The Westerner for March 29, 2010
Meeting: chair, Ben Doz; music, Jerome; grace, Bert
Attendance/Guests: 33 including Miao Tsai, Rotary Club of Ottawa; Lauren Milner, Rotoract Club of Edmonton Centre (former exchange student to Chili); Rachel Jacques, guest speaker (former exchange student to Mazatland, Mexico)
Centennial Interact Fundraiser: see Ron for tickets for April 30; $45, Sawmill Banquet, 6:00 pm
Grandview Extended Care Centre: Tommy Banks wrote a letter of appreciation that we were planning to purchase a grand piano for the media centre - Tommy said he would be quite prepared to come and play, occasionally; April 6 - come to the performance 7:00 to 8:30, Polish dance group, Asian martial arts demonstration, music by U of A students
Integrity Awards: April 21 @ Sutton Place Hotel; 6:00 pm cocktails, 7:00 dinner and presentations; our club is awarding Bev Findlay from the School of Native Studies
Belize: Duane advised there was a joyful presentation given to the elementary school students about our agreement to fund the toilets for their school so they can learn without getting sick
50/50: Doug MacDougall and Alex did not match cards, $172 carried over
Finemaster: Dan Graham fined if you had no pins or name tags; he then fined if you did not know the following - documentary on tv on Donald S. Cherry; Womens' Curling won by Germany (Andrea Shaw) with Canada getting Bronze (in Swift Current); Rotary International membership now up to 1,234,000 in 33,790 clubs; first Canadian club was Winnipeg in 1910 (met @ YMCA) but not chartered by Rotary until 1912 (would have been the 17th club if chartered in 1910 but was 35th in 1912)
No Meeting Next Week - Edmonton Petroleum Club closed for Easter Monday.
Guest Speaker: Lorne introduced Rachel Jacques who was our club's exchange student to Mazatland, Mexico. She returned about 7 months ago. She presented a series of very interesting pictures. She attended university instead of high school with hours of 7:00 am to 10:30 am - she had the rest of the day to herself.
Images - Starbucks at least once per week; Halloween followed by Day of the Dead - flowers in each cemetary placed by families honouring deceased relatives; National Conference involving 380 exchange students and 50 Rotarians - Canadians were from Nova Scotia, Winnipeg, B C, Saskatchewan, Alberta; her coat was red covered by many pins - weighs 10 lbs.; attended bull fight - fighter was on a horse - if a good fight, the fighter gets an ear off the bull which they mount in their home; Christmas - no turkey; New Years - large holiday - carry suitcase around the block for good luck; February - carnival for one week - no school - exchange students had a float in the parade; District Conference held 3 hours north of Mazatland - exchange students gave talks about their countries; afterward a visit to a shanty town built from junk from junkyards - students gave out sandwiches for lunch - a church has developed a scholarship so one girl could attend school; 19 day trip to see Mexican points of interest - expensive but students had to provide their own food in addition to the cost of the travel - saw Aztec/Mayan ruins, parliament buildings, churches, canyon, water falls, large tree, Cancun theme park; her host Rotary club was all men who have no interest in attracting women members - it took a lot of time and effort to get them to listen to her talk on Canada; Rachel made a lot of friends.
Rachel was thanked by Alex.