March 13, 2006 South Mouth

Posted by Roseanne Morissette 
 
 

SouthMouth 
Weekly Bulletin of the Rotary Club of St. Catharines South 

March 13, 2006.

Volume Nine, Meeting 27

SERVICE Above Self 

Reporter:  John Teibert

OPENING THE MEETING

Call to Order: President Bob McKay 
National Anthem: Rob Welch
Toast to Queen and Canada: Matt Taylor
Invocation: Ed Telenko

GUESTS AND VISITING ROTARIANS

Norris Brown introduced the following guests and visiting Rotarians:  Ross McDonald, Doug Geddie, and Thomas Pekar from the Downtown Club, and retired Past President Soren Harrison.

SERGEANT-AT-ARMS

Rob Welch, serving as Sergeant-at-Arms, accepted Happy Dollars from:
Julio Batres - helping a lady in distress;
George Fitzpatrick - happy to see the Prime Minister in Afghanistan;
Don Hetherington - an accordion falling on a banjo makes the sweetest sounds in a junkyard;
Andrew Bowles - one of his friends is on a the trip to Afghanistan with the PM;
John Klassen - he is getting the opportunity to bid on the new Hospice building;
Peter Snodgrass - he thinks he has finally sold his home;
John Teibert - Kids on March break. 

HOWARD ETHERINGTON AWARD

This is the 15th anniversary of the award. Ed Telenko gave a brief tribute to Howard Etherington, a charter member of our club. Howard was a true Rotarian who never lost his enthusiasm for Rotary. This year's winner of the award is the St. Catharines Folk Arts Council.


ANNOUNCEMENTS

Teeth Whitening:
Dr. Tom Pekar (Dentist) from the Downtown Club made a brief presentation on this unique fundraising project that the Downtown Club has. This project raised over $8,000 last year. Whiten your child's teeth for $275 instead of $365 - all the proceeds go to charity.

Diamond-Studded Gala, May 13, 2006:
Jim Howes reported that we have to start pushing: 95 tickets and 34 auction items committed so far - only two months to go!

District Conference May 5-7:
Ron Kozub is still looking for sponsors to help cover the costs of the hospitality suite. To start us off, Ron's company (Wine Gardens of Pelham) is contributing the wine at Ron's costs, about a $400 savings to the club. Way to go Ron!

Your help will be needed for the hospitality suite. We are looking for corporate sponsors - see Doug Foss or Dan Toppari for more information.

Registration fees for all members are already included in our district dues, you just have to register and pay for any other events that you would like to attend. It is in St. Catharines this year at the Quality Inn.

 

Directors' Meeting:
The next Board meeting is Friday March 17th at the St. Catharines Golf & Country Club at 7:30 a.m.

April 24:
The 30th anniversary of meeting with our sister club from South Shore Buffalo (Blaisdel). We are having an evening meeting at the Queenston Heights restaurant. Mark your calendars. Reception at 6pm dinner at 7pm. Mark your calendars. More details to come. 


BIRTHDAYS

None to report.

50/50 DRAW


Rob Welch Drew the two of Hearts. There is now close to $370 in the pot and only 21 cards left.

GUEST SPEAKERS  

    

Ian Forbes introduced Teo Frans, the icemaker for the St. Catharines Golf & Country Club. He has also been the icemaker for the Canadian Junior Curling Championship (built the ice up from bare cement at the Garden City Arena), the World Junior Championship, and last three Olympics.

 

Teo gave us a wonderful presentation of the Turin Olympic ice making and stone preparation. It takes twelve scrapes of the ice to get the ice perfect. To make sure the ice didn't get damaged, the ice making team needed to get security to watch the security guards.

 

There was controversy over the stones and the ice, fuelled and fanned by the media. However, as the event went on this settled down and things went smoothly from there on.

 

There were many more slides to be shown and enjoyed, but time was a factor.

 

Ian Forbes thanked the Teo for the great presentation and for representing us so well in the last three Olympics.

      
ATTENDANCE

John Teibert announced 76 per cent attendance.


ADJOURNMENT

As there was no further business for the good of Rotary, President Bob adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.