Festival City Rotary Newsletter May 14
The Rotary Club Of Festival City
President: Dianne Yundt
Minutes of the meeting of May 14, 2013
Club email: festivalcityrotary@gmail.com
Club website: www.festivalcityrotary.ca
Guests: Constable Dave Stewart
Door Prize: Donna Hinz donated the prize won by Carolyn Dingman.
Announcements:
1. Group Study Exchange: The group from South Korea originally scheduled to visit Stratford May 21 will not be visiting until June.
2. Area 3 Meeting: The meeting chaired by Stan Malcolm is May 30 in Mitchell.
- Rotary Dues: The membership has received invoices for the 2013-2014 Rotary year. Please make cheques payable to the Rotary Club of Festival City Stratford. Cheques can be post-dated to July 2. Give cheques to treasurer Etienne Leushuis.
- Coffee: El Salvador coffee beans or ground coffee in 1lb bags is available from Randy Matthews for $15 each.
- District Assembly: Takes place June 7-9 in Sarnia. Anyone attending and wishes to travel with President Dianne should speak to her.
- Rotary Social Evenings: The first one will be at the Rivers home on May 28. It will be a “Wine and Cheese” evening. Bring your favourite cheese with a short description of the cheese type.
- Rotaract Banquet: It is confirmed that the banquet is Wednesday May 29 at the Arden Park. Tickets are $40. It is hoped that all members of Festival City Rotary will be able to attend. Rotaract is a joint venture of Festival City and Stratford Rotary Clubs. Tyler Canal has tickets for the event beginning at 6 PM.
Guest Speaker: President Dianne introduced Constable Dave Stewart from the Stratford Police Services. A police officer for 24 years Constable Stewart is currently serving a 3 year term as the Community Services Officer and is responsible for the Block Parent program.
The program started in London Ontario in 1968 through the efforts of the Jewish Council of Women after the murder of a young boy. In Stratford, Block Parenting began in the early 70’s and spread across Canada by the early 80’s when the National Block Parent Program was formed. The program became very popular after an article was published in the Homemakers Magazine in 1976. In Stratford, most streets had at least one Block Parent by the mid 80’s after which the program started into a slow decline. With an increase in households with no children, more retirees, and more often with both parents working, there are fewer homes with someone home during the daytime. By the late 90’s the number of Stratford Block Parent homes declined to the low 20’s. The program was on the verge of closing down when Dave Blackburn of the Stratford Rotary Club became aware of the problem and approached the club about taking on Block Parenting as the host agency.
The Block Parent program was re-launched in 2012 with the goal of having 30 homes by the end of 2012. There are currently 40 homes participating and it is hoped that by the end of May that 40 more will participate.
Small businesses can also participate. Some currently in the program include the Scottish Shop, Black Creek Physiotherapy, Co-operators and Orr Insurance. The YMCA may also come on board.
To participate in the program an application must be filled out followed by a police check. Anyone 18 and over can become a host as long as there is someone at home some of the time. When someone is at home the sign is placed in a window and removed when leaving the house. Hosts sign up for a 2 year term. The host is covered both by the Good Samaritan Law and through Block Parent insurance
The responsibility of the host only involves being willing to make a phone call to the police or the parent of a child asking for help. The program is not only available to children but to anyone who needs assistance be it a wandering senior or a lost tourist.
Constable Stewart was thanked by David Moore