Sunrise bulletin for the week of June 27, 2012

The last Rotary meeting of the year opened this morning, with both the outgoing and incoming presidents, Matthew Lynam and Julie Mantle, among the 15 members and three guests in the room. John Chan was a guest of Lori Pobuto, Alison McLean was on hand to give us an update on the Afghan police women project, and Jonathon Vollett had a message for us, too.  We all admired Cam Scott's new suit and wondered if he had a job interview today or was just trying to keep up with the hotel managers among us.

Alison will be going to Kabul in early August to distribute the protective outfits which our club and others contributed to help two divisions of Afghan police women in training. She has arranged for media coverage in Canada, the UK and the USA and is now looking for corporate contributions to help with travel and miscellaneous expenses.

Jonathon lives in North Vancouver and is a student at Western Ontario University. He's been selected by a non-profit called Global Vision to be among 30 Canadian youth (age 16-24) for a trade mission to Panama and Colombia in July. The students will meet with business and government leaders, and perhaps Rotarians, to encourage cultural and business ties between countries. He's currently trying to raise funds to finance his trip.

Club and personal items

Diana Theman advises that the club's changeover event will be a catered lunch at her condo building in Coal Harbour at 1 pm on Sunday, July 22. Please let her or Julie know if you will attend. The $25 per person cost should go to Julie ASAP.

Speaking of Julie, she's leaving for a two-week cruise in the Mediterranean, just in time to miss her first meetings as club president. Good planning! And, John Haley is going on a trip next week, but he has no clue where he's going. It's not a memory problem, as some might assume; it's his wife's surprise for his birthday. We'll be waiting to hear all about it. 

Today's program

Sheila Anderson gave us an update of Project Amigo which was started 20 years ago in a small impoverished village in Colima State, Mexico, near an active volcano. A Rotarian from California visited there and decided to do what he could to improve conditions for the 1,200 residents, starting with education. He and others raised funds to offer encouragement for kids in the village to stay in school, including parties and new clothing as inducements. It has now grown to include scholarships, a school bus, homework clubs, counselling, distribution of books, school improvements and other benefits in various locations throughout the state. Beyond education, 50 new houses were built for homeless families, medical clinics are available with volunteer doctors from other countries, and a number of Rotary clubs from California, BC and Alberta support these projects.

Sheila's slideshow included lots of photos of healthy, happy kids in school and in their communities. She's been to Colima several times and says it's heartening to see the improvements in quality of life for the communities there. Thanks, Sheila, for an interesting presentation and for your work with this valuable project.


That's all for now. Enjoy the start of summer and we'll see you next week.

Rob