Steve McCauley - St. Vincent de Paul/St. Boniface Food Bank

Pat introduced Steve to the club, explaining that he has been President of the local St. Vincent de Paul Society for 21 years. In this capacity, Steve started the St. Boniface Food Bank 10 years ago, because of the need for it. To show how much Steve gives to the community, Pat told how he had a heart attack 4 years ago, that meant 3 years worth of rehab therapy. As soon as Steve was finished his therapy, he volunteered to start giving his own time to the group, to help others, and has been a regular volunteer ever since.

Steve started by thanking our Club for the donations of food and money we have given in the past to the St. Boniface Food Bank. They have made a difference.

He then gave us a bit of history about the St. Vincent de Paul Society, as follows:
• 1833 - Students at the Sorbonne in Paris decided to try and help the poor in their city. They named their group after St. Vincent, who was known for helping the poor.
• 1846 - The society spread to Quebec.
• 1851 - The society was started in Toronto at St. Michael's. There are now 110 "conferences" of St. Vincent de Paul, and members still do many personal visits to the poorer people in the areas.
• 1962 - 22 people started the society that is now the branch headed by Steve.

To qualify for help from the society, or from the Food Bank, people are visited at home to see their living conditions. Steve and others assess their ability to manage, depending on the amount they have left over after receiving wages and welfare, and paying out for basics like rent. If they have $300.00 per month left - they don't qualify!
This is because there is so little money to be given out.

Steve quoted from a recent article about a woman who was battling cancer, and was evicted from her apartment, but would not go into a hospice, because she needed to stay with her husband. While they went through the months of treatment, if was St. Boniface that filled in the gaps for them, so they could survive.

The Food Bank is run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and people have to make appointments to come in. They receive $10.00 - $20.00 in food vouchers (which does not buy a lot!) plus 1 or 2 bags of groceries. They used to get up to $30.00 in vouchers, but that has had to be cut back lately. People can only come in once or twice a month, because of the demand. They are also able to get a voucher for Goodwill to use for furniture if needed.

St. Boniface operates within the local parish boundaries, but does NOT base decisions on religion. It is funded with donations from the Church Poor Box, Christmas donations, groups like our Rotary Club, and sometimes stores who give vouchers. They are not affiliated with any other organizations.

Last year, they supported 393 families, 1205 times during the whole year. This year, they have supported 345 families 825 times just to the end of July! The numbers of people applying has almost doubled in the last year. Part of the reason, is that there are families who have been staying in the US while they applied for refugee status from countries like Colombia. Since they have been turned down in the US, they have applied in Canada instead. If they are deported, they would face prison or death, even though they are not criminals. Last month alone, there were 62 families applying for help.

In addition to food, St. Boniface holds a Clothing Drive 3 times each year. The next one is Oct. 18-19, and donations can be taken to the Church directly.

Chris Thanked Steve for updating us on the needs in our local area, and mentioned that we had made him a Paul Harris Fellow 3 years ago, due to all of his time and effort in charitable work in our area.

Attendance

We had 33 Rotarians, and 4 guests:

Mary Yang from Woburn C I, who wants our help in starting an Interact Club there. Mary has attended Camp Enterprise, and is familiar with Rotary.

Lily Li from R H King Academy, who wants help to start a community based Interact Club. Geoff Dean and Aysan were sitting with both these gals, and discussing ways and means to help them.

Dr. V. Balambal from Chenai in India, who is President of the Probus Club there. It has 300 members, even though the sponsoring Rotary Club only has 90 members. Dr. Balambal is looking for help in sponsoring projects through the Probus Club, such as clothes and food for poor children, and also help and training for destitute women who would then be able to work and get on their feet.

Ryan Rowland - guest of his uncle Paul.

Announcements

President Victor announced that the Night of 1000 Dinners has been cancelled.

Our Bar B Que is on 06 September, per the Bluffer, and please let Judy know if you are attending.

Foundation Walk - 07 Sept. in Cobourg -let Shirley or Robert know your intentions here.

The Guild Alive with Culture event held on Sunday was a success, with 8 Rotarians helping, and several names collected.

District Conference is on 24 Oct at Deerhurst.

Gene referred us to the GSE insert in the Bluffer for a learning trip to Germany.
He also advised that the August issue of the Rotarian magazine had a great article about Rotary basics that everyone should read.

Robert reminded us of the Foundation Walk, and that rides can be arranged to Cobourg. Lina has e-mailed us all to either walk, or get sponsors, and it looks as if there will be at least 17 of our members doing the walk. Mike mentioned that families and pets are welcome!

Norm and Burt have been large contributors to the Foundation - for which we thank them!

Bruce had to remind us that Club Dues are now overdue - so please pay up!

Woods Cunningham Wheel

Our visitor Mary spun# 2, which was held by Chris. The resulting spin was just a King - the second time Chris has lost in recent weeks!

Sergeant-at-Arms

Shirley was assisted by Rocco, and collected from:

Ron (who had to be loaned a twoonie) because of Paul being in his own Olympics at his residence, so he sent Ryan to help on Sunday.

Mike C for his wedding anniversary

Norm had 2 Jay’s tickets for that evening, and was looking for donations to the Club for them. He also mentioned he had attended the first meeting of a new Probus Club that morning, at which Aysan gave the keynote speech.

Aysan wanted to thank everyone for their help at the Guild event on Sunday.

Vic was happy that his daughter and new son-in-law had successfully climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro!

Chris paid for: receiving the last Camp Enterprise sponsor cheque for this year, thanks to Mike C's efforts, and for the fact that there was no rain at the Guild event this year, and thirdly for Canada winning a Silver Medal in the Equestrian Events at the Olympics. (After a Jump Off with the U S Team)

Gary reported that Ruth had an angiogram last week, showing a 90% blockage in one artery, but she is not a candidate for angioplasty. Ruth is going to see a specialist at St. Mikes, but they feel she is only in the bottom third on terms of high risk, and she may have to have a bypass. Keep Well Ruth!!

Gus wanted to remind us that for the Foundation Walk, we get a tax receipt for 75% of our donations.

Shirley was pleased that so many members earned Blue Ribbons by being Walk participants or are getting sponsors.

From The Humour Library of Geoff Dean

Three men were hiking through a forest when they came upon a large raging, violent river. Needing to get to the other side, the first man prayed:

'God, please give me the strength to cross the river.'
Poof! ....
God gave him big arms and strong legs and he was able to swim across in about 2 hours, having almost drowned twice. After witnessing that, the second man prayed:

'God, please give me strength and the tools to cross the river.'
Poof! ....
God gave him a rowboat and strong arms and strong legs and he was able to row across in about an hour after almost capsizing once.

Seeing what happened to the first two men, the third man prayed:
'God, please give me the strength, the tools and the intelligence to cross the river.'
Poof! ....
He was turned into a woman.

She checked the map, hiked one hundred yards up stream and walked across the bridge.

Celebrations

Upcoming Meetings- to update your information, e-mail Gary at garymac@clarkehenning.com

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