Last Friday's meeting, on November 24th, began with President Nanita Mohan announcing that it was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The club raised our glasses to recognize all the people who are helping to eliminate gender-based violence. 

 

At the meeting, we had several announcements and Happy Bucks:

 

Helmuth told us about how he always wears a Rotary pin or a piece of Rotary merch when he is out in public, and that every Rotarian should be proud to wear their pin given the work that we do in our community. As the Sergeant of Arms he then proceeded to fine anyone not wearing a pin or a piece of Rotary merch.

 

Peter thanked everyone who had volunteered to help test lights for Sparkles in the Park, and asked people to sign up for the upcoming volunteer dates.

 

Marty gave an update on Ruth Thatcher who is back in the hospital after a mild heart attack. The club sends all our thoughts and prayers to her. 

 

Matthew, on behalf of Noma Vales, gave an announcement about the Christmas luncheon. We need at least 50 people to sign up and pay by December 8th for the event to proceed. 

 

After the announcements, Marguerite gave an update on the Adopt-A-Family campaign. The club reached its goal of $5,000 thanks to Faz who topped up the remaining amount that was missing. Marguerite and her team began shopping for our sponsored families on the weekend. Marguerite then gave an excellent presentation on Marva Wisdom's induction into The Order of Ontario, the highest civilian honour in the province, and second highest in the country. On November 27th, Marva will be welcomed into the Order. The club gave Marva a standing ovation.  

 

After lunch, Aidan Harris gave his classification talk. Margaret Trainor, his grandmother, introduced him. She talked about the first time she stood up on this stage, in the ICC, to announce that Aidan had been born in 1999. 

 

Aidan spoke about his life before Rotary. He was born in Guelph, moved to London in 2006 until 2010. His family moved back to Guelph because his dad, the Manager of General Automotives in London, had lost his job in the 2008 during the economic crash. He has lived in Guelph ever since, except during his undergrad at the University of Toronto. He graduated from Centennial CVI in 2017 as an Ontario Scholar and was accepted into the University of Toronto the same year. At UofT, Aidan majored in political science and classics and minored in philosophy. He graduated in 2022 with distinction and began his Masters, in political science, at the University of Guelph.

 

Throughout his life, Aidan has loved to read and play sports. In his undergrad he played rugby for UofT in a starting position for all four years. While in university, Aidan was a part of two clubs: Love146 and Editors Toronto. For Love146 he was the co-director of Sponsorship and then the co-president of the club. For Editors Toronto he was the Programs Chair. In 2020, he met his girlfriend Roxanne Ngozi Chukwu who has had a major impact on his life and helped him to grow as a person. 

 

Aidan then explained why he wanted to join Rotary. His grandma introduced him to Rotary at an early age, brought him to meetings and events. She then brought him into Rotary, when he was finishing his undergrad because Aidan wanted to get involved with his home community of Guelph. Margaret wanted to start coming out to club meetings in Guelph, so it drove Aidan to join as well. Aidan also wanted to join because of the impact that Rotary has. No other organization is as diverse as Rotary and has its fingers into so many types of
community programs. Rotary is the perfect place for him, in that regard – it’s the most impactful because it’s so flexible. It can respond to so many issues in our society; a Club Member just needs to recognize and issue and so many people are available to support this issue.

 

Aidan then concluded his talk with a discussion of his career. He announced that he had just finished his Masters and that he is now applying to PhD programs and government recruitment programs. His research interests include: how party leaders are using YouTube, how political parties collect personal information on voters (there is currently no legislation governing how they can collected and use this information), populism and right-wing extremism in Canada, and public policy. 

 

Tracey officially thanked Aidan and presented him with his name tag and told him that you joining this club makes us stronger and better. President Nanita Adjourned the meeting. 

 

Notes taken by Ramona Beattie.