Program: The Rotary Foundation / Covid Q&A with Dr. Anne-Marie
Messages this week from our Club President, Tracey Curtis
This week was another great example of Rotary in action - in our club, our area, and around the world! And it filled my heart with gratitude.
Today's wonderful meeting included:
Presentations about The Rotary Foundation (TRF), its value to making the world a better place and how our contributions support that, plus remarkable updates from our own club members about humanitarian projects supported by Rotary District and/or Rotary Foundation funds - the Water First project in Ontario, our project work in Uganda, and also in Cameroon.
An update and Q&A segment with our own Dr. Anne-Marie Zadjlik about COVID, socially distancing over the holidays, and the promise of vaccines on the way.
Read on for even more news ...
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Next week's Meeting - HOLIDAY CHEER!
Dec 18, 2020, starting at 12:15pm
This date would normally have been our Christmas Lunch meeting. Even though we are 'only' meeting online, we are still planning festivities and fellowship - so dress up for Christmas Lunch and don't miss the party! Several entertaining guests have been lined up, including the performance of carols by the Guelph Youth Music Choir under the direction of Markus Howard. Watch for Wednesday's email from Tom Funk with the link for next Friday.
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Current activities through our club:
Virtual Paint Night - Christmas Edition, with Ben McCarl, on Sunday evening, December 13, was fantastic. Such a fun time for participants - young, old and in-between! About 30 participants in 16 family groups joined online for this free event, enthusiastically following Ben's gentle and encouraging instructions, with great results! Thanks for bringing us such joy, Ben.
Rotary Christmas Bags. Wow. This new fundraising idea led by Eleni Bakopoulos is fabulous and far exceeding all expectations. Our first curbside, drive-by pickup on December 12 worked efficiently, despite the rain. So far, over 300 bags have been packed and distributed, with almost 100 more orders in process for pickup at our second drive-through on December 19. Orders for Christmas Bags can still be placed online HERE but only until midnight on Tuesday, December 15. Everyone with an order ready for the last pickup opportunity on Saturday, December 19, will be emailed with details. By the way, did you catch Mayor Cam Guthrie's shout-out about our Rotary Christmas Bags? Watch it HERE.
Sparkles in the Park preparations have already begun on-site with Skyjack's annual amazing help with our "high lights". Now the ground installations are being worked on. During Sparkles, four volunteers are needed for each of our two nightly shifts from December 19 to December 31. Please spare a few hours to help. Sign up HERE.
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Here's a hint of something to watch out for next week, on December 17, 2020 in both the Guelph Mercury Tribune and the Wellington Advertiser. Both will have a FULL PAGE ad celebrating 100 years of Rotary in our area, looking similar to this and representing all seven of our local Rotary Clubs (one being Rotaract). This is thanks to a newly-formed Rotary Cluster Communications Team initiated by our innovative Assistant District Governor, Darlene Carpenter, and involving representatives from each club. Huge thanks are due in particular to Donna Graham, president of the Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium, for coordinating this effort to create this combined ad in an extremely short space of time. As you can imagine, it is hard to please everyone in this sort of collaboration, but we are really excited about the outcome and the Rotary visibility this will generate. And this is just the start of many more marketing and communication ideas for our clubs to work together in strengthening local Rotary awareness and recruitment. Stay tuned.
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Don't miss the next webinar in this outstanding series. It's on Monday evening, December 14 at 7pm, hosted by Dr. Anne-Marie Zadjlik and Helen Fishburn from CMHAWW, and moderated by Marva Wisdom. The special guest this time will be Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar, speaking of her role in Ontario's Covid Vaccine Distribution Task Force. You need to pre-register to attend. HERE is the registration link. The event will also be livestreamed on CMHA WW's Facebook page.
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Note from your Bulletin Editor:
There was even more Rotary good stuff this week but time is a bit short, so I'm sending this out 'as is' and will try to cover the rest another time.
Virtual Paint Night - Christmas Edition
Rotary Christmas Bags.
Here's a hint of something to watch out for next week, on December 17, 2020 in both the Guelph Mercury Tribune and the Wellington Advertiser. Both will have a 
Don't miss the next webinar in this outstanding series. It's on Monday evening, December 14 at 7pm, hosted by Dr. Anne-Marie Zadjlik and Helen Fishburn from CMHAWW, and moderated by Marva Wisdom. The special guest this time will be Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar, speaking of her role in Ontario's Covid Vaccine Distribution Task Force. You need to pre-register to attend. 
