Festival City Rotary Newsletter May 29, 2012
The Rotary Club Of Festival City
President: David Moore
Minutes of the meeting of May 29, 2012
Club email: festivalcityrotary@gmail.com
Club web blog: www.festivalcityrotary.blogspot.com
ClubRunner site: www.festivalcityrotary.ca
Guests: Rob Ritz from Stratford Rotary. Phanuwat Kongwattananon (Nu) our Rotary Exchange Student from Thailand. Charlotte Coats outbound Exchange Student to Norway.
Draw Prize: Peter Moreton donated the prize won by Wayne Young.
Announcements:
1. Board Of Directors Meeting: May 30, 7 PM at the Moore residence.
2. Transport to the District Conference. Nu and Shin, the two Rotary Exchange students require transportation to the District Conference. If you can provide transportation please contact Carol Rock.
Guest Speaker: David Moore introduced Brandi Gillett who gave her classification talk. Brandi is the Manager of Outreach Programs for the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus.
Brandi grew up in Stewarttown a small village just south of Georgetown Ontario. She comes from a family with lots of relatives in the area. One year there were 92 people for Christmas. Upon graduating from Georgetown District High School Brandi moved to Peterborough to attend Trent University. During her 10 years at Trent she earned two degrees in Anthropology and Native Studies. She was also Senior Event Manager at Trent. During her years as a student she travelled to many remote communities in the North West Territories, Quebec and Manitoba. She was impressed with the ability of the aboriginal people in maintaining their culture. The children filled with joy, were friendly and hopeful for their futures. However the living conditions are horrible and little seems to get done by governments to change the situation. After five years funding for Brandi’s research ran out and she felt defeated.
In 2001 Brandi joined the University of Waterloo and has had various roles since then. These include Special Events and Alumni Affairs Coordinator and more recently a Manager at the Stratford Campus. Brandi was part of the visioning team for the new campus and helped develop the Canada 3.0 conferences.
Brandi is putting down roots in Stratford as she has recently bought a house here. She didn’t take long to fall in love with Stratford and its vibrant culture, and a city open to new ideas and change.
Brandi was thanked by David Moore.