The Rotary Club of Nelson
PO Box 374 Stn Main V1L 5R2 Nelson, BC, Canada

Last week Rotary Club President, Tom Roy, presented Lora Whitney, Manager of the Kootenay Seniors Program, Nelson CARES Society with a $500 cheque from the Nelson Circle Foundation. This donation is to help continue essential seniors services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Get in on this folks! Great opportunity to get a beautiful original piece of art AND support the club who works hard to provide good things for our community

As there are no Christmas parties this year, the Rotary Club of Nelson is having a new fundraiser - Wine Tasting with Summerhill Pyramid Winery in the comfort of your home to celebrate the season. Price includes three bottles of wine delivered to your home and a one hour virtual wine tasting session with Summerhill CEO, Ezra Cipes. Wine can be shipped Canada wide so a great Christmas gift and way to connect with loved ones across the country!

We have some amazing artwork available and just in time for Christmas!

Our Corks and Canvas Christmas Art Auction opens tomorrow morning and runs until December 15. Don't miss out on some beautiful Kootenay artwork! Click here to bid https://www.32auctions.com/Rotaryart2020

You’ll want to get in on this!

We are holding Christmas Art Auction, running December 1 - 15. Local artists, mostly from our monthly Corks and Canvas fundraisers, have donated their art work to us. Bidding starts Tuesday morning!

Who wants to join me?

Check out our new fundraising event - Summerhill Pyramid Wine Tasting at home! Look on our Events tab for details and to buy your ticket!

The Nelson Rotary Clubs are generous supporters of CBAL each year. This year's Christmas book campaign looks a bit different without collection boxes throughout the community. Next week, new or gently used books can be dropped off at the library or the CBAL office (at the Youth Centre). The impact of these book gifts is big! Each year there are stories of people who receive the books and how much it means to them. Sometimes it is a parent who didn't think they would be able to give their little ones a present. Sometimes people treasure having their own book, or deeply appreciate the ability to give a book to a loved one.

Trying really hard to social distance from these characters. Such a fun golf day. Thanks gentlemen

TBT to our Christmas Tree sales which we did for many years! Grant and Fred were working hard in this photo.

TBT - Rotarians and their families help with delivering Meals on Wheels through out the community, sometimes even with furry helpers.

No hand shaking these days, but here is a photo of Norm McCarvel at the International Peace Park a couple of years ago.

Rotarians came out last Saturday to help Interact members with the highway cleanup from Insight Drive to Taghum. They included Harold and Willa Horsfall, Marg Stacey, Mark McBride, Corey Viala; Wendy Lacroix, Colleen Driscoll, Ken Muth and Tom Roy. Thanks for the hard work everyone!

We were so disappointed to cancel our Scotch Tasting event this year. The 2019 event was so much fun! Jennifer Cowan and Chris Chart enjoyed the evening.

Throwback Thursday to our super fun Family Day events!

One final golf tournament reminder post, we can't wait until next year when we can hopefully be back on the course, raising money and having a blast with everyone! Thank you to everyone who has supported our tournament!

Still going, it's Day 6 of "remember our annual golf tournament" series!

Day 5 of old annual golf tournament photos from previous years. Such a fun day for everyone!

More old photos...a work party at the Rotary Lakeside Park playground. Looking forward to the day little ones are again playing on the equipment!

Day 4 of our look back on happy annual golf tournament memories.

Day 3 - look at all these smily golf tournament participants of the past!

Day two of our "we are missing our annual golf tournament montage"

We usually hold our annual golf tournament the first weekend in June. As it is cancelled for this year and we are missing so many familiar, friendly faces we thought we would share some photos from the past events.

Normally at this time of year we would be 'all hands on deck' preparing for our annual golf tournament. This photo of Corey Viala and Harold Horsfall is from several years ago.Feeling grateful that even though we won't have a tournament this year, golfers are still out there social distance golfing!

Throwback Thursday! Our own Marisa Van Der Vyver at our very first Corks and Canvas fundraising evening!

Another blast from the past - manning the Salvation Army kettles at Christmas. Pictured are Julie Underwood, Howie Grant and Al Bacon.

