President Ron opened the meeting with a toast to Queen, Canada and Rotary.  He recognized guest Helena Renwick, who will be introduced later on.  

He highlighted some stats regarding Global grant initiatives, which started in 2013-14.  32 million dollars were sent to help with disaster relief this past year.  Please consider Rotary Foundation to be one of your charities of choice.

 

Rotary Moment: Our district plans to join the Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup initiative involving 66 clubs as part of Earth Day in light of The Rotary Foundation’s 7^th avenue of focus, Protecting the Environment.  The district established an Environmental Task Force to also include clubs outside the Great Lakes Watershed, the District 7010 Watershed Initiative.  For many of us, this is just a continuation of what we are already doing. Clean-ups to be done between April 17-24, 2021.

Brandy: Celebrity Chef Culinary Experience – Tickets on sale Feb. 20 at a cost of $ 100.00 each (slightly higher if only one diner in a household) and will include wine and swag bag.  Dinner will have three main choices.  Contact Mary if you can help with contributions for swag bags, and Peter if you can volunteer to deliver meal boxes on the day. Rob/Trish/Jen S are securing the entertainment.  Website has been updated by Will.  Filming of the chefs went very well.  thanks to all who helped with that.  Social media re this event is happening.  Tickets available at ChefGala.ca or through our Rotary website.  Please acknowledge thanks to our chefs if you see them around town.  And talk up the event to family and friends!

Swag Bags: we could still use extra items, please contact Mary or Lynne.

 

President Ron: Virtual youth exchange reunions scheduled for February 24, March 10 and 24.

Bryan has agreed to chair next year's auction, with some nudging from Mary.  Thanks for taking on this important event.

KIVA: our initial donation of $2600.00 US has been loaned out and returned many times, Total monies lent to date $18,500 plus.

Board agreed to an additional $500.00  be added to the $1000.00 designated for Go Fund Me, Dr. Roldan's project in Guatamala.

 

 

Peter: The roof at the train station needs attention and Peter volunteered to be the coordinator for this project for the town.  Guesstimate of cost is $20,000.00 .  Timeline is not set as yet for this to proceed.   

 

       Helena started creating art very early in her life.  She studied fine art at U of T and then did a theatre production course at Ryerson.  She and her family, (husband Cam and 3 great kids) enjoy living in Muskoka.  She is teaching painting at Deerhurst.  She has contributed her skills in set design and painting for many productions for Festival of the arts.  This year, she painted some of our auction items! She is an honorary Paul Harris fellow.  She is a former Huntsville BIA employee.  She started focusing on painting landscapes about 6 months ago, using Algonquin Park, Killarney and cottage views as her inspiration.

She talked us through how to draw a face, with step by step instructions.  Truly a virtual workshop! 

A fun time was had by all, with her advice to practise, practise, practise.  

 

Will Gibson thanked Helena on our behalf.  

Her final quote to us:  the human face is both beautiful and tragic at the same time.