Sunrise newsletter for the week of July 4, 2012
Posted by Rob Goodell
on Jul 4, 2012
Have you heard the news? The European financial crisis is over! A sudden surge in retail sales has been reported in a number of port cities in Italy and Greece. In each city, the retail boom in ladies' fashions started just after a certain cruise ship docked. Reports are that stores are selling out all their inventories of matching handbags and shoes, with requests to deliver the merchandise to an address in Burnaby, BC. Amazing how the economies of those countries can turn around so quickly.
With our brand-new club president away today, there were numerous past presidents just eager to seize control and bring back their glory days. Finally, the arm-wrestling match was won by Carlos Obregon who proceeded to run the meeting in his own style. There were 14 club members present, plus Ron Suzuki from Strathcona Community Centre and visiting Rotarians Lanis and Lynn Lenker from southern Illinois, USA. Lanis is the immediate past president of his small club and decided to celebrate the end of his term by leaving the country.
Ron Suzuki took a moment to thank the club for our support of the youth basketball program at Strathcona, particularly the 5th annual Hoop-a-Thon last month. He highlighted some of the success stories among his 500 young basketball players and distributed red Strathcona t-shirts to all club members.
Club news
The changeover event is planned for Sunday, July 22, at 1 pm. Finally, I have the venue information straight (I think). It's at Diana Theman's condo complex in Coal Harbour but not her building. The address is 555 Jervis Street, near Pender. There is meter parking on the street or you can phone Diana at 778-968-6466 and she'll help get you into her parking garage. The catered lunch is $25 per person, so let Diana know how many to order.
Today's program
It's always interesting and instructive to learn more about successful businesses in our community and today featured Whole Foods Market. The speaker was Tereza Anderson, marketing specialist, with assistance by her boss, store manager Jorge Soso, both from the West Vancouver store in Park Royal. It's worth noting that Whole Foods is one of the corporate sponsors of our annual Christmas luncheon party for the West End seniors group, and we appreciate their help with that project.
Whole Foods was started in 1980 in Texas and has grown to 324 stores throughout the US and Canada, including four in the Vancouver area (two of which were formerly Capers locations). Whole Foods Market is planning to open stores in North Vancouver and Burnaby in the near future.
Tereza described some of the Whole Foods programs that have been popular with their customers. The first features products from the ten percent of their vendors who are local farmers, butchers and fishermen. Another is their Whole Trade Guarantee, working with the Rain Forest Alliance to bring to market products that meet strict standards for environmental and labor issues. An example is coffee supplied by small growers in Nicaragua, where Jorge visited to learn how they grow and handle their products. The final program is called Health Starts Here, which provides customer education for healthy eating including products, recipes and information to promote good health.
Next week
The club program for July 11 will feature two Rotary couples visiting from New Zealand who are currently on a Friendship Exchange. Don't miss it!
Rob
With our brand-new club president away today, there were numerous past presidents just eager to seize control and bring back their glory days. Finally, the arm-wrestling match was won by Carlos Obregon who proceeded to run the meeting in his own style. There were 14 club members present, plus Ron Suzuki from Strathcona Community Centre and visiting Rotarians Lanis and Lynn Lenker from southern Illinois, USA. Lanis is the immediate past president of his small club and decided to celebrate the end of his term by leaving the country.
Ron Suzuki took a moment to thank the club for our support of the youth basketball program at Strathcona, particularly the 5th annual Hoop-a-Thon last month. He highlighted some of the success stories among his 500 young basketball players and distributed red Strathcona t-shirts to all club members.
Club news
The changeover event is planned for Sunday, July 22, at 1 pm. Finally, I have the venue information straight (I think). It's at Diana Theman's condo complex in Coal Harbour but not her building. The address is 555 Jervis Street, near Pender. There is meter parking on the street or you can phone Diana at 778-968-6466 and she'll help get you into her parking garage. The catered lunch is $25 per person, so let Diana know how many to order.
Today's program
It's always interesting and instructive to learn more about successful businesses in our community and today featured Whole Foods Market. The speaker was Tereza Anderson, marketing specialist, with assistance by her boss, store manager Jorge Soso, both from the West Vancouver store in Park Royal. It's worth noting that Whole Foods is one of the corporate sponsors of our annual Christmas luncheon party for the West End seniors group, and we appreciate their help with that project.
Whole Foods was started in 1980 in Texas and has grown to 324 stores throughout the US and Canada, including four in the Vancouver area (two of which were formerly Capers locations). Whole Foods Market is planning to open stores in North Vancouver and Burnaby in the near future.
Tereza described some of the Whole Foods programs that have been popular with their customers. The first features products from the ten percent of their vendors who are local farmers, butchers and fishermen. Another is their Whole Trade Guarantee, working with the Rain Forest Alliance to bring to market products that meet strict standards for environmental and labor issues. An example is coffee supplied by small growers in Nicaragua, where Jorge visited to learn how they grow and handle their products. The final program is called Health Starts Here, which provides customer education for healthy eating including products, recipes and information to promote good health.
Next week
The club program for July 11 will feature two Rotary couples visiting from New Zealand who are currently on a Friendship Exchange. Don't miss it!
Rob