Meeting: February 2, 2021
Guests: Joel Harry (our guest speaker), director of programming and Waldo.
Visiting Rotarians:
None
Notable Rotarians:
Joyce Hall (Hallmark Cards) of the Rotary Club of Kansas City and Cara Klein from the Rotary Club of Nanaimo North.
Colin's Rotary Minute:
Rotary Work understanding month is February. This is a chance for all Rotary clubs to work towards international understanding and good will.
February is also the anniversary of the first Rotary meeting on February 23rd, 1905.
Announcements:
- Larry reported on Loaves and Fishes. We had three volunteers at the last session but we also found out that we will be restricted to just four members a session until the Covid restrictions are removed.
- Ian and Ed talked about the Golf Ball Drop. The committee has picked out the teams and set up the schedule for working at the mall. We will be by the Royal Bank at the entrance and there will be hand sanitizer and masks available (bring your own mask of course). We can sell by cash, cheque or credit (download the Square app to your phone to help out with people that pay be credit). We will get email addresses from the customers and Bob will create the tickets.
Birthdays:
Anniversaries:
Membership Anniversaries
- Cara 2 years
- Don 7 years
- Derek 8 years
Points to Ponder:
- Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
- 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton
- Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond
Foundation Update:
$226,530 (US) all time giving total.
22 Paul Harris Fellows.
9 members have contributed in the past year. We'd love to see everyone contribute at least $100 US (or $8.34 per month).
Program:
Joel Harry (our guest speaker) is the director of programming at the Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre.
Joel Harry
Joel brought us up to date on several of the projects they are working on. (and this list is both amazing and ambitious!)
- Working for an 8.4 million dollar grant for a 31 unit affordable housing project from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Authority
- Looking to create a language centre in a partnership with the BC Arts Council
- A twelve space infant/toddler program
- Working to secure an independent license for the aboriginal school
- Partnership with Nanaimo Community Kitchens to bring some traditional foods back.
- Tsawalk program to learn about the skills of farming. This is in partnership with Nanaimo Food Share.
- Successfully raised over 700k in response to Covid
- Mobile Youth Outreach restarted in the summer to work with at risk youth in the downtown core.
- Purchased Strong Nations Books and Gift. This will be run as a for profit business.
For those of you that may not be aware of what the NAC's goals are:
Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre was established on August 8, 2013. As a non-profit organization, our work focuses on education, culture and family. While all of our programs and services are designed with the urban Indigenous community in mind, all of our programs and services are open to anyone living in Nanaimo. We also recognize the rich diversity of the Indigenous community in Nanaimo, that includes First Nations, Inuit and Metis.
We strongly believe in the value of working in partnerships with other organizations and public agencies. In fact, there is nothing that we do as an organization that is not done without other partners.
The organization is also inspired by the work of other organizations and communities that are achieving success with goals similar to our own. While we don't believe that one model works for everyone, we do believe we can learn from other's success and adapt their model to fit with our community.
Our Vision is to support the realization of a 100% high school graduation rate for Aboriginal students in Nanaimo/Ladysmith.
