The Rotary Club Of Festival City

President:  Dianne Yundt

Minutes of the meeting of February 26, 2013

Club email:  festivalcityrotary@gmail.com

Club website: www.festivalcityrotary.ca

Guests: Tine Buechler is from the Stratford Rotary Club. Kevin Hulley is a guest of Anna Sherwin. Suzanne Grandy is our guest speaker.

Draw Prize: Donna Hinz won the prize donated by Ken Hansen.

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 28, 7 PM at the home of President Dianne, 3 Morison Street.
  2. Canadian Pennies for Polio Campaign: The last day to contribute to this campaign is Wednesday February 27. To contribute phone Sandy Ronson at 519-641-1776 or visit www.rotary.org/EN/CONTRIBUTE/Pages/ridefault.aspx
  3. Premium El Salvador Coffee. Lynne Ternosky has 1lb bags of coffee for a donation of $15. Both ground coffee and beans are available. Enough coffee has been sold to date to cover the cost of the coffee and all future sales will be put towards projects.

Guest Speaker: Ken Hansen introduced Suzanne Grandy a former employee of the Queen’s Inn who talked about her recent solo volunteer experience in Tanzania.

Suzanne spent 10 weeks in the Arusha area of northernTanzania working at several schools and at a baby orphanage.

For over six weeks she volunteered at a school for disabled children. The school was a dry and dusty 20 minute walk up a hill from the hostel where she was staying. The school had very limited resources, no running water, no books or photocopier, but it did have swings and a slide. Assignments were written out by hand for each child. Just the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught. Children were provided with breakfast and lunch. The children were left much to themselves to work out relationship problems. Adults did not try to interfere.  Volunteers also helped to paint the school.

The hostel where volunteers stayed was guarded by a Masai warrior and dogs. For personal safety volunteers did not go out at night or on Sundays when the police had a day off. On one Sunday her housemates were robbed when they did go out. At one point in her trip Suzanne was swarmed by killer bees after children had rattled the hive. She received over 100 stings but luckily didn’t require medical treatment. At the halfway point of her trip Suzanne had doubts about whether she would be able to continue on but she persevered and things got better. By the time she was to leave and return to Canada she had developed a love for the country.

Suzanne also showed a video of her trip. The pictures were of the children she worked with, the people she met and the animals she encountered.

Suzanne was thanked by Etienne Leushuis.