The Lakeshorian, 13 February 2007

The Lakeshorian
February 13, 2007
ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm

This week’s program…
Teresa Dellar is the Executive Director of the West Island Palliative Care Residence. She will speak to us about the importance of palliative care for terminally ill patients and their families, and of the importance of private contributions from organizations like ours to the WIPCR.

Birthdays or anniversaries…
Happy Anniversary, Bill & June today, February 13th!
Happy Birthday, Mary Saad Sunday, February 18th!

Future Programs…
February is World Understanding Month!
Feb 20: Ryan Young, teacher of Creative Arts at John Abbott College, is a member of the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Environment Committee. He will share with us his “Vision of a Green West Island.”
Wednesday, February 21st is our club’s 46th birthday!
Friday, February 23rd is Rotary’s 102nd birthday!
Feb 27: If all goes according to schedule, Jesper will finally get to give his Classification Talk.
March is Literacy Month!
Mar 6: It must be classification talk season. Today it will be Maureen’s turn.

Coming Events…
Feb 16: Andy’s annual fundraising Hungarian supper—a Magyar Feast—at Fritz Farm, 20477 Lakeshore Road, Baie d’Urfé. Tickets are only $25 per person. Get yours today!

Last week’s meeting…
A super-sized crowd of 20 members and 5 guests gathered in the Perno dining room of the Holiday Inn last Tuesday, to hear about Andy’s annual treks to Paraguay.
We were pleased to welcome three members of Andy’s fan club: his wife, Kathleen, and daughter, Andrea, and friend and neighbour Linda Tait, who was actually a guest of her hubby, Wayne. Present as special guests of the club were two directors of the West island Women’s Shelter, Kim Cairnduff and Danielle Guay.
We missed the fellowship of Jesper, Abie, Jules, Bob, Ted, Ghandi, Anne and George.
We also had two short-term guests, who were unable to stay, even for a free lunch. They were Ryan Quinn and his dad, Michael.
To permit Ryan to get back to school, we invited him to the podium before lunch, to receive our club’s contribution to the cost of his class’s upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic. Ryan had told us about this worthwhile project when he visited our club on January 2nd.
Our “Rotary Minute,” a new weekly feature from new member John, reminded us that “Rotary’s strength is in its members.” John went on to explain that it’s not just about the numbers; it is recognizing that the good work Rotary does is the result of teamwork by clubs and Rotarians around the world. One of the secrets of Rotary’s success comes from having members on the ground everywhere we are needed. To build on that advantage, John told us, “every Rotarian should make it his or her goal to invite one potential member to join their club.” Look what 1.2 million Rotarians are doing around the world. Imagine what 2 million of us could do!
Susan announced that she would be taking a one-year leave of absence from her John Abbott College job. He prime motivation is to find a new position, hopefully here in Montreal, but opportunities in Ottawa and Toronto would also receive her consideration. She will be leaving for her annual vacation in Barbados shortly. Her sabbatical will begin on her return.
Wayne invited Fran, the organizer of our annual golf tournament, to come forward to present our club’s donation to the West Island Women’s Shelter.
After asking Kim and Danielle to join her at the podium, Fran reminded us how important it is for West Island women who live in fear of domestic abuse have this harbour of refuge to turn to for shelter, comfort and the means to start a new life for themselves and their children. Fran then presented our cheque, along with our club’s gratitude for the personal help the WIWS provided before and during last year’s tournament.
In thanking our club for this donation, WIWS Executive Director Kim admitted that she was raised in a family where there was conjugal violence. “As a child in bed, I heard the raised voices and the blows; in the morning I saw the results. When I was 22 I took my Mom to the hospital to have a gash in her forehead stitched. She stayed with my stepfather, in spite of everything, until he died. I wish we had had a shelter to go to.” She went on to point out how different it is today, describing the services the shelter makes available for women and their children who are victims of conjugal violence. “When I consider what other services we might offer, I often ask myself what my Mom would have wished for?” She also gave us a progress report on the new home they are building. There were lots of questions from the audience.
President Art introduced Andy and invited him to tell us what it’s like to travel alone to a foreign land where the people speak a different language, yet you know you must try to make a positive difference in their quality of life before you return home.
Andy told us he was going to take us all with him on a trip to Paraguay, so we could really get a feel of what is involved in such a mission. “We’ll skip the many hours of preparation needed for this trip, like applying for grants from the district and from The Rotary Foundation to help pay for travel and living expenses and to help cover the cost of materials to build the structures I’m going to tell you about in a minutes, and petitioning Health Partners International of Canada for eight Physician’s Travel Packs (16 cases) of medicine, worth $50,000 wholesale, for the cost of handling and packing, a total of only $4,400, and pleading with the airlines to let us take all 16 boxes as personal baggage, without having to pay excess baggage charges. And not to mention getting all 16 boxes into and out of my garage and over to the airport so they can travel on the same flights as we do.” All the while he’s telling us this, we’re seeing photos on the screen, showing boxes that are each as big as a case of 24, piled up to the ceiling of Andy’s garage, and of Knud helping with the TRF and HPIC paperwork and then helping load and transport the medicines.
“Okay,” Andy continued. “We get off the plane and start walking toward Paraguayan Customs, passing a couple of armed soldiers on the way and praying that you’re not about to be accused of trying to smuggle drugs into their country. Fortunately, we are Rotarians and we’re being met by local Rotarians at the airport; they get us through customs without any hassle.
“So now we head into town, with our new Rotarian friends, who have brought along an extra van to carry the medicine to the hospital. As we walk the last part of the route we pass a small child begging in the street. You give her a toy. She is excited, never having received much more than a glance from most passers-by.
“In the children’s ward, we talk to more kids, with the help of a Rotarian interpreter, and we realize most of these kids will spend the next few weeks of life that they have left in this ward, because they have leukemia.” At this point, Andy’s voice breaks, as pictures of some of the kids he met on previous trips flash on the screen and he realizes that none of them are there any more.
Andy showed us photos that tore at our heartstrings—kids pouring through garbage cans, looking for food and undoubtedly getting a side dish of parasites that they didn’t bargain for, schoolchildren turned out in their finest duds, each waving a small Canadian flag that Andy had brought for them. We saw what passes for toilets in the schools—outdoor loos, without doors, consisting of a hole in the ground. Some we made of brick, “but that’s no good,” Andy told us, “because they’re not portable. What do you do when the hole is full?”
He told us we will be building wooden latrines, with doors and roof vents and a seat over the hole. And when that hole fills up, two adults can move the whole thing to a fresh location.
We saw Andy attending a Rotary club fundraiser for a women who had adopted 113 children! And we saw other photos that brightened the screen—youth exchange students attending the Rotary club’s 30th birthday party, and huge, beautiful falls, not unlike Niagara, across the border in Brazil, photos of orchids that resembled the flowers that adorned our main course last Tuesday.
Through the magic of photography we visited the renal care center where children and adults were receiving dialysis on machines donated by the Port St. Lucie (Florida) Rotary club.
Andy told us he had spoken by phone to the GSE team members who had stayed with him and Kathleen when they were in Montreal last fall. They plan to help him on this upcoming trip, which will see Andy fly off to Asuncion, Paraguay on April 11th.
There were lots of questions, about how many latrines he plans to build, the cost to get al this done, and the financing arrangements.
Andy was thanked by Wayne for his very moving slideshow and emotional presentation, but even more for his caring nature and untiring energy that are making a difference to the poorest of the poor in a land where poverty is a way of life.
Art and Andy reminded us that our club’s contribution to Andy’s Paraguay project 2007 is largely being covered by the proceeds from Andy’s Hungarian Supper this coming Friday. We need to all be there for Andy!

The Lakeshorian, 6 February 2007

The Lakeshorian
February 6, 2007

ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm

This week’s program…
Andy will tell us all about what he plans to accomplish during this year’s trip to Paraguay, coming up soon. He will again be profiting from his association with the Rotary Club of Port St. Lucie, Florida and their district, both of whom are contributing to this year’s project, as they have in the past.
He has also received tremendous support from Knud, who has handled all the paperwork to try and obtain the maximum amount of matching grant money from our district and The Rotary Foundation.

Birthdays or anniversaries…
Happy Birthday, Gladys Mazid tomorrow, February 7th!
Happy Birthday, Jules Thursday, February 8th!

Future Programs…
February is World Understanding Month!
Feb 13: Teresa Dellar is the Executive Director of the West Island Palliative Care Residence. She will speak to us about the importance of palliative care for terminally ill patients and their families.
Feb 20: Ryan Young, teacher of Creative Arts at John Abbott College, is a member of the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Environment Committee. He will share with us his “Vision of a Green West Island.”
Feb 27: If all goes according to schedule, Jesper will finally get to give his Classification Talk.

Coming Events…
Feb 16: Andy’s annual fundraising Hungarian supper—a Magyar Feast—at Fritz Farm, 20477 Lakeshore Road, Baie d’Urfé. Tickets are only $25 per person. Get yours today!

Last week’s meeting…
An attendance of sixteen members grew to eighteen during last Tuesday’s meeting, as will be explained later in this bulletin.
We were also pleased to welcome our guest speaker, Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar Dr Louise Tyvaert, as well as future Ambassadorial Scholar hopeful, Christina Barrucco, who is our club’s candidate for the 2008-09 scholarship, and George Bradley, guest of Graham.
We missed the fellowship of Abie, Jules, Susan, Brahm, Bob, Fran, Ted, Ghandi, Anne and George.

