Virtual RED BADGE NEW MEMBER--Ian Davies & Julie Pontes--please reach out via ZOOM chat with an energetic Rotary welcome!!
Meeting Responsibilities:
Zoom Host - Don Bork
Registration - Sandy Ronson
Sgt-at-Arms-Malcolm Cocks
Fine payment-via interact e-transfer, refer to recent broadcast email to all members for details or contact Keith. NOTE-the interact e-transfer options for members now includes fines/dues/bottle drive proceeds & tulip fundraiser. Refer to recent Clubrunner email to all members.
A little bit about me:
June 14--Elizabeth Harris
July 12th--Julie Pontes
It costs nothing to send an eCOG to a friend/prospective member/neighbour. Please advise Jim Belton of names/contact info.
Having difficulty accessing and using Clubrunner, the platform RCL website runs on. See Clubrunner supplied link and information at the very end of the eCOG.
Rotary Satellite Club meeting details----not currently meeting at the Fox and Fiddle due to C-19, but but join them via ZOOM on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday at 6:30 pm.. see details on the Facebook Page, the link is: https://www.facebook.com/rotarysatellitecluboflondon.
Have a suggestion for an eCOG-Bulletin article/story, please let Keith know.
Our guest speaker on May 31st will be Erin Bhatia, Manager Events and Erica Garrod, Coordinator, Development & Volunteers Services--Make a Wish Foundation.
Erin began her career with Make-A-Wish in 2005 through a Post-Grad Internship in Fund Development. She stayed on with the organization after graduating to focus on expanding internal events throughout Southwestern Ontario. Erin is married to Vic who is a Software Developer in London. If Erin could have one wish it would be travel through Italy.
Erica began her career with Make-A-Wish in Spring of 2018 as a Summer Intern through her Non Profit Management Post Graduate Program. She accepted a full time position with the organization right after her internship was completed and has been there since! Erica focuses on the coordination of the Chapters over 200 volunteers as well as any other development tasks including events and community engagement. If Erica could have one wish it would be to visit Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya!
--ALSO ON MONDAY MOONYEEN KING-SUNRISE ROTARY CLUB-CHAPALA MEXICO WILL PROVIDE AN UPDATE OF THE PROJECT BELOW--
WORLD COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT UPDATE
RCL Board/Foundation has recently agreed to fund a Communal Toilets project as detailed below (by Dale Hoyt Palfrey-4/29/21-Guadalajara Reporter)
---HEAD LINE--Needy Chapala barrio to get new communal bathrooms. The project may serve as a model for the village of San Pedro Itzican.---
While many lakeshore residents worry about community overdevelopment, few are disturbed or even aware of local underdeveloped issues. The exception is the long standing partnership between the Tepehua Community Centre and Sunrise Rotary Club in addressing the deficiencies in water and sewage services that plague families living in impoverished and heavily populated areas. The Tepehua Center has a long history of providing educational, medical and nutritional aid to the residents of the eponymous barrio located in Chapala's northeast sector. Director Moonyeen King cites a survey indicating that half of the neighborhood's 7,000 residents live without basis indoor plumbing. They have no rooftop tinacos to hold water supplies, no bathroom fixtures for bathing and relieving physiological needs, far less connections to the municipal sewage system. It means that hundreds of people urinate and defecate daily at any discreet spot outside their modest living quarters, causing a staggering sanitation nightmare. Initially King considered that placing portable toilets for the public to use at strategic points might be a viable solution. On analysis that approach was scrapped due to the onerous cost and maintenance factors involving heavy use of noxious chemicals. King then envisioned installing brick and mortar public toilets as a more practical alternative. A large street front storage room at the center perfectly fits specifications for a pilot project that is now underway. Utilizing the existing structure minimizes remodeling expenses and is estimated to run to around $4,000-USD. Sunrise Rotary has pledged financial support to convert the storage room into side-by-side bathroom modules, one for men with two toilet stalls, two urinals and a sink, and the other with two toilets for adult women, a smaller one for kids and a sink. Situated at a location already familiar to neighbors, the project is expected to fulfill its purpose and serve as a model for facilities on the drawing board for elsewhere in Tepehua and the distant, destitute village of San Pedro Itzican
--ROTARY CLUB OF LONDON BOTTLE DRIVE POSTPONED AGAIN--RESCHEDULED TO JUNE 12TH--
Please hold on to those empty bottles and cans or return them and donate your funds directly to Sandy Ronson. You can e-transfer funds directly to Sandy as follows: sronson55@gmail.com Include the password mybottles and note that this donation is for the bottle drive. Don’t forget to add your donation of $25 for a missed luncheon!
--ENVIRONMENTAL DAY IS ALSO SCHEDULED TO THE FALL--
--AREA 4 ROTARY TULIP SALES-- SOLD OUT-THANKS MEMBERS!!!
