Miscellaneous

Repeat from last week or until no longer relevant or until I delete it:

Pat has sent documents to our members regarding protocol for scholarships and criteria for project acceptance. Thank you notes from scholarship recipients were circulated by Pat.

Committee signups – look for emails for signing up for Public Relations committee and Projects Committee

Zoom Meeting Rules

THE LINK TO OUR THURSDAY MEETINGS WILL NO LONGER BE EMAILED BUT ACCESSED THROUGH THE LINK BELOW.

Rotary Club of Richmond Sunrise is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Rotary Club of Richmond Sunrise's Zoom Meeting
Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89414124941?pwd=OsFTza1R0fSV7JaS7P7jzjeg4yZoQb.1

Meeting ID: 735 937 1916

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)Enjoy some wine.

Please direct any questions to the President or a board member of your choosing 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 Zig Ziglar via Sam Jaffe “The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can do little.”

VISITORS

Ms. Aileen Tran, founder of Frontline Baddies.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND

CLUB BUSINESS

From Nicci at the Rotary club of Chapala, Mexico: Please thank the club again for the generous contributions to our renal and dental projects. Exciting news: our first kidney transplant was last week with the second one coming very soon. (We will be wiring our money to them on Monday).

SERGEANT At Arms Tidbits

Dalbir sees many co-workers of Aileen on the street, frontline workers, without an official position. Thanks to Aileen for sharing.

Debbie T. has experienced frontline issues with mental health in her own home and first responders must see so many suicides and overdose issues, which is tough, and they need support. She can imagine the trauma experiences by frontline workers, and she knows many outreach workers and sympathizes with them. Thanks to Aileen and she would like to connect with her.

Debbie S. was a psychologist in her early career and saw that the childcare workers had such a difficult job and her job was ‘easier’ as she was ‘just’ making recommendations. She understands the distinction between mental health professionals and the front-line workers who do the bulk of the work and how such a discrepancy shows the way society values that profession.

Sam thanks for the warm welcome to Aileen and expressed how surreal it is bringing a friend from his outside life to come to Rotary. She’s been over watching Twilight movies, also a traumatic experience. He has heard her many stories about being threatened at work and recognizes the power in empathizing with others in the same situation.

Bill’s client has decided on MAID, after 2.5 years with cancer. Bill has news from Debbie M. whose son-in-law is in Mexico, with Miles, hoping for surgery despite his failing health. We are thinking of you, Debbie! Bill’s RMT is moving to Brisbane, and this is traumatic for Bill, but he will go for the 2032 Olympics and have somewhere to stay.

Kal went to a farm in Abbotsford, and their house makes his house look small. He thanks the future and past presidents for taking over for Peter!

Marg is horrified by the Canadian soccer scandal. Saturday night someone was mad that they couldn’t find Bicks red relish anymore and suggested that Marg make some. Which of course she did (35 jars). It took her two days, and it takes good. She’ll be glued to the Olympics screen for the next two weeks, up at the crack of dawn, no PVRing for her.

Blair always thinks about nurses and paramedics, etc. as frontline workers and applauds what Aileen does.

Chris P., having been reminded that Debbie S was a psychologist, no longer wanted to share. She encourages us to take a LOVE button as she felt compelled to buy 100 of them. She thanks the Rotary Grand Prix of Art volunteers. She also thanks Aileen for coming out as Chris has dealt with a variety of addictions and recognizes the gap between the point of needing care and the point of a terrible thing happening. She is now terrified that we aren’t helping those who help others.

Garth had lost faith in humanity at the thought of even one person voting for Trump, but now that we have a candidate who is a woman under 70, he has new hope.

Susan was late but was impacted by the presentation. She is looking forward to the Grand Prix of Art.

Micheal thanks Aileen. He has been following American politics. Long ago, his uncle from California was invited to a dinner with Bill Clinton but didn’t go (and the invitation still exists). Kamala Harris is from California, and his cousins are big donors, so he was just talking to them and if she makes it to the White House, they’ll all be going. On another note, a couple from Nova Scotia with teenage kids went to Florida, ate a $500 lunch, then did a dine and dash. The owner of the restaurant wanted to catch them, and after posts on social media, shared 60 000 times, they found them, contacted them in Nova Scotia, and they paid the bill!

Jeannette thanks Aileen and encourages her to submit an application. Thursday was a terrible night shift after midnight, as they were affected by the computer outages and with nothing on paper, they didn’t know anything about the patients, even about those going in for procedures. Thankfully there was one backup computer, and they were able to print some information. Maybe we still need those old ways.

Elena was reminded that when she bought a medical store at Victoria drive and 38th, she hadn’t checked the area and while walking, saw prostitutes, drug addicts and lots of garbage in the neighbourhood. She decided to knock on other business’ doors asking merchants to clean all the fronts of the garbage and eventually formed the Victoria Drive Association, first by bringing sandwiches and meeting in the community centre to discuss what they needed to do to clean up the area. The Association is still going, the city helped them by putting in lighting, flowers, etc. On Saturday July 27, they have a big celebration with lots of officials attending. We are all invited to join.

Bobby thanks Aileen. He notes that the private sectors and government must work together. Last year, traveling to many big cities, he saw firsthand how horrible some situations can be. By the way, Micheal, it wasn’t Bill Clinton who invited them, it was George Bush and we should find that invitation. The invitation came through his dad at the hospital, but it cost $25 000 per ticket and that might be why they didn’t go. He was in Whistler trying to relax because he has so many things going through his brain, but there were lots of accidents on the road and they had a power outage. Inspired by the show called Firemasters, they fired up the BBQ were able to cook some steaks. He’s been running, started last week with the training workout and he’s ‘getting there.’ His daughter is a little ahead of him, already doing the 10 km.

