Welcome

Meeting Notes 

REGULAR MEETING:   December 16, 2025
                                    Meeting Chair:  Kevin Smook                                                           

Our meeting opened with a welcome to the members and guests present and introduction of guests:

  • Presenters Jessie White and son Francis, Lawrence Nwanga
  • Rotary spouses: Sheila Smook, Marjorie Gaede, Marnie Roberts, Liz Rolf, Pat Stetar, Warren Phillips, Sherolyn Pedersen, Ellen Parker
  • Kevin’s mother, Gail Smook

We continued with the singing of O Canada and the Rotary Grace, followed by dinner.

Our Christmas turkey dinner was catered by Metal Kettle. Delicious! 

Our meeting resumed at 6:45 with a welcome to members attending online. 

Announcements/Updates:

  • Rotary Cares raffle tickets for 2026 are available to be sold and purchased.  Hope to have all the tickets sold by early January. See Morris or Lou
  • Our ongoing PolioPlus fundraiser is sales of Take A Bite Out of Polio punch cards. Purchase the card for $30 and enjoy a free appetizer at 9 local restaurants and breweries from now to April 30, 2026. Stocking stuffer idea? All the proceeds will be donated to The Rotary Foundation PolioPlus fund. Please help by purchasing a card to use or gift and consider taking a few cards to sell. See Lou or Tina for cards.
  • The Merry Christmas Food Hamper delivery takes place on Saturday, December 20.  Volunteers will brave the snow and cold to deliver 384 hampers and toys from the Kinette’s Silent Santa program to 514 children.  Rotary Camrose is happy to support these organizations with a $500 donation to each. 

Presentation:  Traditions from around the world to celebrate the Season of Giving and Sharing 

Adan Shaikh, Pakistan

The celebration in Pakistan that feels most like Christmas is Eid-ul-Adha, a tradition that is thousands of years old. It’s the time of year when everything becomes really festive, families get together, and everyone suddenly becomes very generous. If Christmas is about giving, eating too much, and seeing relatives you haven’t talked to in months, Eid checks all the same boxes. In the weeks leading up to Eid, things get busy. Families visit animal markets to buy goats, sheep, cows sometimes even camels. People go out and buy new clothes, get henna done and visit the beauty salon.  On the morning of Eid, people dress in their best clothes and attend a special prayer. Then comes qurbani, the sacrifice of the animals. The meat is divided into three parts: one for people in need, one for relatives and neighbors, and one for the household. By the end of the day, everyone’s fridge is full.  Eid was less of a day and more of a full eating schedule. We hosted three meals a day, for three days straight. Instead of presents children get cash. So, for us, Eid-ul-Adha isn’t just a religious holiday. It’s our season of giving. It’s about family, generosity, and making sure no one is left out, basically the same values you see at Christmas, just with different traditions and a lot more goats. 

Jessie White, Indigenous Community

Jessie White’s heritage is Cree, from the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation.  Jessie’s mother was part of the 60’s Scoop; her grandfather attended a Residential School.  For the First Nations peoples winter is a sacred season—a time of reflection, survival and storytelling.  Honour and respect for Elders is a strong value.  Stories are passed on by word of mouth, not written down.  The Cree culture focuses on family, peace, gratitude and sharing.  They do not accumulate wealth and belongings but make sure everyone is looked after. Family is important all year long, not just at Christmas. Hospitality and caring for others is a core value.  The main foods are bannock, moose meat and salt fish.  Moose nose is a delicacy that Jessie has yet to sample.  The winter solstice is a time to celebrate and praise Creator.  They dress in colorful ribbon skirts and shirts, medallions.  Round dances are held. 

Lawrence Nwanga, Nigeria

Christmas is a special time of year in Nigeria.  There are hundreds of tribes.  Lawrence was wearing an Ebo red hat which is a status symbol for Chief.  The hat really belongs to his father.  Colorful clothes featuring animal prints are the primary attire of the Nigerian culture. The population is split between Christian and Muslim, however everyone joins in the festivities.  The whole month of December is a festival with parties, family visits and lots of food and drink. Our Santa is known as Father Christmas. This is the driest and coolest month, so it is good to be outside at this time.  The main tradition is to return to your ancestral home and reconnect with your roots.  Families will travel to their home village in a convoy. Nigerian Christmas meals center around rice dishes (Jollof, Fried, White) with rich stews (like Ofada/Ayamase), abundant chicken/goat, and sides like vegetable salad, Moi Moi, fried plantains, and festive snacks, celebratory feast symbolizing togetherness.

While the traditions and foods may be unique to each culture, the common threads are:

  • Family is the centre of the celebrations of this season
  • Food is shared not just with family but with the whole community. No one is left out.
  • Peace, love and gratitude are the focus of the season regardless of who you may worship

Thanks so much to the 3 presenters.

Happy Bucks –

  • Ted Gillespie send his greetings and wishes us all a Merry Christmas from Baja, CA
  • Shirley B clarified that the Hope Mission volunteer opportunity is to help with an after-school program. Simone (former RYE student) has been volunteering there
  • Shirley R is having all her kids and their kids at home in Camrose for the first time in many years
  • Harry G has family coming from Australia, BC and Sask.  Now that he has downsized he has to rent a B&B for them. They didn’t come when they had the big house!
  • Donna P has a new grandchild since October, so now there are 2.
  • Gail Smook is loving her visit to see her 1st great grandchild
  • Chris R took a baking class with her granddaughter to learn to make French macarons.  Never again! (Chris you should have gotten lessons from Elise our RYE student 2 years ago—she made many batches when she was here) 

Rotary Cares Draw –In our last draw of 2025, ticket # 063 was drawn, the winner is Pam Roberts, the ticket was sold by her Dad Ken. I suspect Dad also purchased the ticket.  Last month Peter Roberts was the winner.  Great year for the Roberts family! A Booster photo of the cheque presentation will be arranged. 

Seasonal Games

Lou brought a Christmas Trivia game. The winning team scored 23/26, 2nd place was 20/26.

Members cast votes for the most "unique" Christmas outfit.  Ron Grue and Adan Shaikh tied for 1st place.  The Rolfs and Chris Rebus received honorable mention gifts. 

Next meeting:  Regular morning meeting on January 6 here at 8 am.  We have quite a bit of money accumulated in Kiva loan repayments to be lent out again.  Destiny will lead us through selection of some worthy applicants to fund.  We have arranged for our group to tour the new Catholic High School at 9am following our meeting.

Meeting Closed with the 4-Way Test. 

Sincere thanks to Kim Boyco and Shirley Bergsma looking after registrations, Kevin Smook for chairing this meeting,  Adan Shaikh, Morris Henderson for looking after Zoom and Lou Henderson for taking notes at the meeting and bringing dessert. Tim Parker, Adan Shaikh and Rob & Liz Rolf and may others assisted with the room set up. Special thanks to Lisa Rohr for arranging for our meal and her assistant Ken for delivering it. Everyone is great about chipping in to do dishes and put away chairs and tables so thank you to all! 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

ROTARY JOINS LEADERS | ROTARIANS SHARE IDEAS | ROTARIANS TAKE ACTION