provides a simple solution to this global problem. Basically, the hippo roller is a re-invented wheelbarrow designed to transport 90-liters of water by placing the water inside its “wheel.” This simple design allows an arduous chore to be done easier, faster, and more efficiently. Luke Vorstermans, of the Rotary Club of Gibsons, helped his club launch the “Help Us Roll 1000 Hippos” campaign that quickly rolled out across Canada and the USA.
Mackenzie Outdoor Route & Trail Association (MORATA), a group that develops and maintains local recreational trails for bikers, hikers and casual walkers, benefitted from the annual Rotary Duck Drop in Mackenzie, BC, at Morfee Lake second beach in June 2022. Because the Rotary Club of Mackenzie is small, and after a two-year hiatus because of COVID, the club partnered with MORATA to produce this year’s Duck Drop fundraiser which always aims to make Mackenzie a stronger community. – photos by Silver Dove Imagery
More than two years into COVID-19, many people are feeling “pandemic fatigue”. Around the globe, more than 555 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported, according to the World Health Organization. Health care workers have continuously dedicated their time, energy, and skills to ensure our safety, often putting their own health at risk to do so, paying the price of their own physical and mental health amidst unrelenting demand and staff shortages. Rotary saluted the courage and commitment of our health care workers who have given up so much to treat those who have become ill and contain this disease.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer, as we recharge our batteries and get started on another great year in Rotary! Pat and I have really been enjoying the start to the year, meeting more of you at a variety of events, and of course looking forward to our District Governor visits to each Rotary and Rotaract club in the fall.
Having already broken our own record in District 5040 for Foundation giving in the past Rotary year for reaching US$1 million, as I reported last month, late endowments not included in that total has now taken us well over US$1.5 million US. Among the 500 Districts throughout the world, our District is one of the smaller ones, yet we ranked 30th in Foundation giving. That's a major achievement to celebrate. It indicates that many people in our District have regarded The Rotary Foundation as their charity of choice. Thank you so many of you for your generosity, donations big or small, in this year with its own special needs in our communities and our world.
One-third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted every year. Food is a significant portion of the organic waste which amounts to 40% of material sent to our landfills. As this material decomposes it generates a significant level of greenhouse gasses which contributes to climate change. When food is lost or wasted so are the resources that are required to grow, manufacture and distribute it. Some of that food is now being rescued and given to families and individuals in need. Tsawwassen Rotarians, as people of action, have established with partners, Delta Food Runners, which is helping to provide fresh produce to Delta organizations who are able to get it into the hands of those in need in the community.
Sudden cardiac arrest can strike anybody at any time. The heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. Moments count. To help save lives on Bowen Island the people of action in the Rotary club there have worked with authorities and neighbourhoods to install 25 automated external defibrillators or AEDs so far at key locations around the island. An AED is a portable device that checks the heart rhythm and can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm.
Prince Rupert Rotary exchange student in 2016-17, from Denmark, Oliver Bjorling, and his family made Prince Rupert the first stop on their North American vacation.
District Grants allow Rotary and Rotaract clubs to identify, plan, and fund worthy projects in their own communities or internationally. Grants can fund improvements such as kitchen equipment for a food pantry, assistance for after-school programs, a defibrillator for a community centre, or renovations to an accessible playground.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year there were 2,789 buildings in the village of Moshchun. After Russian artillery shelling there were 789 still standing. Left behind were 1,597 craters from shells. With the participation of Rotary clubs of the world, in partnership with Ukrainian state, the rebuilding of Moshchun has the aim of developing a symbol of happy, independent, modern Ukraine.
Search and rescue operations are on the rise. As more and more people take to the trails and ski runs of Vancouver's North Shore mountains, the demand on North Shore Rescue, most recently at 130 calls a year, has steadily increased since its founding in 1965. North Shore Rescue is a community-based search and rescue team of 40 volunteers with skills in search and rescue operations in mountain, canyon and urban settings to provide a life-saving service to the public, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In support of North Shore Rescue, the Rotary Club of West Vancouver Sunrise held its 11th Annual Rotary Ride for Rescue on June 11th, 2022. The event is a fundraising road and mountain bike ride up West Vancouver’s Cypress Mountain which involved 90, Rotarians and other volunteers as bike riders or organizers. It included a pancake breakfast and prizes after the ride at the British Pacific Properties Cypress village on Cypress mountain. -- photos by Tania Ryan
Based on a donor screening process, one in every two people is able to give blood, but only 1 in 81 people actually give blood. This lack of blood donors regularly leads to a significant shortage of blood when compared with the demand for blood from hospitals in their ongoing treatment of patients.
