On July 4th, Jeremy Wentworth-Stanley made a deputation about his "O Manners, O Manners, Wherefore Art Thou?" letter in the May Blue Mountains Review. In his deputation, Jeremy highlighted manners is about kindness and how complex the whole topic is. He also stressed the importance of being kind to ourselves so that we can be kind to others. And then, in true "Jeremy-fashion", our new "town poet" ended his deputation with...you guessed it! A new poem!
T-C Rotarians at work in mid-June putting up the big top tent at Rotary YMCA Camp Presqu'ile. After a 2 year hiatus due to covid, we were back at our annual event of helping the Owen Sound Rotary club get the tent up and ready for the arrival of young campers. If you're looking for a camp for your kids ages 6 to 16, check it out...spaces still available, as is financial assistance.
Congratulations to Noa Harris, our Outbound Rotary Exchange student for the 2022-2023 school year!
Noa's excitement was unrestrained at the big "reveal" of her destination!
Dr Euler says that the maternity ultrasound project in Ukewere, Tanzania that was supported by T-C Rotary along with clubs in Meaford and Collingwood was a "sonic success". The new ultrasound unit has delivered incredible results, well beyond expected, at the Nansio Hospital which has 162 beds serving more than 500,000 people living in one of poorest districts in Tanzania.
Thank You Everyone for Helping to Plant over 300 Trees!! Thank you to our community for helping to plant trees with Tree Trust, Town of the Blue Mountains and Rotary. Over 300 Trees were planted in two locations! Great work everyone and thank you for your kindness! |
As part of T-C Rotary's Kindness Campaign, 27 birders of varying skill levels spent the morning of May 14th enjoying the fellowship that comes with birding. Our route took us from the Harbour, up along the Beaver River, across the Bridge of Kindness, to the Labyrinth area, ending at the Bayview Park Rotary Pavilion. The overwhelming concensus was that it was a morning well spent! A great opportunity to spend time in nature, learning from each other and enjoying a shared interest. Many thanks to ALL who took part and contributed!!
The Blue Mountains town council accepted our club's deputation, supported by the Georgian Trail Cycle & Ski Association, the BVO and the Blue Mountains Chamber of Commerce, to rename the historic trestle bridge on the Georgian Trail (behind the Town Hall) ‘The Bridge of Kindness’ for a year. The official inauguration of the renaming took place on World Kindness Day, November 13th. The festivities included an Indigenous greeting and water ceremony by Kim Wheatley, music by local youth, kindness awards, speeches and, of course, the ribbon cutting. Reflecting its new name, kindness banners were also hung at either end of the bridge as well as on lamp posts around the town centre. We hope that the community will see The Bridge of Kindness and the banners as a reminder of the importance of kind acts – no matter how small – in making our community, and the world a better place for all.
A district Rotary initiative to distribute potatoes in our local communities has been a great success. Our Club received 250 10lb bags to distribute to Food Banks and to local organizations providing help to those in need. Through the Community Cares program and our school families support program, 70 bags were distributed, through the BVO's Good Food Box program another 80 bags were distributed, and through the Meaford Food Bank 100 bags were distributed. None of this would have been possible without the generous help of Ed Ormsby who has provided a safe haven for the potatoes during the delivery period. Thank you Ed Ormsby for your kindness!
The Elgon Ngoma Troupe, located in Mbale Uganda is a small community-based home for former street kids and orphans. T-C Rotary has been assisting them to become more self-sustaining, with the help of the Mbale Metropolitan Rotary Club (MMR). Several projects over the past two years have resulted in the rehabilitation of an abandoned farmhouse on a donated two acre farm in the nearby village of Mawululu on the lower slope of Mt Elgon. As well, there are now male and female latrines and showers, a rainwater catchment system, and a new kitchen and storage room. These projects have resulted in Elgon Ngoma Troupe's ability to farm the land and significatnly reduce their food insecurity as well as address overcrowding in their Mbale town rented home. But that's not all...these projects are having an amazing ripple effect on the youth and also on villagers in one of the poorest areas of Uganda. Our club would like to share another small step forward on our journey for a fuller understanding of our country's history, and towards reconciliation... last May, CBCListen launched an 11 episode podcast series: Telling Our Twisted Histories. Each 15 to 25 minute episode consists of conversations with people from some 15 Indigenous communities explaining what impact a word steeped in colonial history (such as discovery, reserve, family names, savage, obey) has on their lives even today. These fresh and real conversations are eye-opening and thought-provoking...if you haven't already listened to them, we encourage you to open the link and take in these interesting conversations.
Miigwech/Thank you
There is scientific evidence that kindness actually helps us heal emotionally and physically. Repeated acts of kindness decreases pain, stress, anxiety, depression and blood pressure – while increasing happiness and lifespan. And acts of kindness are contagious; when one is the recipient, its contagion makes it easier to pay it forward!
Share your kindness-related literary or art work at #tcrcommunitykindness...we will periodically chose some of those posts for display in our Kindness Korner.
Lib Kennedy
While the COVID pandemic and its subsequent lockdown has presented us with many obstacles, it has also presented us with an opportunity. An opportunity to stop, get quiet, and really ask ourselves what matters most. This opportunity helps many of us to realize that a lot of the things that we surround ourselves with - that we thought we needed - that we thought made us happy, actually do not matter as much as the people that we surround ourselves with. What matters, what truly matters is making sure that we are taking care of each other!
Taking care of ourselves. And taking care of this beautiful environment that we are lucky enough to call home! When we do this. When we take care of each other, it changes who we are on a fundamental level. When we do this, it changes our sense of value, and how we act and respond; which benefits our community and ripples out into the world. This is important as it reminds us of how we, no matter our experiences and perspectives, can come together as a single community. A community of unmatched kindness.
Please join me, and the rest of the Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club in showing the world that Our Community Runs on Kindness!
Sincerely / Miigwech,
Elizabeth (Lib) Kennedy
Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club
President 2021-2023
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