Our virtual meetings each Friday are great, but we are missing our community interaction and activities so we thought we would share some past photos. Some Canada Day BBQ oldies from several years ago. One of our annual fundraisers at the Nelson & District Chamber of Commerce's annual Canada Day festivities at Rotary Lakeside Park.

Recently our club applied for a special District matching grant that meant in a time when our annual fundraisers have been postponed or canceled that we were still able to offer support in our community. President Tom Roy presents a cheque to Our Daily Bread administrator Anne-Marie Rasmussen.

Happy Mother's Day to all our Rotary member Mamas! Kids are always welcome at our meetings but this year we introduced "bring your kids on Pro-D Fridays" so that they feel even more welcome with a special lunch and their own table. And it means our mums with kids out of school for the day can attend!

Our first virtual Friday noon meeting included 22 Rotarians!

Rotary Noon to Daybreak Nightwalkers out to support the Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser. The generosity of Nelson is continues to amaze!

Wow! What a great family day at Granite Pointe! Special thanks to NELSON FORD, for their sponsorship, SAVE ON FOODS for their generous donation of hot dogs, buns, condiments, hot chocolate and maple syrup, and to GRANITE POINTE for allowing us to use the golf course and clubhouse. We couldn’t have done it without you!

See you all on Sunday! Rotary Family Day event at Granite Pointe Golf Course. 11-3 p.m. Horse rides, maple syrup popcicles, snow painting, tobagganing, hot dogs, hot chocolate and home made cookies! All age FREE EVENT! Everyone welcome!

Just a reminder of our upcoming Family Day event this coming Sunday at Granite Pointe Golf Course. We are so excited to celebrate with you and can't wait to see you all! We'd like to encourage you to bring helmets for your kids (ski, bike etc) for the horse rides and tobogganing. We will also have some available as we want to make sure everyone is safe. See you Sunday!

We welcome three new members to our club today. The Muth family will bring so much energy and talent to our club. Welcome Nancy, Martha and Ian!

Fun day at Whitewater!

Great to see so many Rotarians and their families at the annual Christmas lunch! Merry Christmas everyone!

Last chance for tickets! Draw date is tomorrow at our regular weekly meeting! Let us know if you would like one.

Have you purchased a Kootenay Adventure raffle ticket yet? $20 each. Amazing prizes from some amazing local businesses! Draw date is Dec. 20th. Let us know if you would like one!

Wendy Lacroix, Nelson Rotary Club Owner of Your Retirement Path Here is why I joined Rotary, to make a difference in international countries, working with Youth exchange, and Interact.

Another great Corks and Canvas. Thank you to everyone who attended and Bryn Stevenson for introducing us to the palette knife technique! A fun night. Keep an eye out for the 2020 Rotary Corks and Canvas schedule in the new year.

1st annual Grey Cup party was a success! Lots of yummy food, a few drinks and good company

Karen Bennett, Nelson Rotary Club Realtor with Coldwell Banker Rosling Real Estate Rotary has been a part of our careers since the early 90s. As we moved to new communities, Rotary was an instant friendship circle and allowed for strong business connections. We have been part of five clubs that I can recall. I joined to be involved in our local community and fundraising projects, but I definitely see becoming more engaged in international projects as time allows.

Jennifer Cowan, Nelson Rotary Club A few business people approached me to join Rotary and I thought it would be a good thing for my business. Turns out, it had little to do with my business but has been a great way to give back to my community and to other international endeavors, such as eradicating polio from the world. The year I was president (2008/09) I travelled to Nigeria to administer the vaccine to children there. Since then, it is very close to being eradicated. I can’t help but feel proud to be a part of Rotary and what it does as a global organization.

Ainsley Mackie, Investment Advisor at White LeBlanc Wealth Planners / HollisWealth, Nelson Rotary Club Rotary appealed to me because it was a way to give back locally or internationally, year round. The biggest surprise has been the wonderful friendships I have developed with fellow Rotarians. We give back while having a lot of fun!

