Stories

President Joyce welcomed 29 members and 4 guests to the meeting.  Our guests were Past District Governor (PDG) Sherry Chamberlain from Kamloops West Rotary Club,  Carin Smith from Wenatchee Rotary Club, Inbound student Gabriel and future Outbound student Alex. Greetings to our club members not able to attend the Zoom meetings. 

We continue to meet by Zoom every Tuesday with a good turnout of members.   

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported our recent Used Book, DVD, CD Sale.    A special  thank you to the Penticton Curling Club,  Windward Software,  Discovery House,  and our non Rotarian community volunteers.  The Grade 5 Class at Queen's Park Elementary walked over the sale and had fun choosing books, DVD's, games and puzzles.

Alex Reid spoke to the club about the tech innovation scene in the Okanagan on Tuesday April 25th.  As part of Accelerate Okanagan, Alex shared how growth in new and developed companies in the tech sector is benefiting the economics of the entire valley.  Accelerate fosters tech innovation through building community and helping businesses with their specific needs.  

Alex is a special friend of the club having been a club sponsored Rotary Exchange student and the daughter of member Barry Reid. It was a special meeting as the club honored Barry Reid for his outstanding service to Rotary with the Vern Neilsen "Local Hero" award and a Paul Harris. Barry has been a valuable member of the club for many years and his contributions include writing global grants for the Bangladesh project and his numerous club contributions. So nice that his wife and daughter could be on hand for the tribute.

 

Thank you, Penticton, for your support of our Used Book, LP, CD & DVD Sale.  A big thank you to Penticton Curling Club,  The Cannery,  Discovery House,  Penticton Herald,  Rona Home Center,  Cherry Lane Mall,  Windward Software,  Rexall Pharmacy,  Marketplace IGA, Quality Greens,  Penticton Western News,  Castanet,  InfoNews and volunteers.    All proceeds will go to Penticton-Okanagan Rotary Club projects. 

Article published in the Penticton Western News on March 18th, 2017

The recognition of an exceptional individual in our high school community this month goes to Adam Gamblen a Princess Margaret Secondary School student. He is described as a quiet gentle leader in the fine arts department.  We look forward to meeting him at an upcoming meeting.  Here's a great article in the Penticton Western News. http://www.pentictonherald.ca/news/article_942303b2-fe2e-11e6-a958-97364076f909.html 

The Club Holiday Party is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec 6th at 6 pm at the Sandman. Mark your calendars and plan on having fun! Aksel and Rotary exchange student friends will be joining in the festivities and making it extra special.  They will be fundraising  for Shelter Box too.  Your ticket will include entry into a prize raffle and there will be a 50/50.  

Alan Dawkins was recognized as a community hero last week with the presentation of a Paul Harris award. Alan has been generous with his time for decades, including leadership in Scouting, volunteering at the Souperteria and fostering cultural understanding with the Pentiction sister city of Ikeda Japan.   There was a nice write-up in the Penticton Western News November 5th. See the story here: www.pentictonwesternnews.com/community/399923211.html 

Rotary Week was celebrated with End Polio Now sign waving on Monday, fireside meetings in small groups, and great coverage in Friday's Penticton Herald. The articles spanned two facing pages with articles about the student of the month, the exchange students and a proclamation by the mayor. Click here to see what you missed: http://www.pentictonherald.ca/news/article_13ef3758-9cc5-11e6-a42e-0395ded6e203.html

The club has been looking for opportunities to promote Rotary in the local community and one way is to take out a page in the Penticton Herald.  In order to cover the printing expense business card ads will be sold. This will give local businesses a chance to show they support the good works in the community by Rotary and their business at the same time.  Ads will be the very reasonable price of $50 for a business card size.  Please ask your friends and businesses where you are a customer, if they would like to participate.  We are targeting an October 28th printing. Please let Sandra know if you or a business you know would like to participate by October 19th. 

Coming soon in November,  the club will have fun "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" events where you won't know who you will be dinning with until you arrive. Dinners will be in small groups in member's homes.  Please let Joyce know if you will be a host or guest.

The Penticton Okanagan club spent a beautiful morning cleaning up the Rotary gardens adjacent to the Psychology wing of the hospital on Oct 15th.  Weeds were removed, pathway rebuilt and the area beautified.  It looks great and it will be fun to see it come up fresh in the summer.

The Penticton Okanagan Rotary Club is working with the community to gather and refurbish musical instruments so they can be used in school music programs.  The goal is to gather instruments that are being under utilized and get them in the hands of interested students. Sometimes the price of instruments or even the repairs a donated instrument need can keep an interested student from being able to pursue a music program.  Please connect with Sandra if you have a good bulletin board for posting the new poster outlining the project.

For years, Angalia Bianca had slept in abandoned buildings throughout Chicago. She stole. She did drugs. She spent time in and out of jail for forgery, theft, trespassing, and possession of narcotics. But after she landed in prison for the seventh time, something changed -- Bianca knew she wanted a better life. She just didn’t know how to make it happen.

 

After serving her time, Bianca sought help from a local homeless organization, A Safe Haven, and moved to its shelter in the Rogers Park neighborhood. Bianca followed the program closely -- she attended all the required meetings, passed drug tests, and volunteered at every opportunity.

What is it like taking a large team to Africa?  It has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. In mid February, I began leading Rotary members from all over the East Coast of the United States through Ghana. I’ve tried to give the team a warm Ghanaian welcome like I’ve received on my earlier trips. A large trip is a real blessing because each person sees Ghana and our work in a different way.

A highlight for the team was greeting the chief of Sagadugu. The team got excited about buying goats and food for children in the villages where I support eight churches. It was good to see the pastors of most of the eight churches, and I had to explain that we were just passing through on our way to Bolgatanga.

Throughout India and around the world, Rotary clubs are celebrating a major milestone: India has gone three years without a new case of polio. The last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West Bengal on 13 January 2011. To mark this historic triumph, Rotary clubs illuminated landmarks and iconic structures throughout the country with four simple but powerful words, "India is polio free."

 

The three-year achievement sets the stage for polio-free certification of the entire Southeast Asia region by the World Health Organization. The Indian government also plans to convene a polio summit in February to commemorate this victory in the global effort to eradicate polio.