Even when the blood inventory is good in the healthcare system some hospitals are forced to cancel elective procedures, such as heart and cancer surgeries, for lack of some components in the blood, such as platelets, which have a very short shelf life, and of rare blood types. Of course, there is a constant demand for blood in treating trauma patients in accidents and providing regular transfusions for cancer patients.
The Rotary Club of West Vancouver Sunrise joined Canadian Blood Services in the "Partners for Life Program." Soon afterwards the COVID pandemic hit. This meant that donations could only be made at the two CBS locations on Oak Street and Dunsmuir Street in Vancouver.
A new Rotary year has started. With that comes this monthly roundup of news for our Rotary District 5040 members. We kept it brief.
But looking back on the accomplishments of our District in the past year, under the capable leadership of District Governor Lorne Calder, our Foundation giving, which he now leads as committee chair, the District set several new highs, including total giving, which exceeded $1 million for the first time. Congratulations to all of you throughout the District.
Jennifer Jones, Rotary International’s first female president, is the perfect leader to spread the word about the good Rotary does in the world, and inspire its members to keep going.
Eight leaders in Richmond received Rotary International’s prestigious Paul Harris Fellow Award at a special awards evening on June 15th, hosted jointly by four Rotary clubs in the community.
A fire truck, two ambulances, medical equipment and supplies and equipment have been arriving as relief in parts of war-torn Ukraine thanks to the Rotary group of clubs and Districts in which our District 5040 Governor Lorne Calder has represented us. Lorne reports that the group's next step is to acquire a hard bottom boat and some diving equipment to take out bombs, shells and debris out of their rivers and lakes so people in destroyed communities can access fresh water. The access to fresh water becoming more and more critical.
Over 500 students from Strathcona Elementary School marched through their Vancouver community on June 15, 2022 as the school's first annual Pride Parade led by members of the EarlyAct program, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise.
Rotary International CEO & General Secretary John Hewko inspires many thousands through his speech at Rotary's June 2022 international convention in Houston, Texas -- the first after two years.
Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta visits an Empowering Girls project in Nigeria
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta meets with Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta to discuss plans to provide free heart surgeries and other Rotary initiatives
Several new Canadian families from Syria and Ukraine were among those in Squamish who were delighted to take home 40 refurbished bikes, among the 80 donated, in the Recycle Bicycle program re-launched on June 4, 2022. 20 volunteers from the Rotary Club of Squamish and Squamish Helping Hands came out to collect, repair, and distribute bikes to kids and families in Squamish through a Kids Bike Drive.
Thanks to the generosity of Rotary donors in Canada, who have contributed CDN$1 million so far, and around the world, more than US$15 million, to the Rotary Foundation Disaster Response Fund for Ukraine, the funds have been helping provide people with essential items such as water, food, shelter, medicine, and clothing.
Hundreds of inner-city kids at risk in East Vancouver will once again benefit from the estimated $50,000 raised for Grade 12 post-secondary scholarships and youth leadership development programs thanks to the 2022 Rotary Hoop-A-Thon on April 23rd.
The Garibaldi Volunteer Fire Department, in the Squamish area, can buy a reconnaissance drone with a thermal imaging camera, to search less accessible places for wildfire assessment, hotspots, and to locate warm bodies, thanks to a $6,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Squamish presented on April 25, 2022 at Black Tusk Village.
As of July 1st, 2022 the new international Chair of the Rotary Peace Centers Committee, which every year selects the Rotary Peace Fellows for the 50 Master's Degree or 80 Professional Certificate programs in peace and conflict resolution at seven universities throughout the world, is Past District 5040 Governor Chris Offer.
So far generous Rotarians and clubs in District 5040 have generated $100,000 for the Ukraine Disaster Response Fund. As of April 18, 2022 Rotary's global total had reached $9.5 million. The funds will support locally-led relief efforts underway by Rotary clubs in Ukraine and neighboring countries. More information about this crisis and Rotary's response.
Uppsala University, Sweden's oldest university (founded 1477), has just accepted University of Victoria BA graduate in political science, Vanessa Lanteigne, to its Master of Arts program in peace and conflict resolution.
Rotary District 5040 Governor in 2004-05 and 35-year member of RC Prince George Nechako, Ron Neukomm, passed away at Rotary Hospice in Prince George on April 6, 2022.
The crisis in Ukraine is having devastating consequences on civilians as families flee their homes. According to the United Nations, more than 2 million people, most of them women and children, have sought refuge in neighboring countries and across Europe, while about 1 million more people have been displaced within Ukraine. Rotary and Rotaract (young professionals) clubs in Europe and around the world have taken swift action and are working with members nearby to provide food, water, medical equipment, and shelter for refugees.
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