First thing on the agenda was a new weekly feature called “The Rotary Minute,” by one of our newest members—in fact, at the time he gave us the première edition he wasn’t yet a member of our club—John Robertson. For his first Rotary Minute, John refreshed our collective memory about “The Object of Rotary,” which goes like this:
The Object of Rotary
is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
FIRST.
The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
SECOND.
High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
THIRD.
The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;
FOURTH.
The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
Next up was Andy, who reminded us about his Hungarian supper on Friday, February 16th. See notice in Coming Events.
After Sergeant-at-Arms Stan collected a huge hoard of happy dollars from an obviously euphoric crowd, President Art asked Graham and Jesper to introduce our two new members, John Robertson and Sam Mortazavi, respectively, prior to their induction by Wayne, Art and their sponsors.
John Robertson, PhD, joined the Rotary Club of Warren, Ohio, in 1997, while he was an Administrator at Kent State University, involved in student affairs, institutional research funding and public relations. He also taught several courses and continues to write essays on social commentary. John served with the US Navy until, in his twenties, he was involved in an automobile accident which left him a quadriplegic. He is a Paul Harris Fellow.

An Iranian by birth, Sam Mortazavi moved to Montreal in 1983. His first job was in the advertising department of the MUCTC, but he had a lot of energy, so he also took on a heavy load of part-time study courses, and started working part-time in an Italian restaurant. By the mid-nineties he owned two Italian restaurants and worked as a volunteer with an NDG food bank. Upon graduation he worked for the Port of Montreal, then became a project manager with the Montreal branch of the international engineering firm of Landis & Gyr.
In 2002 he decided to become a real estate agent and became licensed last year as an independent real estate agent.
Sam has been actively involved in volunteerism, including Gilda’s Club, a broad-based network of cancer support groups.
Wayne read the charge to our two new members, then their he and Art and the members’ sponsors gave them their pins, badges and new member information pack that Sergeant-at-Arms Stan had prepared. Everyone offered John and Sam the right hand of Rotary.

Then while he had the floor, Wayne reminded us that the Scot-Canadian Rotary Curling Tour plans way, way ahead. We sent our team to Scotland last fall. The Scots will be coming here in 2008 and we will be going back to Scotland in the fall of 2010. In preparation for that tour, Wayne told us he would like to start a Rotary curling club here on the West Island. He asked members to think about the idea and said we would hear more about it in the coming weeks.
Next on the program, Tina Barrucco was introduced to the club by President Art, who said he and Helen had been friends and neighbours of the Barrucco family for many years. Tina thanked the club for the confidence we are showing in her by proposing her as a candidate for a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship. She is a singer of classical music, has her Bachelor’s degree in music from McGill and is currently in the Masters program at l’Université de Montréal.
PDG Bill then introduced our guest speaker. Louise Tyvaert (pronounced tee-vahr) was born and raised in Paris with her parents, two brothers and a sister. She obtained her MD from l’Université de Paris, then moved to Lille, where she earned a PhD in Neurology. With her Ambassadorial Scholarship from The Rotary Foundation, Louise is following a doctorial research fellowship program at McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute. When she completes her scholarship year, she plans to remain one more year, in order to complete her PhD in Neuroscience.
Louise told us she would speak about her home, her Rotary scholarship and her medical specialty, which is epilepsy.
With an excellent PowerPoint presentation she covered all of the above with grace and efficiency, managing to complete her address and answer a few questions by our usual closing time of 2 o’clock!
She reminded us that the mission of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar is virtually embedded in the fourth Object of Rotary, to promote international understanding and goodwill, by studying in a country other than her own. In addition to gaining a year’s experience in Canada while she studies and does her research, she is developing links and friendships here, and representing the Rotary Club of Arras Vauban, Pas-de-Calais (District 1520).
She told us about that area of France: coal mining, terraced hills, farm crops such as corn, an important historical significance in northeastern Gaul, dating back to before the arrival of the Roman legions under Julius Caesar. She showed us colourful photos of festivals that featured gigantic characters, special costumed structures worn by actors as in a pageant, who move through the crowds of people. Ideally located within an hour’s plane ride from Paris, Brussels or London and a similar distance from the sea, Lille has a famous market and is well-known for its beer, football and a dish the English call Welsh rarebit, made with eggs, cheddar, toast and beer.
She showed us a photo of her medical team at her hospital in Lille, where she provides medical care and does research in the field of epilepsy. She told us she applied for and won this Rotary Foundation scholarship so she could undertake research at the world-renowned Montreal Neurological institute, to study the electrical activity of the brains of epileptics.
She spent time acquainting us with this special disease, which derives its name from the Greek word for possession. It affects 0.6% of Canadians, with over 16,000 new cases every year. It has no regard for geography or wealth.
There are several million neurons in the gray matter of the human brain, in which intercommunication occurs via electrical impulses. Seizures occur when these electrical impulses are abnormal—think of it as electricity leaking out of its conduits.
She showed us several fascinating slides, including one of a patient singing during a seizure.
The challenge is, of course, to modify or control the brain of epileptics to eliminate the seizures. This they do through anti-epileptic drugs and surgery. She said an important discovery is that the oxygen consumption of cells affected by epilepsy, which helps us pinpoint and identify them for surgical removal.
Louise was thanked by Graham for a very exciting and interesting presentation that taught us a lot about epilepsy, a fascinating but poorly understood disease.
Rotary International news…
The RI theme for 2007-2008, as announced by President-Elect Wilf Wilkinson last week, is “Rotary Shares.”

The Lakeshorian, 30 January 2007

The Lakeshorian
January 30, 2007

ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm

This week’s program…
Ambassadorial scholar Dr. Louise Tyvaert is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Arras Vauban, in the north of France. Arras, the capital of the département of Pas-de-Calais, is a delightful city with an interesting history that pre-dates the Roman conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. It is located about 40 km south of the important city of Lille, which is Louise’s home town.
She is undertaking post-doctoral research at McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute. Her Rotary counsellor is PDG Bill Hodges.
She will speak to us today about her impressions of Montreal and, perhaps, will also tell us about her work in the field of neuroscience.

Birthdays or anniversaries?
...none that we’re aware of.

Future Programs…
February is World Understanding Month!
Feb 6: Andy will tell us all about what he plans to accomplish during this year’s trip to Paraguay, coming up soon.
Feb 13: Teresa Dellar is the Executive Director of the West Island Palliative Care Residence. She will speak to us about the importance of palliative care for terminally ill patients and their families.
Feb 20: Ryan Young, teacher of Creative Arts at John Abbott College, is a member of the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Environment Committee. He will share with us his “Vision of a Green West Island.”

Coming Events…
Feb 3: McGill Rotaract 3rd Annual Gala! Place: Loews Hotel Vogue, 1425 rue de la Montagne. Time : 6 p.m. Cost: $95 per person. The proceeds from this year’s event will go to a Rotary microcredit project in Ghana.

Last week’s meeting…
Sixteen members and five guests were on hand to hear guest speaker Lucie Lacelle speak to us about a centre for AIDS orphans in north-west Africa
We were pleased to welcome Dr John Robertson, a transferring Rotarian from Warren, Ohio; Heinz Ritter, our newest honorary member; and Jamie Schafer and Brock Dumville, of the McGill Rotaract Club, as well as guest speaker Lucie’s friend, Rita Campeau.
We missed the fellowship of Jesper, Abie, Bob, Fran, PDG Bill, Ghandi, Anne, Eduardo, George and Cameron.
[Our thanks to Susan for taking notes during last week’s meeting, to Stan for the list of attendees and to Peter for the photo. Editor Bill.]
President Art was back at the podium, having recovered from his bout with the flu, and read thank-you letters from NOVA (formerly VON) for the pharmaceutical books (donated by Ted) and from the West Island Palliative Care Residence for our donation from the Golf Tournament
The visiting Rotaractors outlined the festivities to be featured at their gala on February 3rd, which will include a silent auction, a gourmet meal, music and entertainment. Last year they collected $7000 to build a school in Sierra Leone. The proceeds from this year’s gala will be used to help fund a micro-credit program in Ghana.
Susan asked for ideas for goody bags for the District 7040 Foundation Walk, which our club will host on Saturday, May 12, 2007. We expect to have 75 bags to distribute to walkers.
Starting next week, Jennifer announced, John Robertson will be presenting a “Rotary Minute.”
Andy announced that his annual fundraising Hungarian Dinner is coming up.
Knud introduced our speaker. Lucie Lacelle works at the Learning centre of Canada Border Services Agency in Rigaud, Quebec. Last year, while visiting Côte d’Ivoire she met a woman who runs an orphanage in Benin, a small country in northwest Africa, home to over 5 million people. This, said Knud, is the result of that serendipitous meeting.

With the aid of some heart-wrenching photos, Lucie described her visit to Benin from the end of October to mid-December 2006, and the children who are living and dying in the village of Savalou. She came up with the following wish list:
* Collect and deliver computers.
* Donations to sponsor a child at a school called Amour sans frontières, buy books and support school projects.
* Continue her “Pennies for Africa” project. Lucie was overwhelmed with our financial support to date.
She plans to return to Benin in November 2007 and will take some HPIC packs for the village’s only doctor and to help the grandmothers who are taking care of their own and other children. They get some foreign aid from France and French marines on shore leave volunteer at the villages.
Maureen thanked our speaker.

The Lakeshorian, 23 January 2007

The Lakeshorian
January 23, 2007

ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm

This week’s program…
Knud has invited Lucie Lacelle to speak to us about her “Pennies for Africa” campaign.
We will also be joined by two representatives of the McGill Rotaract Club, who will have tickets available for their upcoming Third Annual Fundraising Gala (see details below, under Coming Events).

Birthdays or anniversaries…
Happy Birthday, Brahm Thursday, January 25th!
Happy Birthday, Helen Surette Sunday, January 28th!

Future Programs…
January is Rotary Awareness Month!
Jan 30: Dr. Louise Tyvaert will talk about the research she is undertaking at the Montreal Neurological Institute, on a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship.
February is World Understanding Month!
Feb 6: Andy will tell us all about what he plans to accomplish during this year’s trip to Paraguay, coming up soon.
Feb 13: Teresa Dellar is the Executive Director of the West Island Palliative Care Residence. She will speak to us about the importance of palliative care for terminally ill patients and their families.