Chris M. thanks Aileen and was reminded of the many ‘invisible’ workers doing the important work. At the Grand Prix of Art, she will be volunteering in the Phoenix tent doing some printmaking.

Melinda is saddened by the passing of a long-time industry friend on Vancouver Island. She is trying to make arrangements to go to Tucson, where John’s cousin’s husband (who has a long-term illness related to his time in Vietnam) had a heart attack and is on life support. They had Rory overnight, but because Melinda had to get up at 5:30 a.m. for Rotary, she slept in another room and had a good sleep. She is disappointed they had to cancel the Chris Stapleton tickets, but it is important to go to Tucson to say their goodbyes.

Meanderings

Where else to meander this week but the Olympic Games. From Wikipedia.

The ancient Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ta Olympia^[1]) were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and were one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia, in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The originating Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC.^[2] The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. These Olympiads were referred to based on the winner of their stadion sprint, e.g., "the third year of the eighteenth Olympiad, when Ladas of Argos won the stadion".^[3] They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule in the 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archaeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date.^[4]^[5] The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II, possibly in connection with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.^[6]

To the Ancient Greeks, it was important to root the Olympic Games in mythology.^[13] During the time of the ancient games their origins were attributed to the gods, and competing legends persisted as to who actually was responsible for the genesis of the games.^[14]

These origin traditions have become nearly impossible to untangle, yet a chronology and patterns have arisen that help people understand the story behind the games.^[15] Greek historian Pausanias provides a story about the dactyl Heracles (not to be confused with the Hercules who was the son of Zeus and joined the Roman pantheon) and four of his brothers, Paeonaeus, Epimedes, Iasius and Idas, who raced at Olympia to entertain the newborn Zeus. He crowned the victor with an olive wreath (which thus became a peace symbol), which also explains the four-year interval, bringing the games around every fifth year (counting inclusively).^[16]^[17] The other Olympian gods (so named because they lived permanently on Mount Olympus) would also engage in wrestling, jumping and running contests.^[18]

Another myth of the origin of the games is the story of Pelops, a local Olympian hero. Oenomaus, the king of Pisa, had a daughter named Hippodamia, and according to an oracle, the king would be killed by her husband. Therefore, he decreed that any young man who wanted to marry his daughter was required to drive away with her in his chariot, and Oenomaus would follow in another chariot, and spear the suitor if he caught up with them. Now, the king's chariot horses were a present from the god Poseidon and therefore supernaturally fast. The king's daughter fell in love with a man called Pelops. Before the race however, Pelops persuaded Oenomaus' charioteer Myrtilus to replace the bronze axle pins of the king's chariot with wax ones. Naturally, during the race, the wax melted and the king fell from his chariot and was killed. After his victory, Pelops organized chariot races as a thanksgiving to the gods and as funeral games in honor of King Oenomaus, in order to be purified of his death. It was from this funeral race held at Olympia that the beginnings of the Olympic Games were inspired. Pelops became a great king, a local hero, and he gave his name to the Peloponnese.

One (later) myth, attributed to Pindar, states that the festival at Olympia involved Heracles, the son of Zeus: According to Pindar, Heracles established an athletic festival to honor his father, Zeus, after he had completed his labors.

The patterns that emerge from these myths are that the Greeks believed the games had their roots in religion, that athletic competition was tied to worship of the gods, and the revival of the ancient games was intended to bring peace, harmony and a return to the origins of Greek life.^[19]

SPEAKER

Ms. Aileen Tran is the founder of Frontline Baddies, a nonprofit of community care created by frontline workers for frontline workers in the Downtown East side. They are a collective of frontline workers that originated in working with clients in the Downtown East side in addiction treatment and housing. They started as a meme page and quickly realized that Frontline Baddies need more support. So, they created a national non-profit to help support the mental health of Frontline Workers.

Their goal is to increase community care created by frontline workers for frontline workers. Upon recognizing that they need more support as frontline workers, they have created workshops that individual frontline workers can attend for support around common issues in this line of work. They also help other non-profits support their frontline workers from burning out through individualized workshops and creating systems to better support Frontline and Management Teams in this work.

Aileen shared a video focusing on mental health challenges and the current lack of support. These issues can lead to suicides, drug use, violent behaviour and the statistics show that the situation is worsening. Frontline workers deal with high levels of stress and burnout and experience violence, abuse and harassment in the workplace. They experience PTSD and can themselves be subject to mental health issues. Aileen shared her personal experience as a Frontline Baddie and the dedication needed to continue to work under such difficult circumstances.

The 5 members of Frontline Baddies offer workshops and support including for conflict resolution, grieving support, discussion groups, social media engagement. They have a podcast, continue with Instagram and attend conferences where they can advocate for Frontline workers. The goal is to offer free or low-cost workshops, both in person and online. Their costs include insurance, office space, computers, counsellors specializing trauma and holding conferences. Current funding comes from a grant, the Dr. Peter Centre and through workshops. We can search them on Instagram as Frontline Baddies.

upcoming events

Friday May 2, 2025 Sunrise Rotary Gala Auction

TODAY'S CHUCKLEs

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