History and memories of my year as President of the Club.

During my year as President, I was blessed to be surrounded by an outstanding group of board of directors as well as a group of dedicated tireless members.

Because of their dedication in believing that to improve the life of others, many more hands are needed, during that year we were able to increase our membership from 33 to 41 – an increase of almost 25 percent.

That year was the year that we did the dream home project during the early part of the year, which took many, many hours, days and weeks of hard work by all members of the club and many volunteers.  Although a very stressful project, especially in the latter part, it proved to be very rewarding as we realized in excess of $66,000 in profits.

The dream home committee was chaired by Betty Kashur and Cam Skipper and their commitment to the project was the main ingredient in making the project such a wonderful success.

Although there were many, one of the highlights of my year as President of the club, was having Jean Charest, the then leader of the PC Party of Canada as the guest speaker at a joint meeting (that I ha the honour to chair) with the Chamber of Commerce and out club which was televised on CTV.

Other special memories that will remain with me forever are the presentations of the dream home proceeds to the General Hospital towards the purchase of the cat scan, to St. Joseph’s Hospital and to Hospice Wellington.

Receiving the final approval from Rotary Foundation and CRCID on the completion of the Nepal Orphanage, reviewing slides and pictures of the orphans that were living in the building, are memories that will never be forgotten.

These are not only memories that will stay with me forever, they are also memories that give me the energy and passion to want to do more and more to improve the lives of those in need.

These are memories to make me very proud and feel privileged to be a Rotarian.

I was asked to join Rotary on several occasions prior to the Trillium club being started.  I declined to join because the day of the week and the time of day were not convenient.  When the Trillium club was being organized, I was contacted by Dan Pestill who informed me that a new Rotary Club was being organized and he asked me if I would care to join since the meetings would take place in the mornings.  The morning meetings seemed to be more suitable; hence I decided to become a member.

I was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors the very first year (1991/1992).  I went on to serve on the Board of Directors for the next three years. (1993/1994, 1994/1995, 1995/1996) and as Club President in 1996/1997.

Following serving as President of the Trillium Club, I served as District Governor Area Representative in 1997/1998 and as Assistant District Governor in 1998/1999 and in 1999/2000.  I have also served as a senior advisor to the District in 1999/2000 and 2000/2001.  For the year 2000/2001, I have also been appointed to serve as District Chair to District expansion.