Shauna Eimer-Posnikoff , Nelson Rotary Club Commercial account executive Kootenay Insurance Services I joined the Rotary Club of Nelson in 2017. I had worked on two international volunteer projects and was looking for a way to be more involved in work closer to home. I wanted to be a part of a group of people who were like-minded and get things done.... I stay with Rotary because I know as I get older, my life will give me more time to devote to the club’s ongoing support of the community and the world. I love the weekly meetings and being a part of such an amazing group of individuals. I feel I learn something from each of them the longer I am around, and I appreciate their friendship. I always leave Rotary happy, knowing they have had good experiences as a Rotarian.

Dr. Marisa van der Vyver, Ancron Medical Centre, Nelson Rotary Club I have always strongly believed in my duty to give back out of thankfulness for all the blessings and opportunities i have received. This social responsibility lined up with Rotary’s principles of service above self from the start. I am proud to be part of an organization that had the vision and guts to say we are going to eradicate a disease like polio from the face of the earth. Despite various setbac...ks and trials they have remained steadfast in their goal. What keeps me in Rotary is the connection to my community and also feeling part of the global mindset brought by Rotary International.

A lot of members will have received the note below from Mike Balahura, President of H.E.L.P. Honduras, reminding us to renew our sponsorship for the Market Children Program. If you aren't yet a sponsor, this is a worthy project! The school year in Honduras will be winding down in a few weeks and a new year will begin in February. A group of Rotarian's are making plans to travel to Honduras in January to confirm enrollment and photograph the student(s) you have supported, ena...bling them to attend school. We hope we can count on you to renew the sponsorship of your child or children, or perhaps to consider sponsoring an additional child this year. We will interview students, families and staff, monitor and account for the children in the program, photograph sponsored children, check the books and review the program goals with the staff and Rotarian's in Honduras. We do this annually so that we can ensure you that the money you send to support a child goes to where it was intended. We will automatically give you the same student you have been sponsoring; however, in the event they have left school, or their families have improved their economic situation and they no longer require sponsorship, a new student will be assigned to you. Sponsoring is a win-win. Each year of schooling gives your child an opportunity to improve his or her life chances. You feel terrific because you are able to provide them that opportunity, and you get a tax receipt for this support! If you know someone who is looking for a unique Christmas gift for a friend or relative, please suggest that they consider sponsoring a child in that person’s name. Honduras suffers from widespread illiteracy and while public education is free, the poor cannot afford the supplies required by public schools in order for their children to attend. H.E.L.P. Honduras is the avenue through which Rotarians and other individuals sponsor children, allowing them to attend school. The children receive the school supplies and uniforms needed to attend school and are monitored, and mentored by local staff and their peers. Schooling provides them an alternative and an opportunity to live a different life than what they have grown up knowing and experiencing. The program is successful because the scholarships are not just a handout or a one-off. Parents must attend weekly meetings which cover topics such as parenting, literacy, health and education. They must bring their child’s report cards to the offices at reporting periods. They must commit to supporting their child in everything relating to the education and training of their child. The children must attend school, and take part in health education workshops. Youth must take part in the youth club program and senior students must join the Leadership and Values project or provide their service as a tutor in the markets or communities where they live. For more information about H.E.L.P. Honduras, please visit our website.

Club members, have you RSVP'd Ainsley about the upcoming Grey Cup Party on Sunday November 24? Please join us for an afternoon of fellowship! Date: Sunday November 24, 2019... Time: 3:30pm until the game is won Where: Granite Pointe Golf Course Cost: $10 Food: This is a potluck, so please bring your favourite tailgating food. Beverages: Granite Pointe will be serving beer and wine. Please bring cash to pay your server and tip too. Please note no outside alcohol is permitted. While this is a private function for our members we are encouraging everyone to bring along family and friends of Rotary. It is open to all ages. Do you have a Rotary prospect? This is the perfect event for them to get to know some of the members and see what fun we can be. For extra fun, wear your favourite sports jersey or ball cap. Don’t own any CFL swag, no problem! Ainsley will be sporting a Seattle Seahawks hoodie. Please reply here or email Ainsley!