Coming Events…
Feb 3: McGill Rotaract 3rd Annual Gala! Place: Loews Hotel Vogue, 1425 rue de la Montagne. Time : 6 p.m. Cost: $95 per person. Proceeds to go to: The Rotary Small Loans Program in Ghana, a microcredit project supported by the D7040 WCS Committee.

Last week’s meeting…
Winter-vacationing snowbirds are eating away at our attendance: only 14 members were on hand to hear Nancy Battet and Julie Royale speak to us about community partnerships on the West Island. However, the following visitors rounded out the “lunch crowd” at 20: Jane Lumsden, Executive Director of the Ste-Anne’s Branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses, plus three potentially new members for our club: Stéphane Delisle, transferring in from Club Rotary de Sherbrooke; Sam Mortazavi, a new candidate for Rotary membership being co-sponsored by Stan and Jesper; and Dr John Robertson, transferring in from the Rotary Club of Warren (Ohio).
We missed the fellowship of Abie, Jules, Susan, Fran, PDG Bill, Ted, Ghandi, Anne, Eduardo, George, President Art and Amiel.
[Our thanks to Bob for these wonderfully clear, concise and complete notes on last week’s meeting, to Stan for the list of attednees and to Jennifer, for her cool cell phone photo. Editor Bill.]

Acting President Graham and the VON’s Jane Lumsden

In the absence of President Art, still afflicted by the flu, Graham presided over the meeting; he and Joe Z were joined at the head table by our two guest speakers, Nancy Battet and Julie Royale. Together, they demonstrated “Léger de Main” by drawing the winning ticket for the wine. Another table was missing a ticket and received a free bottle as compensation, thanks to Sergeant Stan’s sword of justice. With the wine flowing so freely, you can understand that everybody was happy!
During the meal Graham announced that Maureen was looking for more information on the McGill Rotaract Gala, coming up on February 3rd. She, and other members with similar queries, were invited to communicate with our temporary snow bird, bulletin editor Bill. Bob interjected that he had just received on his Blackberry an email from Bill heralding that at the Gala’s dinner menu should be great, with food aplenty, so don’t get stuffed on the hors-d’oeuvres.
Joe introduced Nancy Battet, a graduate from Concordia (B. Comm. 1981), who worked after graduation at CP Railways and Hotels. Since 1992 Nancy has worked as Community Partner Liaison with the L.B.P.S.B., which was to be the subject of her presentation.
Nancy introduced Julie Royale, who also handled the computer and projector. Together they managed to keep their audience captivated about this Community Partnership with the school Board. Nancy explained the goal of the partnership as an essential tool to expose the students to the real world and prepare them for their adult professional life. They illustrated a concern shared by all students in the simple words of an anonymous student “Don’t ask me what I want to be until you tell me what’s out there”.
The partnership involves interaction with industry and the services and provides students with a first-hand look at jobs in various sectors. One of the slides listing different sectors did not include Landscaping or Transportation, which triggered passionate comments from Wayne and Coos that these are bona-fide sectors that shouldn’t be overlooked in favour of more glamorous sectors like aviation, technology, etc.
Nancy assured them that they include all occupations in the program and went on to describe the kinds of interface they have with industry for the purpose of supporting curriculum and career awareness, including but not limited to: guest speakers, career days; lab tours; opportunities for enquiry; career fairs; et cetera…and the list goes on.
Nancy and Julie showed us many specific examples of activities which give students access to expertise that they need to choose their careers for success, including:
Visit to bio-botanical labs;
Community experts sharing their expertise with students, like Engineers Without Borders from Concordia and Environnement Jeunesse;
Canadian Forces;
Student-led interviews in space technology;
Teacher Professional Development workshop at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada;
Interactive Community Database for Grade 6 students, with the Hollie Forest Design & Global TV;
Mini career day at St-Charles Elementary featuring a presentation by a police detective;
Partnership opportunities with the Montreal Neurological Institute;
Unit of Inquiry about Equine Education;
Space and Technology day with aviation (by the late John Scoffield);
International Space Camp: two students were invited by the Cosmodome in Laval to spend a week at such a camp in Alabama;
Unit of Inquiry on Forensics with the SPVM;
Bellat Rx Inc. demonstrating owning and operating a small business and skill application;
Grade 11 discovery day from John Rennie with Police, Golf club etc.; and the list goes on.
Nancy and Julie ended their presentation and invited us to visit the web-site www.emploisetc.ca which contains an Abilities and Careers quiz.
Coos commented that their work is closely related to Rotary’s Vocational Service.
The meeting ran late due to a lot of questions, indicative of the active interest of the audience in this topic. Nancy and Julie were thanked by Stan.
We all sang ‘O Canada’ with gusto.
Other news…
Our outbound Ambassadorial Scholar, James Taylor, who came to our breakfast meeting December 27th, has been selected to participate in the 45th Session of the United nations Commission for Social Development, to be held at UN headquarters in New York February 7-16. The selection committee stated in their letter of acceptance, “The committee feels that, with your outstanding academic and extracurricular credentials, you will make a valuable contribution to the (youth) delegation.” James writes that he is excited about “the opportunity to meet with government officials, UN diplomats and civil society from around the world, to discuss issues related to social development.”
* * *
PDG Coos offers the following trivia tidbit about Canadian coins issued during World War II:
“This is probably old news to many, but I became aware of it only recently. In the middle of World War 2, in 1943, the Government of Canada issued its yearly minting of Canadian coins. The 5-cent piece had always been made of nickel. (hence its name). However, because so much metal was going into the war effort, it was not possible to use nickel that year. Instead they used a mixture of metals (I think it was brass and copper) called ‘tombac.’ As well, instead of the familiar Canadian beaver on the obverse, they used a victory torch and the ‘V-for-Victory’ sign. (V, of course, is also the Roman numeral for the face value of the coin.)
“Here's where it gets interesting. The government was doing everything to encourage people to get involved in the war effort. So, when the minted the coin, they included a message in MORSE CODE, around the edge. Although difficult to read with the naked eye, under a strong magnifying glass the message becomes quite clear.
“It reads: ‘We Win When We Work Willingly’ (each word starting with a ‘W’)
“I thought our members might find it interesting that Morse Code was used on Canadian coinage.”

The Lakeshorian, 16 January 2007

The Lakeshorian
January 16, 2007

ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm

This week’s program…

Joe Z has invited Nancy Battet to speak to us about “Interactive Community Partnerships.” Nancy represents the Centre for Educational Excellence of the Lester B. Pearson School Board.

Birthdays or anniversaries…
Happy Anniversary, Joëlle & Michel Leroy January 17th!
Happy “Freedom 55th?” Birthday, Brahm January 25th!
Happy Birthday, Helen Surette January 28th!

Future Programs…
January is Rotary Awareness Month!
Jan 23: Knud has invited Lucie Lacelle to speak to us about her “Pennies for Africa” campaign.
Jan 30: Dr. Louise Tyvaert will talk about the research she is undertaking at the Montreal Neurological Institute, on a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship.
February is World Understanding Month!
Feb 6: Tentatively, Elizabeth Abbott will speak about Dr. Maude Abbott, the first woman to be granted a medical degree from McGill University.

Coming Events…
Feb 3: McGill Rotaract 3rd Annual Gala! Place: Loews Hotel Vogue, 1425 rue de la Montagne. Time : 6 p.m. Cost: $95 per person. Proceeds to go to: The Rotary Small Loans Program in Ghana, a microcredit project supported by the D7040 WCS Committee.

