As you know, our dear friend and colleague Barry Davidson passed away in the early hours of April 4^th, surrounded by his family. Barry’s obituary, which appeared in the Globe and Mail, depicted a life devoted to service. While grieving his loss, we celebrate the life he lived. He left the world a better place.

 

Although we weren’t able to join him for the planned award ceremony on Wednesday, Barry held on long enough to receive his Governor General’s Sovereign Medal for Volunteerism. His wife, Liz, tells me that by the time the package arrived he was already slipping away, but she was able to rouse him to show him the medal; his eyes fluttered open and he smiled.

 

I’ve asked Liz what his Rotary friends can do to help. The answer was nothing for now, but she may want some help for the reception at the Community Centre on the 19^th and she would be pleased if any Rotarians wanted to speak. To that end, I’d like to spend some time during our meeting on Tuesday sharing stories and recollections of Barry that we can compile into a memento for his family.

 

The work of Rotary carries on …

The Inter-Club Spelling Bee is coming up on April 15th in Trenton. We fielded a very competitive team for this event last year and while we didn’t win we came close and had a lot of fun. I’m planning a repeat performance and hope you will join in the fun.

 

Our annual Wellington Rotary Beach Cleanup is also fast approaching, on Saturday April 26^th, timed to coincide with the province-wide Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup that weekend. Please save the date. A signup sheet will be circulated on Tuesday. 

 

The meeting was called to order by President Lyn at 7:07 am.  30 Rotarians were present plus 2 on Zoom (Dave Robinet and Barry Davidson), there were 2 guests (Christian from the Kiwanis Club in Trenton and our guest speaker Craig Mills from 99.3 FM).

 

Lyn welcomed everyone in attendance and specifically welcomed both Tim Cox on his return from Australia and also Barry Davidson who was on Zoom from his home. 

 

Lyn continued with her history of the life story of Rotary founder Paul Harris – during his 5 years of postgraduate travel and work across the country he came to understand the human condition and specifically the plight of the poor.  He ultimately established a law practice in Chicago at the age of 28.

 ‘O’ Canada’ was sung. David Hawkins read a prayer. Breakfast was served.

 

Lyn provided an update on the health of members:

Ted Nash reported that brown trout will be delivered this Wednesday from 2-4 pm at the Wellington Docks for release into Lake Ontario.  Young salmon will be released into holding pens on Thursday from 2-4 pm.  All are welcome to either watch or participate.

 

Margo introduced the guest speaker, Craig Mills, the general manager of 99.3 County FM.   Craig described County FM as a not for profit, volunteer driven local radio station.  He thanked the Wellington Rotary Club for their contributions toward the funding of new broadcast equipment for soundbooths at the radio station.  He outlined core strategies for the station on a go forward basis.  He commented on a local journalism initiative and recent updates to the station facility and transmission capabilities.  He also provided ‘grapevine’ highlights and outlined specialty programming.  Craig reported that the annual radiothon event raised more than $60,000 last year.  In total, County FM supported 39 community events in PEC in 2023.  He briefly reviewed the financials for the station and reported on emergency preparedness efforts.

 

Craig emphasized two unique programs which were initiated by County FM in the past year.  ‘Voices from the shadows’ was an in depth look at homelessness in our rural community.  More than 60 individuals were interviewed for this program.  He noted that homelessness is clearly a very complex problem in our society.  Another program, ‘outsmarting the scammers’ was a 6 part documentary series aimed at helping seniors fight fraud and raising public awareness regarding the wide variety of common scams that currently exist. 

 

Questions were entertained from Craig.  Yvonne thanked County FM for their help in advertising the Rotary maple syrup fundraising project.  Bill Pennell asked what the local reach of the radio station was – Craig reported that this was from Cobourg to Stirling to Bath.  Chris asked how long it has been since the station has been using a robotic AI-generated voice to provide news reports – Craig replied that no such AI robotic voice exists at County FM (!).  Lyn asked how our Rotary Club can help County FM?  Craig indicated that he hoped that we could get the word out for the upcoming 2024 Radiothon.  Christine indicated that she will post this on our Rotary Facebook website.  William Mulholland thanked Craig for his presentation.

 

Bill Mitchell requested and received manpower support for this weeks’ bottle depot staffing.

 

David Mackinnon spoke to the group regarding the Wellness Committee activities.  Firstly, he indicated that the provincial government has announced an increase in funding for primary health care reform initiatives.  He indicated that we will need to resubmit our proposal for a nurse practitioner lead satellite clinic in Wellington.  In addition he addressed funding for the Rotary Wellness speaker series.  The initial bluezone zoom speaker event went slightly over-budget ($2,250 vs the approved $2,000).  It is estimated that the remaining planned speaker events would cost approximately $700 per event.  David proposed up to a $6,000 budget for the remaining 6 proposed speaker events.  There was discussion about this proposal.  It was felt that the inaugural event was relatively poorly attended (although it was acknowledged that poor weather was likely a contributing factor).   Ken felt that if attendance at the next one or two events doesn’t improve that this initiative should be terminated altogether.  David Mackinnon moved that up to $6,000 be approved to fund the remaining wellness series lectures; seconded by William Mulholland; carried unanimously.

 

Lyn announced two important events this Friday April 5^th for Lana – both her birthday and her retirement.  Congratulations Lana!

 

Margo’s ticket was drawn for the 50/50 draw – in her absence Michelle Kosoy failed to pull the ace of spades for her.