Home Page | Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac

January Board Meeting
The Loaf N' Ale British Pub

Jan. 21, 2026
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Q3 Club Assembly *FB
The Loaf N' Ale British Pub

Jan. 21, 2026 6:15 p.m.
Jan Food Packing & Pub Night (Loyal Oarsman)
Comm Food Redist Whse / Loyal Oarsman

Jan. 28, 2026
5:15 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
JIPC Dinner & Meeting (Seaway West)
Wharf & Feather Restaurant

Feb. 03, 2026
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Leslie Hanson (Lionhearts Pop-up Markets) *WR
The Loaf N’ Ale British Pub

Feb. 04, 2026
6:15 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
BINGO! (6:00 pm) - Don P & Don T
Play! Gaming & Entertainment

Feb. 06, 2026
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
International Service Cte Mtg
Wharf & Feather Restaurant

Feb. 10, 2026 5:30 p.m.
Mid-Feb Food Packing & Pub Night (Chuck's Rdhse)
Comm Food Redist Whse / Chuck's Roadhouse

Feb. 11, 2026
5:15 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
February Board Meeting
The Loaf N' Ale British Pub

Feb. 18, 2026
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
“A Night to Remember” Movie Night Fundraiser
Providence Motherhouse

Feb. 18, 2026
6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

President

Elaine Matthew

Immediate Past President

Secretary

Treasurer

Club Operations

Ways & Means (Fundraising)

John Mirski

Youth & Vocational Service

Don Polk

Community Service

Jennifer Patelli

International Service

Douglas Tanton

Membership

Randy Beck

The Rotary Foundation

Fred Richmond

Rotary International

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D7040 WINTER WEEKEND

December 5-7, 2026

On the weekend of December 5-7, the current Inbound & Rebound YouthEx students from around District 7040 gathered in Kingston for a weekend of winter fun!

From the Kingston-Frontenac club were long-term exchange students Cole (rebound) and Christian (inbound). They enjoyed a Kingston Frontenacs hockey game, ice-skating at the Invista Centre and some curling at the Royal Kingston Curling Club.

Nico in Taiwan

On Nico’s Exchange in Taiwan, he recently attended a Buddhist festival with his Host Family.

Christian in México!

After enjoying the Club’s Holiday Dinner in December, Christian joined his Host Family to spend Navidad en México! Here he is shown climbing the pyramids at Teotihuacan (L) and visiting the National Museum of Anthropology in México City (R) with his Host Father Mauricio.

While there he bravely tried the local cuisine, including Escamoles Tacos (Mexican caviar made with ant eggs) and Chapulines (fried grasshoppers)! Delish!

HOLIDAY DINNER 2025

On the wintery evening of December 10, 2025, a festive group of Club members, spouses and friends gathered at The Loaf N’ Ale for the annual Holiday dinner and some Christmas cheer.

Led by Kingston-Frontenac’s own internationally-renowned chorister, Jim Reid, with able support from Jennifer and Douglas, the group enjoyed singing several seasonal favourites in between savory bites.

Topping off the evening, Susan and Russ were the lucky ones to go home with a door prize!

Thanks very much to M-C for organizing the event and to all members and guests who came out to make the evening a spirited success! Happy Holidays to all!

2025

On October 29, 2025, the Loaf N' Ale was filled to capacity with Club members as well as students who had been sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac for various youth development experiences in 2025.

Caidynce Cheng

YouthEx ST Tour (missing Gloria, Fernanda, Leo)
Taiwan RYLA

Students drawn from 6 different area high schools, many accompanied by a parent or guardian, shared highlights from their experiences including RYLA (May 2025), Adventures in Citizenship (May 2025), Indigenous Understanding (August 2025), the Environment (September 2025) & High Technology (October 2025) as well as international Youth Exchanges to both Taiwan (short-term in June/ July 2025) and Japan (long term 2024-25).

Abbey William & Jon Maria

Citizenship Understanding Environment

Ottawa Peterborough-Kawartha Cornwall

Several of the students were known to club members having participated previously in other Rotary youth development experiences:

Caidynce went to Cornwall in September 2024 for Adventures in the Environment and then stepped up for a short-term youth experience - the Taiwan Harmony Tour in June/ July 2025.
Fernanda, our inbound 2024-25 YouthEx student from Brazil, went to RKY Camp in May 2025 for RYLA.
Jacob & Grey, who went to the 2025 Adventure in High Technology, are both members for the past 2 years of Lake Effect Robotics - Team 2708, the FIRST Robotics FRC team sponsored by RCKF. They were joined at AiHT by Christian, our inbound 2025-26 YouthEx student from Germany, whose studies are heavily focused on the Sciences.
Rebound student Cole, now back from his long-term exchange in Japan, started with Rotary on the 2023 Adventure in High Technology.

Jacob Grey Christian

High Technology

Nepean-Kanata

The students all shared how their Rotary experiences introduced them to new people and places and opened the door to new opportunities. Without exception, they all expressed how worthwhile their experience had been, how their expectations had been exceeded and they were all very thankful for the sponsorship provided by Rotary!

Cole

YouthEx LT

Japan

Thanks to the Rotary members who raised

funds to support these Youth Development

Programs by volunteering at Bingo!

AN EVENING WITH DG GRAEME FRASER

October 15, 2025

A good turnout of K-F members was on hand to welcome DG Graeme Fraser and his wife Lynne to the Club's new home at The Loaf N' Ale.

Accompanied by AG John Gale and DGN Elsabé Falkson, the DG spoke about his more than 3 decades in Rotary, his family history in Rotary and his pride in being a Rotarian. Sporting his "End Polio Now" t-shirt, he highlighted the significance of this Rotary Foundation initiative and recognized the K-F club for continuing to "punch above its weight" in being a positive force for good both at home and abroad.

To date, DG Graeme has visited about half of the 70 clubs in District 7040 to "plant the seed" of Rotary and he recounted stories from some of his travels around the district, including to Iqaluit, as well as his recent trip to the annual Zone conference in Winnipeg.

The Frasers were very generous with their time, as they were the last to leave after a full evening of engaged and inspiring fraternization.

JENNIFER PATELLI HONOURED

During his visit to Kingston-Frontenac, DG Graeme Fraser recognized Jennifer Patelli as the Club's latest Paul Harris Fellow, presenting her with her certificate and pin. Congratulations Jennifer - many thanks for your active service and many contributions!

- Jennifer Patelli

2025-26

Earlier in 2025, Kingston declared a food insecurity emergency as an estimated 1 in 3 households are unable to afford meals, according to Public Health.

The Community Service Committee decided at their October meeting to strategically focus the Club's support this Rotary year on food insecurity initiatives in the local community. As well, the committee decided to authorize grants for projects in amounts sufficient to have a significant impact.

For 2025-26, the committee is pleased to announce the first Community Service Project grants to:

$10,000 GRANT TO LIONHEARTS

Lionhearts continues to expand its service offerings in the Kingston area and is now operating mobile, pop-up markets offering ready-made foods and other products at discounted prices in various neighbourhood locations. Items for sale at these locations need to have labels to identify the brand, ingredients and nutritional information in compliance with federal regulations. Funds from this grant will go towards the cost of this equipment for these mobile markets, creating more products to donate/ sell at low cost.

$5,000 GRANT TO MARTHA'S TABLE

Martha's Table provides a caring place where people in need can have access to a nutritious meal and find community social support. In response to ever-increasing demand, Martha's Table continues expanding its capacity to prepare meals to eat-in or take-out from its Princess St. location or for home delivery to those with limited mobility. Funds from this grant will be used to upgrade kitchen equipment for food preparation and serving.

Thanks to all the Club members who made these grants possible by volunteering for Bingo shifts at Play! Gaming & Entertainment Centre.

THANKSGIVING MEAL AT MARTHA'S TABLE

October 13, 2025

Meals served (Eat-in & Take-out): 438 + 125 (Home Delivery)

From the Martha's Table website:

Thank you to the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac for their generous support of our Thanksgiving meal (Monday Oct 13 1-4pm). They provided all the turkey, potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce, cheese, pies and whipped cream plus several items needed to make dressing! WOW! Thank you Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac!!

Thanks to all the Club members who made Thanksgiving at Martha's Table possible by volunteering for Bingo shifts at Play! Gaming & Entertainment Centre.

COMMUNITY GARDEN POTATO HARVEST

October 11,2025

After being rained out mid-week, a group of K-F members, family and friends gathered at the Robinson Community Garden on October 11 to finish the 2025 potato harvest.

Under the leadership and expertise of the Kingston Club's Darlene Clement, a crop of potatoes and mixed vegetables overcame dry conditions during the summer to produce a harvest which will benefit South Frontenac families in need through the winter months.

