August 2022 Update for Rotary Year 2021-2022
By: Daniel Geleyn, President
Well, we decided not to wait another 25 years before providing another update. So now it is becoming the responsibility of the retiring presidents to reflect on their tenure. I was president for two Rotary years, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, but Tom Sanderson did such a good job with the history up to 2021 that my update will cover this past year of 2021-2022.
Our 2021-2022 Rotary Year was again marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this the club remained active and relevant, while continuing to host interesting guest speakers and raising funds to support our community partners. Meeting online also gave us the opportunity to welcome interesting guest speakers from further afield. The club was able to meet in-person for a few weeks in November 2021, just long enough to work out how we would manage hybrid meetings. Following the next wave of the pandemic, the club started meeting in-person again in March 2022 while offering the opportunity to members to meet online if they wished.
We were also able to get together in-person while carrying community support activities. In fact our members became regular helpers at the Robinson Community Garden where we grow food for the many food security agencies in our community. Starting in December 2021, we also started to pack food supplies once a month with Lionhearts Inc. who provide food boxes to needy families in our area. Thanks to the Rotary connections of Peter Morrin, we were also able to received a shipment of 60,000 lbs of PEI potatoes which were promptly distributed to communities between Napanee and Brockville.
Despite the pandemic, we continued to raise funds through our Bingo partner and we are about to restart our MaxSold online auctions in the fall of 2022 as well.
My update would not be complete without pointing out that we lost one of the staunchest member of our club this year. On March 1, 2022, Gord Lindsay passed away peacefully at the age of 96. Gord had been actively participating in our club up tho his last few months. He will be sorely missed.
As is often the case, we lost some members who moved out of our community. Mike Moore, one of our most active member and a past-president of the club moved to Calgary to be closer to family. And I myself also moved to Guelph, also to be closer to family.
But with Peter Morrin now firmly at the helm I am confident that the club will retain its reputation for being one of the most fun and active club.