Chair: Lyn McGowan

Attendance: 30 in room – including 3 guests; 3 on Zoom;

Guests:  Brenda Hellyer, Robert Bird – Picton Rotary (and Robert – guest speaker)

And Geoff Telling’s grandson, Oliver Telling

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The meeting was called to order by Lyn, O’Canada was sung; David Hawkins gave the invocation;

Guest speaker Robert Bird was introduced by Brenda Hellyer; 

He was born in Belleville and grew up on a farm in Stirling; joined the BCAF in 1954 where he gained communications technology skills; joined IBM in 1965 as a Customer Engineer and retired from IBM in 1992 having worked his way up to Senior General Manager; in 1993 he moved to Picton and with the death of his cousin, he took over the family business - managing 3 IGAs in Stirling, Frankfurth and Havelock; he is married to Lois Burgess and they have 4 children; Robert has been a Picton Rotarian for 22 years, is a Past President of the Picton Club and their Rotarian of the Year in 2023.

Robert presented information on the PEC Air Cadets, (affiliated with the 851 Squadron in Picton). The program is led by Robert, who took over the lead from Malcolm Campbell who died and had run it for many years.  This organization is one of the key youth initiatives for Picton Rotary. They recruit cadet youths from Age 12-19 (both girls and boys) with their focus on grade 7 and 8 as experience has shown the most success if youth join early.  They also work with the ROC in Picton to get the word out. Covid decimated the corp  - reducing it from 40 to 21 cadets currently, so they are in rebuilding mode.  Joining is at no cost [it receives some support from the Dept of National Defence (DND), and others including the Wellington Legion, Picton Rotary and PEC Council].  The organization lost their meeting/training facility so now meet at the Picton United Church which costs $18,200 annually. In total the program costs $30,000 a year to operate. They will be seeking contributory funding from our Club. 

The program builds leadership, discipline, responsibility, respect, teamwork and confidence. The cadets make lifelong friends. It teaches problem solving and survival skills and emphasizes fitness training.  The Cadets have an opportunity to fly gliders, drones and learn aviation fundamentals. They have field trips and events and learn to speak in public.  The commitment is 1 night per week and some weekend training. They follow a set program laid out by DND. There is a summer Training Camp in Camp Borden for which the cadets are paid, as they lose summer job opportunities.

Famous former Air Cadets include Chris Hatfield (who trained on gliders in the County) and Jeremy Hansen (astronaut about to go to the moon). Many of our Club members had anecdotes of their own experience in cadets or those in their circle who had benefitted from being cadets (Sea, Army and Air).

MEETING BUSINESS:

Bill Mitchell reported that all of the Bottle depot volunteer positions for April had been filled. 

Gregor Stuart thanked the 20 volunteers whose efforts resulted in 2000 bottles of maple syrup being tagged, filled and boxed - and are in the process of being distributed, with $6400 raised so far and only 75 bottles remaining to be sold.

Bill Hurst mentioned the Wellington Town Hall Foundation Committee (composed of 7 volunteers) was holding a public meeting at the Rotary Meeting Room in the Wellington Community Centre at 6 p.m. on March 24^th to discuss next steps with the community.  The Committee has signed a MOU with the Municipality to repurpose the Town Hall.   https://www.pictongazette.ca/post/wellington-town-hall-to-change-hands

Margo mentioned that Sarah Babas from this group is also scheduled to speak to the Club this summer. 

Dawn Cutler reported that there is only 1 local school spelling bee scheduled so far on Wed April 22 at Sunrise Christian School; she is seeking volunteers for that event. Names were also taken for those representing the Club in the inter-Club ‘adult’ spelling bee, to be held at Trenton air base on Monday April 13. 

President Yvonne mentioned that former Rotarian Dean Westbrook has passed away. He served the Club from 2004 to 2010.  The Club honoured him with a moment of silence.

Yvonne also reported that Liz Bosma had found a youth candidate for this year’s RYLA Conference. The Club will pay $300 for that attendance.

Trudy Brown reported that the Rotary Curling Bonspiel in Stirling was great fun, involving 6 teams – 1 from Trenton, 2 from Wellington and 3 from Stirling. Better still the Wellington team skipped by Trudy won