STUDENTS SAIL IN

FALL CORK REGATTA

September 13, 2025

International inbound YouthEx student Christian, a member of the Düsseldorfer Yacht Club in Germany, teamed up with local sailor David from Collins Bay Yacht Club to sail a C420 at the Fall CORK regatta held at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. Competing against 28 other boats from around Ontario and western Quebec, the boys navigated calm and inconsistent winds to finish as high as a Top 10 finish on Saturday and 8th place in the Sunday race. Despite conditions better-suited for canoeing, the boys enjoyed their weekend and got a great tan!

Special thanks to DGN Elsabe Falkson and Don Polk for their efforts in helping to find a local boat for the boys to sail at CORK.

ROTARIANS AT

2025 KINGSTON FALL FAIR

September 11-14, 2025

Rotarians from the Kingston-area Rotary Clubs, including Kingston-Frontenac, volunteered at the admission gates of the 193rd annual Fall Fair. With outstanding weather for the entire weekend, a record crowd of 30,000 enjoyed all the attractions - from the agricultural pavilion to the midway - making sure Rotarians were kept busy scanning and selling tickets, assuring a safe and orderly entrance and helping to help make sure of a good time for all!

Thanks to K-F Rotarians Susan Freitas, Randy Beck, John Mirski, Jennifer Patelli and Don Polk for volunteering to raise funds to support future Club projects.

(l-r) Susan Freitas (K-F), John Shideler (K),

Randy Beck (K-F), Kate Green (K)

Rear: Don Polk (K-F), Krishna Burra (K), Cynthia Surette (Nap)

Front: Kathy Mourtos (KW), Anne-Marie Jennings (KW)

2025-26 PROJECTS

THAILAND

Improving Neonatal Outcomes

at Mae Tao Clinic

- Don Polk

In the Spring of 2024, Meghan Jenkins, a 3rd year Queen's Medical student approached the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac to sponsor her practical internship in the field at the Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) in Mae Sot, Thailand on the border with Myanmar (Burma). During her internship she worked in the MTC's neonatal health unit which provides health care services and delivers upwards of 80 newborns each day to Burmese refugee mothers fleeing the civil war.

Upon her return in late Sept 2024, Meghan shared her experiences with K-F Rotarians and described a situation where the Mae Tao Clinic serves a high volume of marginalized and undocumented patients along the Thai-Myanmar border. She spoke of the Clinic's outdated infrastructure and that staff lack access to some of the most basic medical equipment.

In addition to her internship training and service, Meghan also conducted a review of historical data at the Clinic and, based on her experience, proposed a plan for improving neonatal infant mortality outcomes including investment in new equipment. Her proposal was the basis for a project co-developed by the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac and submitted for a 2025-26 Rotary Foundation District Matching Grant. The total project budget is US$15,376.

Funds raised from donors in Canada and Thailand, together with matching District Designated Funds (US$7,238) requested from the Rotary Foundation, will be used to purchase and install essential equipment from a prioritized list developed by Meghan in collaboration with Dr. Li Li Sumyat, the staff obstetrician gynecologist, and frontline staff at the Mae Tao Clinic: · CPAP Machines · Incubator · Infusion Pumps · Amni Hooks.

Not only was the Club's International Service Committee impressed and inspired by the opportunity to help improve the quality of basic healthcare in an area of such great need, but also to extend the Club's global reach to a new region (southeast Asia). To do so, Kingston-Frontenac contacted Jerry Nelson at the Chiang Mai Airport Rotary Club, whose extensive local experience in Thailand working on multiple past projects with Mae Tao Clinic is a great asset.

The grant application was approved by the Rotary Foundation in August 2025 and, in collaboration with the Chiang Mai Airport Rotary Club and the Mae Tao Clinic, the project is expected to be completed this Fall.

On Saturday Sept. 6, Mae Tao Clinic founder, Dr. Cynthia Maung, was in Ottawa with a group of Burmese health care leaders to study Canada's healthcare system. They are shown here meeting with K-F Project Manager Don Polk and Dr. Meghan Jenkins, now an OBGYN resident at the University of Ottawa.

The stories shared by these courageous health care leaders in overcoming extreme hardship in their homeland to make such a difference in saving lives were truly inspiring. For the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac to help bring about such a beneficial impact by leveraging Rotary's global resources exemplifies “the Magic of Rotary”!

TANZANIA / EAST-AFRICA

RPi Computer Program

- Peter Morrin

Dear Friends,

I am writing this from our kitchen table in sunny Tuscany. It has been 50 years since I've been in Italy, and I am enjoying many new experiences. They will perhaps be a story for a future article.

The past two weeks have been very busy for the club's International Services committee with an internal meeting on Sept 9 and the all-Kingston clubs (JIPC) meeting on the 16th. As part of my commitment to sharing more of what we do overseas, please find this summary of our projects in East Africa for 2025-26.