--Sports Celebrity Dinner and Auction--
For more than 60 years the Sports Celebrity Dinner and Auction has brought incredible sports entertainment to the London community. While fun, the event also successfully contributed to enabling a promising future for children with a wide-range of special needs and disabilities at TVCC (formerly Thames Valley Children’s Centre). Right now the Dinner committee should be announcing celebrities and selling tickets to another fun-filled evening, but the pandemic had different plans. While the committee will not be able to transform the RBC Place London into the sports enthusiast dream that all were hoping for, they won’t let that stop them from ensuring that children and youth have the support they need to achieve the highest quality of life. TVCC needs us now more than ever. That is why the Sports Celebrity Dinner and Auction Committee decided to pivot their efforts into an online, virtual silent auction – “Bid for Kids!” We invite you to be part of this initiative by generously donating an item or experience. All proceeds from Bids for Kids will support TVCC to help clients and families. Our Rotary Club was very instrumental in the founding of the TVCC in the late 1940s-early 1950s and has jointly sponsored the Sports Celebrity Dinner with the London sports media since 1956.
The Bid for Kids Sponsorship Form is attached. Your completed forms(s) can be mailed to Children’s Health Foundation, 345 Westminster Ave, London ON N6C 4V3, emailed to jbaxter@childhealth.ca, or faxed to (519) 432-5907
Thank you for your consideration of this opportunity. Through your involvement you will help bring play, fun and living beyond disabilities to the families at TVCC when they need it most.
--SAVE THE DATE--PRESIDENT'S CUP GOLF--
Sept 11th-WIDDER STATION Golf, Grill & Tap House THEDFORD Widder Station has long been regarded as the venue of choice for public golf and events in Lambton County. The beautifully manicured 18-hole championship golf course winds through the areas rolling terrain and provides a wide variety of interesting holes for even the most experienced golfer. we pride ourselves on providing your guests with exceptional customer service, a beautifully manicured golf course and a memorable experience.
Weekly Coffee Klatch
Since the Province has extended its Stay-at-Home directive, we decided to set up a weekly Zoom “Coffee Klatch” each Thursday from 10:30 to 11:15 am.
Support for Majo’s Extended Stay / Post-Secondary Education in London, Canada
As most RCL members are aware, Maria Jose Camacaro Figueroa (“Majo”) was sponsored by our club as a Rotary Youth Exchange student for the 2019-2020 academic year (Grade 11 at HB Beal Secondary School). Because of the Covid pandemic and also due to the political and economic circumstances in Venezuela, Majo could not go home last summer and, indeed, has no option to return there any time soon. If you would like to view a video message from Majo, click this DropBox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2xl2h37vtcb5x4/2021%2003%2029%20Majo%20Camacaro.mov?dl=0
Five local couples have taken turns hosting Majo for this extra extended year and she has been enrolled for Grade 12 at Beal, graduating with a full Ontario high school diploma in June. She has been accepted into the Interior Design program at Fanshawe College with classes starting in September 2021. Majo has also submitted her application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to extend her study visa and for permission to work (part-time during school and full time during summers). We anticipate little trouble finding accommodation for Majo during her upcoming studies but would appreciate some help in funding her substantial tuition costs as she is required by Fanshawe to register as an international student. (A short time ago, Majo’s parents had to flee Venezuela, leaving home and business, and cannot provide financial support.) How can you contribute? Our Rotary Club of London Foundation has an Education Fund. The Foundation Board has authorized that amounts from this Fund can be used for post-secondary tuition through direct payments to Canadian colleges and universities, Fanshawe included. Contributions to this Fund receive a Canadian charitable donation tax receipt. To make a donation:
1)-Send a cheque payable to the “Rotary Club of London Foundation” (put “Education Fund” on the memo line of the cheque)
2)-Use your credit card at https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/60706 (a CanadaHelps webpage dedicated to our Foundation, enter “Education Fund” in the message field)
3)-Via Interac email to sronson55@gmail.com (no need to set up security question or answer, funds go direct to our club and are then forwarded to the Foundation, put “Education Fund” in the message field--security password--education--)
Next Club Board Meeting
The next meeting of the Rotary Club of London Board will be a Zoom meeting on June 16th-Wednesday-4:30PM
Note:
- all members are welcome to attend Board meetings
- to view the Club's Board Meeting Minutes go to our website, Member Login, My ClubRunner, click on View Club Documents.
Our guest speaker on May 31st will be Erin Bhatia, Manager Events and Erica Garrod, Coordinator, Development & Volunteers Services--Make a Wish Foundation. 
Erica began her career with Make-A-Wish in Spring of 2018 as a Summer Intern through her Non Profit Management Post Graduate Program. She accepted a full time position with the organization right after her internship was completed and has been there since! Erica focuses on the coordination of the Chapters over 200 volunteers as well as any other development tasks including events and community engagement. If Erica could have one wish it would be to visit Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya!