The Westerner for October 17, 2011

Posted by Brian F. Thompson 
on Oct 17, 2011
 

Meeting:   Chair - Sherry;  Music - Jerome;   Grace - Mike Henry

Attendance / Guests:  36, including Gerry Kronstedt, Donna Krokis, Steve Eleniak (Edmonton Northeast), Paul Preston, Peter Lyons

Announcements:

  • President Sherry thanks Bert Andrews, Sandon Cox, Bob Kimmerly, Jim Johnston, Brian Thompson, Doug MacDougall, Jerome Martin and Steve McEachern for reading to the students of Lansdowne School during Read-In Week.

  • The Board of Directors will meet on Wednesday, October 19th at the Petroleum Club at 5:30 pm.  Any Club member is welcome to attend any Board meeting.

  • Duane Evans has arranged for a special guest speaker for Tuesday, November 1, so our regular Monday, October 31 meeting has been re-sheduled.  Members are encouraged to bring guests to hear John Carruthers talk about the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline from Bruderheim to Kitimat.

  • Jim Spalding has tickets for the annual Lest We Forget concert at the Winspear on Sunday, November 6th.

  • 50/50 Draw - Doug Sollows and Bert Andrews did not match cards.

  • Finemaster Ron Hutchinson exempted selected Roughrider fans, but collected many fines from those who could not identify members of our new Provincial Government Cabinet.  Steve Eleniak was asked to contribute for the fines he should have had over his 25 years of attendance at our club but the cheap __________ could only come up with $2.00.

  • Ron Hutchinson reported on a new Youthact club which is being started up at Westmin Junior High School by members of the Centennial Interact Club.  Joe Lizotte is proud to announce that his daughter Elizabeth will be a charter member of that club.  At their first meeting they had over 30 students from grades 7 and 8 only, because the grade 9's were away participating in some other event.

NEW MEMBER - BENJAMIN ARTHUR TURNER

An induction ceremony was held for the induction of Ben Turner as the new youngest member of our Club.   Ben will be the first of a new class of membership to be called New Generations (see separate article for details).

Ben was proudly sponsored by, and introduced to the club by his grandfather Dave Turner.

Ben is a recent graduate of Calmar Secondary School, and was one of the founding members of the Calmar Interact Club, where he served two terms as Vice-President, and one term as the Chairman of the International Committee.  Through Rotary, Ben Turner has taken a trip to Belize with the Belize Literacy Program, and a second international trip to the Philippines as part of a project that is still under development.

He is grateful to the Edmonton West Rotary Club for providing a $500 donation to help purchase solar lights for the Philippines trip, as well as $1,500 to cover the costs of travel when he attended the Global Youth Leadership Conference in New York and Washington in June, 2010.

In the area of New Generations Service (Rotary's Fifth Avenue of Service), he has been a highly involved member of District 5370 Planning Committee who are working to involve and network New Generations like never before, and this committment to youth in service has been the trademark of Ben and his work around the world.

Ben was also a highly achieved army cadet, retiring last June at the rank of Chief Warrant Officer, with some of the highest decorations attainable through the cadet program.

He believes that engaging youth in the volunteer world, and offering motivated young individuals the opportunity to better themselves and contribute to the world around them is key to paving the way to a better world tomorrow.

Welcome to the Club Ben Turner.  

"CLASSIFICATION TALK" - ZEN MOISEY

Past President John Blimke introduced  Zen Moisey who has been a member of the Club since 1968.  John mentioned highlights of Zen's contributions to Rotary including being involved in the early Rotary sponsorship of Fort Edmonton Park development, his leadership in the establishment of the Humanitarian Aid Warehouse Society (HAWS), the Ukraine relief project and the water filter kits.  He and Doreen have also given much back to this community through the Edmonton Community Foundation.

Zen was born on a farm near Andrew, Alberta.  His family moved to Lac La Biche where he has his fondest memories of growing up as a child.  Later they moved to Jasper Place, before it became part of Edmonton, where they had a much nicer outdoor toilet.  Zen graduated from the University of Alberta in 1962 with a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering.  

He worked for BA Oil which became Gulf Oil which became Texaco Oil.  Later, he worked for Inland Cement but dabbled on the side in various other business ventures.  Over the years, he has partnered in various businesses with Rotarians such as Don Hamilton, Jim Rowand, Chris Gowers and Wayne Ellis.  He has always found that applying the Four-Way Test can pull you out of trouble.

Doreen and Zen founded Tanks-A-Lot, a company which made precast concrete tanks for storage of water or sewage, and they did very well over the years.  In approximately 2006, they sold the business and that is when they bought property in Costa Rica and started work on the Arenal Maleku Condominiums.  They have a permit to build 300 units, of which 24 are now constructed, including 5 show models.  Sales of units started on October 1.  Anyone who is interested enough to pay their own way to the site can have two nights free courtesy of Zen to check out the development and the area.  Prices for the units vary from $183,000 USD for a 1-bedroom unit to $750,000 USD for a 3,000 square foot penthouse suite.  Because the site is at a higher elevation, the climate is very pleasant, and you seldom need your air conditioner on.  John Blimke says the lifestyle in the local area is great, and the cost of living is very low.

Zen was thanked for his presentation by Don McDermid