Festival City Rotary Newsletter February 19, 2013

Posted by Vincent Hill 
on Feb 20, 2013
 

The Rotary Club Of Festival City

President:  Dianne Yundt

Minutes of the meeting of February 19, 2013

Club email:  festivalcityrotary@gmail.com

Club website: www.festivalcityrotary.ca

Guests: Kevin Hulley is a guest of Anna Sherwin and Jamie Gibb is a guest of Jean Aitcheson. Other guests include Charlie Swartwood and Eleanor McMahon. Leticia Figueiredo is our exchange student.

Draw Prize: Dianne Yundt won the prize donated by Jean Aitcheson.

Dinner of the Month: Jim Henry won a dinner for four at The Annex Restaurant.

All You Can Eat Spaghetti Dinner: Randy Mathews has tickets to sell for this annual event. Tickets are $15 each. Everyone is encouraged to sell tickets to support international and local projects. Tickets are also available for purchase at Fanfare Books.

Announcements:

  1. Board of Directors Meeting: The next meeting is Thursday February 23 at the home of President Dianne, 3 Morison Street.
  2. Soup and Sandwich: The Memorial Baptist Church group that spoke to us several weeks ago is holding its final fundraiser on Sunday at the church. There are two sittings, 11 AM and 12:30.
  3. Heritage and Collectors Show: Donna Hinz announced this event taking place Saturday February 23 at the Rotary Complex. Entry is $5 for adults and kids under 12 are free.
  4. Splash Pad Donation: Representing Memorial Baptist Church, Peter Moreton presented Jack West with a cheque in the amount of $460 for the splash pad.

Guest Speaker: Kent Chisholm introduced Eleanor McMahon, Founder of Share the Road Cycling Coalition. Eleanor started the coalition after the cycling death of her husband OPP Sergeant Greg Stobbart in 2006.

The Share the Road coalition is an advocacy group uniting cycling groups across Ontario to help communities become more bicycle friendly. Polling data suggests that Ontarians are in favour of increased bicycle accessibility on roads and streets. To promote cycling the coalition holds summits in various cities. Summits for 2013 include Kingston on March 19 and the Ontario Bike Summit in Toronto on May 28-29.

Share the Road is participating in Stratford’s Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan Stakeholder Workshop taking place at the Kiwanis Centre on February 20 starting at 6:30 PM. Stratford is undertaking a study to develop a master plan to be used as a guide to develop and maintain bike paths and pedestrian walkways within the city. The master plan will identify the benefits to the public, tourism and retail sectors, and identify gaps in bike paths and fill them, and promote Stratford’s assets as a bike friendly community.

In 2010 Share the Road started the Bike Friendly Community Award program which is modeled on an American program. It is similar to the Communities in Bloom in that communities are rated on their bike and pedestrian friendliness. Communities which apply for an award are judged in five categories, the “five E’s” –Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation & Planning. Awards are labeled bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Ottawa and Waterloo have earned silver awards, whereas London, Windsor and Oshawa have been awarded bronze. There are no gold communities in Canada. Stratford has applied to participate.

A bike route from Windsor and running 1400km to the Quebec border has been awarded bronze.

For more information about Share the Road visit www.sharetheroad.ca

Eleanor was thanked by Anna Sherwin.