Last week’s meeting…
An excellent turnout of nineteen members and five visitors shared our Rotary meeting last Tuesday. We were pleased to welcome our guest speaker, Nancy Hain, and visiting Rotarians David Siversky, Past President of the Hawkesbury club, and John Robertson, from Warren, Ohio, who is in the process of transferring to our club. We were also pleased to welcome Linda, guest of hubbie Wayne, and Don Crawford, guest of Jesper.
We missed the fellowship of Abie, Jules, Fran, Ted, Ghandi, Anne and George.
PDG Bill told us that our club had been invited by the Sun Lakes (Arizona) club to participate in a Rotary Friendship Exchange with about ten couples from that club. The plan would be for us to visit them for from 5 to 10 days in February or March; they would visit us for a similar length of time during May, June or July. Couples from our club would be paired with couples from theirs for the duration of each visit. Itineraries would be worked out once we have a group of interested couples at our end. Visit http://www.sunlakesrotary.com to learn more about their club and let Bill know by email on or before January 20th if you are interested in pursuing this idea further. So far Wayne & Linda and Graham & Margaret have expressed such interest. That obviously is not enough to do this exchange on our own, so if no other members from our club indicate an interest, Bill will invite other Montreal clubs to participate in this short but interesting exchange. The cost would be limited to the airfare (about $600-700 per person), plus the cost of meals and entertainment at the other end.
Joe Z introduced our guest speaker, Nancy Hain, Assistant Director General of the Lester B. Pearson School Board, with specific responsibility for its eleven secondary schools. Until the end of the 2004-05 academic year, she was principal of John Rennie High School in Pointe Claire.
Nancy began by thanking us for introducing her to the concept of “Happy Dollars,” as a painless fundraising idea that can be used over and over again at meetings throughout the year. She told us her topic, which had been billed as “Cyber- bullying,” would be broader in scope than that, and could probably be described as “Cyber Misconduct.” It deals with a wide range of problems on the Internet, from relatively minor misdemeanours, such as the use of extremely foul language, to serious criminal acts, such as death threats and the publication of hit lists.
High school kids today, without exception, are aware of and exposed relentlessly to, cyber misconduct. Some of them, of course, are the originators and perpetrators of the misconduct.
As in the old days, when immigrant kids learned the local lingo first and their parents learned it in turn from their children, so today, parents must generally rely on their kids to show them what’s going on. Unfortunately, a lot of it is so shockingly out of sync with how they taught their kids to express themselves, the kids are reluctant to let their parents see what they are reading and writing to each other on line.
She suggested parents need to discuss the situation openly with their kids, and they need to be prepared to be shocked at first. “Don’t be afraid to ask your child for his/her Internet password,” she said. “Ask them to write it on a slip of paper and seal it in an envelope; tell them you will put it in a safe place and will only open it and use it if you truly believe you must, in order to protect them from harm.
She told us she was in her office at LPBSB when the news broke of the shootings as Dawson College. “I immediately knew that an Internet trail of blogs and websites would begin to appear soon, which we would have to watch carefully to ensure that they did not get out of hand.
She went on to describe the significant differences between today’s cyber-bullying and schoolyard bullying with which most of her audience were familiar. Face-to-face examples of this abhorrent practice entail power imbalance. The bully, often with the support of a small gang of fans, controls the situation, while the bullied, usually alone and often cornered, cowers and is forced to accept the abuse, verbal, physical and emotional.
“In cyberspace,” she told us, “there is no power imbalance. But there is also nowhere for the bullied to hide, no place where the bullied can find sanctuary, as his or her home used to represent in the face-to-face form of bullying.”
There is also the loss of empathy: on the ’net the bullies can’t see the pain, blood and tears their actions cause.
“The problem is huge,” Nancy admitted, adding that she is teamed with a researcher from McGill to study this issue.
Nancy cited signs that a teenager could be in trouble, the victim of cyber-bullying—missing school, for example. She told us about a girl who had allowed “only” her boyfriend to have a private e-copy of a nude photo of her. He only shared it with his best friend, who shared it with another and so on, until it was very soon available on-line for everyone in the world to see. Result: the girl won’t go to school now, no matter what!
“The law is unclear,” Nancy declared. “We need a broader nexus, so that anything that happens on the Internet, even outside of school hours, if it affects kids at school the next day, school authorities can get the police involved.
Many so-called cyber-bullies are really nice kids, she assured us. The Internet offers a host of dark corners where a young person can go to put their most troubled thoughts into words, often giving insight into their worst intentions. She distributed a sheet of actual examples of statements posted on blogs by youngsters. Foul language was only the beginning. Violent, angry outbursts, even death threats, were part of the glimpse we got of the soul-baring jargon that typifies the uninhibited manifestoes our kids and grandkids are subjected to daily on the Internet.
There were many, many questions—always a good indication that a speaker has hit a nerve or delivered an excellent talk on a topic of acute interest to our members. Some of the questions showed that Nancy’s audience included many who are very aware and knowledgeable about what is made public via the Internet, what is written, how it is phrased and what is being revealed.
In response to one question, Nancy admitted that the police are so heavily involved in major cyber-crime they don’t have time to deal with cyber-bullying. “They will, however, write up a police report—a very useful record and tool—if you report a specific threat of harm, or worse,” she assured us.
Nancy was thanked by Wayne, who admitted, “I’m one of those parents who has a problem keeping up with computer technology, but that’s not to say that I don’t know what my son is exposed to on-line. What you have unravelled for us today confirms some of our worst suspicions. The good news is, when we work together, good things happen.”

The Lakeshorian, 9 January 2007

The Lakeshorian
January 9, 2007

ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm

This week’s program…
Joe Z has invited Nancy Hain to speak to us about “Cyberbullying.”

Birthdays or anniversaries…
Happy Anniversary, Mary & George Saad January 10th!
Happy Birthday, Pam Andersen January 11th!
Happy Birthday, June Hodges January 11th!

Future Programs…
January is Rotary Awareness Month!
Jan 16: Joe Z has arranged for Nancy Battlet to discuss “Community Partnerships.”
Jan 23: Knud has invited Lucie Lacelle to speak to us about her “Pennies for Africa” campaign.
Jan 30: Dr. Louise Tyvaert will talk about the research she is undertaking at the Montreal Neurological Institute, on a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Last week’s meeting…

Sixteen members and five visitors were on hand for the first meeting of 2007. We were pleased to welcome our Member of Parliament, the Honourable Francis Scarpaleggia, along with Mike Quinn and Mike’s son, Ryan, all guests of Bob; our Youth Exchange student “View” Preelart, guest of the club and visiting Rotarian Carlos Vez de Bufala, from the Rotary Club of Vilanova-Garraf, located about 50 km south of Barcelona, along the east coast of Spain.

We missed the fellowship of Abie, Jules, Susan, Brahm, Fran, Ted, Ghandi, Anne, George and Amiel.

President Art noted that the next regular meeting of the Board of Directors would take place on January 10, 2007.

Wayne presented a cheque for $1,000 from the Highland Games organization, with a proviso that we in turn pass along $350 of it to the Masons’ Harmony Lodge #131, Pierrefonds.

Ryan Quinn told us he and some other members of his Grade 11 class would be visiting the Dominican republic during their spring break in March. But they won’t be going just for the sun and sand. They will be visiting the coastal village of Sosúa, 50 km northeast of Santiago, where they will help build and erect school ground equipment and participate in other activities to improve the quality of life of the youths of the village. He told us he needs to raise $500 as his contribution to the cost of the trip and asked our club if we would be willing to help finance his participation in this worth-while project that was so closely aligned to Rotary’s agenda. In fact, he told us, they will be working closely with the Rotary clubs of Sosúa and Puerto Plata in this community service project.


President Art invited visiting Rotarian Carlos to tell us a bit about his home club. Carlos said they had successfully completed a project that demonstrated the use of short-life anti-personnel mines to the Spanish army, and persuaded them to replace existing mines with new ones that only remain active for six months.

Carlos also exchanged banners with President Art and remarked on the prominent illustration of a sailboat on both, as can be seen in the photo.

Wayne took a moment to explain our banner’s graphics, especially the roses and their significance to the early history of our club.

Francis Scarpaleggia brought us good wishes for the new year and said he was delighted that his champion, Stéphane Dion, had won the Liberal leadership race. He even took a few minutes to describe the exciting twists and turns of events that ultimately brought M. Dion out on top.

Joe Z had brought along a four-pack of pilsner glasses with the Rotary wheel emblazoned on the side. Resident auctioneer Jesper was persuaded to bring his skills to the fore; at the end of the bidding frenzy that pitted her against visiting Rotarian Carlos, Maureen took them home with a winning bid of $36. Congratulations, Maureen. You too, Jesper. And thank-you, Joe!

Joe then proceeded to introduce Eduardo, although our speaker had been well-presented only a few short weeks ago, prior to his induction as our newest member, so we needed only a brief reminder of his excellent qualifications.

Eduardo told us he had been happy to accommodate Jennifer when our previously scheduled guest speaker let her down at the eleventh hour, but cautioned us that his talk might not be as polished as his first two-part presentation back in July.

Nevertheless, he took the conclusion of that earlier talk as the starting point for this new one and used his recent visit to Mozambique to provide factual and photographic fodder to further a fascinating forensic discussion of Africa’s rural economy.

After refreshing our appreciation of the “circular causation of the Africa crisis” (the unfavourable geopolitical situation and the unfortunate simultaneous occurrence of severe drought), and of the social consequences of subsistence economies in the rural world, where federal governments do not have a favourable image (the rural world remains detached from development), he went on to remind us that traditional societies became disorganized as young people fled to urban centres.

New organizations, co-ops and village associations, emerged to take their place, leading to a possible route to a solution to the African crisis.

A cycle of decentralization, the National Planning System, represented graphically as a trio of gear wheels, offers a decentralized approach to provide impetus to local development through a number of tool sets, including:

* Participatory Planning: local and traditional authority recognized by government, allowing representative bodies to promote accountability and assure that foreign aid is used to achieve local poverty reduction goals.

* Infrastructural Development.

* Capacity Building.

* Replication.

The expected outcome would hopefully yield a cornucopia of benefits, including:

* Poverty reduction.

* Primary education (a major thrust of the UN Development Programme and the UN Capital Development Fund).

* Gender equality.

* Reduced infant and maternal mortality.

* Environmental sustainability (“common natural resources”, i.e., belonging to no single entity).

Eduardo closed the “PowerPoint bullets” part of his presentation and proceeded to a photographic essay of his visit to Phandagoma., a village in the Barue district of Manica province, near the Zimbabwe border.

We were treated to a pictorial potpourri of African community life: smiling, welcoming gatherings in outdoor meetings where Eduardo received gifts (which, he told us, is most unusual and thus to be cherished all the more) and was given the enviable task of presenting an award to a young person from the community who had brought honour to his village by his success at foreign studies, then redoubled the honour by returning to his community to play a role in its future development, through an organization called the Chekwaedzera Farmers Association.

Asked how he communicated with the villagers, Eduardo replied that he had some knowledge of African languages and a bit of Portuguese and several villagers had some ability in English.

He was thanked by Jesper, who commented that he had never been to Africa, a dream that he hoped to fulfill someday. “But I have always been touched to see how one person can make a difference. Thank you for showing us that we can all make a difference if we try.”

The Lakeshorian 2 January 2007

The Lakeshorian
January 2, 2007

ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm

Happy New Year!
Promote World Peace in 2007.

This week’s program…
Eduardo will tell us about his recent trip to Mozambique.

Birthdays or anniversaries?
…none that we know of.

Future Programs…
January is Rotary Awareness Month!
Jan 9: Joe Z has invited Nancy Hain to speak to us about “Cyberbullying.” (Jesper’s classification talk has been bumped to the 27th of February, tentatively.)
Jan 16: Joe Z has arranged for Nancy Battlet to discuss “Community Partnerships.”
Jan 23: Knud has invited Lucie Lacelle to speak to us about her “Pennies for Africa” campaign.
Jan 30: Dr. Louise Tyvaert will talk about the research she is undertaking at the Montreal Neurological Institute, on a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Last week’s meeting…
Eleven members and 14 visitors crowded into the mezzanine of the Holiday Inn’s coffee shop to enjoy each other’s company as we gathered for our annual New Year’s Breakfast.

Members and spouses included President Art, Wayne and Linda, Coos and Helmi, Susan, Stan, Bill and June, Graham and Margaret, Jennifer and Brad, Peter and Pam, Knud, and Eduardo.

