Rotary International President – Glen W. Kinross of Brisbane, Australia

Theme – “Show Rotary Cares” with an emblem of four hands placed around the globe in the strongest handhold to represent the world and its people, surrounded by different colours to represent their different races.

In his address, R.I. President Kinross said, “Each Club and each Rotarian can identify problems of poverty, hunger, child abuse and abandonment, illiteracy and innumeracy in our local community, as well as the world community, and commit their resources and take action towards solving those problems.  The strength of Rotary is individual Rotarians.  We build a better world while building a better community and showing Rotary cares.”

1997/98 was the first year of the new District leadership structure using Assistant District Governors and Governor’s Area Representatives.  Ralph Marziano was our Governor’s Area Representative.  Our District Governor was Charlie Woods.

The board of directors consisted of Ralph Marziano (Past-president), Kerry Hillis (Treasurer), Ken Boyd (Secretary), Nancy Shoemaker (Community Service), Betty Kashur and Ash Kapur (Club Service), Patsy Marshall (Vocational), Michael Balnar (President-elect) and Paul Fitzpatrick (International).

This President’s year followed the Dream Home Lottery and for a number of reasons the club decided we would not do another such lottery.  A survey of the membership was conducted for new fundraising ideas an a committee was struck to investigate the proposals including the basic requirements for time, financial and other resources, legal, personnel, etc.  The committee reported to the Board and we decided to pursue the Ribfest, a performance of Famous People Players and a Scotch Nosing.

In addition to developing a new long-term fundraising project, one of our goals was to increase the effectiveness of our committee structure so that more of our members would be involved in the planning and execution of our Club’s activities.

Our Club fulfilled the requirements for a Presidential Citation which indicated we had a well-balanced program among the four avenues of service.  Our accomplishments may be summarized as follows:

Ways and Means

We developed three new fundraising projects: Famous People Players performance for students during the day and an evening performance, our first annual Scotch Nosing and the planning and ground work for our first annual Ribfest (held in Mike Balnar’s year).  We continued with our Canada Day sales of ice cream and glow-in-the-dark novelties and bean soup mix at Christmas.

Community Service

A great deal of effort was expended trying to establish a Rotaract Club for youth (high school/university age) which ultimately did not succeed.  We provided for renovations to the living/common area of Wyndham House and participated in the Hanlon Creek Nature Conservancy trail construction.  Our work with Women in Crisis donating children’s gifts on our birthdays continued as did our Senior’s Bingo at the Ellington.  We supported a family at Christmas through Family & Children’s Services and donated funds to the Ice Storm Disaster Relief.

Vocational Service

We again assisted in the organization and presentation of Camp Enterprise with other area clubs.  The Fred Black Scholarship was again awarded to a deserving student continuing their education in community college.

Club Service

We enjoyed a net increase in our membership from 41 to 43.  Our weekly programs were very interesting and informative, such as the GSE team visiting from Siberia, Russia and we enjoyed several excellent classification talks.  Our annual Firesides and Christmas Party were enjoyed by all as was the Trivial Pursuit evening.

International Service

We substantially increased our contribution to the Rotary Foundation through the President’s Walk to $1,425, funded the Dr. Jim Thompson Scholarship Trust to support a student through elementary and secondary school and contributed with area clubs to the construction of bridges in Guatemala.

As in any “President’s Year” the accomplishments are those of the entire Club and not the individual serving as President.  I was honoured to serve the Club as President in 1997/1998 to assist in whatever ways I could to help the Club achieve its goals for that year and I am most thankful for the support and assistance of many dedicated Rotarians.