PRESIDENT MARVA'S INAUGURAL MEETING AS OUR 106TH PRESIDENT
What a fabulous meeting we had on Friday, July 11, 2025! It was Marva's first official meeting in her new role as our club president for 2025-2026, and her inaugural meeting was heartwarming and inspiring.
We had a full house at the ICC including numerous guests and community leaders who attended to honour Marva, including Mayor Cam Guthrie and MPP Mike Schreiner. With old and new friends happily mingling and connecting, it was quite hard, in fact, to call the meeting to order and get going with the agenda!
The singing of O Canada was accompanied by a stirring sound track, followed by Marva reading the current Land Acknowledgement of the City of Guelph. (It was updated in 2023, and two of the City staff who worked on that update were present.)
Marva led a toast to the Past Rotarians who had built this club, naming several of them, bringing back warm memories. She also warmly thanked our current members for their selfless work - on our board, our committees, and for those behind-the-scenes who make our club run smoothly.
Marva's speech was typical Marva, giving credit to others who have been difference-makers, and expressing gratitude for her opportunity of working alongside them. The range of topics and special people was exceptional, and it was lovely for us to acknowledge those attending the meeting. Naturally, she encouraged all the guests to seriously consider joining Rotary!
Marva tied all her stories together under this year's Rotary theme, Unite For Good, emphasizing the importance of unity, service and peace. She also stated her commitment to these three goals for our club in 2025-2026:
We had cake to celebrate Kerry Johnson's birthday, and Ben McCarl formally thanked Marva for her wonderful talk. Marva played us out with her favourite song, “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers.
Marva had to leave our club quite quickly to be at Heritage Hall (83 Essex Street) by 2pm for a ceremony unveiling this plaque from the Ontario Heritage Society, recognizing the legacy of Heritage Hall as a meeting place for Guelph's Black community. Marva has had a deep and longterm role with this.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
$250,000 donation from the Rotary Club of Guelph Foundation for the Guelph Lake Nature Centre. The formal donation took place on Friday, June 20, 2025. Read about it on our website here.
