President's Remarks
President Paul let members know that this was the first of our new format, shortened meetings, and as a result we will forgo several of our traditional meeting components.
Bell Ringer(s)
All of the members who helped out at Cruisin' on King Street were asked to raise a hand and be recognized and were celebrated as the Bell Ringers for this week.
President's Wine Quiz
Again this week anyone who used Social Media to promote our work at the Cruisin' On King Street event could fill out a ballot.
Question: Most of us know that our Club started KW Rotary Children's Centre in 1957, but in what year did the name change to KidsAbility?
Answer: 2003.
Club Announcements
President Paul announced that we have received a letter of resignation from Mary Rielly, due to bushiness pressures. Paul also let members know that he and President-elect Louise are looking for a President-elect designate who will serve as the club president in 2021-22.
Secretary Bill Proctor reviewed the upcoming meetings:
July 29 - Evening Hands-On Project at the Sunnydale Community Garden (sign up on line on our District website)
August 5 - Civic Holiday, No Meeting
August 12 - Regular Meeting at the Hotel - Speaker Laura Mae Lindo, MPP (to be confirmed)
August 19 - Regular Club Meeting - Car Draw Envelope Stuffing (venue to be confirmed)
August 26 - Evening Business Meeting and Fellowship at the Edelweiss Tavern
50/50 Draw
Our pot is getting up there and has crossed the $500 level at $523. Jack continues to elude us and Howard Pell, Neil Swayze, and Russ St. Louis were left disappointed.
Program Highlights
Our program today was the kick Off of our Car Draw Fundraising Campaign for this year. Adrian DeCoo, committee co-chair, led things off by indicating that we are off to a great start. Our Cruisin' on King Street activity brought in over $3,000 – about $1,400 at the gate and $1,600 in ticket sales. Our ticket selling at the Market is going well and cheques of $1,285, $520 and $430 were handed in today.
Adrian indicated that it was important that we be reminded of the WHY of the campaign and asked Lisa Talbot, the Executive Director of the KidsAbility Foundation to bring us up to date on KidsAbility.
The Mission of KidsAbility is “KidsAbility empowers children and youth with special needs to realize their full potential”. There are three areas of operations centered on Children, Youth and Families – The KidsAbility Centre, The KidsAbility School and the KidsAbility Foundation. KidsAbility has recently expanded its services to include more youth supports. A new KidsAbility Centre opening in Guelph in the fall of 2018, combining 2 sites into one to better support families in the Guelph/Wellington area.
The Core Services to support children and youth include:
- Occupational Therapy
- Speech Therapy
- Physiotherapy
- Social Work
- Behaviour Supports
- Therapeutic Recreation
Lisa noted that since 1998 Car Draw has raised over $1,000,000 for KidsAbility. She also provided some interesting statistics on KidsAbility from their 2018-2019 year ending on March 31, 2019:
- 64,951 Client Visits,
- 1,482 Children Waiting for Therapy,
- 1000+ Children served through donations,
- 907 Volunteers Donated their time
- 231 Dedicated staff members
- 13 Supporting Rotary Clubs
- 11,338 Children and Youth with special needs served
Lisa also shared with us some of the letters of appreciation they have received from grateful parents.
“KidsAbility is an amazing and supportive network of compassionate individuals. They are warm, welcoming and sensitive to the entire family’s needs from the very first introductions to each and every session we attend. As a parent, I always feel supported, respected and informed. We feel blessed to have found KidsAbility!” - Tara
“It’s been a huge relief as parents having the team of experts at KidsAbility to walk us through everything instead of us having to figure it out on our own. This is the place to go.” - Michael
Lisa concluded by thanking us for the work we have done in the past and continue to do to support them.
Adrian and other members of the committee highlighted some information and reminders for the campaign for this year:
- Members are encouraged to sell tickets however they can.
- Many opportunities exist for selling at the market, Reminder emails will be sent out but members can access the sign up list from the club website. Members can sign up to both set up and sell tickets but if they prefer not to do the set up they can sign up just to sell and the committee will look after getting the car there and setting up the site. This also allows for others to be involved and members are asked to seek out volunteers who might be interested in helping us.
- Many supports are available to members such as Ticket Order Forms, Corporate Ask Letter Template, Instructions for Setting Up the Site, and Information about our New Storage Unit. These can be found under the Member Only Documents menu on both the Club Website and the Car Draw website.
- The car we get each week can be different and we cannot store items in it. As a result we have rented a storage locker at Schooner Self Storage at 70 Belcan Place, Waterloo; just minutes form the Market. Instructions for accessing the locker are in one of the documents indicated above.
- The car we will be giving away is on order and once it arrives we will be using it at each selling event. It will be a black car.
Closing Remarks & Reminders
President Paul reminded members that our meeting next week is a hands-on community project and members available to help out need to sign up on line.
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