What a start to the Rotary year! Fine weather made most of the driving to club visits a pleasure.
Our first visit was not to a club, but a trip to Camp Whitney for the exchange student’s last official function. What a great group of young people, who, with any luck, will someday become great Rotarians. 
It seems they were all fascinated with making bannock and cooking it over an open fire on a stick. To top off a super day, the Rotary Club of Flin Flon came to camp for their club meeting with the DG. It almost felt like I was giving a sermon from the porch when they were gathered around for my message to the club.
My next visit was with the Rotary Club of The Pas, where I had the pleasure of presenting four Paul Harris Fellowships, one of which was the recipients second. (Of course PDG Rick made sure I could at least hold a fish, even if I did not catch it.)
In Regina we met with four enthusiastic clubs. At the Rotary Club of Regina Industrial Parks I had the privilege of inducting their new corporate members. I am told these new members have injected new vitality to their club.
Our next destination was Kenora for the kick off to their Spray Pad fund raising campaign. Hundreds of children, parents and grandparents attended over the afternoon. Pony rides, face painting, lucky ducks, bouncy castles, entertainment plus great hamburgers and hot dogs made the day a success. Way to go Kenora! We had a noon meeting with their executive, went on a tour of the lake on the MS Kenora, and enjoyed the fellowship of the club at the Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club.
Next we travelled to Sioux Lookout where we enjoyed meeting the participants and staff of the D5550 International Camp. For the uninitiated, twelve young people from nearly as many countries come together to experience canoeing and wilderness camping. This year’s participants were a fascinating group who, despite huge cultural differences, melded into a cohesive group. (160 km of paddling and a few tough portages tend to do that to a group!)
In Dryden, the club honoured Joanne Misner for the great work she has done for their club over a number of years. Congratulations Joanne!
The two Moose Jaw Clubs and the Assiniboia club came together for their board meetings with a combined dinner afterward. It was an evening of good fellowship after a productive set of meetings.
Congratulations to Fort Qu’Appelle for their considerable work in their community. You may be a small club but determination makes a huge difference. It was a pleasure for me to induct your new member during our visit.
Estevan could easily have the youngest executive in the district. The young professionals there are determined to move forward in service and have an impressive list of projects and accomplishments.
We were welcomed in Weyburn and enjoyed our meeting with the board and lunch with the club. Here we inducted another new member.
I hope this increase in membership continues through the year for all our clubs. After all August is membership month! Remember in the drive for new members that we can be innovative in our membership and club programs to suit the needs of the young professionals we want to bring in to Rotary. They are looking for the same thing Paul Harris wanted when Rotary was started – fellowship and networking. These are still the things that hold our clubs together. I have had the pleasure of inducting three corporate members and six regular members this month. Great work sponsors!
There are new things happening that I wish to share with you:
The first is Rotary Global Rewards. Log in to My Rotary and access Member Center from the top menu. On the next page that comes up, select Explore Rewards. A list of offers will be displayed. This is a list of companies that will give a portion of your on-line purchase to the Rotary Foundation and in many cases offer you a discount on your purchase as well. The process is well explained once you select an offer.
Second, the Federal government has announced a matching grant to your donations to Polio Plus at two to one. Watch for further announcements regarding the matching.
Third, the Federal Government has reviewed how our foundation operates and will be providing funding to the Rotary Foundation (Canada) for Global grants for five years at 1.2 million dollars per year. More information will be coming soon from our Foundation.
Until next month,
DG Ken.
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ShelterBox had a strong presence at the Rotary International Convention in Sao Paula, Brazil. ShelterBox HQ staff, affiliate and Response Team volunteers were on hand to answer questions from Rotarians around the world. Throughout the convention, a video was played to demonstrate the relationship between ShelterBox and Rotary on how the partnership has helped to reach and shelter people following the Nepal earthquake.
When disaster strikes, Rotary International partner ShelterBox often works closely with Rotarians to evaluate local needs and devise a plan for immediate response. The Rotary family provides vital assistance to ShelterBox Response Teams by helping with disaster assessments, housing response team volunteers, and helping coordinate relief logistics.
Did you know that as well as our iconic green boxes, we deliver lots of different types of aid, depending on the specific needs of the people we are helping? We're working with Habitat for Humanity to distribute shelter kits to people whose homes were badly damaged when seven years' worth of rain fell in the Atacama region of Chile in just 24 hours, causing severe flash flooding
SchoolBoxes contain equipment for teachers, such as blackboard paint, chalk and solar radios, and activity packs for children too. We recently provided SchoolBoxes to orphanages in Nepal that had been affected by the earthquakes to make sure that children were able to continue lessons and playtime after the traumatic events.