We were also pleased to welcome our Youth Exchange student Titaya “View” Preelart and our outbound Ambassadorial Scholar James Taylor, both guests of the club, as well as George Bradley, guest of Graham, Phil Côté and Dallas Neville, guests of Peter.

We were delighted to have the following visiting Rotarians select our club for their make-up meeting: Edith Lheureux from Villeneuve-Loubet, France (D-1730), and Carlos Vez de Bufala from Barcelona, Spain (D-2210) and his spouse, Anna.

Our host for this year’s Gaelic New Year’s ceremony was Wayne, recently returned from a month in Scotland as part of the 2006 Canadian Rotary curling team. Wayne invited our visiting Scot, George Bradley, to feel free to embellish the lore behind “The Passing of the Quaich” before explaining how the custom began, in the days of the feuding Thanes, and why the quaich has two handles (to ensure no one had a free hand with which to brandish a dirk) and, sometimes even a glass bottom (so your erstwhile opponent would not be hidden from your field of view as you drained the Quaich. He told us the original quaichs were carved by hand out of solid oak, but that they were now usually made of sterling silver.

Wayne then filled the Quaich with uisge beatha, and, after assuring himself that the contents were indeed of the finest quality, passed the Quaich to Susan with his New Year’s wish of good health, Slainte Mhath (pronounced slahn-che-va), to which she replied Slainte Mor (slahn-che-mor) as she accepted the cup and added her own wish for Wayne’s good health.
And so the Quaich went round the room, sometimes without touching the lips of someone who was suffering from a cold or flu bug, in which case Wayne was happy to substitute a small glass to hold the “wee dram.” Even View got into the act, with a bit of coaching from Wayne.

After the club’s Gaelic traditions had been satisfied, PDG Bill introduced James Taylor, our club-sponsored candidate for the 2007-08 Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship.

James was born and raised in Baie d’Urfé, attended Royal West Academy and Lower Canada College and earned his B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

He is employed by the Bank Information Center, a non-profit watchdog organization in Washington, DC, that monitors the policies and practices of international financial institutions, including the World Bank.
He made application for a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship, first through District 7600 in Virginia, but then through our club when he learned that D-7600 only endorsed the application of United States citizens. Bill Hodges arranged for his last-minute switch to our district and accompanied him to his interview with the District 7040 selection committee in Cornwall. To our delight we learned that James had made a very favourable impression and won this year’s scholarship. He later received confirmation from The Rotary Foundation that he could pursue his studies at the university that was his first choice: Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

James said he particularly wanted to attend a meeting of our Rotary club during his Christmas visit to the family home in Baie d’Urfé, so that he could thank us personally for making this wonderful study opportunity possible.

He told us that he had always had compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves, especially the people in Africa, and was interested in studying international development programs and how they could be made more effective.

After he finished his brief thank-you speech he was introduced to Eduardo Quiroga and said he was delighted to make the acquaintance of someone so thoroughly immersed in the field of endeavour that he himself wished to pursue as a career.

He was also pleasantly surprised to learn that another member of our club, PDG Coos de Vries, was a long-time resident of several African countries and was also in a position to offer him assistance in his studies.
James’ visit was a fitting way to close out our club’s year, one that has seen us try very hard to live up to International Community Service Director Knud’s ambitions to do our part to provide educational aid to Africa’s AIDS orphans.

Africa has, indeed, offered us an opportunity for renewed focus for our World Community service activities, following on the two major WCS projects we have completed in Kenya, and complementing the work that Andy is doing in Paraguay.

The Lakeshorian 26 December 2006

THE LAKESHORIAN
December 27, 2006
ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE (Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm
This week's program...
Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to our annual New Year's breakfast meeting.
Today we celebrate our Gaelic roots and who better to fill in for our Scottish honorary member Joe Maxwell than Wayne Belvedere, who spent so much time in Scottish homes during his curling tour that he developed a Scot's accent!
So it's Wayne the Thane who'll be leading us in the Gaelic traditional toast to health, happiness and peace in the world-Sláinte Mhath, pronounced "Slawn-che-va!" And here's the best part...we'll be wishing each other Sláinte Mhath as we pass a two handled cup, called the quaich, which will be filled with uisge beatha, that delightful spirit of the highlands that we more commonly refer to as Scotch whisky.
So Sláinte Mhath to you, Wayne, our Thane-for-a-day!
Birthdays and anniversaries...
Happy Birthday, Meta Castagner Saturday, Dec. 30th!
Future Programs...
January is Rotary Awareness Month!
Jan 2: Stephanie Whitaker will speak to us about "Trends in the Workplace."
Jan 9: Joe Z has invited Nancy Hain to speak to us about "Cyberbullying." (Jesper's classification talk has been bumped to the 27th of February, tentatively.)
Jan 16: Joe Z has arranged for Nancy Battlet to discuss "Community Partnerships." (Lucie Lacelle will speak about "Pennies for Africa" on January 23rd instead.)
Last week's meeting...
We were back at the Holiday Inn last Tuesday and we had a good turnout but I can't seem to find the fax I usually receive from Sergeant-at-Arms Stan with the "who's who" of our Rotary meeting attendees, so we'll have to dispense with the list of members and guests for now.
One of the first orders of business, however, was to induct Eduardo Quiroga as a full-fledged Rotarian and the newest member of our club. This pleasant duty was shared with President Art by Bob and Jennifer, who introduced Eduardo, and by PDG Bill, who read the charge and, after Eduardo was duly pinned and badged, invited everyone present to offer him the right hand of Rotary.
Eduardo received his BA (cum laudae) in Social Sciences from St Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota, his MA in Sociology & Anthropology from UBC, and his PhD (mention très honorable) in Economics from Université de Paris VIII à Saint-Denis.
Dr Quiroga's work is even more global in scope, taking him to more than 60 countries on every continent with the possible exception of Antarctica. A world-renowned expert in institutional development and environmental conservation, his Rotary classification is Economic Agro Consulting.
Joe Z introduced our guest speakers, Shelley Haynes and Jean-Pierre Beauchamps, whom Joe had invited to paint us a "Portrait of West Island Youth," based on their work with the West Island Community Resource Centre.Each of these young professionals is section chief for the social development of their respective communities-Shelley for Pointe-Claire and Jean-Pierre for Beaconsfield-creating and managing programs of sports, cultural and leisure activities. They also initiate and coordinate preventive measures to counter social problems faced by their communities' youth, family, elderly and other vulnerable groups. In this field they work closely with other professionals and volunteers, including the West Island Community Resource Centre. The creation of a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation on the problems faced by the Youth of the West Island is an example of their work.
Using this PowerPoint slideshow effectively and sharing the speaking duties on an alternating basis, Jean-Pierre and Shelley painted quite a different picture of the West Island than most of its more affluent residents would normally experience personally. They began by debunking several urban legends that have contributed to the mistaken impression that the West Island was a crime-free snug harbour of homes where family values prevailed to the exclusion of all other codes of behaviour. The violent murder of an elderly cleric and his gentle spouse, perpetrated by West Island teens, changed that false impression forever, they reminded us.
With a series of data-filled slides they presented the parameters and characteristics that define the West Island's demographics and socio-economic structure, then went on to show us a rather frightening portrait of a typically vulnerable youth, substantiated by statistics gleaned from factual reports of interventions under the Youth Protection Act. We learned, for example, that "West Island teens are noted for their high number of suicide attempts."
In terms of crime, Jean-Pierre and Shelley told us that the percentage of convicted youth who are female is 32% on the West Island, compared to only 15% for the Greater Montreal region. Almost 55% of juvenile crimes for which West Island youth were convicted were in the categories of substance abuse and breach of municipal by-laws. The other 45% were Criminal Code offences, half of which related to crimes against persons.
Presented with the results of studies involving youth and their parents, we learned how easy it is for West Island teens, some as young as 13 or 14, to obtain drugs and alcohol. Parental involvement is limited and ineffectual, probably due to their lack of awareness of the degree of danger present in the local environment in which their children live and travel every day. A similar laisser-faire attitude causes parents to fail to provide early and effective guidelines for sexual behaviour. Nor do they understand, by and large, the perils present in their children's relatively unfettered access to the Internet, where they are prey to cyber-bullies and sexual predators.
Bullying, extortion and gang violence are ever-present dangers for the single youth, especially for females. Sometimes even worse than the street gangs operating in our neighbourhoods are the "wannabe" gang members who often do horrible things to try to impress those who are empowered to admit them to the gang.
When they travel on the public transit system our youth are exposed to violence, extortion and other forms of inappropriate behaviour. This is especially prevalent in bus terminals and train stations and while riding on the trains themselves, often referred to as the "Trains from Hell," used by affluent private school students.Before listing their recommendations for corrective action, Jean-Pierre and Shelley identified problems by community, shattering any remaining illusions among the audience that these problems are confined to poorer neighbourhoods, single-parent families and crowded tenements, such as Cloverdale. We learned, for example, that nature parks prevalent on the West Island, from Senneville to Île Bizard, are favourite destinations where affluent teens gather to party, unsupervised, with the financial means to liven up the party with drugs and alcohol. Needless to say, such parties frequently get out of hand and invariably lead to violence, inappropriate sexual behaviour and criminal activity.
The recommendations of Shelley and Jean-Pierre were based on simple common sense and included:
* Improve collaboration among youth-oriented professionals;
* Continue to improve dialogue and consultation with youth;
* Break down barriers between social services and the youth they are trying to help;
* Update youth information and databases frequently;
* Recognize the parents' role and involve them in developing solutions for West Island youth.
Overall, they recommended the financing and development of a community youth worker program for the entire West Island area.
Jean-Pierre and Shelley were thanked by Wayne for an eye-opening report on the disturbingly unhealthy environment in which our children grow up, and for taking the time to develop interactive communication with troubled youth, so that ways can be found to improve their level of protection.
Finally, before we closed our last regular noon meeting of 2006, Jennifer asked our servers Jeanne and Janet to come forward and receive the applause of the members of our Rotary club, who have come to appreciate the great service that these two ladies provide week in and week out.

