Meeting Image
Due to technical issues there is no recording of this week's meeting but we do have a great image of the new members and our speaker.
President's Comments
Due to the continued provincial lock down our Dom Cardillo Trail Cleanup is being postponed once again to Wednesday, June 23.
Guests
All of our guests today will be inducted today:
Betty Bax, Corporate Member Primary - Grand River Hospital Foundation
Paul McIntyre Royston, Corporate Member Alternate – Grand River Hospital Foundation
Angela Olano, Corporate Member Alternate – Grand River Hospital Foundation
Linda Bennett, Corporate Member Alternate – WalterFedy
Ailton Dias Santana, Regular Member
Happy Jar
Lumi Mironescui was pleased to have been able to participate in a Drive-By recognition for her daughter’s birthday recently.
Martin Jones and Adrian DeCoo were pleased to be part of a ZOOM call with several of our RAWEF students in Kenya last Thursday. Adrian was most impressed with the girls and the progress of the whole program.
Mr. Madu was happy to announce the 51st wedding anniversary of his parents this past weekend.
Club Announcements
The Catch The Ace progressive pot is now over $31,000! Buy your ticket – spread the word!
Special Recognitions / Presentations
Membership Chair, Hubert Singh presided over the induction of 5 new members today:
Betty Bax, Corporate Member Primary - Grand River Hospital Foundation, Sponsored and introduced by Paul Rostrup.
First arriving as a student at uWaterloo, Betty has lived and raised a family in KW for more than 30 years. She has worked at both Universities in various roles within the advancement field before moving to the Grand River Hospital Foundation in a philanthropy role in August 2019. Prior to GRHF, she was with the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics for just shy of 8 years.
Betty has 2 'launched' children living and working in Toronto and is married to a fellow UW alum. You can ask her questions about knitting and harness racing - but she's most likely to want to talk about places you have traveled.
Paul McIntyre Royston, Corporate Member Alternate – Grand River Hospital Foundation, Sponsored and introduced by Paul Rostrup.
Starting with Grand River Hospital Foundation as CEO just before the pandemic, PMR (as he is called by his colleagues - there were too many Paul’s there!) has worked with our community and the Foundation team to raise more than $20M so far. Just before the Hospital, he was the Canadian Olympic Foundation CEO, supporting team Canada in PyeongChang. For the previous 7 years, Paul reinvented how people view libraries philanthropically while growing the Calgary Public Library Foundation to more than $300,000,000 raised in public and private support. His transformational work at the library and its foundation led to PMR being named one of the Top 40 under 40 in Calgary in 2015. Paul's 20 years of experience in fundraising, 12 of which were served in a senior leadership or CEO capacity, spans several sectors including healthcare, education, sport, municipal organizations and not for profit. Paul attended the University of Waterloo where he graduated with a Bachelor of Mathematics. He has served on several boards over the years including Rotary in Calgary and most recently with the Oakville Public Library. PMR grew up in KW and is delighted to have come back home with his spouse and 5 daughters. When he isn't contributing to building a world class health care system in our community, Paul can be found biking the trails with his family or planning out his next entrepreneurial venture.
Angela Olano, Corporate Member Alternate – Grand River Hospital Foundation, Sponsored and introduced by Paul Rostrup.
Currently the Director of Community Engagement & Marketing for the Grand River Hospital Foundation, Angela's career in community outreach began with THEMUSEUM in downtown Kitchener. After serving there for 10 years in programming, marketing and operations, she briefly left the community to work for the Art Gallery of Ontario. Following, she was recruited to work with world-renowned quantum scientists at the Institute for Quantum Computing where she developed the national tour of the first-ever travelling exhibition on quantum science and information technology, QUANTUM: The Exhibition – a Canada 150 Signature Initiative. Before joining the Grand River Hospital Foundation team, Angela served as chief of staff for the University of Waterloo's VP, Research & Innovation. Drawing on her past in science and museum administration, Angela is also a co-founder and Board member for LAUNCH Waterloo - a children's STEAM outreach organization.
Linda Bennett, Corporate Member Alternate – WalterFedy, Sponsored and introduced by Ed Fowler.
Linda grew up in Prince Edward County and is the daughter of immigrants. As a child, she saw the importance of outreach and networking within the community. As a daughter of immigrants, with no immediate family in Canada and living in a rural area, close neighbours become her family. Her mother became involved in the local church women’s group helping to support shut-ins and families with young children who needed extra support. Linda would help her out over the years on various projects and would also join other clubs such as 4-H and volunteer clubs at school.
Linda did my undergraduate studies in Toronto and lived there for a number of years. While there she did get involved in some environmental-based volunteer projects (e.g., river clean-ups, environmental awareness days / festivals).
In late 2007, she moved to Kitchener and shortly thereafter, became a busy mom of two sons and started the whole juggle of home-life / work balance. She has volunteered a few times at her sons’ school but really wanted to help out my community more but just didn’t know where to start!
