Stories

 

When we hear the words “human trafficking,” we tend to think that this is something that happens in big cities.  Sadly this is not true, and with the 401 highway, this crime is big business right here in our community.

 

Spearheaded by the Rotary Club of Guelph South, Rotary members have come together to tackle this issue, starting with an awareness campaign.

 

On the 4^th Tuesday of every month, starting in July, you will hear about different aspects of human trafficking – from the organizations that work to create increased awareness to survivors themselves who will share their stories.

 

We are starting on July 27 with Bob Burnside and Sherri Moir who are with Cry Not, a voluntary organization based in Orangeville whose mandate is to create awareness of threat, tactics, symptoms and resulting devastating personal effects of Human Trafficking to the greater Dufferin Caledon communities.

 

Future dates are August 24, September 28, October 26, November 30.  Mark your calendars now and plan to join us. This session will be online and free.  To register, go to  https://bit.ly/3xXKx7S

 

On Wednesday evening, June 23, 2021, District 7080 held its annual Awards and Changeover celebration.  Our Club stood out among the 50 clubs in the District with 4 members/family receiving recognition. 
  

Marianne Frame-Toombs was presented with the District Rotary Partner Award for her work and dedication along with Mike on the Egg and Cheese Program for Chalmers Community Centre. 
 

Patsy Marshall was presented with a Governor Team Special Recognition certificate for her many years of leadership to the District, and beyond, in developing and delivering the Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) program.
 

Clarence Haverson was also presented with a Governor Team Special Recognition certificate for his work on the District Awards Committee over the past four years.
 

Our own Darlene Carpenter was presented with District Paul Harris recognition for her work as Assistant District Governor in leading the seven club Guelph Wellington Cluster to work together as a team like we never have before.
 

Guelph Trillium was truly well represented!

Update May 25,2021

RAJBIR S MANN

DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL SERVICE D7080

 

Thank you to all Rotarians, Rotary clubs in our district and Zone 28 and 32 and to community donors for an amazing response to the call for help, to help mitigate this unprecedented humanitarian tragedy in India. Thank you for joining together and responding to the call from the Rotary India action task force and in helping to make a difference and potentially save many lives.

Our efforts have been incredible. I have received many (MANY!!) calls, email enquiries, text messages from individual Rotarians, clubs and others from our district, community and other districts and clubs in our zone. I have put other districts directly in touch with PDG Neil McBeth in Essex. Others from Saskatchewan, B.C. and Alberta insist on mailing cheques directly to me. 

 

The total including cheques received and pledges so far is $109,155.00  Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium contributed $3,000 US

 

There is a link to the story of how this Global Grant came to be (see "Home Page Download Files" frame on right side of website home page) along with this video of Eric, one of the Water First interns - he is speaking about a water ceremony he attended.  World Water Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate how significant water is to our communities, and to address how important it is to ensure everyone has access to safe, clean drinking water.

 

 

 

 

Donna’s vocation is to provide caring, which she has done throughout her life – in her choice of nursing as a career, her work at Lutherwood, becoming involved as a volunteer with Hospice Wellington and her leadership roles within Rotary. 
 

In her 20 year career in nursing, first at the Hospital for Sick Children, then at the Wellington Dufferin Guelph Health Unit and lastly at Grand River Hospital, her focus was on quality care, and building strong relationships – with patients and parents.   When she taught nursing at the University of Toronto, she was equally invested in making sure that the nurses under her tutelage graduated with a strong sense of empathy for families.

Later she transferred those caring and leadership skills to her work at Lutherwood , a multi-faceted social service agency that works in the areas of children’s mental health, employment, housing and residential services for seniors.  Because she passionately believed in what the agency was doing, she was able to build strong relationships with the donors, which helped her and her team to raise over a million dollars every year.

And that is what Donna does.  She puts the interests of others front and centre, takes time to build a relationship and mentors them to achieve their best.  She continues to mentor her team, providing her leadership and advice when needed.

Donna created and led a group of Philanthropy Leaders of mid-sized charities in Waterloo Region which meets regularly to provide support, mentorship and leadership.  Donna has provided educational sessions for smaller charities and college students on Philanthropy.

She is often the first to get involved when Rotary needs drivers or volunteers to help in the community and frequently is the one to organize and schedule others. 

For the past 19 years she has been a volunteer for Hospice Wellington and for six years sat on the board of directors.

Donna believes that it’s all about getting to know people, recognizing and drawing on their interests and expertise, because then people feel involved and part of the community – be it Rotary,  Lutherwood or the community at large.

CLICK HERE to donate to Rotary's effort to End Polio Now

 

It is with regret that the Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium has decided to cancel Ribfest 2020.  Over the past few months, we have been monitoring closely the COVID-19 developments.  We had been hopeful that with careful planning we could host Ribfest again this year.  Not only is it our primary fundraising event, it is also an opportunity for the community to come together socially before the start of the fall. We recognize that everyone is anxious to return to events such as this.  However, our priority must be to support the ongoing recovery efforts due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.  We have determined that it would be impossible to maintain social distancing at such a large event, and thus could not ensure the health and safety of our guests, volunteers, vendors or rib teams. 

 

We look forward to seeing everyone next year at Ribfest 2021.  In the interim, we are examining event options for this fall or winter.  Watch for further announcements. 

Report on November trip to Kenya,

Many of you will remember that back in November Jess Lacoursiere , Kath and I headed out to Kenya with the goal of setting up the earth block making machine and training a Kenyan team on how to use it. We had brought along a soil testing kit so our first goal was to teach them how to analyze the soil to determine what kind of mix would work best to make the blocks. This was implementing the training that Jess and I had taken back in April with the “Dwell Earth” organization in Texas.

 

We did a number of soil tests on soils directly from our building site and from a few other locations within the greater Kitale area. All the tests showed that the clay was consistently the same in the whole area. The clay had very high in plasticity and would work well as a binder. In fact it was too sticky so we had to add 30-35% sand to the mix to keep it from gumming up our machine. We were able to work with a 6-8% cement content which acts as a stabilizer.

 

Our team worked hard with a slow production rate per day to start but by the end we had them making 500 per day.  We then challenged them to raise a new goal of 800 per day and they began to make that goal also. The target was to make enough blocks to construct 8 classrooms when we return next month. They have to date made all the half blocks, ¾ blocks and channel blocks needed and are just about there on the full blocks. The target was 30,000!

 

What will the total budget be for the 8 classrooms? We are not entirely sure as we have never built using our blocks as yet. Our past buildings using local fired bricks took a huge amount of cement for mortar joints and plastering due to the inconsistency of the brick sizes. Now that we are using this method the amount of cement should be greatly reduced! However roofing and lumber costs will probably  remain the same as in the past. I imagine that our total budget for the 8 classrooms will be around $40,000-50,000 USD. Many of you have been very generous in contributing to us already and for that we are very thankful. We have raised about $15000 towards the Khalwenge Highway Academy school fund to date so we still have a ways to go. If we have enough we will push forward on all eight classrooms but if not we will do 4 this winter and the rest will have to wait until fall.

Kath and I will be there for all of Feb and March. A team of another 2 couples from Stratford will be joining us for Feb and 3 Guelph Rotary club members are coming in March.

 

If any of you would like to contribute to this cause you can do so by sending cheques to

 

Forgotten People Connection

c/o Allen Remley

4458 Sideroad 20 N, Guelph N1H 6J3

 

 

 

Subject: Goudys and Steingards in Kenya

 

We are in Kitale with Allen and Kathie Remley now, having arrived Feb 4th in this area.  Now we feel we are seeing the true African life as we visit villages and hear personal stories of the people here.  So much we could tell you.  So hard to know how to put in words our days here. 

 

Al and Vern are focused on building a school in a remote village area using blocks made by a manual machine and using a local soil mixture. The workers dug trenches for the foundation by hand yesterday;  shovels with no handles, bare feet, with probably no food in their bellies till they were fed at 2pm by the school cook.  

 

Kathie Remley, Catherine and I are focused on preparing new baby gift bags and women's reusable feminine hygiene products bags.  We will hit schools, women's groups and hospitals next week.  

 

Jerry is doing some outings to the villages with us and spending some time on book writing.  

 

Here are a couple stories: 

 

1. We were so moved by a young man we met here of 19 yrs that the Remleys are assisting to get his education. He is finishing highschool and wants to continue on to university to become a history lecturer.  His mother died when he was 11 yrs old, no other family could care for him and he has basically been on his own since 11 yrs.  The Remleys found him in a sad situation where he had become basically enslaved.  God saw him and gave him a hope and a future and he took it, resisting the opportunity to turn to crime.  He chose life instead.  He was quiet and without expression when we met. But respectful and determined to make good choices. 

 

 

2. We met with a missionary couple from Ontario who have been here since 2005 and are running a boys home for orphans and boys at risk. We listened to their story and our hearts broke at the things they have seen here.  They took in a newborn baby boy found abandoned in a field, with the plan to adopt.  He has been with them since 8 days old.   At a few months old they noticed he was not developing as expected and he was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. The Kenyan government has now banned foreign adoptions because there were so many reports of human trafficking of babies.  They are unable to adopt their beloved boy.  And yet there are reports of unwanted babies being sold out the back door of the local hospital and being thrown down latrines.  This couple feel their time here may be wrapping up here in Kenya and they wish to take their boy, now 4 yrs old, home to Canada so he can get the therapy he needs. But the challenges are huge.  We feel God has offered us the privilege of coming along side them even for a brief time to listen to and love them. 

 

3. Then today, we went to a home that takes in abandoned babies. They had a one day old baby there, rescued yesterday.  The workers in the home heard that a young girl was having a baby and did not want the baby. When they went to collect the baby, the village midwife was standing holding a machete, blocking the door.  The midwife would not allow them to take the baby.  This midwife has a reputation of being the one you can go to if you don't want your baby and she will sell it for you.  The workers from the children's home stood their ground and would not leave. They called the police, who came 2 hrs later and eventually they were able to take the baby and the mother out of the village. The baby is in the children's home and the mother, who may have some developmental delay, is in a home for girls getting the care she needs. 

 

Sunday we go to Northwestern Kenya to some villages.  The woman there walk 4 hours each way for water.  Al Remley is looking to facilitate the drilling of a well for them.  There will be a church service in the shade of a tree.  Jerry will preach and we will pray for the sick. We will take sweets and pencils for the kids and gifts for the women. Catherine hopes to check out some pregnant women and new babies.  

 

 

The foundation for the new school being dug

 

The current temporary school. 

 

Rescued baby.  One day old. Not even named yet. 

The school progresses - next the top plate and rafters

 

Suzanne Bone is CEO and President of The Foundation of Guelph General Hospital.  She joined the Foundation following a placement at Guelph General Hospital as part of her Masters in Health Administration in 1991, and since that time has directed fundraising activities for the organization that have raised more than $50 million. She is a certified fundraising executive, and the 19th Canadian to hold the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy Fellows designation.

She is also a Guelph YMCAYWCA Woman of Distinction in the Public Service category and was a Guelph Chamber of Commerce board member.  Currently she is on the Board of Innovation Guelph.

 

She has been a very active volunteer including serving as a member of the Volunteer Centre of Guelph Wellington Leadership Advisory Committee and the Association for Health Care Philanthropy Canadian Cabinet, treasurer of the Hospital Development and Education Fund of Canada, and she is a past board member of the Victory Kids Club and the United Way of Guelph Wellington.

                The Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium organizes and runs an annual Ribfest at Riverside Park in late August. Proceeds from Ribfest are allocated to local organizations, which apply for grants, to help support their good works in the community. On Wednesday, February 12^th and 19th, area groups were presented their grants by Dan O’Donnell, Chair of Funding Allocations, Rotary Club Guelph-Trillium, at a breakfast meeting. Each representative spoke at the meeting on how their grant will be used within their organization.

February 12,2014

Front row : Heather Fowler, Big Brothers /Big Sisters of Guelph; Barbara Macrea, St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation; Karen Kamphuis, Lakeside Hope House; Dawn Nicholson, Westminster Woods Public School

Back row: Dan O’Donnell ,Chair of Funding Allocations, Rotary Club Guelph-Trillium; Shirley Hunt, Focus on Nature; Rosemary Coombs, Michael House Pregnancy Care Centre.; Jane Colwell, Hospice Wellington; Sly Castaldi, Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis; missing from photo is Allison Stoffman, Ottawa Crescent Public School

 

February 19,2014

Front row: Mira Clarke, Action Read Literacy Centre; Michelle Hughes, The Elliott; Susan Wahlroth, Community of Hearts Learning Centre; Amy Baskin, J.O.E. (partner with Guelph Public Library)

Back Row: Dan O’Donnell, Chair of Funding Allocations, Rotary Club Guelph-Trillium; Laurie Lantaigne, Food& Friends (Children’s Foundation); Dan Evans & Peter Wilks, Parkwood Gardens Neighbourhood ; Trevor Barton, Guelph Enabling Garden;  Ann Caine, Sunrise Equestrian