Rotary Club of Sackville Bulletin March 16, 2017

Posted by Wayne Harper on Mar 16, 2017

The meeting was ably Chaired by Charlie this week. Instead of a bio, he read a poem that had special meaning to some members.

It’s nice to get up in the morning

When the sun begins to shine,

At 4 or 5 or 6 o’clock

In the good old summertime.

But when the snow is snowing

And it’s murky overhead,

O, it’s nice to get up in the morning,

BUT - it’s nicer to lie in your bed.

There was no big winner in last Monday's drawing of the Gold Mine Draw. However there is always a Charity that benefits and this week it was Marshview Middle School. Here, Gordie Kline, representing the school accepts a cheque for $571.50 from Rotarian Tim Jones.

With the exception of our guest speaker (Gavin Hardie), there were no other guests or visiting Rotarians. As well there were no Pin Pal stories nor Birthdays. In the makeup department, Rotaract met this week with Marita attending in place of David and Susan. The normal Gold Mine Draw crew met on Monday and the construction crew met for building shelves in our new storage area (Darrell and Wayne).

The 50-50 Draw saw Wayne's ticket drawn. Looking to pick the 9 of

, he instead drew the 6 of

, thereby missing out on $298. I suspect the pot should start to grow more each week as members buy more tickets. There was no shortage of Happy Dollars this week as members try to insure they contribute in a style that Wynn would be proud of. That said, up first was Marita who was happy that she and daughter Kalika will be attending a CAD's event at Ski Martok, where Kalika will try snowboarding...........Josh, fresh back from Cuba, thanked Darrell for driving to Dorchester to collect the Gold Mine box that he would normally bring to Sackville each Monday.........Ove was happy that Josh was back from Cuba...........Louise indicated that she will be real happy this weekend as her father turns 80-years-young. She and her siblings have created a scrapbook detailing her father's life throughout the past 80 years. They plan to give it to him at a party in his honour this weekend. She suspects tears will be the norm...........Dianne was happy that she remembered the surprise birthday party for Sandy last weekend.............Edna, also just back from Cuba, thanked Gayle for pinch-hitting for her while she was away............Sandy was triple happy this week. Firstly, she was happy that Wayne pulled off the surprise party for her last Saturday night. Seconded she was happy that, after the party (midnight), the folks at the ER indicated that she did not have a stroke - just Bell's Palsy, now being treated. The third happy buck was reserved for her daughter and her family who arrived Monday to celebrate her birthday, bringing with them a scrapbook with old and new pictures and text indicating the 70 ways they love her. Not too many dry eyes!.............Susan P. was happy that special friend Lorne has been transferred to the Sackville Memorial Hospital. He claims the food is decent.

The Duty Roster for next week is:

Chairperson Bill Greeter Sandy

Introducer George Thanker Mary

Upcoming Committee meetings are as follows:

Fundraising Today 12 noon at Mary's house

Legacy Committee Next week (Josh will advise)

Committee reports were sparse this week. Gayle advised members that the Gold Mine Draw Committee will be holding a recognition night for our vendors who display the blue boxes each week in their businesses. All members of the club are invited to the event next Wednesday evening from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the Paint Pont Restaurant on Bridge Street. Marita reported that the Rotaract Club held their final meeting of the current school year. Margaret Tuzz-King was the guest speaker. Subsequently, the Rotaract club donated $750 to Open Sky Cooperative.

In Josh's time, he indicated that he and John will be attending the upcoming PET's & SET's District meeting. He also urged people to sell as many of their breakfast tickets as they can. Then sell some more!!!

Gayle introduced Gavin Hardie, co-founder-owner of Bay of Fungi Mushrooms, a three old Sackville company producing fresh mushrooms.

The principle operator, he claims to be a life long learner. Since the inception of Bay of Fungi he has spent countless hours researching and exploring the world of farming and fungi. Within this endeavor Gavin is able to combine many of his passions – arboriculture, green building, permaculture and land stewardship – as these passions naturally lend themselves to the cultivation of fungi. Like his fungi counterparts, he is a natural born recycler; expressed in the building and growing style of Bay of Fungi. Gavin believes in producing food that is good for the earth and good for the people. "Our mushrooms are produced year round at our off-grid mushroom farm, capturing light from the sun to power our farm and bring delicious, nutritious and affordable mushrooms to you" he was quoted.

Nicholas Thompson became interested in fungi through his study of soil ecology at Dalhousie University. He moved to New Brunswick in 2012 to work on an organic farm. There he met Gavin and the two decided to start Bay of Fungi. This project was exciting to Nicholas because the cultivation of fungi presents interesting challenges combining biology and technology; two subjects that Nicholas has been passionate about since childhood.

The company has grown over the last three years, as how the mushrooms are grown. Formally grown in hay, they now grow them in a mixture of oats and other compostable substances. Gavin or his other partner Ashley can be found at the Farmer's markets in Sackville and Dieppe. Friends have helped them design the marketing for the business, leading to value-added "Grow-Your-Own-Mushroom" containers.

The partners feel very comfortable that the lessons learned in the past three years have set them up for success in the future. Revenues are now beginning to make their dream a reality and they intend to be around for quite a number of years.

In the usual manner, Rotarian Louise thanked Gavin for an interesting presentation by presenting him with a certificate and a Rotary pen along with a book, to be donated in his name, to a local library.

The Four-Way-Test concluded the meeting.