Call to Order
President Anna Harder.
18 Rotary Members attending.
Guests
None.
Makeups
None.
Announcements
Breakfast next week will be Ham and Cheese Quiche
Welcome back to Larry and Patrice from their European vacation, also Gerry Lawrence who visited Russia recently. Gerry is reviewing our accounts for 2013 – 2014 at this time.
Challenge Day at Comp is being held on Wednesday, October 22, and so far only one member has signed up to help out. We will be giving Comp a cheque for $2000, as approved in our Budget, to help with the program.
On Friday evening, Oct 24, we will be having a Club Social - Fun Casino Night at Lisa’s new office downtown. The address is 5051 – 50th Street, starting at 7.00PM. Please bring an appetizer or dessert and BYOB. Even if you have not signed up yet, feel free to show up, there is lots of room.
October 24th is Rotary World Polio Day and we will have a cookie jar at the Social for donations to the Rotary Foundation “End Polio Now Program”.
Odell did the Food for Thought segment, quoting words from a couple of famous figures in history. Sorry, you will have to call him for the exact wording.
We had the distinct pleasure of presenting a cheque for $1000 to Jonathan Naslund of the Augustana Campus of the U. of A. Jonathan is one of our winners in our Scholarship Grant program, led by Foundation Chair Paul. What made Jonathan’s application special is the fact that he volunteers at St Mary’s Hospital and the Jump Rope program in Camrose.
Rob brought a good sized pumpkin from his “patch” at the farm and we raffled it off for $40.00.
The verifiers at the Rotary T V Bingo tomorrow Wed. October 22 are Larry and Patrice.
50-50 Draw
Gerry won the packet of Russian tea, donated by Larry and Patrice. Carol D P drew the three of spades and the pot gets bigger.
Happy Bucks
Judge Don Presiding.
Happy Bucks included, Putting summer tools away, Family moving in, Russian river cruise, To California on Friday, Weather yesterday, Vacation to Europe, Thanksgiving x 4, Family here, Bingo boxes, Polar Bear trip upcoming, Hospice training, Augustana Student Scholarship, Cape Breton trip, Days for Girls construction day in Red Deer, New duplex going up, Wedding on New Year’s eve.
Judge Don levied only one fine against Varghese.
Guest Speaker
Pres. Anna was our program today, talking about her adventures on the “Camino de Santiago” Trail in Spain (mostly). Her program was supported by a video presentation and took place from Sept 22 to Oct 3 2013. For a detailed background on the walk, please refer to Wikipedia.
Having never been away on a trip by herself since the age of 17 and indeed having never been out of North America, the whole holiday was very special.
The slides showed a good deal of the villages, artwork, old churches and the countryside along the way, but I got a sense that the people Anna met on her hike were, so to speak, the cream on the coffee.
The whole hike is popular with travelers of all ages and ethnic backgrounds and while Anna did not walk each day with a specific group, she kept running across the same people and everyone seemed to help each other out when needed.
Most nights were spent in “refuges” of which there is one in most of the villages along the trail. The accommodations were basic, with bunk beds and small shared rooms, but from what we saw, clean , inexpensive and well organized. Basic meals were available from restaurants in most communities. There are water taps for filling water bottles all along the trail, some of which have been there for hundreds of years.
Despite being stung on the ankle by a wasp one evening, and having to rest up for a day, Anna covered around 300KM in total, of the much longer full “Way of St James”.
The weather was good in general, hot and sunny, which made the whole experience more pleasant.
Editor's note: Thank you to John Stoddart for taking notes and writing this bulletin.