The Rotar y Club of

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President: Bill Walsh • RI President: William B.BoydClub Secretary-Larry Shelley • Treasurer-Keith Pedersen • Past President-Bill Redmond • President Elect-Michael Broadhurst

Club Service Programs-Thalia Kingsford • Club Service Fellowship-Ron Robertson • Club Service Communications-Tom Loucks • Club Service Membership-Bill Keech

Community Service International-David Irving • Community Service Youth-Lee Tunstall • Community Service Fund Raising-Joe Fras • Community Service Involvement-Murray Young

Calgary, Alberta • Chartered April 1914 • Club #113 • Sandra Elliott-Administrator

Suite 310, The Kahanoff Centre, 1202 Centre Street S., Calgary Alberta T2G 5A5 • Tel: (403) 398-9969 • Fax: (403) 264-2393

Website: rotaryclubofcalgary.org • email: rotary1@telus.net

Office Hours: 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m. Monday - Friday • Sandra leaves the Rotary office on Tuesday morning at 10:30a.m.

District No. 5360VOL. 24 No. 25 December 19, 2006Justice Terry McMahon

This week’s

reporter

Lee Tunstall

Our Program emcee and newly named Club secretaryfor 2007/08, Bill Avery with Pres. Bill...

‘Twas the week before Christmas, and

all through the Club, all the crea-

tures were stirring – er, mainly

martinis, I think.

Here we are again at the end of

another year, ready to partake infestive joy and multitudinous turkey

dinners. And for Rotarians, this meanstwo things. One, our annual Christmas

lunch, jam-packed with fellowship onsteroids (must be the bar opening

before lunch) and two, our eageranticipation of an absolutely fabulous

Ice Gala New Year’s Eve Dr. ZhivagoExtravaganza!

What a great holiday season for us!

And we have shared our bountyliberally with other Calgarians this year

too. As we speak, Rotary elves arefanning out all over the city (the

mental image boggles the mind) to delivergifts and treasures to make Christmas

truly Christmas for good little girls andboys.

The stockings were filled by Rotary

partners with care, in the hope that

Rotarians soon would be there.

‘Tis the Season…We are entering a new era of leadingphilanthropy in this city with our partner-

ship with the Flames. It seems we arefollowing on from a tradition started in

part by the Calgary Firefighters’ ToyCampaign, that Larry profiled for us in

his inimitable way. Ah, the season ofgiving. And whether you celebrate

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or evenFestivus (Seinfeld, anyone?) we should all

take time to count and share our blessings.The Rotarians were seated, all snug at

their tables, with visions of Young

Canadians singing and dancing like

angels.

Not surprisingly, we had a sold outshow. And even though Sandra wasn’t

there, our mighty executive branchmanaged to get even more tables set

up for late-comers. After all, it wasChristmas. We were entertained by a

bevy of pianists, including our veryown Frank. One of them even played

the song from “How the Grinch StoleChristmas,” a personal favourite of

mine. Not that I’m anti-Christmas oranything – I’m more pro-Dr. Suess,

really.

Marlie Walsh gave a great invocation,putting to bed the rumours as to who

actually writes our President’s materialonce and for all. And President Bill,

aka Santa Bill was in fine form too.

His eyes — how they twinkled! His

dimples how merry! Why I thought

he’d already had a snootful of sherry!

Santa Bill told us that the Rotary Showwas making a comeback in the spring,

cont’d on page 2

Bill and Maggie Redmond on receiving Bill’sPaul Harris Fellowship...

Bruce Ferguson and Peggy Fowler Fergusonenjoyed the lunch and program today...

Bill and Marlie Walsh... Marlie gave the invoca-tion at lunch today...

Pres. Bill and mentor John Lindenbach with Eli Wilson, one of the

graduates from our stay-in-school program....

Among the dignitaries at our Christmas lunch

were PP Jim & Shirley Denis...

much to the delight of the assembledcrowd. So those with any talent at all

take note and fair warning and all that.Kim Van Vliet then came up to tell us we

were at 70% capacity for the Ice Gala,and that there will be a singles table or

two, an idea I feel whose time hasdefinitely come.

Then we had the great good pleasure of

being introduced to five of our eightgraduates from the Stay-in-School

program for this year, each one accom-panied proudly by their Rotarian mentor.

Family and friends joined them for thisspecial event too, and it was super to see

these young people rewarded for all theirhard work. And thanks to our committee

who makes it all happen!

And finally, a much-deserved Paul Harris

Fellowship was awarded to our PastPresident, Bill Redmond. Way to go, Bill!

After that it was over to yet another Bill,

Bill Avery (who Michael Broadhurstannounced would be our Secretary for

next year!), who introduced us onceagain to the Young Canadians. And what

a show it was.

They spoke not a word, but went

straight to work. And regaled us with

Christmas tunes, while the crowd went

berserk.

Well, there were two standing ovations!

Once again the talent of these youngCalgarians is, well, simply awesome. All

volunteers, some even took time out froma busy exam week to entertain us. We

are very lucky indeed to have such a

close relationship with the Young Canadi-ans and thank them for making our

holiday season even happier with theirpresence.