The RPi computer program is again our most significant investment in East Africa this year. We are focusing on training the teachers/ mentors from all 7 schools/organizations to whom we supplied RPi computers and hardware in previous years. Like all computer platforms, learning is really a self-teaching exercise, but a little bit of coaching helps smooth the bumps.

Headmaster & computer teachers of Ruicho Secondary School, Kagera, TZ

We will host a week-long training session at Tegemeo Primary School, Kagera (northern Tanzania, west of Lake Victoria, just south of the Ugandan border). This location was chosen for its facilities and proximity to the other Kagera school, Ruicho Secondary. The Kagera schools were the last to get the RPi hardware, hence have the greatest need for one-on-one training. We are bringing our 3 champions from Agnes Zabali Boys and Girls Club (AZBGC) in Kamengo, Uganda. It is a full days journey by bus and the first time any of the boys have been out of the country. To say they are excited would be an understatement.

Also joining us will be my friend Francis Ngowi who I met 10 years ago when he ran a welding Vocational Training Centre. Francis now heads up the Mara region of the Tanzanian Chamber of Commerce who promote business opportunities for small and medium size businesses in Tanzania. As in most countries around the world, this is the sector that is most likely to provide employment for youth, a chronic problem in the developing world.

Francis’ son is enrolled in computer science at the University of Dar es Salem and, if available, may join his father for the training session. We have another computer science student who is assisting tutoring at Trinity Academy while he awaits his university entrance confirmation. Extending the RPi platform to University Computer Science students is one of the natural progressions of this program to ensure its long-term impact.

Hussein Mbaga and I will travel from Moshi. Hussein is our local computer guru and is indispensable to our program. He will lead the technical sessions and provide individual tutoring.

Hussein & Darko developing the RPi server, Trinity School, Boma, TZ

Hussein developed our RPi server which allows us to provide off-line internet content to the RPi work stations or to anyone with a smart phone, without requiring them to use data. This is a huge advantage as none of the students and many of the teachers cannot afford the data costs. With the support of the Kingston Club, we will provide a server at each of the Kagera schools and upgrade the servers at AZBGC and Trinity Academy.

We will be providing a modified version of the Kagera training to our partners in the Kilimanjaro (Moshi-Boma) area. These are represented by Trinity Academy, Bright Future School (where Ilet attends) and Nuru Academy. We will have a strong representation from students and teachers at Trinity Academy since their RPi program was the focus of last year’s project. We are working on multiple one-day events which can be extended into the new year if additional funds are available.

The RPi seminars are supported by the club with a $3,500 allocation combined with a $1,000 contribution from the Kingston Club. We would like to provide an additional 12 workstations ($300 ea.) for our partner schools and are looking for funding from other clubs or individual members.

NICO´S INTRODUCTION IN TAIWAN

September 2025

Kingston-Frontenac outbound YouthEx student Nico recently made his introductory presentation to members of the Rotary Club of Chung Ho East, a

club located in New Taipei City, a densely populated suburb of Taipei. Reports indicate Nico is adapting well and has enjoyed the first few weeks of his exchange. We look forward to connecting with Nico online at an upcoming meeting to hear some of his experiences.

ECO-TOILETS FOR SOUTH AFRICAN
CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CENTRES

- Greta Du Bois Cleynhens

The Rotary Club of Morningside, together with the Adopt A Loo, a project of the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn, have initiated a project in Diepsloot, South Africa to provide toilets to Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. Many of these have inadequate or no toilet facilities, creating health problems and damaging the dignity of children from an early age. Depending on the location of the ECD centre, this project will involve either the construction of new EcoToilets or the refurbishment of existing facilities.

Morningside has started with building four EcoToilets at the Khensani Collections school in Diepsloot and to date have had requests from an additional 27 ECD centres. The goal is that all ECD centres in Diepsloot have safe and sanitary toilet facilities that maintain the dignity of the children, benefiting more than 1,200 children.

As of June 4, 2025 eight toilets have been installed, one of which is a toilet for physically challenged children, three are under construction and will be completed soon, and a further three have been identified for construction once the current ones have been finished.

Thanks to contacts made by K-F Rotarian and past Morningside member, Greta Du Bois Cleynhens, the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac donated C$ 1,500 and the Rotary Club of Cordeirópolis (Brazil) R$ 1,500 for the Eco Toilet Project in June 2025, becoming the first overseas Rotary clubs to support this important initiative.