President Neil’s quote reflects the diversity of the presidents who have led Rotary since 1905. It is from the Rotarian for April, 1929, by 1916/17 RI President Archie Klumph of the Rotary Club of Cleveland, Ohio. Rotary Vision: an endowment to fund the association’s good works into prosperity. The result: The Rotary Foundation. “The Rotary Foundation is not to build monuments of brick and stone. If we work upon marble, it will prerish, if we work on brass, time will erase it, if we rear temples they will crumble into dust, but if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with the full meaning of the spirit of Rotary as expressed in our Objects and the just fear of God and love of our fellowman, we are engraving on those tablets something that will brighten all eternity.”

Tom Lidkea played for O Canada & David Sills said grace.

50/50 Draw: Brian Lamb won the jackpot of $199.50.

Tricia Timmermans reminded us of the "Brick by Brick" evening with Memory Chazeza on November 13th at Oak Bay High. Memory is arriving in Victoria tomorrow with her 1 year old son. Tricia had some posters, which she distributed to the members. Tricia encouraged the members to attend in order to support the Malawi Girls' School Project.

Guest Speaker

George Pritchard introduced our guest speaker, Dell Marie Wergeland who is involved in Project Unity and is a Director for the Resource Warehouse.

Dell’s presentation was on Project Unity; she gave us a history of the project and how it has evolved. Project Unity started in 2004 after the Shoebox project. The project has shipped:175 Bags to Ghana in 2004; 350 Kits to Uganda in 2005; 362 Kits to Zambia in 2006; 375 Kits to Sudan in 2007. In 2004 the project started with zip bags but after some issues with breakage they started putting together the kits which starts with a plastic tote box and includes a small plastic container that is labelled “Memory Box”. The children use the Memory Box to collect mementos of their parents as a reminder. They include precious items that have meaning to them. These may be personal effects like locks of hair, small stones, and ribbons. Dell provided pictures of the working parties where the totes are collected and checked over to ensure all the items are appropriate and complete. The totes are then wrapped in plastic and stored in a warehouse, ready for shipping. Dell also showed pictures of the unloading of the kits in Uganda and Zambia. Dell spoke of the excitement of the children when they receive their packages and compared the excitement to children receiving gifts at Christmas. These kits give the children hope and are visual reminders that someone cares about them.

Dell thanked our club for our participation and for making a difference and ended her presentation
with:ONE KIT AT A TIME; ONE CHILD AT A TIME.

Jim Force added that our club will be providing 60 kits this year and they should be here in the next couple of weeks. The cost to our club is $8 per kit, which includes the tote, the memory box and a couple of the basics. We will discuss how we will fill them up. John Snively thanked Dell for her presentation and for speaking from the heart and reminding us of what we need to do.

Sergeant at Arms
John Snively, subbing at the last moment for Wendie, was initially flustered but recovered to present an anniversary card to David Maxwell and a birthday card to Mary Canty. Perry Bamji was fined for his picture in the T/C for the opening of Pacific Opera’s Thais. John fined all members who have yet to sign into ClubRunner. John also spoke of the long-standing tradition of the club to dress up on the Tuesday preceding Halloween. As he was the only member who remembered this tradition and wore a costume all members were fined. No excuses for not being reminded in previous meetings.

Happy & Sad $$
Colleen Force was happy for her new red roof. Lorna for a visit with her son and seeing a Tina Turner concert. Penny, our visiting Rotarian, for the birth of her new granddaughter. Sad humorous dollar from Tom Lidkea for losing 1⁄2 his net worth in the economic meltdown and still has his wife. Tom Croft for his granddaughter’s 1-year birthday.

Return guests from Wales, Penny and Bob Morton

Introduced by
Rod Sim:

Penny & Bob Morton, Mauddock, Wales, both members.
Dell Marie Wergeland, Speaker, was guest of the Club;
Colleen Force was the guest of Jim Force.

Announcements
Neil Rawnsley ran into John Picken who had planned to be at the meeting but was unable to attend. John is off to Ontario on Thursday and passed along his best wishes to the club.

Lorna Curtis announced the upcoming Rotary Christmas Party on the evening of December 16th at the University of Victoria. Mark your calendars for another fun filled event! The Home and Garden Tour event will be on for 2009 and Lorna is looking for volunteers to be on the organizing committee. She implied that Tricia and Dallas would be on the committee. Please call or email Lorna if you would like to be involved. Lorna will also be looking for volunteers to assist with the painting of the inside of the Teen Centre in January. Again please let Lorna know if you can help. This is a centre that our Club has assisted and supported in the past. Vicki Pitt reminded those that had participated in the Visionary Workshop to respond to an email that went out asking for feedback on the event. Joan Peggs presented certificates to those who participated in the Polio Plus Walk. $3165 was raised!!

Caught this little guy today, one-year-old Teloni, under the table looking for a nap while Mom, Memory Chazeza, was being interviewed by the press. Teloni and his mom arrived last night from Malawi.