This week I am proud to introduce Scott Burke for his classification talk. If we were in a sorority/fraternity, Scott and I would be in the same Greek initiation class (Lambda, Delta, etc). We are grateful to Scott for stepping in on short notice, but we know being quick on his feet is a part of Scott's job at Lally KIA.
Scott is originally from Blenheim, but has spent times living in Calgary twice and once in Toronto. Chatham-Kent will always be his home though.
Scott has had a varying career path throughout his life to date including Maintenance, Sales in a retail environment, and opening a wine and martini bar in Toronto. He attended Georgian College to obtain a certificate for his job at Lally.
Some of Scott's favourite places in Chatham-Kent include Home Run in Blenheim, Boston Pizza, Churrascaria, and Shady Pines.
Being a car lover myself, I couldn't resist asking Scott about his favourite KIA, and his favourite car of all time. If you're in the market for a new KIA, listen up :) "My favourite Kia is a toss-up between our Kia Telluride and Kia Stinger. The Telluride is a new SUV to our lineup and is just a beautiful ride. The Stinger is our second newest vehicle to our lineup which is more of a luxury sports car." Scott's favourite car of all time is a Mustang GT.
When asked about "Why Rotary?", Scott responded that he wanted to get involved in something that would help our community. Scott loves Chatham-Kent and everything about this area. "Knowing Sparky from the Lally Group and hearing how passionate he is about Rotary made me reach out to him to see how I could get involved". Scott's advice for new Rotarians would be to go and try it. It only takes 1 meeting to see how great it is and how amazing everyone is.
Scott acknowledges that he spends a lot of time at work, but when he gets the chance, he does enjoy fishing and spending time with his family.
Rachel Raspburg and Quinn Lassaline grew up together as classmates at John Uyen Catholic School in Chatham, and then went to different high schools, the Pines for Rachel and CKSS for Quinn. They attended McMaster University in Hamilton for Nursing together and continue working together to this day, at CKHA.
They are the co-founders of the 100+ Women Who Care Chatham-Kent, which presently sits at 130+ members and growing. A majority of their members reside in Chatham (105), with additional representation from East, West & North Kent. There are 550+ active chapters around the world encompassing different branches of the Who Care movement (ie. People, Men, Kids, Businesses).
Since their local inauguration in August 2016, they have held 11 meetings raising a total of $111,925.00.
Charities must have a current need identified to be eligible to be selected, and some of those needs fulfilled in the past include, iPods purchased for the music therapy program at the Alzheimer's Society, an all season cabin for Scouts Canada, shoes and boots for 1300 kids for the Chatham GoodFellows, and a new adoption room for the Friends of the New Animal Shelter.
The group meets 4 times annually, the last Wednesday of the month in February, May, August and November at the Retro Suites. Doors open at 5pm, with the meeting running from 6-7pm.
Rachel is also one of co-coordinators of 100+ Kids Who Care. To date, they've had 4 meetings and raised $1010 in total, supporting the Erie St. Clair VON, Friends of the Animal Shelter, PAWR, and Outreach for Hunger.
I'm looking for assistance from my Rotary family. I'm midst of designing a new banner for The Sunriser, since we'll be in "Rotary Connects Humanity" before we know it. I would love feedback on the banner above (that and I noticed through my Rotary Marketing groups on Facebook that some clubs have customized logos).
DGE Sparky Leonard joined us "Sunshiners" bright and early, to let us know more about the Meet the District Governor night taking place on Friday, June 21st. We will gather together to watch the RetroFest Parade of Classic Cars before moving onto business in the Rotary lounge. Sparky has also arranged for VIP seats at the Sam Roberts' concert in Tecumseh Park, which will be limited to the first 150 people to sign up!
"Once a Rotarian, always a Rotarian" is a sentiment that fits the memory of Jim Steele well. A few short months before he passed away, Jim donated his 50-50 winnings ($76) from Paul Roy's celebration meeting back to Rotary for the purchase of a ShelterBox. This ShelterBox will now be purchased in his honour, with $560 coming from the Jim Steele Memorial Fund collected during his funeral, and $254 from our club's service fund.
We have committed $3,000 from Bingo funds to provide landscaping for a Habitat for Humanity project this September.
We have committed $3,000 to the Clean Water for Living Committee's initiatives including supporting the Children's Water Festival and the printing of Greening Your Grounds workbooks!
We surprised John Lawrence with $200 cheque in support of his and his wife Lorna's participating in Hike for Hospice. Our Rotary Board will now support members in their individual charity endeavors up to $200, once annually with the criterion that: the charity has an HST #, the money supports the Chatham-Kent community, and the charity fulfills one of the 6 avenues of Rotary.
The Eighth Canadian Rotary Club in District 6380
I thoroughly enjoy researching interesting Rotary facts and history each week for my bulletin, but this by far is one of my favourite discoveries to date. Please take a few minutes to read about the former Thamesville Rotary Club.
.jpg)
.jpg)