Rotary provides an opportunity for ordinary women to make an extraordinary difference! This year, 2019, marks the 30th anniversary of Women in Rotary. It was not an easy task to make this happen. The Rotary Club of Duarte, California, USA, violated the Rotary International (RI) Constitution by admitting women, and the club’s membership in RI was terminated in March 1978. In a lawsuit filed by the Duarte club, the California Superior Court in 1983 ruled in favour of RI; in 198...6, the California Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's decision. The matter was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and on May 4,1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership. Rotary issued a policy statement that any Rotary club in the United States could admit qualified women into membership. The 1989 Rotary International Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide remains a watershed moment in the history of Rotary. The response to the decision was overwhelming. By June 1990, the number of female Rotarians had skyrocketed to over 20,000. By 2019 some 277,000 women have joined Rotary’s membership of 1.2 million members worldwide. In October we ran a page in the Nelson Star highlighting female members of both Nelson Rotary Clubs. We are going to share them over the next little while!

Throwback Thursday to the warmer summer weather and Marketfest fun! Rotarians Michelle Sylvest and Colleen Driscoll in the buzz of the fest in July. Michelle, also a member of the Nelson Killjoys Roller Derby Team, skated with the Killjoys on Baker Street. Second photo is Nelson Daybreak Rotarians Mike McIndoe, Lara Ellenwood and Allison Alder feeding the crowd hot dogs that same night.

A great night at Corks and Canvas! Thank you for another sold out fundraising event. And thank you Lainey!

Club members Tom Roy, Ken Muth and Norm McCarvell are in Honduras checking out a couple of Rotary projects including Market Children. Here they are pictured in from of their hotel in Comayagua. It is a new hotel owned by a Rotary friend he met earlier this year. We can't wait to hear more about their trip at an upcoming meeting.

$1,300 raised tonight with Nelson Rotary and Nelson Daybreak Rotary, to help eradicate Polio! Great Job

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Burger and a Beverage at Finley’s tonight! Good company, a delicious burger, lots of laughs and money raised to eradicate polio. What more could you ask for!

Lainey has decided to paint a landscape rather than the snowman scene she had originally planned. Here is the painting. We love it! There are still some tickets for Monday night but hurry and purchase so you aren't disappointed!

World Polio Day October 24 is World Polio Day and, on this day, Rotary Clubs from around the world will hold events and fundraisers to celebrate the successes and acknowledge the effort still needed in the global fight to end polio. Rotary has been working to eradicate Polio for more than 30 years and incredible progress has been made to rid the world of this terrible disease. According to Rotary International, Although it currently circulates in only a few countries, pol...io is highly infectious and spreads rapidly. The disease, which afflicts mainly children, is transmitted via contaminated water and food supplies. Five to 10 percent of cases are fatal. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere are at risk. Only the global eradication of polio will ensure that no child ever again suffers its devastating effects. Every year around the world, hundreds of millions of children are being vaccinated against polio and these vaccinations must continue until polio is eradicated. Since 1986, polio cases have been reduced by 99.9 per cent. Today, countries with polio cases in 2019 include Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now a very recent recurrence in the Philippines. This enormous effort takes a coordinated worldwide partnership. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are working together, to eradicate the scourge of polio from our world. Norman McCarvell, Past District Governor and Nelson Rotary member See more

We have a busy few days coming up! Our joint club Polio Fundraiser tonight, and Corks and Canvas on Monday! Tickets are available at the door tonight at Finley's and there are still some C&C tickets available online!

One of our members, Jeanette McCarvell, wrote an article for the September Rotary at Work page in the Nelson Star. With World Polio Day coming up, we thought it fitting to run it again here. Polio is not a common topic of conversation now, but in the early 1950’s it was at the top of everyone’s mind, especially parents. In 1952 and 1953 the polio virus swept across the US and Canada infecting over 100,000 people, mostly children, and leaving many thousands with various levels... of paralysis. My family was devastated in 1953 when my eldest sister, then 11 years old, contracted polio and ended up a quadriplegic, living the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She is now 77 years old. With the advent of the polio vaccine, by the early 1970’s the number of polio victims in North America dropped to zero. Not so in the rest of the world. In 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. In 1988 the World Health Assembly launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the goal of eradicating the polio virus completely from the earth. Partners include the WHO (World Health Organization) the CDC (Centre for Disease Control), UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International. Rotarians are an important part of the initiative, doing fund raising, advocacy and providing thousands of volunteers to go all over the world administering the vaccine. We are nearly there! In 2018, there were 33 cases of polio in two countries. Yet unfortunately, on September 19 of this year the Philippines announced a case of polio, 19 years after the World Health Organization declared the Southeast Asian country free of the infectious disease. As long as the wild virus exists, everyone continues to be at risk. So support Rotary and their partners in their efforts to eradicate polio! On October 24, join both local Rotary club’s at Finley’s for a great local polio fundraiser. Let’s not have any more families impacted by this terrible disease.

