As Rotarians, we are all teachers. For some of us, teaching is, or was, our profession. Yet, regardless of what our vocation is or was, each of us has the responsibility – make that, opportunity – to teach others what it means to Be A Gift to the World. Most of all, we teach others by being an example of what it means to put values into action and serve others in our local communities and around the world. What we do as Rotarians speaks louder than verbal platitudes about helping others.
Being a role model for Service Above Self is important, but it isn’t enough. I think it’s important that we seek out opportunities to influence children, teens and young adults proactively. Rotary offers many opportunities to do that. Our community service projects, EarlyAct, Interact, Rotaract, Slapshot, RYLA and Youth Exchange programs all provide many opportunities to inspire, mentor, and influence future generations – those who will succeed us as leaders in our communities.
As Rotarians, we hope that the work we do will build a better world for others – today and into the future. One of the best ways we can ensure that is to reach out and get engaged with participants in our youth programs. It’s great to sponsor a student for Slapshot or RYLA or Youth Exchange. It’s wonderful to sponsor an EarlyAct, Interact or Rotaract club. It’s even better when you continue to stay involved with the participants in these programs. Who knows? You might help inspire a life-long interest in serving others. What a legacy!
Saturday, April 23 was a treasure for my memory book! The weatherman hadn’t forecast great weather in my area of New York State, so I went prepared for a wet and cold day as I headed out for Canterbury Hills, Ancaster, Ontario, however it was sunny and cool. This was a first for me; I had never been to SlapShot. Although as President of the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM in 2009-2010, we had sent three students from Sir John A. McDonald High School and they returned to regale us with wonderful tales of their weekend adventures.
We are very pleased to report our selection of the Vocational Training Team project for the coming Rotary Year 2016-2017. Our selection is to District 9790 in Australia. The primary focus will be Fruit Farming and our District VTT would potentially go there late this calendar year. District 9790 has made a commitment and to their credit their VTT chair has experience with previously successful VTTs. Our entire District has a wealth of potential with highly experienced candidates in fruit farming to fulfill the training needs of their District. Shortly, we anticipate starting the application process for the selection of a Rotarian Team Leader and 3-4 Team Members. We expect the process to be highly competitive with some difficult choices ahead of us as we select just the right team to go outbound!
Hello, if you were able to attend this year’s district’s annual Club Leadership Training on Saturday, May 7, I don’t need to tell you what a wonderful Rotary event it was!
To those that unfortunately had to miss this Rotary day of fellowship and training, please know we missed you and hope you will watch for the date of the 2017’s Club Leadership Training to be announced within the next few weeks; it very likely will be the first Saturday in May. When the date is announced I hope you will record the date and plan to attend. In 2017, the Club Leadership Training will be in St. Catharines, ON.
There were few programs for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Niagara County. The Rotary Club of Lewiston/Niagara-On-The-Lake along with the Police and Fire Departments of Niagara Falls provide financial support for the Aquarium of Niagara’s Au-Some Aquarium program, developed in partnership with the Autism Spectrum Disorder Center at Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB) and occupational therapy students at D’Youville College. The Program is the first of its kind in Niagara County aimed at increasing cultural accessibility, promoting autism awareness and providing a safe and supportive environment for fun and socialization for families with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).
At the start of the Write for Fun Awards event held Saturday April 30, at the Port Dover Library, Nancy Sherwin of the Rotary Club of Norfolk Sunrise surprised Heather King, Norfolk County Public Library CEO, with a Paul Harris Fellow Recognition. Heather exemplifies community service in her volunteer actions as well as her role as Library CEO.
In early April, a local non-profit veterans’ organization, the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association (CVMA) Chapter (19-6) helped to create an opportunity for veterans with PTSD to keep their service dogs, and to bring them to their therapy sessions at the Batavia VA PTSD Clinic. The VA had recently allowed service dogs to accompany veterans with PTSD to therapy sessions, but in some cases, the dogs could not come into the building, or needed room to run and relax. CVMA member Mr. Frank Grillo worked with the Director of the VA Medical Center in Batavia, Mr. Brian Stiller, to obtain permission to build a dog run on the Batavia VA PTSD Clinic grounds for veterans’ service dogs.
On April 14, the 10 Rotary clubs of the Niagara region held a joint luncheon hosted by the Rotary Club of St. Catharines Lakeshore. President, Linda Landry, presided over the luncheon at the Holiday Inn in St. Catharines. The guest speaker, Steve Ludzik, introduced by Rotarian Bob Miller, was a player, a coach, an author, an analyst and a philanthropist.
Margaret Mead was correct ! A small group of people can change the world! The Earth Day Clean that Salamanca Rotary sponsored collected an entire pick up truck worth of trash in just under two hours. And the small club of Salamanca was only able to call upon two Rotarians for this project. How did so few accomplish so much?
Recently, the Flamborough AM Rotary Club increased its ranks with the addition of Gordon Manzer. Gordon was welcomed into the club by his sponsor, Margaret Robertson, President Jim Files and Assistant Governor, Robert Morrow. The Assistant Governor led the induction ceremony, along with President Jim, and Margaret “pinned” Gordon. Following his induction, Gordon was welcomed by all of the members of the club.
90 Rotarians, family and friends came out to the Prince of Wales Hotel on April 26, 2016, for the club's annual Paul Harris Award Dinner to celebrate those being honoured with the Paul Harris Recognition. Rotarians Bill Charnetski and John Mather received the recognition, along with community leader, Nancy King. In the photo - DG Kevin on the right congratulates the recipients.
