President's Message 

 

 

 

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With the return of MPres Trudy from her well-masked vacation, the meeting opened in the usual manner with the Rotary song and O' Canada. Tim is recovering well and Sharon Campbell is hoping to return to meetings soon. 17 members and our guest speaker were present at the Legion and a further 12 joined via Zoom.

Dawn introduced David McKay of Many Happy Returns by explaining that Dave, and his family, have lived in the County since 1975 and he is a regular on-air host at County FM.

Dave, who is well-known to all who are involved with the Club’s ‘bottle’ return service, started by expressing his gratitude for the assistance that the Club has given to the Many Happy Retutns Project. He explained that the idea began in 2015 when David had an epiphany as a result of reading an article from Quinte Waste Management about the challenge of recycling glass containers which was costing taxpayers $100,000 a year and could be obviated by the use of the Ontario Beer Store deposit return scheme. This, and the realisation that his son, David Hepburn, a developmentally-challenged adult got great pleasure and stimulation from collecting the containers and donating the proceeds to local charities. A second-hand van was purchased for the project as it grew and the proceeds from the collections gradually increased from about $100 a month to begin with. The win-win outcomes that make the enterprise popular and increasingly well-supported by generous donors are that it is helping David Jr, meeting an environmental need and giving back to the community with the funds raised. As the service (collection of donated deposited containers from anywhere in the County) became more widespread, another van and a trailer were needed but storage became a problem. Fortunately, St Andrews Church in Wellington was able to make a suitable space available to MHR so that returns from even more communities can be accommodated with different areas having different collection days. Of course access to the Wellington Rotary Licenced Returns Depot facilitates the exercise and also contributes to our own fundraising efforts through our percentage from the Beer Store. Of course this is not all achieved by two individuals and others, including the family of another developmentally-challenged young man, have given their assistance to the MacKay family. Overall, close to $25,000 has been donated from the proceeds of this enterprise to causes such as the new Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital ‘Back the Build’ Campaign, the Storehouse Foodbank and to those with special needs including food and clothing. This is very much a community effort and Dave underlined MHR’s appreciation of our Club’s contribution with a $500 donation. After questions which touched on how we can be of further assistance and the degree of happiness this is giving to David Jr., Phyo thanked our speaker who was loudly applauded.

In Club business, PP Phyo gave a tour of the Club’s Website which has been updated recently. Sharing his own access, he explained how members can navigate all that the site offers including how to access the member-only section by using the Clubrunner user name and a password e.g. john.smith.1166. Phyo was thanked for all the effort he has put into this and for continuing to provide technical assistance to members. MPres Trudy was happy to announce that the Club’s offer to purchase an AER machine for the new hospital had been warmly welcomed by the PEMH fundraisers and would be publicised at InQuinte.ca as well as The Wellington Times and The Picton Gazette. Thanks for their work on this went to Margo and Lyn. Bill’s bottle needs were met and John Inwood shared a RYLA up-date. Barry also commented on this year’s fundraising event, saying it will include an on-line auction component, donations from businesses will be incentivized and the Reasons have been booked for the dinner-dance on October 15th. 

 

 

9 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Bill Pennell, David MacKinnon
Needed: 1 Cashier/Sorter/Receiver

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Trudy Brown, Phyo Kyi, Doug Little (FoR)

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