Edmonton's Mayor, Don Iveson will be our guest speaker on January 26, 2015.
Please plan on attending and bring any guests that you feel would like to hear the Mayor speak about Edmonton's transportation systems, now and into the future.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the MacEwan Rotaract Charter night that was planned for January 25, 2015 is being postponed until a later date.
From Boyle Street to Belize, Edmonton West Rotary has a sixty year history of applying its members' unique skills and talents to the challenges that face our community, our city and our world. Join us!
Meeting: chair, Ingrid; music, Jerome via proxy to David Gibbens; grace, Brad
Attendance/Guests: 31 including former member Ron Hutchinson; George Grover Scholarship winners Amanda Wang and Victor Do; Miao Tsai, Rotary Club of Ottawa
Welcome back: Fred limping on new knee; Brent back from death of father and support of mother on BC coast
Casino: Bill advised that we only made about $2,000 on the nights we worked but thanks for the 3 month pooling as we still expect to raise around $80,000. Thanks for all the volunteer help to man the casino platform.
Rotary International Recognition: Ingrid presented Mike Ryan the new Rotary International pin in recognition for Mike's sponsoring of new members; congratulations
Finemaster: Kirsten changed the focus to have various members, including herself, donate the equivalent of fun bucks while advising of their Rotary 2015 resolutions
50/50: $361, 4 cards, Brent and Duart did not match
Gail Joan Larkin, 4 year resident of Grandview Extended Centre, daughter of Jean Lang who is widow to Rotary Club of Edmonton West Charter President Ben Lang, passed away January 12, 2015. Funeral January 21, 11:00 a m, Park Memorial.
Feature Program: George Grover Scholarship Winners: see Rotary Club of Edmonton West home page for a detailed description of the history and reason for the scholarship program. Ron Hutchinson introduced the 2 winners that attended today's meeting and advised that, under the revised scholarship offering, 42 recipients have shared in over $300,000 in the last 14 years. The 3 winners this year each received $6,000. The third recipient spoke to our club in late 2014. This scholarship fund is the second largest scholarship available to University of Alberta students.
Amanda Wang attended Old Scona for high school and was very active in sports, playing on many school teams. Currently, she is completing her third year in Biological Science towards an undergraduate degree. She thanked the Edmonton Real Estate Board and Rotary Club of Edmonton West for scholarship and advised that her interests include reading, drawing, arts competitions in addition to sports. She used to be a chess master, was second best in Canada and attended international chess competition in Greece representing Canada. Since spending 4 to 5 hours per day to stay on top of the chess world was too demanding she has given up participating in competitions but keeps in the know by coaching a girl's chess club.
She has become involved with the University of Alberta volunteer organizations and, since 2008, has been committed to supporting the Edmonton Run Committee for the Canadian Breast Cancer Society. She helps at a south side senior's residence and enjoys hearing about the residents' life experiences. Towards the needs of children, she has participated in Right to Play and has trained as a First Aid Responder. This last endeavour helped her decide on medicine as her ultimate career. She has applied to various universities to enter their medical faculty without completing the BSc program and has received initial admission at University of Calgary. If medicine does not work out she has also enquired about positions in various law faculties and has interest shown by University of British Columbia.
Victor Do is enrolled in second year honours physiology with an interest in going into medical research. He presented a power point program to backstop his talk and we got an education on timeliness of turning on computers. Along with Rotary and Real Estate Board, Victor thanked his parents and mentors for helping him win the scholarship. Victor had a career in figure skating, was Alberta junior champion for 3 years and was excited to show that he had personally met Canadian senior champion Patrick Chan. Through his figure skating training he learned about the 4 zones of training (easy, more difficult, high rate of exercise and really difficult). This taught him work ethic and time management skills. He started volunteering while he attended Archbishop MacDonald high School and entered into leadership positions. One of his support statements was "teaching does much but encouragement does everything".
Some of his extracurricular activities were experiment on tooth decay and raising funds for poor children. He participates in strong kids campaign (4 years) at YMCA where he has helped to design child care centres. He chairs the YMCA young leaders advisory board and is involved with community involvement opportunities through the University of Alberta Health Sciences. Working with Dr. Chris Cheeseman, Dr. Fred West and Dr. John Geer, he has worked on projects involving novel breast cancer detection and mapping the brain's breathing control centre and motor neurons. Research will be part of his future plans in Clinical Medicine, Pediatrics. This would centre on Cardio Vascular Health together with Diabetes. As a community leader, he wants to give back to say thanks for the help he has received so far. THE ONLY IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY IS THE ONE YOU NEVER BEGIN. He needs to help people.
Amanda and Victor were thanked by Mike Henry (competing university faculty) who commented that the scholarship was part reward and part investment in the future through the students.
Edmonton's Mayor, Don Iveson will be our guest speaker on January 26, 2015.
Victor Do is enrolled in second year honours physiology with an interest in going into medical research. He presented a power point program to backstop his talk and we got an education on timeliness of turning on computers. Along with Rotary and Real Estate Board, Victor thanked his parents and mentors for helping him win the scholarship. Victor had a career in figure skating, was Alberta junior champion for 3 years and was excited to show that he had personally met Canadian senior champion Patrick Chan. Through his figure skating training he learned about the 4 zones of training (easy, more difficult, high rate of exercise and really difficult). This taught him work ethic and time management skills. He started volunteering while he attended Archbishop MacDonald high School and entered into leadership positions. One of his support statements was "teaching does much but encouragement does everything". 
