The Westerner for December 19, 2011
Meeting: chair, Sherry; music, Jerome; grace, Dan Graham
Attendance/Guests: Attendance unknown; guests - Kelsey Williams, Junior Achievement; Peter Lyons plus Al Hendricks plus Camille Berube, guests of Perry; Karen Diaper, guest speaker (assistant public relations director of Salvation Army)
No Meetings: December 26 and January 2
Annual General Meeting: January 9.
Junior Achievement: Kelsey Williams thanked our club for previous donations and left a plaque of appreciation.
Rotary Christmas: President Sherry thanked Bob Lamoureux and Catherine for putting on the December 17 gala. She also thanked those that attended.
50/50: Bill Buckham and Catherine left $93 for the new year.
Finemaster: Bob Lamoureux got everyone for $2
Gift Cards: We have recently made a major purchase of gift cards to replenish our supply, so we now have lots of higher value Safeway, Saveon and Sobeys/IGA cards for sale to our members. These cards have been purchased at a discount, so we won't realize any profit until we sell them to you. The easiest way to do it is send Brian Thompson an e-mail saying you want say $500 worth of Safeway cards. He will put those cards in an envelope with your name on it, and at the next meeting you hand him the cheque and he gives you the envelope. The profit to the club when we sell the cards we just bought will be $3200, so you can see that this can be a pretty effective fundraiser. The only problem with it so far is that quite a few members are not participating. It's pretty clear that they are eating, so we can't figure out why they don't use these cards to make their food purchases. Much thanks to those who are regular card purchasers, because they have to date raised in the order of $2600 for our club. Please consider participating in this program in the new year.
Guest Speaker: Karen Diaper described the mission of the Salvation Army and their new Dignity Project. The mission is basically to share the love of Jesus, meet human needs, be a transforming influence in the world.
The Dignity Project is a fight against poverty which needs every person's personal attention. The are 3 million people in Canada that live in poverty. The Salvation Army believes everyone has a right to descent food, warm (appropriate) clothing, accomodation. To do this, the Sally Ann preforms outreach on the streets and operates various shelters and other types of accomodation. In Edmonton, for the first time, they now have accomodation for women as well as men.
Karen showed videos of 3 people personally helped throught the Dignity Project. The main comment was the fact, that after a long period of time with no identity, the people were called by their first name - the start of returning dignity.
Services performed in Edmonton, besides outreach and shelters, include free meals, food assistance, counselling, kids camp at Pine Lake, a long program of addictions counselling. They operate 4 churches in Edmonton.
Karen was thanked by Bert.