The Lakeshorian, December 19, 2006

December 19, 2006
ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE (Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
Vice President & President-elect: Graham Martin
Secretary: Bob Habib
Treasurer: Peter Neville
Director, Club Service: Jennifer Neville
Director, Vocational Service: Andy Csisztu
Director, Community Service: Susan Diening
Director, International Service: Knud Petersen
Director, Youth Services: Fran Hepworth This week’s program…
Joe Z has arranged for Shelley Haynes (Pointe-Claire) and Jean-Pierre Beauchamps (Beaconsfield) to paint us a “Portrait of West Island Youth,” based on their work with the West Island Community Resource Centre.
Birthdays and anniversaries?
I know we’re a bit early, but…Happy Birthday, Meta Saturday, December 30th!
Future Programs…
December is Rotary Family Month!
Dec 26: No meeting (Boxing Day).
Dec 27: Our annual New Year’s breakfast meeting, 8:30 a.m.
January is Rotary Awareness Month!
Jan 2: Stephanie Whitaker will speak to us about “Trends in the Workplace.”
Jan 9: Jesper Andersen will give us his classification talk.
Jan 16: Lucie Lacelle will speak about “Pennies for Africa” and her work with fifty AIDS orphans in Benin.
Last week’s meeting…
Nineteen members and one potential member assembled at the Linguini Restaurant on the TransCanada’s south service road for our annual elections and our fourth (I think) Club Assembly of this Rotary year. We missed the fellowship of Abie, Brahm, Ghandi, Anne, George and Amiel.
But we were delighted to be joined by Sam Mortazavi, a new member candidate sponsored by Jesper.
As we were arriving and well before we got into the business of our annual elections, Peter had a slide show up and running to illustrate and promote the 2007 edition of our district’s Rotary Foundation Walk, for which we are the host club. It will take place on Sunday, May 12, 2007, and will feature the suburban charm of Lakeshore towns Baie d’Urfé and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Peter also took this opportunity to tell us about an application he has put together to seek a District Simplified Grant to help finance some new benches that we hope to install in key locations around our Lakeshore neighbourhoods, with hopefully one or two of them to be in place by the time Rotarians from throughout the district arrive to participate in the Foundation Walk. Past President Cameron was called upon next to present the Nominating Committee’s recommended slate of club officers and directors for the Rotary year beginning July 1, 2007. He invited other nominations from the floor and, when there weren’t any, nominations were duly closed and the slate he had just presented was declared elected by acclamation. For the record, our 2007-08 Board will consist of:
President: Graham Martin
Vice President & President-elect: Stan Frost
Secretary: Bob Habib
Treasurer: Peter Neville
Directors: Andy Csisztu
: Susan Diening
: Fran Hepworth
: Jennifer Neville
: Knud Petersen
Is it just me, or does that list look familiar somehow?
President Art asked Treasurer Peter to present his financial statement, noting that the club was in pretty ordinary shape, financially speaking, with the only significant change being that the income from Lifeline installations will now be used to finance our youth programs.
Noting that the West Island Palliative Care Residence had not yet received the club’s donation from the funds raised at our Golf Tournament on September 11th, Wayne asked when that cheque would be issued. Community Service Director Susan replied that the Board had decided that all donations would be remitted or presented during the months of January and June. Art added the comment that an ad hoc committee of Susan and Fran would sit down between now and then and review all requests for financial aid that the club has received to date, and make recommendations to the Board regarding who should get what, this procedure to become part of a “due process” policy the Board has adopted to ensure our charitable donations are fair and beneficial to all concerned. Wayne made the observation that fund-raising events which named the beneficiaries in advance should be exempt from that procedure since those charities were named on the tickets and used as part of our promotion of such events. Wayne followed up his comment with a motion that the club honour its commitment to the WIPCR without further delay. The motion was seconded by Jules and, after considerable, sometimes heated, discussion the motion was carried.
A similar motion proposed by Golf Tournament co-chair Fran on behalf of the West Island Women’s Shelter, which was also a named charity for that event, was denied by President Art.
Jennifer was asked to present her Club Service report. She explained that the reason we were meeting in the Linguini Restaurant last Tuesday was to evaluate an alternative venue being considered by the Board in light of members’ complaints about the food and service offered recently by the Holiday Inn. She noted that the hotel had raised our meal price by $1.00 without prior notice and had proved difficult to deal with in subsequent negotiations by an ad hoc committee consisting of Bob, Fran and herself. In response to our attempt to arrange for prior menu approval, the hotel has offered a multi-week menu schedule that specifies only the main course and only in terse, one-word descriptions, such as “beef” or “chicken” or “fish,” which does little to satisfy our desire to have the meals conform to our members’ culinary tastes. She promised that negotiations would continue but was not hopeful that the hotel would become more accommodating.
She thanked Coos for his input on the weekly programs.
Susan presented a Community Service report that focused first on the four DDO families that we have selected to receive Christmas baskets this year. She had distributed by email a list of non-perishable food and other items and asked members to indicate what they wished to contribute. These would be collected at the Christmas Party at the Martins’ and delivered on Saturday, December 16th after turkeys and other perishable goods were picked up at the Beaconsfield Metro food market. Susan also told us that the Lakeshore Players and the West Island Chorus of the Sweet Adelines had both approached us to gage our interest in working on joint fundraisers in 2007.
Lastly, she said she had received 16-20 requests for financial assistance, which she and Fran would be evaluating in the near future.
Vice President Graham reported on membership. So far this year, the club has lost 2 members (Jeff Alcorn and Doug Pashleigh); two more are on leave of absence (Jacinthe Leroux and Jenny Wood); and two have been inducted (Jesper Andersen and Maureen Rowe), with four more moving through the membership process—Eduardo Quiroga, John Robertson (a transferee from RC Warren, Ohio), Stephane Delisle (a transferee from RC Sherbrooke), and Sam Mortazavi.
Knud reminded members that he had given his World Community Service report the previous week, covering our new and old projects in Swaziland, Paraguay, Lebanon, Benin, Peru and Kenya.
Andy reported he is making progress on a new project to purchase and distribute English and English-French dictionaries to needy Grade 3 students in the West Island. He will soon be announcing firm dates for his annual fundraising events, the Hungarian Supper and the Pig Roast.
Fran presented a brief report on our work with youth. She said that View, our exchange student from Thailand, would appreciate having an opportunity to visit the homes of some of our other club members, and suggested we invite her to come for dinner. She cautioned, however, that it will be necessary for members to have completed their police check before asking View to be their house guest.
Bob reported as Treasurer of Rotaide Foundation Inc. that Rotaide would soon be wrapping up its calendar year activities and that President Brahm would probably prepare the annual report to the government as he has in the past. Bob said the other officer was Bill as Secretary and the trustees included the three officers plus Peter and Cameron.
On Friday evening we held our Annual Christmas Party at the home of incoming president Graham and Margaret. It was an outstanding success and established Margaret as a pastry chef sans pareil and Graham as a connoisseur of fine wines and cheeses.
Our faithful photographer, Peter, was there with his finger on the shutter button whenever there was a photo-op to be consummated, to which the following candid (and otherwise) snapshots will attest.

The Lakeshorian, December 12, 2006

December 12, 2006
ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961) This week’s program…
Please note that there has been a late change in our meeting place, for this week’s meeting only. We will meet at Restaurant Linguini, 18990 TransCanada Hwy. We will be meeting in the main dining room on the ground floor and the restaurant has assured me that there is full wheelchair access. To get there take the Morgan Road exit off the Trans-Canada (Autoroute 40). Follow Morgan Road south, take the first left after crossing over the highway; merge onto the south service road and follow it to the Linguini Restaurant, just before Lee Avenue. There is also no change in meeting time or program. We will conduct our annual elections of club officers and directors for the Rotary year beginning July 1, 2007. The nominating committee, headed up by immediate past president Cameron, has recommended the following slate:
For 2007-2008
President: Graham Martin
Vice President & President-elect: Stan Frost
Secretary: Bob Habib
Treasurer: Peter Neville
Directors: Andy Csisztu
: Susan Diening
: Fran Hepworth
: Jennifer Neville
: Knud Petersen
The balance of the meeting will be devoted to a Club Assembly. Front and centre on the list of topics will be whether we wish to change our meeting place. One of the new venues that Club Service Director Jennifer has suggested is Restaurant Linguini.
Birthdays and anniversaries? none that we know of.
Future Programs…
December is Rotary Family Month!
Dec 19: Shelley Haynes and J-P Beauchamps will paint us a verbal “Portrait of West Island Youth.”
Dec 26: No meeting (Boxing Day).
Dec 27: Our annual New Year’s breakfast meeting, 8:30 a.m.
Jan 2: Stephanie Whitaker will speak to us about “Trends in the Workplace.”
Coming Events…
Dec 15: Our club’s annual Christmas Party, at the home of Graham & Margaret Martin, 188 Stonehenge Dr., Beaconsfield. Take St Charles south all the way, turn right on Beaconsfield Blvd, right on Fieldsend and left on Stonehenge. It’s the 5th house on your left. The festivities begin at 7 p.m. Donations of non-perishable food for charity will be appreciated.
Last week’s meeting…
Eighteen members and five visitors were on hand last Tuesday to hear our guest speaker, Dr. Ning Wang of McGill’s agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department, speak to us on “From Steam Engines to Robotics.” We missed the fellowship of Jasper, Abie, Brahm, PDG Bill, Ghandi, George and Amiel.
But we were delighted to be joined by the following guests and visiting Rotarians: Stewart Brown, guest of Anne; Linda Tait, guest of Wayne; our Youth Exchange student , Titaya “View” Preelart; and visiting Rotarians Haagen Kierulf, from the Rotary Club of Westmount and John Robertson, formerly from the Warren (Ohio) Rotary club, who has moved to Île-Bizard, and who we hope will soon join our club on a permanent basis.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you at last Tuesday’s meeting, but something came up at the last minute and I had to stay home and take care of a sick granddaughter who was sent home from daycare.
By all accounts Dr Wang gave a great presentation, one that dipped even further back in the history of farming than steam engines. Her talk could probably have been titled, “From oxen to robotics…farm tools have come a long way.”

