4 Way Test:
 
Alfredo led the group in the Four-Way Test. Today we had 13 members present as well as three visiting Rotarians, Harold McLeod from Florida, Shail Mahanti from the Arbutus club and Thora Thorasdottir from Iceland.
 
Our meeting today took an unexpected turn since we were not able to access the community centre. As resourceful Rotarians, we quickly found an alternate meeting venue in Diana's party room of her building :)
 
Rotary Moment:
 
Today Ron Suzuki presented the RM. These are his words:
 
"Rotarians Celebrating Diversity Everyday. 
 
It was very challenging for people of Color in the early part of the 20th Century. In 1914 the Komagata Maru a chartered ship of South Asian Immigrants was not allowed to land in Vancouver.1920 was the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States 1923 the Chinese Immigration Act banned Chinese from making Canada their home. 

25,000.00 Japanese Canadians were interned in 1942.
 
In 1921  when Racial Restriction was addressed in Rotary it was formally determined that racial restriction would not be permitted. Non-Racism was included in the Rotary terms of the standard constitution in 1922, required to be adopted by all member clubs. 
 
Rotary and other service clubs in the last decade have encouraged the membership of the LGBQT community as well as other minorities. Peter and I marched in last months Pride Parade in front of 650,000 we both thought maybe next year getting all the Vancouver Rotary Clubs to participate as a community service entry."

Announcements:
 
  • The Project Amigo Dia de Los Muertos dinner fundraiser will be on October 21st at the Hellenic Centre. Tickets will be $50 and the event page can be found here:
 
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/day-of-the-dead-party-for-project-amigo-tickets-36905247589
 
  • The Rotary Club of Vancouver Downtown invited us to the Rotary Foundation Dinner on November 18. More details in this link: http://richmondrotary.com/event/rotary-foundation-dinner/
  • Shail Mahanti invited us to the "Shredathon for Clean Oceans" organized by the Arbutus Rotary Club. This project aims to raise funds to clean up the beaches and shores of El Salvador. The event will be on September 30th from 10 am to 2 pm. The meeting place will be the Shell gas station on Broadway and Arbutus.
Meeting:
 
Our meeting today was adapted from the original plan since we did not have AV in place. John Charbonneau was kind enough to offer to come back and give his presentation next week.
 
This image shows what a group of locked-out Rotarians look like:
 

Thought of the day:
 
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. -Epictetus
 

Next Speakers:

September 27 - John Charbonneau, Reverse Mortgages.
Krystal Brennan, Stream of Dreams Murals Society.
Raymond Greenwood, Mr. Fireworks.