Chair:  President Louise MacKinnon was in the Chairperson's seat today and educated us on a day-in-the-life of a young Type 1 Diabetic...and that of her family.   It's not just about insulin, rather morning to night it is a life of constant vigilance for sugar highs and lows and the calculation of carbohydrate intake.  Did you  know that a glass of orange juice contains 13 carbs?!

 

Guests and Visiting Rotarians:  Today Stacey introduced Sarah and Luke Poirier.  Sarah is the Chair of the Sackville Refugee Response Coalition.  All the Rotarians in the room were ours today!

 

Make-Ups:  Saturday, June 2 - Waterfowl Park walking Rotarians; Gold Mine Toonie counters on Monday; and Club Admin held a meeting on Wednesday, June 5.

 

Pin Pal Stories (we were a busy bunch...):

- Louise saw Dianne...and her pin, at Boston Pizza in Moncton prior to Dianne attending Vaughan Alward's funeral.

- Stacey saw Pam on Friday

- Wayne saw various Rotarians following his yard sale...but apparently none of them bought anything...how rude!

- Wynne met Pam in Fredericton at the UNB graduation ceremony 

- Sue and Dave visited 2 former exchange students on their European travels, it was the wedding of one of the students...Sue and Dave were seated at the head table with the parents

 

Birthdays:  we sang Dianne a belated Happy Birthday carried over from Saturday, June 1...mark that in your calendars for next year folks

 

50-50 Draw: We were once again looking for the 10 of hearts.  A very happy Lesley was lucky enough to have her ticket drawn but unfortunately drew the 9 of clubs missing out on $45.00...the pot grows larger!

 

- Charlie was a stronger man than most in that he sat down to watch "just 10 minutes of the Raptors game" and ended up watching the whole game to happily see the Raptors win!

- Sue, our incoming Treasurer was "excited" that she had to leave the meeting early...to attend a tax clinic put on by the CRA about deductions and receipts for charities

- Stacey will be celebrating the 2 year anniversary of being called to the bar in Nova Scotia (the legal bar...what were YOU thinking?)

- Bill Green, our guest speaker, was happy that CAA responded so quickly to his distress call for his dead car.  With their help he made it to Sackville from Springhill in record time.

- Ove was happy that his new glasses were in so that he could stop wearing his sunglasses after his "dip" in the Miramichi River...Ove...usually one uses a fishing pole to catch the fish...just sayin'

- Wynne had a whopping 5 reasons to be happy:  1. His eldest grandson just graduated from UNB with a degree in Mechanical Engineering; 2. his youngest grandson is 18 today and Grampa lovingly called him at 06:00 to wish him Happy Birthday; 3. both he and Stacey are happy that there 3-day trial has concluded; 4. happiness that Pam has such passion for what she can do for and with Rotary; and 5. that their old dog decided that new dog Scruffy is an ok playmate.

- Dianne was happy that following the Walk to end Polio she headed to the golf course and then to Catch-22 in Moncton for dinner where Frank surprised her by inviting her family from the Miramichi...now that's a Birthday!

- Trish is happy that she is heading to Ontario for a week on Saturday morning

- Sue related that the Interpretation  Centre at Juno Beach is a wonderful representation of Canadian history.  She noted that the topography of the area where the Canadians came ashore and started their advance was truly horrid.

- Louise and Mariah will be at the Sackville Farmer's Market on Saturday with bake sale items and West Jet draw tickets in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

 

Chair: Marita

Greeter: Wynne for Pat Perry

Introducer: Sandy

Thanker: Bill

 

Board: the Board will meet Wednesday, June 12

Club Admin:  replacement Rotary pins are available in the nametag box at the following costs: regular pin=$5.00, magnetic pin=$10.00, car decals=$2.00.  Members are reminded to update their information on Club Runner and to respond to the 20 June BBQ attendance email.

- Pam is heading to Brazil with a Friendship Exchange and is taking some of Charlie's books with her.  

- Reminder to respond to the invitation for the Welcome Party/early Canada Day celebration for newcomers and refugees on June 27 from 5-7 at Bill Johnstone Park.  Wear red and white.  The morning meeting is cancelled that day.

 

President's time:  Louise received an email from Al Smith of the Tantramar Heritage Trust which she read aloud.  The email proclaimed the establishment of a new award, the Distinguished Service Award, that unlike their Volunteer of the Year awards, would only be awarded periodically by the Trust to recognize members who have made highly significant contributions over many, many years.  The first recipient of the Distinguished Service Award is our own Charlie Scobie.  Among the many ways that Charlie has exemplified the Rotary mantra of Service Above Self with the Heritage Trust is that he has chaired the Tantramar Historic sites Committee, Chaired the Sackville Heritage Review Board from 2005-2012, served as the Trust's webmaster for 21 years, and has authored 5 books on local history - 3 of which have been published by the Trust.  Congratulations Charlie for being awarded the very first Distinguished Service Award which will be affectionately known hereafter as a "Charlie".

 

  Speaker:  In honour of D-Day Dianne introduced our speaker Bill Green, a self-proclaimed history buff living in Springhill.  Dianne indicated that her sister-in-law's son will join over 100 other students from Miramichi Valley High and other Anglophone North schools travelling to France to commemorate the North Shore Regiment soldiers who fell on D-Day.

 

 

Bill (Green) didn't serve in the forces, rather had a long career as a banker, but was fortunate enough to accept a 5-year contract while living in Hamilton, ON with the Friends of HMCS Haida.  During this period he met and became friends with Bill and Vi Connelly. 

 

Bill (Connelly) had served as a communicator in the Canadian Navy expert in Morse code and semaphore.   Bill G. recounted the exploits of Bill C. during his time with the Navy including his harrowing capture and near death experience after being thrown overboard from the sinking HMCS Athabaskan on 29 April 1944, 5 weeks before D-Day where it had been patrolling the French shores with its sister ship the HMCS Haida.  Picked up in the Bay of Biscay off the South shore of Normandy by a German mine sweeper Bill C and his seamen were endlessly questioned about what they knew, what were the signal codes, and why were they were there.  Bill and his ship mates pleaded memory loss and for that faced a firing squad which proved to be false.   Back at home Vi learned of the sinking of the Athabaskan but did not know that her husband was alive, nor that he had been held by the Germans until mid-August 1944 when a postcard signed by Bill arrived from the Red Cross in ordinary mail.

 

We owe those lads a debt of gratitude for standing tall and not divulging Canadian and Allied information despite their lives being in peril.  * We Will Remember Them *

 

Wynne thanked Bill for a heartfelt and moving presentation.  On a lighter note, then Wynne suggested that perhaps Bill could write a letter of Thanks to CAA with his new Rotary pen!

 

 

 

 

The meeting concluded with a Gold Mine cheque presentation ($626.00) to Brenna Rothfuss of the Sackville Swim Club followed by the recitation of the 4-Way Test.