President's Message ~ June 2014

Here it is- June already and this is my last update as President. It is disconcerting that the year has flown by so quickly. It has been fun.

May was once again a busy month for our Club. We completed two projects at Lake Scugog Camp. We refurbished the second leaders’ cabin as planned- it was a perfect day and we had about 16 volunteers (see earlier article and picture in Club Runner web page). While we were there a number of us took another look at their Recreation Hall Roof – it was in very bad shape and needed prompt attention. Two of Karl Herder’s friends were there and advised that if Rotary stripped the roof, arranged for a bin to put shingles in, and purchased the new shingles- they would put them on free of charge. Lake Scugog Camp arranged a bin and Ken Graham convinced his wife Cathy, his daughter Kyra (and last year’s outbound student), Saara (our current exchange student) and a few friends to come out on a Friday to strip the shingles from the roof and load them into a garbage bin. Rotarians Bob Almack and Bob Sawatsky also joined in on the hard work. New shingles were ordered by our Club and on Saturday May 31 the new shingles were put on by Karl’s friends. Nice work everybody and thanks to the hard workers. The kids at the Camp will benefit from a dry Recreation Hall!

We also had two classification talks in May. These talks allow newer Rotarians to tell us about themselves and their careers. I find that these presentations are always a high light of each year and the two in May were excellent. Michael Stewart and Bob Sawatsky both spoke from the heart and illustrated why they will make such good Rotarians. Well done guys. Mike Gaudet, another of our newer Rotarians, will give his talk on June 11. 

As I look back on the year- our Club has been very active. We have had many successes in fundraising, in community benefit projects and in our support of international projects. As I gaze back on Club functions- we have had a lot of fun and fellowship. Our Club has continued to grow- we are now 37 Rotarians and I certainly welcome the vibrancy and new ideas that our new members bring! And as we come near the end of our year we will be saying goodbye for now to Saara who will be off on her cross country tour and then back for a week in late July before she goes home to Finland.  Our participation in the international exchange program has been a real success story. Last week Aubrey reported that he had lunch with Vivien (our student 4 years ago) in France and that he is thriving in his pursuit in a career as a ship’s captain. And Line (our Danish student from two years ago) is coming with her parents for a week in September and plans to bring her parents to dinner at our golf tournament on September 16.  

On June 25, I will deliver my Presidential “swan song” speech. I will wrap up my Presidential year in 20 minutes or less. It will be a challenge to keep it to 20 minutes as there are so many good memories.