Club Meeting Details:

We meet In Person

Fridays

Fortius Sport & Health

3713 Kensington Ave.
Burnaby, BC V5B 0A7
Canada

Friday @ 12:15PM - REVIEW CLUB CALENDAR FOR CHANGES TO DATE & VENUE OR UPCOMING EVENTS COLUMN

Drug Addictions - Conny Lin, PhD
ZOOM

May 14, 2021
12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
General Club Talk
ZOOM

May 21, 2021
12:00 PM – 1:15 PM

To find out more about Rotary join us at one of our Upcoming Events. Visit our calendar to view all open sessions to the public and details for any changes to our weekly meeting.

With growing global concerns around the evolving COVID-19 (“coronavirus”), we wanted to let you know that the health, safety and well-being of our club members and guests is our club's top priority. We are following the lead of Canadian public health authorities at this time by taking all appropriate measures to ensure our members safe. It's been decided that we will cancel physical meetings until a further time. This announcement is effective immediately. We've moved our meetings online - so please click on our schedule to log online to attend!

Stay safe and well everyone

Heart Of The Matter 2021 Online Auction & Raffle

We are happy to announce that the To The Heart of the Matter Online Auction and Raffle is officially launched! Thanks to our partners at Royal City Rotary
 andMonarch Place Transition Home for all their love and dedication to this collaboration!

Until March 6th, you can show your  for local and international causes through our raffle and online auction.

Bids from the just released Silent Auction https://cbo.io/bidapp/index.php?slug=heartofthematter support international Rotary Burnaby projects, such as the Sound of Hope project's School for the Deaf in Bali or critical water filtration system in Laos. Bid on a snazzy signed Quinn Hughes jerseys (note: Calder nomination not included), designer jewelry, handcrafted flower bouquets, and more donations from generous British Columbian businesses and individuals!

The 50/50 raffle at https://heartofthematter.rafflenexus.com/ gives you a chance to win 50% of the already over $10,000 pot! Proceeds support community causes, such as The Society To End Homelessness In Burnaby
 and the South Burnaby Neighbourhood House's dedication to community support that all the more essential during COVID. It is easy to underestimate the effect of COVID on vulnerable populations that are made all the more vulnerable and donations are all the more important now.

Let's show warmth and love for our community without even braving the cold! You can read more on the event sponsors here: http://totheheartofthematter.ca/index.php/sponsors/

Heart of the Matter Raffle

Update: The 50/50 pot is already at over $8000! Remember that raffle tickets can be used as a gift for friends, family, and/or customers!

We are happy to announce that our To the Heart of the Matter event, in collaboration with the Royal City Rotary Club and Monarch Place, has launched! While COVID has complicated the usual dinner, auction, and raffle event we decided to adapt the raffle and auction to the internet.

First, we have a 50/50 Raffle ending March 6th:

These proceeds go to community projects with the Burnaby Neighbourhood House and Society to End Homelessness in Burnaby as well as other initiatives by our collaborators, such as providing funds for lunches for inner-city schools. Join the raffle and give to a good cause and maybe you'll win half of the pot, already at thousands of dollars. Note the requirements that you must live in British Columbia.

We will also have Silent Auction, dedicated to international projects such as the Bali Project, that will launch on February 14th. You can see the Christmas greetings from Bali Project entry below to see some of the joy and necessity of a School for the Deaf in Bali.

Be sure to heart these opportunities to support our local and global community!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Bali!

Season greetings from the Catur School of the Deaf in Bali! We are happy to share the video in the following facebook link:

 

We also received the following message: "For All Friends and Care Takers of Sushrusa Deaf School Denpasar and House of Deaf Training Center Catur Village Bali,

We would like to send you the warmest Merry Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.

God Bless You
Sincerely yours,
Maria - Board of Corti Foundation."

This project, the Sound of Hope, is one spearheaded by our Rotary Club and supported by others in the district. The school has trained deaf students in valuable skills such as farming and sewing when deaf kids too frequently do not receive the support and care they deserve.

Our Rotary club donated over $6000 to the school to support the production of Personal Protective Equipment for vulnerable medical clinics. At Rotary, we support good will whether in the international fight against COVID, supporting organizations such as the Burnaby Hospital Foundation
, or our Step Up Virtual Walkathon raising $3600 to support education, youth, and wildlife for Low Entropy
, the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC
, and Simon Fraser University
.

Happy Holidays from Rotary Burnaby and the lovable children of Bali!

Step Up Virtual Walkathon 2020 Final Day!

Today is the last day of the Rotary Burnaby and Moscrop Interact Club Step Up Virtual Walkathon 2020 supporting youth empowerment programs with
Low Entropy, Education Scholarships at the Simon Fraser University Faculty of Education, and Wildlife with the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC!
 