The Lakeshorian, December 5, 2006

December 5, 2006
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm
ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
President: Art Surette
Vice President & President-elect: Graham Martin
Secretary: Bob Habib
Treasurer: Peter Neville
Director, Club Service: Jennifer Neville
Director, Vocational Service: Andy Csisztu
Director, Community Service: Susan Diening
Director, International Service: Knud Petersen
Director, Youth Services: Fran Hepworth This week’s program…
Dr Ning Wang, of McGill’s agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department, will speak to us on “From Steam Engines to Robotics.” Birthdays and anniversaries…
Happy Birthday, Coos, Today, December 5th!
Future Programs…
December is Rotary Family Month!
Dec 12: We will hold our annual elections of club officers and directors for 2007-08. The rest of the meeting will be devoted to a Club Assembly.
Dec 19: Shelley Haynes and J-P Beauchamps will paint us a verbal “Portrait of West Island Youth.”
Dec 26: No meeting (Boxing Day).
Dec 27: Our annual New Year’s breakfast meeting, 8:30 a.m.
Jan 2: Stephanie Whitaker will speak to us about “Trends in the Workplace.”
Coming Events…
Dec 15: Our club’s annual Christmas Party, at the home of Graham & Margaret Martin. Details to follow.
Last week’s meeting…
Eighteen members and seven visitors gathered in the Perno dining room of the Holiday Inn Pointe Claire last Tuesday to enjoy Rotary and share in the wonders of the universe. This latter treat was provided by astronomer and science communicator Andrew Fazekas.
We missed the fellowship of Wayne, Abie, Jules, Ghandi, George, Art and Joe.
But we were delighted to be joined by the following guests and visiting Rotarians: Pam Andersen and Sam Mortazani, guests of Jesper; Stewart Brown, guest of Anne; as well as visiting Rotarian Jorge Mejia from the Rotary Club of Querétaro, Mexico, and his guest Araceli Mendoza, who recently moved from Mexico to Montreal; and John Robertson, a former member of the Warren (Ohio) Rotary club, who has moved to Île-Bizard, and who we hope will elect to join our club on a permanent basis.
With Art away, Vice President Graham was in charge.
Knud announced that, due to popular demand, he had arranged for our club to be able to offer Christmas hams again this year. We will be piggybacking on the Hawkesbury club’s order so we have to make our quantities known to Knud by next Tuesday, December 5th. The price will again be $25 each, with $7.50 coming to our club. Available delivery dates will be December 18 or 19, 2006.
While he had control of the podium, Knud took the opportunity to draw our attention to a flyer he had distributed earlier, concerning a new, free network portal to inform small and medium-size businesses what to expect when doing business in countries where corruption. A joint initiative of the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Global Advice Network, the portal (www.business-anti-corruption.com) aims its focus toward developing countries, where companies often run into difficulty trying to fight corrupt governments and public institutions. A range of helpful information includes such things as checklists for selecting agents as well as sector-specific info on the level and character of corruption in each of 15 countries covered so far, with 30-40 more countries to be added as time and budget permit.
Visiting Rotarian Jorge Mejia came to the podium to exchange banners with Acting President Graham. Señor Mejia told us his club is undertaking a series of water projects aimed at helping bring affordable potable water to a number of small villages of 25 families or less. They install steel water tanks in each village and arrange for regular deliveries of pure water by commercial suppliers. The end result is that the villages will pay about one-third what they are now paying for bottled water, because they do not have bulk storage facilities. Jorge told us he’s visiting clubs in Canada and the U.S. to raise funds to permit his club to offer this service to more villages. Their target is to raise US$100,000 through contributions from individual clubs, augmented by District Designated Funds and Rotary Foundation Matching Grants. So far, clubs in Texas and California have supplemented his own club’s contributions to bring the total to $76,000, leaving $24,000 to be raised during his present tour. He told us a generous Rotarian in the Rotary Club of Montreal has donated $500, which he hopes to have matched by our district’s DDF. Our club is the second of a total of six he will visit in Montreal this week. Knud urged Jorge to consider attending the District WCS meeting in Cornwall on Saturday, December 2nd.
Following a very successful happy dollars session organized by Sergeant-at-Arms Stan, Graham invited PDG Coos to introduce our guest speaker.
Andrew Fazekas is a freelance science communicator based in Montreal, Canada. He specializes in the natural sciences, writing and lecturing about everything from astronomy to zoology. Andrew is currently the astronomy contributor at the Montreal Gazette, introducing the wonders of the night sky to people of all ages.He also serves as Canadian correspondent at Journal of Science's Next Wave and is a Contributing Editor for Popular Science magazine.
Andrew said his topic, “Scenic Stargazing,” presenting the universe in 30 minute, was a tall order.
Using a series of fascinating photos and graphic illustrations, he gave us a tour across the night sky during the four seasons, sticking mainly to the canopy we can see here in the northern hemisphere, but occasionally taking us “down under” when something of particular interest made the trip worthwhile.
His subtitles for the seasonal themes presented by the night sky were:
Winter: “Hexagon Highways”
Spring: “Bear Tracks”
Summer: “Triangle Trails”
Autumn: “Diamond Drives”
Using a map of Canada, showing its geopolitical boundaries, he explained that a “map” of the night sky also needs to have some artificial lines added, to define the boundaries of the constellations and to help illustrate how they got their names. He then showed us a simulation of a star-studded sky, with the constellations enhanced as stick figures.
He spoke about the effect of light pollution—the dilution of the view we are capable of seeing as the light of our immediate surroundings diminishes our ability to distinguish the fainter stars and planets. As a guide, he suggested that the most complete view could be found in places where there was essentially no local light, such as at the top of Mount Everest or in the middle of the Sahara Desert. From such a vantage point over 3,000 stars are visible to the naked eye, compared with about 200 on the West Island and 24 in downtown Montreal.
He gave us some facts to establish the distance of some of the stars we see (or should look for), either individually or as part of a constellation, observing that the stars that make up a pattern that we call a constellation are not at all close to each other. Our earth is so far away from even the nearest one that the stars of a constellation always appear in their same relative position but may be tens of light years apart. A light year, he explained is the distance covered in one year by light, the visible example of electromagnetic radiation, the fastest thing in the universe, travelling through space at about 300 million metres per second. Thus a light year is about 9½ trillion kilometres. Such a distance is hard for us to fathom but consider that the space shuttle, travelling at 30,000 km/hr, would take about 36,000 years to travel one light year!
In terms of distance, the closest star (other than our sun) is Alpha Centauri, which is about 4 light years away, part of the constellation Centaurus, visible in the southern hemisphere. Most of the stars we see are at least 76 light years from earth. Thus, a photo we would take of a star tonight would be a picture of it, not today, but at least 76 years ago.
Andrew discussed the best known of the northern constellations, Ursa Major, of which the seven brightest stars are also known as the Big Dipper. It is visible in the northern hemisphere all year, revolving around Polaris, the stationary North Star. A line drawn between the two stars that define the edge of the dipper opposite the handle will lead you to Polaris.
His excellent photographs showed us stunning views of constellations and individual stars. Here are two examples:
- Cygnus, the swan which, from our vantage point, is directly overhead all summer. To find the Milky Way, and its 100 billion stars, follow the swan’s body.
- Arcturus, orange in colour, is an expanding, dying star, also known as a red giant. Its radius is equal to the distance from the sun to Jupiter.
“The holy grail of astronomers,” Andrew said, “is to find an equivalent of our own planet earth, somewhere out there. So far they have found 155 solar systems similar to ours but the search for their planets is more difficult because planets don’t emit light. They do reflect the light of their sun but at a brightness ratio of 1:1 billion! He showed us slides of artists’ concepts of earth-like planets and told us there would be a TPF telescope put into space within ten years, at a cost in excess of 100 billion dollars. TPF stands for Terrestrial Planet Finder. It will have special optical features to reduce starlight by a factor of one billion, to enable astronomers to detect the faint light reflected by planets.
Lastly, Andrew told us the farthest “thing” that the human eye can see without magnification is the Andromeda galaxy, which is 2.6 million light years away. We can see it mainly because it’s so humungous—150,000 light years across.
Andrew was thanked by Cameron for a fascinating peek into a complex and diverse field of interest that is bigger than our imagination can conceive, its chronology ranging from time before the earth was formed, off into the unknown future.

The Lakeshorian, November 28, 2006

ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
(Chartered February 27, 1961)
http://www.rotary-montreal-lakeshore.org/home.htm
President: Art Surette

This week's program...
Andrew Fazekas is a freelance science communicator and astronomy contributor to The Gazette. He will speak to us about "Recognition of Star Systems."

Birthdays and anniversaries...
Belated Happy Birthday wishes to Anita Frost, whose birthday was on November 19th, not the 15th as we had reported. Sorry about that, Anita.
Happy Birthday, Winnifred Sherry, Wednesday, Nov. 29th!

Future Programs...
December is Rotary Family Month!
Dec 5: Dr Ning Wang, of McGill's Engineering Department, will speak to us on "From Steam Engines to Robotics."
Dec 12: We will hold our annual elections of club officers and directors for 2007-08. The rest of the meeting will be devoted to a Club Assembly.
Dec 19: Shelley Haynes and J-P Beauchamps will paint us a verbal "Portrait of West Island Youth."
Dec 26: No meeting (Boxing Day).
Dec 27: Our annual New Year's breakfast meeting, 8:30 a.m.
Jan 2: Stephanie Whitaker will speak to us about "Trends in the Workplace."

Coming Events...
Dec 15: Our club's annual Christmas Party, at the home of Graham & Margaret Martin. Details to follow.