So thanks to Santa Bill and his whole

team for putting together a great Christ-mas lunch.

And I heard him exclaim, as I was

leaving the room, “Merry Christmas to

all, and to all, well, I better see you at

the Ice Gala.”

Election Day!It was also another very important day

for Rotarians as we cast ballots to electfour new Directors for next year’s

Board. Probably the most important andmeaningful vote we’ve had this month,

what with the Alberta PCs and federalLiberals having a go

earlier. Here’s todemocracy, and let’s

remember the wisewords of Laurence J.

Peter: “Democracy isa process by which

the people are free tochoose the man [and/

or the woman!] whogets the blame.” Our

four new Directors

are Wing Kee Chan,

Alex Graham, John

Ridge and Don

Ross.

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

Dec. 26 - Meeting cancelled

Jan. 2 - Regular meeting at the Palliser -

Murray Young brings us up

to date on Rotary Flames projects.

Jan. 9 - Justice Terry McMahon

Jan 22, Robbie Burns lunch with Rotary

Club of Calgary South; Palomino

Room Stampede Grounds.

Jan 30 - Mayor David Bronconnier

CHRISTMAS HAMPER

CAMPAIGN

by Laurie Jacques

Youth Services Reportby Director, Lee Tunstall

Our Club has a strong commitment to the youth of our communityand the world. This year, a lot of re-visioning and alignment is going onin Youth Services. What does that mean, I hear you ask?

Well, we are still delivering our programs for youth. The Stay-in-School program is one of our flagship programs and is going strongand even at capacity right now. This committee is so popular in ourClub that it has a waiting list for volunteers! How great is that?Hank Popoff and John Lindenbach and the committee do a great jobselecting and mentoring young people through to high school gradua-tion and on into post-secondary studies.

We also have two camp programs, RYPEN and RYLA, which Dave Leslie ably han-dles. RYPEN is the Rotary Youth Program for Enrichment, and is a residential weekendprogram for youth aged 14-18, aimed at self-development and helping young people toform their own values and moral standards and to broaden their horizons culturally andsocially and to help them to become better citizens. This year we offered the program toour Stay-in-School students and they jumped at the opportunity! We had seven studentsat the RYPEN weekend camp near Medicine Hat. RYLA is the Rotary Youth Leader-ship Awards, and will be taking place in May at the University of Calgary. Designed forstudents in Grades 10, 11 and 12, RYLA aims to show students how to take control oftheir own lives and to use this understanding to positively affect the lives of others.

Our two youth versions of Rotary, Interact (for high school students) and Rotaract (forUniversity students and young professionals) are vibrant and energizing. Interact is basedat Western High School and has about 50 student members, while many of us havebecome acquainted with our Rotaract Club, as their Nicaragua project unfolds and theirsmiling faces are at our ticket table each week. We are hoping to have a joint “Genera-tions” event in the New Year, which will bring all three clubs together in fellowship.Maybe bowling? Anyone??

One of our programs, Success Seminars, is undergoing a program review this year. Wehave had less than optimal involvement with schools for the past few years, so havedecided to take this year to see if the program is still relevant, and if it needs to be re-designed and delivered differently. We hope to bring it back better than ever next year!

So all in all Youth Services is busy and active introducing the next generation of Rotariansto our values and our goals. I think Rotary’s next century will be in very good hands.

Lee Tunstall

ROTARY CLUB OF CALGARY SOUTH

ANNUAL LARRY KWONG

CHINESE NEW YEAR’S DINNER

Celebrating the year of the Chinese Red Fire Pig

Place: Regency Palace Restaurant

328 Centre Street SE Third FloorDate: Friday, January 26, 2007

Time: Cash Bar 5:30 PM, Dinner 7:00 PM

Price: $ 35.00 per Person or $ 350 for Table of 10Tickets will go on sale at our Rotary meeting Thursday, December 21; or

E-mail Luke daSilva luke@dasilvatravel.com ; telephone 263-8550

A few more stats about this year’s very suc-cessful campaign: (1) in the 32 families forwhom our Rotary Partners shopped, therewere 95 children and 54 adults; (2) with the$20,000 in funds so generously donated byRotarians and their friends, our Club pur-chased $10,800 worth of food vouchers and$4,100 worth of gifts for the 95 kids…a totalof $14,900; (3) some of the donated fundswill also be used to reimburse our RotaryPartners for the GST on these gifts and forthe gift wrapping supplies they purchased;(4) the balance of funds raised this year willbe carried over to our 2007 Christmas Ham-per Campaign.

A total of 14 volunteer Elves, Elvettes, ElfTeams, plus one Elvette-in-Training (CleoneTodgham) delivered the 32 hampers from ElfCentral, with only one hamper returned forlater delivery via the school where the studentattends. Ernie Hagel, president of McInnis &Holloway Funeral Homes, kindly offered hisEastside Memorial Chapel as this year’s loca-tion for Elf Central and, because our reindeerdidn’t disgrace themselves on the premises,we have been invited to use that same locationagain next year…thanks Ernie.

