1) Mute your microphone if you aren't already muted. Background noise is distracting.
2) If you are not engaged in the presentation, turn off your camera.
3) Chat function should only be used to address the speaker, not for Club member remarks during the presentation
4) Unmute when harassing the Sergeant at Arms or taking your turn during Sergeant at Arms.
5)Pause your tariffs.
Please direct any questions to the President or a board member of yourchoosing and we will discuss any and all questions or concerns during our board meeting. Also please refer anyone who may be interested in attending a meeting or joining the club.
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE
From her book club via Pat “Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards."
VISITORS
Graham
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND
CLUB BUSINESS
Blair needs nominations for internal and external Paul Harris. Need them yesterday, so email them to Blair immediately.
Foundation raised about $3200 this year.
May 9. Kids Play Banquet, they have offered us a table – contact Kal.
May 29. Golf Tournament Richmond Firefighters – let Kal know if you want to golf or eat dinner
June 21-25. World Rotary Convention is in Calgary. At least 4 are going.
Amanda
Pay for your table tickets by the 24th. If your guests are paying by Shopify, please let Sandra know.
Cut off for Givergy online auction items is April 14.
The ASK is Heartwood Centre for Women
Gift Certificates to Debbie S. as soon as you can.
Speaker
Maryam Bawa:
Maryam was installation by Gordon and Jeannette did our introduction. We played trivia online via Kahoot to learn about Maryam’s life, passions, accomplishments and drive. So many degrees, so much volunteering! An incredible amount of experience both international and local, and so much love of Richmond. Amanda won the game, but we are all winners with Maryam as our latest new Rotarian.
Maryam was recently awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal, a Canadian honour, created to commemorate his coronation on May 6, 2023, recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions to Canada. Thank you for joining us, Maryam!
SERGEANT At Arms Tidbits
Garth prefers to go last, forced to go first. He will be in schizophrenic mode in court today - if he wins, he gets to work all weekend, and if he loses, he gets to go golfing. (ED: Sounds like a win-win, really.)
Chris M. can hardly type (ED: which is still like Michael Jordan playing injured) as she is battling the blackberries in her ‘new’ lot and had a visit from Don Dixon who immediately offered to help with the house painting.
Lawrence enjoyed the RWH AGM with Elena and Brian. He encourages us to read the Sergeant at Arms from last week (as we didn’t have time for it). He went to the downtown library with his daughters, and they thought it was a cool building, liked the arts and crafts section and spent 20 minutes looking at a giant book. When asked if she’d like to borrow it, his daughter replied that she’d already taken pictures of all the pages she liked.
Debbie S. has been power washing her concrete and it looks good (ED: and oddly satisfying) – so rewarding getting rid of the green slime and black stuff. Disappointedly, a big bird crapped on her clean wall. She watched the final episode of White Lotus. No spoilers.
Debbie T. was here with a cough and cold, was sick for last week, which knocked her off her feet. She’d think she was better, and the dogs would be happy to get out, but then she’d go back to bed and the dogs back to napping. She went dragon boating, her first session, and will go again tonight. Curtis’ dream car is supposed to go to Victoria on the weekend a ‘moms stop the harm’ event in front of the legislature. They picked it up from the mechanic, it worked wonderfully and was supposed to go to an event last night, but frustratingly it wouldn’t start.
Joyce has had lots of Rotary this week. She continues to purge and is finding surprising things in her cupboards but can’t share. (ED: Deniability safer for everyone.)
Blair thinks Maryam should be on the board next year. He was in Edmonton last week, sunny every day, visiting children and grandchildren, in Calgary and Red Deer, and came back to pouring rain in Vancouver. He waved the official Paul Harris nomination form, which suspiciously looked like a napkin, but was happy to accept the first nomination.
Marg had dinners with friends, and on Saturday is going to the Oval for a spin class fundraiser for Alzheimer’s and remembers the one our club did on stationary bikes. Goodbye to the Canucks on Monday night as they head into the play-golfs.
Graham was watching the third period comeback on his phone and, despite the last years, feels lots of promise for the future. He is proud to be a fan.
Kal is disappointed his Duke basketball team got knocked out of the NCAA tournament. Sam’s name on Kahoot’s was ‘Kal but Better.’ (ED: #truth)
Sam Was in Italy with Justin over spring break, where everything is big buildings! Justin ate the best pasta he’s ever had, which Sam corroborated and was very jealous. They ate pasta the whole time but did 20,000 steps a day, visiting Rome, Florence and Venice. They did the tourist stuff this trip and can deep dive in the future. He is very touched that he had anything to do with influencing Maryam to join Rotary. P.S. Justin is the most touristy person on the planet.
Amanda thanks Maryam and never figured out the computer (although we think she won) but now knows Maryam more. The basket wrapping was awesome. Her living room is stocked full of baskets, and the cat is napping in the Rachel Ray bowl. It was a great gala meeting last night.
Jeannette says that as of April 24th, a new system for disposing of medication will come in. Before needles were put in sharp bins, but soon all remaining liquids will be poured out and disposed of in a special container in water, then diluted, and will be solidified so they can’t be diverted. They used to be thrown in the land fill.