So why Rotary? Linda has been in the engineering consulting industry since 2004. Prior to her joining WalterFedy in 2017, her respective workplaces would always be talking about being involved in community work, but there was never that real engagement. Once she joined WalterFedy in 2017, not only did WalterFedy say they were involved in community initiatives, there was clear evidence of it. Rotary Club was a phrase she heard often and she became interested but her personal life was just too busy at that time. She was impressed with Rotary’s involvement with KidsAbility and other ventures within the community and vowed to learn more about it. COVID hit and other things took priority. During the whole lock-down, she realized even more that she is fortunate in life. She still have her job. She can work for home (though distracted a lot from the kids!). She has a backyard that she can enjoy. Not everyone has had this luxury during this time. She sees that we can still help out our community, even if remotely (though hoping to see everyone again soon!). So now I know it is the right time to join and I am excited to be part of this group and start a new journey!
And lastly, her father-in-law, Brian Bennett, is a member of the Tavistock Club. Need she say more?
Ailton Dias Santana, Regular Member, sponsored and introduced by Mike Morrice.
Ailton Santana is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He spent his academic life in the Navy Academy and later in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro where he received a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering. After 10 years running a business in technical training he decided to move to Canada in 2010, living in Waterloo region since 2012 due to a work opportunity at Sandvine, today he is a Real Estate agent with Davenport Realty and he has been involved with the Waterloo Immigration services trying to bridge the gap between new immigrants and small landlords. He currently resides with his partner Sharon and his 2 daughters in Breslau.
Program Highlights
Our program today was a How Am I by new member Mr. Madu who presented his Who Am I as a Toast Masters speech.
Standing before you today is a renowned world-class Master speaker & Rotarian. Yours truly have achieved so much for humanity like no other. In July 2019, I was Honorary guest speaker at the White House in celebration of the United States Independence Day where I gave a sedulous keynote speech that attracted a thunderous adulation from the audience.
That speaking opportunity was preceded by another ecclesiastical performance at the Webminster Abbey, right beside her royal majesty, the Queen of England. I have held sway on several occasions around the world, and my speaking successes have taken me from South Africa, to India, through Australia to Europe, speaking before great crowds and delivering speeches, so prolific that the audiences have been captivated all the time.
I have championed the causes of charity and benevolence with my speeches; I have defended the poor, stood beside the downtrodden of society with the power of my speeches. I have achieved these and many more in a very short span of time, and many more still lie ahead. I could go on and on.
And before you think, what is this? Is this man here to gloat? No, I am not. Because all I have said is just a figment of the imaginations in my mind. Simply put: It is all in my mind!
See, in my mind, I’ve seen myself climb Mount Everest. Do the utmost impossible and achieve greatness like none other. But only in mind. In the safety of my mind where, where is no criticism or failures. In my mind, where every attempt is a big success. In my mind where I can achieve so much with very little effort. I used to think I was the only one who suffered this dilemma, but alas we all do, to some degree.
Some have translated the successes in their mind to reality. For those who did, it started by taking baby steps in the right direction.
For example, by joining Rotary, many in their lifetime have managed to translate the goodwill in their mind into reality for millions and by so doing, achieved a legacy that has outlived them.
Similarly, for me, I have joined rotary as one of my many baby steps towards translating the goodwill in my mind to humanity by being part of a great organization that is making a great impact. It is all about giving back. Imagine walking some distance on the coldest night of the year, to raise funds that will go to saving the lives of a little one. Imagine, volunteering with the Catch the Ace, working tirelessly to raise funds that will go a long way to reaching a life, a life I may never meet.
But these baby steps did not start so easily. You see…. It all started from childhood.
I grew up a very timid and shy boy, even though I was tremendously gifted. I could play the Piano and sing in the choir at age 8. I could draw, paint and make art designs at age 9. I loved to play chess and would go on to win the local school competition. I could write poems and mini novels. But of all the things I loved to do, none compared with my secret love of freely giving back and of public speaking. But there was just one problem.
Many naturally are afraid of several things in life. One of the things people fear the most is having to face an audience. The phobia becomes heightened when you include speaking before an audience. I am sure there are witnesses here. Naturally, I also had this phobia. And mine was really warranted. I have always been very shy!
And so, for many years, I buried my love of giving back beneath the ashes of my fear and moved on to other things.
I studied as an Engineer and would go on to practice for one of the biggest energy firms in the world, first in Nigeria, then in the US. I moved to India in 2013 for about a year and then returned to Sub Sahara Africa in 2015 and spent about 4 years touring Africa. To date, Google reports that I have been in about 15 different nations of the world, and counting, hopefully, post pandemic.
And that was the case until I met a man who asked me a question: What would really happen if your worst fear should happen? This man told me, “that to conquer your fear, unleash your boldness: you just have to face your fear and beat it down”. How, I asked?
“If you are afraid of heights, join the airforce! If you are afraid of water, join the navy and if you are afraid of public speaking? Join Toastmasters! And if you want to give back, you want to join Rotary.”
And that was how my baby steps started. In 2018, I joined ToastMasters. And then one lovely afternoon, while in a toastmasters meeting, a perfect gentleman from Rotary walks in. He speaks briefly about the synergy between toastmasters and rotary. I listened to him and then said to myself, that is my next baby step. That is my opportunity to support, to give back, to be part of something that can positively impact lives. This is my opportunity to translate all the good in my mind to impact humanity and hope to leave a legacy that will outlive me.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is who I am!
Closing Remarks & Reminders
President Louise reminded members that there is no meeting next Monday, May 24th as this is a holiday. The next meeting will be May 31st in the evening.