Gioia Valk was our Inbound Rotary Exchange Student in 2018-2019. During my exchange I've done a lot of cool things. I did trips to Vancouver, Spokane and Calgary, to see the bigger cities of Canada and the United States. I also played field hockey for the LVR Bombers and made it to provincials in Vancouver. The team was a lot of fun and I made a lot of very close friends in that team. I am now in the basketball team, and we have a lot of fun too. I am also very happy for bei...ng placed in a ski town. Before I came here I've never skied and now I try to go up the hill as much as possible. I also had a ski weekend in the states for a day, I had a lot of fun with a bunch of other exchange students. In school I decided to take courses that were not available in the Netherlands. I am very happy that I decided this, because I am doing a lot of things I would normally not do. I am already in love with Nelson and very excited for the next couple months. Gioia’s final Canadian adventure was hiking the West Coast Trail with her hosting mother Allison Alder. See more

Laura St. Denis Kirby, Rotary Exchange Ecuador I think the thing that being an exchange student taught me was that whether events were slow, or dramatic like the coup d’etat and volcano eruption that happened during my year in Ecuador, I had some of the best experiences, excitement and fun. One can have an amazing time at the same time as having a hard time. It made me brave about going anywhere. It made me brave about doing things and sticking with them. Laura and her husband Steve managed Max and Irma’s and La Bomba Dell’Amore restaurant in Nelson."

Last Friday we had a special meeting at Mountain Lakes and had Market Children presentations. Pictured are (Back L-R) Rotarians Bob & Ed and President Tom; (Front L-R) Honorary Rotarians/Club Members John and Nancy Mackay.

Nicole Butler - Rotary Exchange Ecuador and current Nelson Daybreak member It’s hard to sum up the most formative experience of my life, my Rotary Youth Exchange year in Ecuador. Before I went on exchange I was painfully shy. I didn't quite know where Ecuador was, but I said "sure, why not?" "Sure, why not?" became my new mantra. I learned to go with the flow and always say yes to new experiences and opportunities. I went from being that shy girl to someone who can do a pr...esentation in another language. Spanish has opened so many doors for me, like opportunities to go on eye care missions to Mexico and Honduras and interact with patients. A Rotary Youth Exchange is so much more than a year of language immersion. It's learning about yourself, other cultures, and how really we are all the same. What a wonderful, peaceful world we would have if everyone went on exchange. See more

Polio: Milestones and Stumbling Blocks It’s been three years since health officials last reported a case of polio caused by the wild poliovirus in Nigeria. The milestone, reached on August 21, means that it’s possible for the entire World Health Organization African region to be certified wild poliovirus-free next year. On the other hand, The Philippines reported a case of polio last month, which shows the mission has not been as vigilant in the clear countries as it could ha...ve been, say Rotary, Bill Gates, and the World Health Organization. Microsoft has developed sophisticated mapping to project disease outbreaks, and now the best way to discover polio in any community is to test the downstream water for its presence. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have dedicated vast fortunes to match Rotary’s contributions to polio elimination from the planet. The last bastions of the disease are the hardest places to reach, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where either the terrain is daunting or people don’t understand this vaccination. Rotarians and their partners are combing these areas with local vaccinator teams. Eighteen years ago an African International President told Rotarians that neighbour wars in Central Africa would halt for vaccination weeks by Rotary request. Rotary’s mission could stop wars? All Rotary Clubs in the world are dedicated to the eradication of this disease which is most expensive to do in its final tough destinations. The Rotary Club of Nelson and the Daybreak Rotary Club are fundraising at Finley’s on World Polio Day October 24 with Beer and Burger Night. Come and raise a glass to an incredible mission!