Larry has no time anymore, and realized it’s because he’s spending lots of time with doctor appointments, for his foot, osteoporosis, implants (ED:dental implants), etc. – a crazy life. Thanks for coming to basket making and cleaning up – Don Dixon was there for every broken glass. (ED: to clean up – no word on whether he caused the breaks)
Micheal is amazed at how young Maryam is for having done so much. His son was 6 years old last week (ED: does that mean he’s 7 now?), and they’ll have a party this Sunday, but he asked his son where to go for dinner, and he wanted to go to Denny’s on Davie and Denman, and they got parking! His son announced to everyone, as they entered, that it was his birthday. A lady asked to wish him a happy birthday, then asked her husband if she could have some money. The couple didn’t appear to be very well-off, but they managed 3 dollars to give to Micheal’s son, Micheal paid their bill. She cried, in tears, and everyone started crying, and she said he didn’t know how much of a difference that made to her. He is looking forward to Bobby leaving this week so he can enjoy himself (ED: with the corporate credit card).
Gordon says there are times when you feel your age, and listening to Maryam and what she’s done in her short life is one of them. He believes there is a place for her in this club; in fact, several places. Another thing that made him feel old, was that when his son drove him for a medical appointment, he was told that his granddaughter had passed her driver’s test.
Maryam thanks all for the welcome both years ago and today. She feels she has found a home in the club and googled how to do a classification. She couldn’t just stand up there, so she did the game.
Elena enjoyed the Gilmore pancake breakfast last Tuesday. Last night she was at the RWH AGM, with Lawrence (thanks for attending) and Brian – 72 attendees from 5040 and 5050. The president wanted a report, and she only knew a few minutes before she left the house, so she reported on the containers and dental mission.
Sandra was sick this week. Brian had a milestone birthday and the babysitter fell through, so Miller was invited to join for dinner! He loved tuna tataki, “more, more”. The boys think the Canucks have to win before dad Brian is gone – he still has a few more years. Sandra remembers Grauer, the old gym, the bathroom smoking and getting the blame from two grade 5s. She remembers Mr. Nesbitt kept her in the office all afternoon, until she told who it was. She finally broke down and blamed someone she didn’t like but is still traumatized by those bathroom windows.
John saw Don Dixon scrubbing the counter and doing dishes at the pancake breakfast. His own schizophrenic lawyer moment was when his daughter Darcy was in her first world championship, and he had a case. If settled he could go to see her, and they did settle, so he got plane tickets, found basement suite in Seville, and watched her win a silver.
Dalbir had grandchildren and family members’ birthdays this week. He had dinner with high school friends who have done well and is going to a Four Seasons Ned Bell pop-up dinner in Burnaby.
Bobby first met Maryam when giving scholarships at high school, felt the energy and hoped she’d join, has mentioned it several times before and is finally joining. It was his wife’s 50th last week in Whistler, and while he prefers doing mom-and-pop-at-home-making-dinner, he gave the kids a credit card to book a few nice restaurants. First, they went to El Camino, a reasonable bill. This was followed by steak dinner at the Four Seasons, where just the mashed potatoes were $40, the Caesar salad was $30 and the bill over $500. Sometimes he sees Micheal’s receipts, with charges to Riverside, and is fearing the auditor. He is going on a business trip to China to see flowers, chairs, etc. and will miss the next meeting. (Good thing Bobby is going, they kidnap Canadian Michaels there.)
Pat welcomes Maryam, thanks Marg and Larry for basket making. She missed last night’s meeting as she had her own dinner club and went to Cavu in the Hilton, and had too much wine, so … A year ago, she bought a new car, so is only now giving her donation of $20. It’s a Toyota Rav 4 hybrid. Her son works at Peace Arch Toyota, and it’s an amazing car. She filled up the other day, and it goes over 700 km, and she drives for weeks without filling up. It’s electric and recharges itself, not a plugin.
Bill was in southeast Asia, 4 countries, had a wagyu luncheon in Tokyo and watched baseball -- the top team -- in a 30 000-seat stadium which was built in 1926 and still had plastic seats that were ready to break. International baseball is so different. The home teams and away teams are separated, they have a different song for every player, there is no quiet, but constant cheering and singing, and flag waving, like watching a movie. They tell you when to buy the food and the pictures are numbered, each one connected to a baseball player card. He brought big Kal a hat, so he’s happy. He visited a store in Tokyo makes shirts, and they had a shirt Bill liked, which fit properly. He wanted a bigger one for a friend, but he was already wearing a 5X!
Peter’s kids went to Mitchell school, where his son was a part of a blue-eyed pack, and lots of crap went on at Mitchell, there were over 600 kids, and his son was often blamed. Miss McGregor (married to farmer McGregor) brought the pack in at recess and ate lunch with them, but crap kept going on so that broke the spell and the myth. They rode the school bus, and his daughter, who was an honour student, threw poster paint out the bus window and hit a car, the driver honked, the bus stopped, and no one ratted her out. After 20 minutes she confessed.
MEANDERINGS
So apart from micro plastics being found in your brain, apparently enough to make 4 water bottle caps, a company based in Columbia is making houses out of it. Conceptos Plastico transforms plastics including bags, snack food containers, and shampoo bottles into modular building system of bricks and columns. The blocks are like lego blocks and are 95% plastic. A typical two bedroom house captures 6 tons of plastic, can be built in 5 days and costs from $4,000 - $7,000. They are building houses, schools and latrines in refugee camps. (April 2025 National Geographic)
Here is their mission statement and a link to their web site.
We produce a 100% recycled plastic construction system [Bricks & Blocks] used to assemble houses and schools for vulnerable people, primarily women collectors in emerging countries. We complete this solution with a social and business empowerment methodology [The Way] to allow communities to build their futures through decent jobs and better payments improving the economic growth.
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