Rotary Club of Morinville members, guests and caterer Deepthi of the Bistro Di Madre Piccola in Morinville. – Lucie Roy Photos
by Lucie Roy
The Rotary Club of Morinville hosted Rotary District 5370 Governor Tracey Vavrek, her husband Vince, and Assistant Governor Jason Svenningsen at their Wednesday morning breakfast meeting.
As the new 2019-2020 District 5370 Governor, Vavrek connects 1.2 million Rotary Club members worldwide with Rotarians from the northern regions of three Western provinces and two Territories.
Rotary District 5370 consists of 60 clubs (Morinville is number 48) throughout Northern Alberta, Northwest Saskatchewan, Northeastern British Columbia, Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
As District Governor, Vavrek serves as the liaison between Rotary International President Mark Maloney and Rotarians in her District.
From July to November, she expects to travel more than 33,000 km to visit all 60 clubs.
This schedule also includes 53 high school and junior high school Interact clubs and 10 Rotaract clubs for post-secondary students and young adults who are just beginning their careers.
Discussions at the meeting covered challenges and successes of clubs, Rotary at a change, flexibility, raising funds, cheque writing or service club, more hands-on projects or events, engaging members and youth, Rotaract club for ages 8-12 and two club citations on membership and service.
“What I most look forward to during my visit is learning more about how Rotarians in Morinville are serving their local communities and people in need around the world,” said Vavrek. “These are people of action, people who get things done.
“The 2019-2020 Rotary International theme is “Rotary Connects the World, ” so I will be listening to Rotarians stories of how they are connecting the world, both in their communities and through international projects.”
Local Rotarians in the Morinville Club connect with the community with the Mentorship Program in the schools in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area, installing a washroom facility at Rotary Park, donations to non-profit organizations, Elder Abuse Awareness, the LAV II project and much more.
Rotarians in the area have also connected internationally by contributions to Project Peanut Butter, Malawi Girls School, Canadian Disaster Aid, Polio Plus, ad other initiatives.
October 24- World Polio Day
A day before World Polio Day, Vavrek presented Morinville with a Rotary International Foundation Certificate of Appreciation for its financial support of End Polio Now: Countdown to History Campaign, which Acting President Pat Tighe accepted on behalf of the Club.
As of October 16, 2019, Polio type 1 is endemic in two countries, Afghanistan, which has 16 cases of Polio and Pakistan has 72. Efforts to wipe it out have faced setbacks in the past two years.
The success in ending type 3 means only type 1 of this virus is still circulating and causing infections.
Rotary Club of Morinville Acting President Pat Tighe accepting Certificate of Appreciation from District Governor Tracey Vavrek.
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