Volume 93, Number 44 4,589th Meeting Friday, June 21, 2013

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 405, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5L3 — web: www.rotarynanaimo.org

Serving Our Community Since

May 1, 1920 - Charter Number 43

DIRECTORS Doug Cowling Brent Stetar Susie Walker

John Shillabeer Chris Pogson Susan Gerrand

President Rotary International Sakuji Tanaka, Rotary Club of Yashio, Japan

District Governor Assistant Governor Judy Byron, Sidney, BC Barry Sparkes, Lantzville, BC

Club Meeting Friday at 12:00 p.m.

at the Coast Bastion Inn

CLUB OFFICERS 2012-2013

President ....................................................... Joan Ryan

Vice President ............................................... Wahid Ali

Secretary ......................................................... Bob Janes

Treasurer .............................................. Gordon Hubley

President Elect .................................. Douglas Anderson

Immediate Past President ..................... Dave Hammond

Saturna Island looking west towards the San Juan Islands to Victoria and the Straight of Juan De Fuca, Puget Sound. To the right is Cowichan Bay, left to Sydney airport, etc. The ridge drops 1400 feet to sea level. —Photo by Barry Chappell

Meeting Notes from June 14th

By Charles Ramos

President Joan began today’s meet-

ing by leading us in a rousing anthem,

followed with an invocation by John

Heisterman.

Guenter Raedler asked for visiting

Rotarians and guests. There were nu-

merous visiting Rotarians and guests;

these being Susie Walker’s mother

Marilyn; Eric Solash and Hans Gran-

holm from the Edmonton/Strathcona

Club; two VIU students, Navjit Sangha

and Angali; Jeremy’s Hewitt’s father,

Ross White’s wife Pam, and our guest

from furthest afield, Samuel Obour,

who is past president of the Ghana Sun-

yani club and principal of Sunyani Poly-

technic, and who has now visited us

three times.

Birthdays and anniversaries were an-

nounced, and Yvan Gosselin welcomed

Jerry Corriveau back after a bit of an

absence.

Bob Fenty announced that he is

pleased to report the birth of Yvan and

Lucie Gosselin’s new grandson, who

arrived weighing in at 8 lbs, 8 ounces.

President Joan asked

her weekly trivia question,

this time about the origins

of her Newfoundland

hometown. Jane Currie

correctly answered that the

community was begun in

order to provide a news-

print source to England

during the war. Jane was ecstatic about

winning her second handcrafted keep-

sake.

Announcements:

Bob Fenty thanked all Rotarians who

are helping with tomorrow’s Rotary-

Salvation Army Food Drive, mentioning

that he could use one more volunteer.

He then made a Motion to donate

$2,000 to the Child Development Centre

to fund their telethon. The motion was

passed with no opposition.

President-Elect Douglas Anderson announced that our club will again work

with the VIEX at their entrance booths

this year, and that they have agreed to

allow us to use our Rotary tent at the

event for greater exposure. A Commu-

nity Project Committee meeting is also

scheduled directly following today’s

Rotary meeting.

Bruce Gordon announced that this is

the last chance to make changes to the

Roster before printing. Contact Ian

Williams if any photo changes are

needed. See either Bruce or Janeane

Coutu if you have changes to your list-

ing.

Sergeant at Arms:

Sgt-at-Arms Wahid Ali began by

fining Keith McFarlane for incorrectly

introducing visiting Rotarian Eric So-

lash, then claiming it was due to Mr.

Solash’s illegible handwriting.

Bob Fenty was fined for stealing

Yvan and Lucie’s thunder by pre-

empting their announcement of a new

grandson. Yvan mentioned he had been

planning to pay $10 happy dollars.

Doug Cowling penalized himself $5

for missing greeting duties today.

Happy/Sad bucks:

President Joan thanked all supporters

for helping to raise $1,600 for the Life-

line raffle, and also gave happy bucks

for her parents 67th wedding anniver-

sary.

Ross White gave happy bucks for the

Project Amigo speakers that are staying

with him and Pam. He also mentioned

he is recovering from his numerous

Pickleball injuries.

Frank Shoemaker gave happy bucks

that two members of our club and their

wives are attending the Rotary conven-

tion in Portugal, these being Dave and

Cindy Hammond and Egon and Ann

Holzwarth.

Jane Currie gave happy bucks for

her Newfoundland trivia bookmark

Samuel

Obour gave

happy bucks for

his third visit to

our city and

Rotary club

Bob Buchanan reported on club

member Bob Wilson’s bicycle trip

across the country. Bob (Wilson) is now

in Sault Ste Marie taking a well-

deserved break after 2,500 miles.

Bruce Samson gave relieved bucks

that his lady friend recently was ex-

empted from a large fine for driving

without insurance.