Last week's meeting...
Our annual tribute to the youth of the community we serve provided a backdrop for our club to showcase career opportunities in veterinary medicine, presented by prominent West Island pet vet Dr Florence Erdmann.
Five West Island High Schools were represented by nine promising seniors, accompanied by their student counsellors. We were pleased to welcome:
From Saint Thomas High School: Tiffany Bellantoni and Kristyn Kuppek, accompanied by Dina Albertini.
From Queen of Angels Academy: Kathryn Malak and Katrina Ross, accompanied by Enza Sasso.
From Macdonald High School: Stephanie Totten, accompanied by Naomi Carsley.
From Beaconsfield High School: Brad Johns and Josh Frizzell, accompanied by Nancy Dubuc & Leslie Hutchens.
From Lindsay Place High School: Steven Alari and Melanie Plante, accompanied by Ken Taylor.We were also pleased to welcome our Youth Exchange student from Thailand, Titaya Preelart, who is studying at Beaconsfield High School.
Other visitors included Mariette Brisebois and Annie Venn, guests of Fran, Rodolfo "Gordo" Molina, from the Rotary Club of Tampico, Mexico, and John Robertson, guest of the club. John is formerly from the Rotary Club of Warren, Ohio, and has recently moved to Île Bizard. We hope he will decide to transfer to our club.
We also welcomed as our special guest Heinz Ritter, a former President of our Rotary club and who has been voted to Honorary Membership by our Board of Directors.
With seventeen members present, we missed the fellowship of Wayne, Abie, Ghandi, Anne, George, Art, Amiel and Cameron.
With President Art away, the "in-charge" was Vee-Pee and Prez-to-be Graham, who handled the crowd and meeting with his usual aplomb.
Cameron had news from Scotland about the curling tour of Wayne and the rest of the Canadian team. As of November 17th, the halfway point of the tour, the Scots were ahead 285-261, but the Canadians reported they now have their act together and are "poised to take back the lead and win the trophy."
Graham invited Knud to do the honours of welcoming Past President Heinz back to our club as an Honorary Member. Knud reminded us that Heinz served our club well when, for nine years from January 1984, he was an Active Member-with the classification of Hair Styling-including a year (1988-89) as our president. It was during that time, almost 20 years ago, that Heinz built and donated our club's beautiful pine storage cabinet, which has also served us well.
At a certain point, Knud told us, Heinz decided to close up his hair styling business in Westmount Square and pursue his hobby of sculpturing in wood and other materials on a full- time basis. Last year he donated four beautiful full size sculptures of wild birds to our Rotary club, which we raffled off, raising $7,000 for the benefit of AIDS orphans in Swaziland.
With admiration for his "heart of gold," Knud welcomed Heinz back, this time as an Honorary Member of the Montreal-Lakeshore Rotary Club.
Next, Fran invited one of our student guests, Stephanie Totten from Macdonald High School, to speak to us briefly about her recent Adventure in High Technology, in which she participated as our Rotary club's delegate. Fran apologized that she would not have time to recount all of Stephanie's awards and activities, and asked us to be content to know that she is a senior at Mac and a very active young lady in sports leadership.

Stephanie thanked Fran and our club for granting her the opportunity to participate in this exciting event, which lasted from Sunday to Thursday, October 22nd to the 26th. She told us she not only enjoyed the many tours and activities, but made many new friendships that she will cherish for years to come. Approximately thirty students were housed in the homes of Ottawa area Rotarians or friends of Rotary. All meals and a full program of activity were provided by the Rotary Club of Nepean-Kanata. It was great fun and, as a result, the time passed very quickly. "My only regret," Stephanie told us, "was that it had to come to an end."

In a final announcement, Jules told us that his grandson, renowned tenor Philippe Castagner, would be performing on Sunday, December 3rd in the Opéra de Montréal's 11th Annual Gala at Place des Arts' Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, at 2 p.m.
With President-Elect Graham in complete control of the time schedule, Sergeant-at-Arms Stan was able to glean many fist-fuls of dollars for club charities, before it was time for new member Maureen Rowe to introduce our guest speaker.
Dr Florence Erdmann was born in London, England but educated in Montreal. The first career she chose to pursue was as an Intensive care Nurse at Royal Victoria Hospital. She later went back to university and earned her doctorate in veterinary medicine from the Université de Montréal. She practised her profession at Pierrefonds Animal Hospital, becoming one of its owners in 1999.
Dr Erdmann welcomed the students and told us she had spent the morning participating in a Career Day at PCHS, and was thus well-primed to speak about career choices and other decisions that will define our lives.
"No matter what you decide to do with your life," she told her young audience, "education and experience are never wasted; they will always be among the most valuable assets you will ever acquire. One of the most important decisions you need to make as a young person is to come to know who you are. One of the defining traits is what you like. If you like animals you will probably enjoy a career as a veterinarian, but you'll be much better at it if you also like people." She told us she has specialized in household pets, in particular dogs and cats. It is important for me to be able to inspire trust in the mind of the pet's owner, so she will heed my advice in caring for her pet and helping it heal.
She went on to talk about her decision to study veterinary medicine in French, after having been educated to that point entirely in the English school system. But at that point she was married (to a Montreal physician) and degree in veterinary medicine is only offered at UPEI, OVC (Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph), the University of Saskatchewan and U-de-M. Together they have delivered most of the approximately 5,000 vets who ply their trade in Canada.
Dr Erdmann told us that veterinarians are specializing more and more. "I have specialized in cats and dogs; other vets prefer to work with more exotic animals, still others specialize in rural animal categories, such as equine medicine. Even within each patient category further specialization occurs -cardiology, surgery, behaviour, to name just a few. And then there's a decision to make as to where you will choose to practise. For example, Vets Without Borders provide services to families in developing countries, where animals are often vital to the very survival of the human population.
"Moreover, today vets need a knowledge of business if they hope to survive. Vets are traditionally poor businesspersons. And it takes more than a love of animals to succeed. I spoke earlier about the need to like people, but you also need to be interested in the sciences if you plan to tackle any form of medicine as a career. Academic achievement is very important in order to be accepted in your choice of school."
She urged the students who wish to consider veterinary medicine as a career to learn as much as possible about the field. She suggested visiting the US and Canadian associations' websites: http://www.amva.org/ and http://www.canadianveterinarians.net/. She also strongly suggested they seek hands-on experience, "even as a volunteer at a zoo or an SPCA."
Dr Erdmann invited questions from the audience and was immediately inundated - a good sign that you're a hit as a speaker. Students and Rotarians alike wanted to know about such things as: the degree of difficulty to study in a second language. (By the second year you don't even notice it.) How do you deal with dogs that are aggressive? (Technicians help me; ask owner to muzzle; sedate if necessary.) Can you recommend a breed of dog? ("How much time do you have?") Can you discuss the pros and cons of rural versus urban veterinary practices? Is this a good career choice for a woman? ("Yes. Today 85% of all vets are women.") What sort of pet food is better: dry or canned? (Carnivores, like cats, should have the protein they can only get from canned food. A steady diet of dry food could lead to diabetes.)
On the subject of serious illnesses, such as cancer, and pet insurance, which she told us was still more prevalent in the US but was catching on in Canada, she said the evolution of veterinary medicine was keeping pace with owners' greater attachment to their pets. "We now go to greater lengths to diagnose and treat our patients," she told us, "such things as blood transfusions, CT scans and MRI (usually conducted at the university) and even organ transplants. The latter usually come from strays but remember, if you ask us to take a kidney from a stray cat, you have to adopt that cat as well."
She closed by telling the students not to worry if they are not yet sure what career path they want to follow. "I used to envy those kids who seemed to have their entire lives planned out, while I was only concerned with passing my next test." Even if you later find you have chosen the "wrong" career, you can still switch careers. ("I know a physician who decided to become a vet when he was practically at retirement age!") The important thing is to choose a field you enjoy. Nothing beats getting paid for what you would gladly do for nothing, as a hobby! Last piece of advice: take all advice with a grain of salt!
As Jennifer was making her way to the podium to thank our speaker, Jules remarked that he had always wanted to be reincarnated as an Air Canada pilot. "Now I think I would be happy as a dog living in an English home," referring to a comment Dr Erdmann had made earlier that the English do not believe in castrating their pets.
Jennifer thanked Maureen for suggesting Dr Erdmann as a speaker for our Student Appreciation Day. She also thanked the good doctor for her thoughtful suggestions and welcome counsel about career planning in general and the veterinary professions in particular.

To The Members of the Montreal-Lakeshore Club
From Coos de Vries
Re Attendance at Club Meetings
Several members may remember that while I was in Holland for six months last year, I attended the meetings of the Rotary Club of Haarlem regularly. The club secretary now sends me their bulletin every week.
Recently they held an 'enquête' among the 79 members about attendance habits, and I thought I might share the results with you. I think you will find them interesting, some perhaps even amusing.
Of the members who participated in the survey, the following percentages gave as their reasons why they could not maintain the required 60% attendance:
* 40% absent because of urgent obligations elsewhere.
* 15% on holiday.
* 10% don't go because the subject of the meeting does not interest them.
* 11% had social concerns or felt alienated.
The following remarks were also mentioned:
* Lunch on Wednesdays does not suit me. Another day would offer more possibilities.
* My attendance is deplorable: I should do something about this.
* If Rotary expects prospective candidates to be above-average in their socially activity, then Rotary should not be fussy about low attendance.
* Individual members should be more often approached about attendance.
* We cannot escape eventually becoming an evening club. We will eventually have to give way to the wishes of the younger members in preference over the older members.
* I don't need to go because the excellent reports of the previous meeting (in the weekly bulletin) keep me 'au fait' in an excellent manner.
* If we maintain the day of the week and meeting time, I won't go any longer.
* It is senseless to continue Rotary all summer. We should have a summer recess.
* A condition of membership is that you must go to the meeting. A low attendance forces one to eventually leave the club.
Conclusion: diversity and creativity in rationalizing reasons for non-attendance.
Coos de Vries