Spencer and I attended the volunteer appreciation event at e4c. It was great to connect with Jasmine, Barb and Michelle and have time to talk about all the great things they are doing at e4c.
Edmonton West News
Menasha had been invited by a Ken to attend a Rotary fundraiser, where she met Ingrid. “She asked about what I did for a living,” says Menasha, who works for the Alberta Government in the Department of Justice and Solicitor General. That led to a conversation about Rotary Peace Fellowships, and to a successful application. Menasha leaves this week to begin Rotary Peace Fellowship at a University in Thailand.
The Professional development certification program helps experienced leaders gain practical tools for promoting peace and international development during an intensive, 3- month program, which includes 3 weeks of field study and peer learning opportunities with a diverse group.
We wish her well and look forward to hearing her story when she returns!!
Rotary International
This week more than 24,000 Rotary members from 170 countries are gathering in Hamburg, Germany to attend the 110th annual Rotary International Convention. Rotarians will gather, exchanging ideas, make new connections, and renew old ones. During the convention, participants can be part of the conversation on pressing world issues like polio eradication, pollution, refugee migration, disease prevention, and literacy. Members will be inspired to enhance their skills in areas that Rotarians value, like fellowship, integrity, diversity, service, and fellowship.
At the pre-convention celebrations close to 1000 runners enjoyed the marvelous weather and joined the endpolio charity run in the center of Hamburg, I love the ship sailing down the Elbe River with the end polio now spinnakers.
At the Pre Convention Rotary Peace Symposium, Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege inspired attendees and urged the inclusion of women in all levels of society.
President Rassin in his opening speech said that during the convention you will hear inspiring stories that underscore the Rotary ethos of diversity, leadership, fellowship, integrity, and service. – He knows how memorable these convention can be. But he also knows that the power of Rotary is not there on the stage. It is in you and your fellow Rotarians in your clubs.
1. More than 800 rotaract members from 68 countries travelled to Hamburg for the Rotaract Pre-convention to connect and share ideas for growing their clubs and taking action in their communities.
The e4c Community Garden was planted on the Alex Taylor School grounds in 2004 to provide willing neighbours the opportunity to grow their own food. Each of the garden members plants and maintains their own garden space while working collectively with others on common areas in the garden.
Our involvement with e4c started in 2014. Ben Doz was in contact with Barbara Spencer who used to work at the Zebra Centre and then became the CEO of e4c. He asked if there was anything we could do to help. They suggested that a lot of work needed to be done at the Community Garden at Alex Taylor School. And so began our relationship with e4c.
Duart gave us a detailed account of all the projects our club has been involved with. Since 2014 many of our members have helped e4c on several different projects. Most of our effort has been directed to the Alex Taylor school community garden. The first project involved pruning trees, painting picnic tables, spreading wood chips and encasing the walls of the crumbling bricks on the stairs. After that volunteers performed a major maintenance program on the Commemorative Garden, installing a watering system, planting new plants and spreading bark.
In early spring 2017, Sustainable Food Edmonton awarded a grant to e4c and the Rotary Club of Edmonton West, provided a gift in kind of 150 hours of labour and design. This generosity enabled improvements to the space and the ability to increase the height of the raised beds. The raised garden beds, increases the ability to broaden the selection of plants, and improves access for gardeners with mobility challenges. Our amazing volunteers worked very hard and shoveled 2 truck loads of dirt into the raised beds.
Last year we built some new beds at the McCauley Apartments in Little Italy. We also spread some more bark chips around the Alex Taylor Garden.
The raised beds needed fixing this year as they were bowing with the weight of the dirt. These have been fixed with rebar and strapping.
Duart would like to thank and acknowledge Brian and Fred for all their expertise and all the volunteers for their hard work.
This week's Speaker
Michelle Okere ~ e4c
Michelle's presentation is attached below. Please take the time to read it and find out about all of the programs they run.
At the Pre Convention Rotary Peace Symposium, Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege inspired attendees and urged the inclusion of women in all levels of society.
.jpg)
.JPG)