Within the 25 families “adopted” by individual& corporate sponsors, a total of 97 childrenand 41 adults were provided with gifts andgrocery vouchers. At $50 per gift per child,and at $50 per family member in vouchers,a total of $11,750 was paid directly by our20 sponsors. Many of the sponsors wererepeats from last year, with a few new onesthis year. In the case of at least one spon-sor, it has become a “family affair,” with asecond generation eager to participate.

With a few last-minute requests for assist-ance received by Sandra at the office thatwe were able to accommodate, our 2006campaign will make a difference to some 60families, consisting of 195 children and 96adults. Don Ross, Chris Wittke and I are hum-bled by your generosity and we are encour-aged to make 2007 an even bigger success.

Our Theme: “Make no small plans, they hold no magic to stir a person’s blood”

The Vision: The Rotary Club of Calgary is an organization of business, professional and community leaders who cometogether through commitment and fellowship to create opportunities and a better future for generations to follow.

Our Mission: To embrace the ideals of Rotary International, contributing to a better Calgary and a better world through significantservice while providing extraordinary opportunities for networking, fellowship, friendship and personal growth.

A Letter from our Exchange Student to Russia, Ryan Earthy

Bromwich & Smith Inc.Specializing in relief from stress and anxiety

In a Trusted Advisor capacity, we act as executor or Personal Representative in complex solvent deceased estates

often where the original executor is incapable or unwilling to act.

We advise solvent individuals on ‘bullet-proofing’ themselves, their family or their corporation. This is the art of legally

protecting key assets from unforeseen financial attack.

We help individuals and corporations experiencing serious financial difficulties. This is often done in our capacity as

Trustees in Bankruptcy and Proposal Administrators. The remedies which we provide include negotiation and settlement,

a statutory proposal (binding settlement), bankruptcy and receivership.

DavidBromwich

DavidSmith

This is my 3rd e-mail up-date on my exchange toRussia (and Japan, asthe title suggests). Themonth of Novemberwent by pretty fast, andby the looks of it, wasfairly uneventful. Imoved into my secondhost family at the begin-

ning of November, which was a bit of a surprisebecause I only got two days notice of my “evic-tion”. I enjoy being in my new host family,which consists of a mother, a father, and a cat.I also have two host sisters, but one is a law-yer and lives in her own apartment while theother one is currently on exchange in Oregon.The only downside to this family is the dis-tance away from my school and the centre ofthe city. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get toschool in the morning.

Even with the distance, I still manage to keepbusy though. I took part in another healthawareness presentation that Rotarians from myhost club organized. My Rotary club also hada “shashlik”, or a barbecue, in the countrysidenear Vladivostok which I attended. I went totwo more soccer games of the Vladivostok team.Both times I was part of the “flag team” thatwaves flags at the top of one of the stands. I

was fortunate enough to be a part of it becausethe leader of the group is a friend of my hostsister.

Nevertheless, the most exciting experience sofar was having to leave Russia at the end ofNovember and staying in Niigata, Japan untilthe 21st of December. As it turns out, I some-how got stuck with a three month visa insteadof a year-long visa. I still don’t know how ithappened or how no one, myself included,managed to catch this little detail. I will prob-ably never know the whole story, but I’m nottoo concerned because I get to be in Japan forthree weeks (two of which have already past),which has been loads of fun. However, the onlydownside I can see to this so far is whether Ican reach my goal of speaking Russian well byMarch.

So now I am in my “third” host family who arevery kind and generous. They were glad to haveme even though they found out I was comingin the next day or so. There is a mother and afather, and three kids who have all flown thecoop. The food is very good, although somedishes are questionable to say the least. Myhost mother is surprised that I manage to eatalmost everything she serves. She tells me thatthe past exchange students they have hostedhave not been so courageous or willing (namely

the low-carb dieter from Toronto, the pickyGerman, or the odd vegetarian).

I’ll wrap this e-mail up with what I’ve beendoing in Japan. I’ve attended two rotary meet-ings of the Niigata Rotary club and met theirexchange student, Kody, from Oregon. Afterthe meeting we toured a radio and televisioncompany that one of the Rotarians worked at,which was very interesting. I then got to spendabout a day and a half in Tokyo. I got their bythe Shinkansen train, which is very fast at240km/hr. I met a previous exchange student toCalgary, Naoko, in Tokyo and we went withone of her friends to a nice restaurant and toTokyo Tower, which had a spectacular view ofTokyo at night. I spent the night at my hostsisters’ apartment and the next day went to amarketplace, a Buddhist temple, and to the elec-tronics shopping district of Akihabara (not thatI bought anything, as Tokyo is not only themost populated metropolis, but also one of themost expensive, as is Japan in general). Otherthings I’ve done include trips to the local gymand a Christmas party at a hotel with other ex-change students.

Please check out my updated photos atwww.flickr.com/photos/earthy, which includesphotos of Japan. Hope everything is greatwherever you happen to be. Ciao - Ryan

Ryan Earthy