Upcoming meetings

Mar 11: Guelph Public Library. Kitty Pope, Chief Librarian

Mar 18: Rural Urban Committee. Rob Gordon

Mar 25: Conestogo College. John Tibbets

Apr 1: Dream Home. Liz Cooney

Apr 8: Environment Com-mittee. Ray Funnell

Apr 15: High Commission-er of Lesotho.

Rotary International President: Ray Klinginsmith

Kirksville, Missouri, USA District 7080 DG: Bernd Dinnert,

Mississauga

A Weekly Report on the Activities of the Rotary Club of Guelph – Mar 4, 2011

THE ROTARY CLUB OF GUELPH

District 7080 Club 4645

Charter Feb 23, 1920

The Rotary Club of GuelphBox 511, Guelph, ON N1H 6K9

www.rotaryclubofguelph.com

President: Ian SmithTreasurer: Trevor Lee

Secretary: Kerry Johnson 519-821-3863

news BUlletin

Upcoming events

Program — Continued on Page 2

introdUctory remarks

President Ian welcomed everyone to our meeting and mentioned that ap-proximately ten Rotarians attended our monthly get together at Borealis. He mentioned the full page regarding Rotary in this month’s SNAP and he also expressed our Club’s best wishes to Ruth Thatcher who was hospital-ized last Sunday but is hopefully being released today (Friday).President Ian recognized our newest Rotarians, Mike Briel, and Michele Richardson.

gUest speaker – rotary exchange stUdent

Marva Wisdom introduced our Guest speaker of the day, Javier Cordero. Javier arrived as our Rotary Exchange student in September 2010. Javier has attended many events during his visit – but he was really excited about a conference at the University of Guelph, He has since applied and wants to take Food Science at the U. of G.Javier turned 18 recently and wore a button stating “I’m an adult – treat me with respect!”He is the youngest child in his family and the only son, and has acquired a

taste here in Canada for poutine, Beaver Tails and Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

Javier cordero

Javier opened his talk with the admission that he was very nervous. He showed us some beautiful slides of his country, Ecuador, and gave us many interesting facts regarding the effect of having the Equator divide your country. Ecuador has a 5:30 am sunrise and a 6:15 pm sunset every day of the year – Javier mentioned the first time he stepped outside at 7 am in darkness and wondered — what had happened?Javier talked about the volcanos, architecture and huge gardens of Ecuador and enjoyed mentioning how tourists like to use the washrooms on either side of the Equator to see the water circle down the toilets in opposite directions!

See page 2

Marva Wisdom introducing the speaker

the rotary clUB of gUelph news BUlletin - march 4th, 2011 page 2

attendance

presentAnderson, Armstrong, Arnold, Barton, Beauchamp, Beattie, Belisle, Bothwell, Bradey, Briel, Broadwith, Brubacher,

Bruce, Butella, Clayton, Cooney, Curry, Demarco, Dredge, Elliot, Eszes, Evans, Forsythe, Funnell, Gammie, Hammill, Housser, Irvine, Jadeski, Jofriet, John-

son, R. Jones, L. Jones, Kich, Knowles, Latreille, Marshall, Mau, McCallum, McLeod, Neufeld, Newton, Olsen,

Padanyi, Parr, A. Pennock, P. Pennock, F. Piccoli, Ramprashad, Rennie, Rick-etts, Ricketts, Runions, Russo, Sather,

Scott, Singh, Slisarenko, Smeaton, Smith, Spratt, Stachnyk, Steele, B. Stevens,

Tam, P. Taylor, Truex, Vales, Valle, van Dreumel, Wadleigh, Wettstein, Whittaker,

Winegard, Wisdom

Program — Continued from Page 1

50/50 draw: Michele Richardson (collected on her behalf by Ken Hammill)

Birthdays

March 5 .................. Hal JacksonMarch 5 ............... Jim ShortreedMarch 6 ................. Ranjit SinghMarch 10 ............... Barb Holmes

Officials March 4Editor: Diane SprattGreeter: Paul DemarcoGuest Registrar: Sue Ricketts

Officials March 11Editor: Jane ArmstrongGreeter: Greg ElliottGuest Registrar: Paulette Padanyi

Upcoming events

Thur Mar 31: Scribing help at College Heights. See Paul Dredeg

Tue Apr 5: Rotary After Hours. See ad page 3

Sun May 1: Deadline for Ambassadorial Scholarship application. See President Ian

Tue May 3: Rotary After Hours. See ad page 3

May 20-25, 2011: RI Confer-ence, New Orleans

anniversaries

March 8 ..... Paulette Padanyi (3)March 11 ......Sam Vurrabindi (6)March 11 ........ Elaine Beattie (6)

Program — Continued on Page 3

Javier showed us photos of the magnificent churches (one was very similar to our Church of Our Lady) and also described the Galapagos Islands.Javier talked about his family and how important they are in his life and he thanked the host families that were represented at our guest table. He described several of his fun activities (including winter camp) during his visit here and talked about his first real Xmas tree. He also confirmed that his favourite Ca-nadian food and drink is poutine and Canada Dry Ginger Ale!

makeUps (Board Meeting: February 21): Clark, Wisdom, (Canada Day: February 11): Belisle, (Communications Committee:

March 4): A. Pennock, (District Meeting: March 2): Seager, (Dream Home: Febru-ary 17): Cooney, (Fellowship: March 4): Scott, (Rotary After Hours: March 1): P. Pennock, (Rural Urban Committee: Feb-ruary 18): Caron, Vanderkamp, (Senior’s Issues Committee: February 18): Clark, (Youth Committee: February 4): Belisle,

(Joint International: Jan. 20); Danceother clUBs

Maher (Little River SC: Feb. 23. Mar. 2; Pletsch (Avon Park, FL: Feb. 18, 25)

gUestsHector Barber (host family) – Jim

WadleighDawn Gray (host family) – Jim WadleighBrian Davis (host family) – Jim Wadleigh

Robert Davis (host family) – Jim Wadleigh

Victoria Mummer (host family) — Jim Wadleigh

Ryan Player (host family) – Guelph Trillium

Thomas Koester – RC Playem QERLori Delaney – Charlie Whittaker

visiting rotariansGunter Thase – Toronto Club

head taBleBonnie Evans,Paul Demarco, Javier Cor-

dero, and Marva Wisdom

Speaker: exchange student Javier Cardero

the rotary clUB of gUelph news BUlletin - march 4th, 2011 page 3

ROTARY AFTER HOURS5:30 pm, first Tues of each month:

April 5th, May 3rd, June 7thonly $10 includes gratuity - two drinks (house wine

or beer on tap) plus appetizer

Location: Borealis Grille3188 Gordon St. S. (Just south of Arkell Rd)

Partners & Prospective Rotarians welcome!(Anyone wishing to have dinner is welcome to at additional cost)

Tickets at the door. Just show up!….and really get to know your fellow Rotarians!

Program — Continued from Page 2

thank yoUs

Bonnie Evans thanked the host families on behalf of our Club and proudly mentioned that Javier has scored 90% in his first semester and will try the literacy test. He will leave with an Ontario Secondary School diploma and has been accepted into University. Bon-nie commented that Javier is a stellar young man and wished him well in his future endeavours.

President Ian also thanked Javier and described him as a great ambassador for Ecuador and a tribute to his family.

next week’s meeting

At next week’s meeting we will welcome Kitty Pope, our new Chief Librarian, as our guest speaker. Presi-dent Ian will be on holidays the next two Fridays so 2nd Vice President Tim Mau will be chairing our next two meetings.

Piss Poor? Historical Facts from the 1500s

• They used to use urine to tan animal skins so, families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were “Piss Poor.” But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot.......they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low.

• Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell ... brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

• Houses had thatched roofs — thick straw-piled high — with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

• There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

the rotary clUB of gUelph news BUlletin - march 4th, 2011 page 4

annoUncements

Dream HomeLiz Cooney on behalf of the Dream Home Com-mittee announced that the new website for this year’s Dream Home is now live – there is good information on the home there as well as Fre-quently Asked Questions (FAQ) - the website address is www.guelphdreamhome.comThe launch will be held at our April 1st meet-ing and Liz mentioned that she had some ticket brochures available today for the members who want to start selling right away.

Onward WillowCharlie Whittaker introduced Lori Delaney who is in charge of the Breakfast Program at Onward Willow. Charlie mentioned that there would be a donation bucket at the door and asked for dona-tions as the members were leaving the meeting today.

College Heights Scribing HelpPaul Dredge gave a happy $2 in celebration of the $6500 raised at the College Heights Valentine Dance and also thanked an anonymous donor who also gave $3000 towards this event. Paul then asked for volunteers to help scribe for students for the literacy test being held on March 31st from 8:30 -11: 30 am. If you can help please contact Paul.

happy Bills

$ Dave WorthenDave asked President Ian to put in a happy buck for him (this request came by email) as Dave is in St. Lucia for holiday. His happy bucks are for his two daughters who played in the provincial Ringette championships on Ottawa, One team came in fifth and his older daughter Sarah’s team won the gold medal and will now be competing at the National Ringette Championship this April.

$ Dave BruceDave gave a happy buck for his daughter who just wrote the Law entry exam and scored in the 95 percentile.

$ Sue RickettsSue gave a happy buck for two reasons – one granddaughter was just accepted at Medical Sciences at Ottawa University (with an $8000 scholarship) and also after a 15 year hiatus – they are expecting another grandchild.

$ Sargeant at Arms Paul TaylorPaul gave a happy buck – his absence from last week’s meeting was due to his son Brett’s gradu-ation from Fanshawe College in the Landscape Apprentice program. Paul mentioned that he remembered that Helmuth spoke about the im-portance of apprenticeship programs at our Club approximately 4 – 5 years ago. Paul congratulated Helmuth on his foresight and being “ahead of the times.”

from the district weBsiteRemarkable Polio Case Count posted by Brian Carmichael, Jan 30, 2011

The world has never seen so few polio cases. 83% decrease in endemic countries, 40% world wide. We are on the threshold of total eradication. This year Ni-geria has 18 cases compared to 388 this time last year. India has 41 compared to 694. Cases in non-endemic countries are up - but under control. The battle is not over but the enemy is in retreat.

Polio Facts, Figures (WHO data as of 28 Dec. 2010) Area # of cases in 2010 Afghanistan 24 India 41 Nigeria 18 Pakistan 138 Non-endemic countries 687 Total worldwide 908