At the Rotary Club of Jamestown's meeting on April 25, Rotarians learned of the proposed LoCo Rail Trail from Rotarian Ken Lawton.
Lawton lives in Busti and is a member of the Town board. He said the trail will be installed on the existing railroad right-of-way and adjacent paper streets from the southwest side of Busti to the northeast side, where it intersects with the proposed Celoron trail into Jamestown. It is a totally volunteer effort, which draws upon a growing number of such rail trails that are being developed in the country.
For the fifth time, a number of graduating Grade 8 students from Hess Street School, a Hamilton “inner city school”, will now have computers to take home to help prepare them for the challenges of High School. Computers have become a necessity to complete school work at the High School and Post Secondary level. Many students at Hess Street School are new Canadians and some families don’t have the resources to provide home computers. On Monday, May 16, 2016 at 2:00 pm, the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM and its partners in this project will present 20 refurbished computers to Hess Street School students.
On May 19, Rotarians from the Fonthill and Welland clubs spent a day on a house build in Welland for a Syrian family. The club members had a most productive day adding door and window trim, painting and constructing outside stairs. Recently, the 2 clubs also jointly funded a construction trailer, $5,000 Canadian.
There is nothing like a bit of club sweat equity to bring members together for a cause. The Rotary Club of Dundas Valley Sunrise held its annual spring shredding day on April 30 and over 8000 pounds of documents were safely destroyed and diverted from landfill to recycling - that’s around 400 boxes. The charge was $7 for a small bank box but don’t let the $7 cost fool you. The price is low but many, many community members refused their change saying, Rotary does good work in town. Keep doing it! One person even drove up, handed a blank piece of paper for shredding and paid $20!
A number of grandchildren come out to work. Rotarian Ross Bannatyne was joined by his grandson Tim (in the background) and Ralph Montesanto’s grandson Ethan is pictured at the bin.
Buffalo Rotary Foundation President Ron Caruso and Carolyn Murray, presented a check for $2,000 to Barbara Ochterski from the Rotary Club of Buffalo Sunrise and District Governor Kevin Crosby, who along with their partners are providing a well, water purification equipment, water storage facilities, latrines and hygiene education for a group of schools in a rural area of northern Tanzania, a country located in East Africa.
On Friday, May 6th the Clarence Rotary Club celebrated a Day of Caring. The club donated a new 65 inch TV to the Clarence Youth Bureau, freshened up the ...
Michael “Mike” Ricketts of Mayville was recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Westfield/Mayville at its recent Saturday evening auction. The auction, which is held at this time every year, also presents the club with the very public opportunity to recognize a non-Rotarian – for his or her selfless contributions to society. Ricketts is such a person - one whose life exemplifies Rotary’s motto Service Above Self.
The Rotary Club of Brantford was highly honoured to host District Governor Kevin Crosby twice during this past month! The first occasion saw Kevin introduce Julia Phelps, Rotary International Director 2014-16. Julia’s early service in Rotary included hosting several Ambassadorial Scholars and her career was in education system leadership. It was fitting that Kevin’s return engagement also continued the thread of education. With Kevin having a significant tie to education, being a founding board member of the Buffalo-based Girls Education Collaborative, we were delighted he made the trip to celebrate support for higher education.
Close to a 1000 people were killed and thousands injured and made homeless by a 7.2 earthquake in Ecuador on April 17th. Rotary Club of Amherst recently contributed $1100 towards Ecuador Earthquake Relief by participating with Canadian District 7790 which has put together a Relief Fund which is managed by Quebec-Charlesbourg Rotary Club.
Saturday, April 23 was a treasure for my memory book! The weatherman hadn’t forecast great weather in my area of New York State, so I went prepared for a wet and cold day as I headed out for Canterbury Hills, Ancaster, Ontario, however it was sunny and cool. This was a first for me; I had never been to SlapShot. Although as President of the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM in 2009-2010, we had sent three students from Sir John A. McDonald High School and they returned to regale us with wonderful tales of their weekend adventures.
Join Us This Fall! Embark on a journey with six to eight fellow Rotarians for the experience of a lifetime... 
At the start of the Write for Fun Awards event held Saturday April 30, at the Port Dover Library, Nancy Sherwin of the Rotary Club of Norfolk Sunrise surprised Heather King, Norfolk County Public Library CEO, with a Paul Harris Fellow Recognition. Heather exemplifies community service in her volunteer actions as well as her role as Library CEO. 
In early April, a local non-profit veterans’ organization, the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association (CVMA) Chapter (19-6) helped to create an opportunity for veterans with PTSD to keep their service dogs, and to bring them to their therapy sessions at the Batavia VA PTSD Clinic. The VA had recently allowed service dogs to accompany veterans with PTSD to therapy sessions, but in some cases, the dogs could not come into the building, or needed room to run and relax. CVMA member Mr. Frank Grillo worked with the Director of the VA Medical Center in Batavia, Mr. Brian Stiller, to obtain permission to build a dog run on the Batavia VA PTSD Clinic grounds for veterans’ service dogs.
mily and friends came out to the Prince of Wales Hotel on April 26, 2016, for the club's annual Paul Harris Award Dinner to celebrate those being honoured with the Paul Harris Recognition. Rotarians Bill Charnetski and John Mather received the recognition, along with community leader, Nancy King. In the photo - DG Kevin on the right congratulates the recipients.
On Friday, May 6th the Clarence Rotary Club celebrated a Day of Caring. The club donated a new 65 inch TV to the Clarence Youth Bureau, freshened up the ...