Guenter Raedler gave happy bucks

that Bill Horman has joined us today,

and Mike Herold gave congratulation

bucks to Art Vanidour on his 92nd

birthday.

Yvan

Gosselin gave

happy bucks

for the birth of

his grandson

Oliver, and

also that Lucie

has put up with him through 39 years of

marriage.

Chris Pogson gave happy bucks that

his co-worker is racing in the Van Isle

360 sailing race and doing well.

Lucie Gosselin gave congratulation

bucks for Egon and Ann Holzworth’s

upcoming 50th wedding anniversary.

Bill Horman gave happy

bucks to be

with the club

today and

sharing Rotary

fellowship with

two fine mem-

bers from Edmonton.

Charles Ramos gave happy bucks

that his wife, Sari, continues to run into

cougars during her fieldwork and all is

well.

Table Stakes were won by Guenter

Raedler. 50-50 Draw was won by John

Morris, but no card draw was held due

to a mysterious lack of cards.

Rotarians serving hot dogs and collecting non-perishable food items for the Salvation

Army—Rotary Food Drive on Saturday. Photo - Richard Finnegan

Project Amigo By Ross White

The guest speakers were Susan Hill

and Ted Rose of Project Amigo. Presi-

dent Joan noted that she

has not intro-

duced the

speaker of the

day and was

particularly

pleased do to

so considering

the long asso-

ciation of our

club with Pro-

ject Amigo.

She outlined

how Ted was

on a volcano search and stumbled into

the small community of Cofradia. He

lost his way and saw the poverty and

lack of assistance to youth. He and

Susan went back for a few years distrib-

uting Christmas gifts but then sold their

business in the USA, moved to Cofradia

and started Project Amigo. They are

now retired as Executive Directors but

still assisting with the promotion of Pro-

ject Amigo.

Susan started the presentation with a

story of how an illiterate child acciden-

tally gave an herbicide instead of medi-

cation to a sibling. Highlighting literacy,

a favorite slogan about reading around

Colima state is this one: “Leer es Po-

der” “Reading is power”.

In rural Mexico, only 60% of primary

school graduates go on to junior high

school. Of those who do, only 45% will

graduate from high school. Nationwide

in Mexico, only 20% of students who

finish high school go on to college.

Lack of education and poverty in Mex-

ico are related?

Cofradia, on the slope of Colima’s

Volcano of Fire is a little village, with a

population of about 2,000. Colima is a

small agricultural state. From its 13,000

foot active volcano down to its coast, its

principal products include coffee and

sugar cane, bananas and mangoes.

`Project Amigo’s goal is to raise the

level of education that children in

Colima achieve. The need is to motivate

kids to stay in school and complete their

primary level education. At PA, provid-

ing incentive programs and field trips to

the children who most need these stimu-

lating activities, and who are the least

likely to have access to them, does help

keep them enrolled in school. The in-

centive programs work. After these ex-

cursions there is a rush to join by others

as they don’t want to be left behind

again!

Children who enjoy learning, who

make excellent grades, who are good

citizens at school, and who demonstrate

the will to change their futures if given a

chance, can apply for Project Amigo’s

higher education scholarships. This

school year, 100 students received

scholarships: 29 junior high school stu-

dents, 33 high school students, and 38

students at the University of Colima.

Thirty-four students have graduated

from the University with professions

that include Law, Medicine, Nursing,

Teaching, Business Administration and

Engineering. They are employed, and

many of them are donating 3% of their

wages to the Project to help fund schol-

arships for other students.

Project Amigo’s scholarships pay

school registration fees, uniforms and

shoes, school supplies, transportation to

school and a hot meal. Project Amigo

runs a boarding home to help students

who live too far from the university.

PA has been actively promoting edu-

cation at a migrant labor camp for sugar

cane cutters’ families

since 1997. A school

has been built at the

camp, and PA pays the

salaries of three teach-

ers. This poorest seg-

ment of Colima’s popu-

lation is now seeing

more than 60% of its

children complete pri-

mary school. Fewer

families migrate out of

that camp each year –

as they are seeing the

benefits of their chil-

dren attending school.

Another

way that

PA is

working to

promote

education

throughout

the state is

to help

teachers in

the poor

rural

schools get the tools (e.g. books) they

need to inspire reading for fun and to

further ignite a desire to learn. One ac-

tivity distributes mini-libraries of 200

children’s books to rural schools; and

the other activity provides books that

the children get to keep for their very

own. Susan shared with the club the

features and highlights of a literacy

week.

Susan ended the presentation with the

stories of two young PA graduates that

came from illiterate families and gradu-

ated as lawyers, have been elected

mayor of Cofradia and continue to give

back to PA. She encouraged members to

be part of a work week. Ted then re-

sponded to questions from members and

ensured them that Cofradia is removed

from the drug violence we read about in

the news.

