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Rotary Club of Calgary Centennial
We meet In Person
Wednesdays at 6:45 AM
Ranchmen's Club
710 - 13th Ave S.W.
Calgary, AB T2R 0K9
Canada
Calgary, AB T2R 0K9
Canada
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Weekly Meeting
Ranchmen's ClubJun 23, 2021
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Weekly Meeting
Ranchmen's ClubJun 30, 2021
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Weekly Meeting
Ranchmen's ClubJul 07, 2021
Networking – beyond the dictionary definition
1999 - Three weary travelers arrive at the Toronto’s Pearson airport after a horrendously long journey, exhausted and jetlagged. The first impression of Canada: far away, far from our families, friends and old lives; dismayed when we met an impossibly rude immigration officer wearing thick glasses, who declined our help with the spelling of our family name as he copied it down from the passports into his records.
A lady, whom I worked with for a short time back home and that had immigrated to Canada a few years ahead of us, had sent her husband to meet us at the airport and drive us to a “bed and breakfast” in one of the most expensive Torontonian neighbourhoods: The Beaches. The room had been booked by another acquaintance, a Canadian whom I had worked with at Price Waterhouse Coopers. He did not realise that for a newcomer, paying $65 per day would be exorbitant when he booked it, but these two people were our “Canadian connection”, basically our “network”.
As years went by, we met people through work, social events and acquaintances. We thought we were building a network of people that would help us understand how “things worked” in Canada and how to find a job, but one by one, our network kept disintegrating because people were having different priorities: new family members that needed more attention than a stranger, better jobs, different political orientations or for no reason at all and here we are: 22 years and 20 “jobs” later, our network is still struggling to grow.
2020 - The COVID crisis. A crisis like no other in the history of humanity. Having lived most of our lives in a communist country where human interaction was only allowed under strict political supervision, we never imagined we will have to once again “socially” and “physically” keep the distance. What was left of our network was quickly disappearing under the pressure of keeping ourselves safe, healthy and well.
But then, a CTV news report caught our attention: movie drive-in. In the middle of “socially” distancing we could still enjoy a movie with others. Some genius’ idea of bringing people together, while keeping the distance.
Long story short: that is how I became a Rotary Centennial Member. A few months later after the movie drive-in event and after having to wake up at the wee hours of the morning to join into the friendly banter of a group of new friends and what is now my new network, I feel optimistic that no matter how long this crisis will last, my new, soon to become old friends, will be there for me, supporting me and my family so that when the light at the end of the tunnel turns into the new normal, I get to meet them in the wee hours of the morning for coffee and Danish, for a new episode of the “friendly banter series”.
What better reason do you need to become a member of Rotary? Name one and I’ll swallow my Danish.
Survival Garden Kits Give Women Food Security
Fifty-five women received tools, seedlings, fertilizer, a hippo water roller and training on food security from our Project Partner, Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, South Africa.
Sutton Garner, 16, was recognized by LEGO’s Rebuild the World campaign for her structure — a sandwich made of LEGO bricks that’s being constructed by a community of LEGO people — built to represent her charity I Can For Kids. Through Rebuild the World, which launched this month, LEGO aims to celebrate the endless imagination and ingenuity of kids by sharing stories of how they are changing the world.
Rotary Centennial was responsible for donating 1% of the money over the summer for food gift cards.
Click HERE for a link to the full article in the Calgary Herald
The Club has been supporting I Can for Kids.
Please click the logo below for their July 2020 update newsletter.
The Rotary Club of Calgary Centennial, in collaboration with the Calgary-based ICE Health System and CHILD Foundation, is helping to provide basic healthcare services to rural communities in district Baghpat, UP, India, via a tele-medicine project. During the current national lockdown, rural communities in India have very limited access to health care. Thanks to a tele-medicine project which was more than a year in the making, patients can once again consult with a physician without leaving their home.
When the project was envisioned in early 2019, its primary goal was to:
- improve healthcare services in a rural community in Baghpat district by implementing centralized health record management at a charitable rural hospital, and
- secondly, extending the reach of the hospital to other remote rural communities.
Project execution was to start in late 2020 after approval of a Global Grant supported by Rotary Club of Calgary and Rotary Club of Calgary Sarcee.
In the meantime, COVID19 hit countries around the world in February 2020, and national lockdown / physical distancing became household names. In India, rural clinics and hospitals with no isolation rooms, ventilators and other facilities to treat covid19 patients were ordered to shutdown. Rural communities were left with no access to even basic healthcare.
Rotarians working in our district and collaborating organizations realized that this project was exactly what was needed, and it was needed now. Rotarians got down to work to find a solution to advance the project, even in the absence of Global Grant approval.
These efforts paid off. One of the basic elements of the project have been implemented and tele-medicine service is being initiated on May 11, 2020. Now the rural communities will have access to some level of healthcare even during covid19-related lockdown.
Rotarians are truly People of Action.
For more information on this story, please contact Dr. Anil Jain at 403 870 7320 or write to drjain.rotary@gmail.com.
COVID 19 Volunteer Opportunities
As of April 28, 2020
Delivering
- Food delivery with Redefin'din Bowness- SIGN UP
- Food delivery at Sunalta Hub – Coming Again Soon
- Delivering flyers or putting up posters at Sunalta. Contact Angie at angie@sunalta.net
Donating Goods
- Donate or lend your unused tech items to our Ruckify store
- Donate nonperishables to the Calgary Food Bank
Mentoring/Tutoring
- K-12 Online Tutors coordinated through the University of Calgary. SIGN UP
- Business Mentoring: Many residents have shown interest in receiving guidance in helping get their small business ideas to fruition if there is anyone who can help guide creativity and answer small business questions. Email Kirsten Dodds at Kirsten.Dodds@calgaryunitedway.org
Through the City of Calgary
- Get involved in Neighbours helping Neighbours
DONATE TO CALGARY FOUNDATION