Our guests were thanked by Interna-

tional chair Frank Shoemaker who

presented the traditional pen plus a

cheque to assist Project Amigo with

literacy projects.

Frank Shoemaker, chair of the International Service Commit-tee, presents a cheque for $1,000 to Ted and Susan Hill from

Project Amigo in Mexico.

Susan Hill from Project Amigo in Mexico.

ATTENDANCE Report by Janeane Coutu

Attendance for June 14th was 61%.

We missed these Rotarians:

Wayne Anderson, Gerrand, Grice,

Hais, Hammond, Henderson, Hobbs,

Hubley, Janes, Knutsson, McIver,

Myden, Salem, Shillabeer, A. Smith,

K. Smith, J. Smith, Stetar, Valsangkar,

Welch, Wilson

Visiting Rotarians;

Eric Solash, Edmonton Strathcona

Hans Granholm, Edm. Strathcona

Erin Lee, Nanaimo Rotaract

Samuel Obour, Sunyani Central

Ted and Susan Rose, Colima Rotary

Guests:

Navjit Sangha, VIU

Anjali Gupta, VIU

Marilyn Earle, guest of Susie Walker

Peter Hewitt, guest of son Jeremy

Hewitt

Pam White, guest of hubby Ross

White

Birthdays:

Bob Peters on June 22nd

Spouse’s Birthday:

June Shoemaker (Frank) on June 23

Wedding Anniversaries:

Joyce Smith and Ron Willis, 16 yrs

on June 21st

Egon and Ann Holzwarth, 50 years

on June 22nd

Ian and Barb Williams, 47 years on

June 25th

Bob and Heather Buchanan, 42 years

on June 26th

Club Anniversaries:

Jeremy Hewitt, 1 year, June 22nd

Bill Horman, 58 years, June 24th

Susie Walker, 3 years, June 25th

Joan Ryan, 10 years on June 27th

PROGRAM

THANK SPEAKER

INTRODUCE SPEAKER

WEEKLY CLUB PROGRAMS

GREETERS

CASHIERS

SGT-AT-ARMS

INVOCATION

HEAD TABLE

INTRODUCE GUESTS

“COGS” is the official bulletin of the Rotary Club of Nanaimo, published each

Friday by the Bulletin Committee

Winner of District 5020 Best Bulletin

Awards

Bulletin Committee Chair — Lila Tanner Meeting Reporter: Lila Tanner / Program Reporter: Ross White / Photos: Ian Williams

Editing & Production: Bruce Gordon / Web Posting: Ian Williams

PRINTING COURTESY OF ISLAND OFFICE EQUIPMENT NANAIMO - BOB JANES

GREETERS

CASHIERS

SGT-AT-ARMS

INVOCATION

HEAD TABLE

INTRODUCE GUESTS

INTRODUCE SPEAKER

THANK SPEAKER

PROGRAM

Friday, June 21st

Jane Currie,

Eric Brand, Wahid Ali

Lila Tanner

Bob Fenty

Neil Valsangkar

Pres. Joan, Bruce Forward, Norm Myden, Bob Peters, Jane Currie, Eric

Brand, Wahid Ali, Dave Hammond

Charles Ramos

Dave Hammond

NEW MEMBER TALKS:

Bruce Forward & Norm Myden

Susan Gerrand

INTRODUCE SPEAKER

GREETERS

CASHIERS

SGT-AT-ARMS

INVOCATION

HEAD TABLE

INTRODUCE GUESTS

THANK SPEAKER

PROGRAM

Friday, July 5th

Friday, June 28th

Bob Fenty,

Bob Buchanan, Kevin Cantelon

Lila Tanner

John Heisterman

Art Vanidour

Pres. Joan, Wayne & Gail Anderson, Norm Myden, Mikel Knutsson,

Fenty, Buchanan, Cantelon

John Salem

Norm Myden

CHINA WITH OUR DAUGHTER:

Wayne & Gail Anderson

Al Smith

DATES TO REMEMBER July 5—Installation Night at the Coast Bastion Inn. No charge to members.

August 11—Rotary Picnic, Huddlestone Park in Lantzville.

Aug. 16, 17, 18—VIEX shifts at three admission booths. Volunteers

needed for all shifts.

Dec. 1st—Rotary Family Christmas Breakfast at Bowen Park Club House.

Dec. 19th—Rotary Christmas Dinner at new Nanaimo Golf Course club house.

INSTALLATION NIGHT

Coast Bastion Inn

Fellowship 6:00 pm

Dinner 7:00 pm

No Regular

Noon Meeting