If you haven't already then you are welcome to donate or pledge at bit.ly/StepUpBurnaby2020 to support lower mainland youth, education, and wildlife!

So far we have raised over $2750 with our club's 50% matching of all funds raised! Thanks to all our participants and recipients for their dedication to British Columbia's youth, from empowering future leaders to caring for young birds that bring joy to all British Columbians!

Giving Tuesday Walkathon Update

Though we understand that many organizations are asking for donations on Giving Tuesday, we will emphasize the importance of fundraising and charity this holiday season. COVID's disastrous effect on local non-profits was one main motivator for our Step Up Virtual Walkathon 2020 at bit.ly/StepUpBurnaby2020
If eight people donate $100 to the walkathon then we will match 50% then we would give:

$420 to Low Entropy​, allowing 10 youth to join the Youth Empowerment Program to build connection, community, and empowerment during the stress of COVID. Previous participants included a young girl from Nigeria learning and sharing lessons of humility, self-esteem, and support with Canadian high school students!

$420 to the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC​ to support infrastructure to field tens of thousands of calls and to rehabilitate vulnerable wildlife. Due to specialized care, it can cost hundreds of dollars to protect injured owls, chickadees, and other animals that we love to see in beautiful British Columbia’s parks and trails.

$360 to a Rotary Burnaby scholarship dedicated to innovative educational techniques at Simon Fraser University​, that is all the more important to guide youth in this more complicated and stressful world. Many of our club members are SFU Alumni​ and/or teachers that appreciate the importance of education to guide future leaders to greater heights.

Lev And Matt (Low Entropy) Presentation

We were happy to have Matthew and Lev present their work at Low Entropy
’s Youth Empowering Youth (YEY) program! This organization is one of the recipients of our Step Up Virtual Walkathon 2020 at bit.ly/StepUpBurnaby2020 where every 40 dollars raised to their organization gives one BC youth an opportunity to learn and grow with peers!

During their presentation, Matthew and Lev discussed their personal story and motivation for Youth Empowering Youth to build accountability, stewardship, and recognize the unique gifts and intrinsic value of every youth through shared experiences. Topics include taking actions with small steps, the importance of attitude, and the value of failure in guiding a person to success.

Step Up Virtual Walkathon 2020

The Rotary Club of Burnaby and Moscrop Interact Club are proud to announce the Step Up Virtual Walkathon bit.ly/StepUpBurnaby2020 from October 26th to December 6th!

Let's step up together to raise funds to support three important community needs: environment, education, and youth support. Our club will also match 50 cents for every dollar raised!

At Rotary Burnaby, we are aware of the detrimental effect of COVID on our youth, our community, and charities that support the most vulnerable. For this reason, this walkathon supports three causes: the protection of the environment and cute birds via theWildlife Rescue Association of BC, a Simon Fraser University Education scholarship to support future teachers that will guide our youth, and
Low Entropy's Youth Empowering Youth program to strengthen and empower students during this chaotic time.

Let's step up together to support our shared future! Share this post, join a team, or pledge!

Rotary Opens Opportunities 2020-2021

Click the below image to open an ``opportunity'' to a Facebook album of the 2020-2021 Rotary Club of Burnaby's presentations and projects!

Our facebook page also has some other stories, including posts highlighting the amazing work by Rotary International and other organizations!

A Foundational Hospital Donation!

We are proud to continue to support the Burnaby Hospital Foundation with a $6000 donation!

On October 8th, Rotary Club of Burnaby President Samantha Kwong presented a cheque for over $5000, while adapting to social distance restrictions. These funds will go towards financing life saving equipment for a planned hospital extension, allowing for additional support for the needs of BC's growing population and dealing with events such as COVID.

While many of us only see glimpses of a hospital's war against COVID and other maladies, we are grateful to BC's nurses, doctor, and other hospital staff for their dedication and stewardship towards the sickest and most vulnerable!

Nigel Bennett Talk

At Rotary Burnaby, we were grateful for the presentation by Nigel Bennett: a CEO, environmentalist, adventurer, father, and book writer! Nigel’s talk not only covered his business, dedicated to cleaning devastating oil spills, but also the importance of balancing family, work, and passion to make the world better, such as Nigel’s motivation after witnessing the devastation of oil spills at the start of his career.

District Governor Visit (2020-2021)

Our thanks to District Governor Dave Hamilton and Assistant Governor Frank Peabody, leaders in the 5040 Rotary District covering most of British Columbia! Dave is part of theRotary Club of Tsawwassen
and Frank is a member ofRotary Club of Burnaby - Deer Lake.

Val Liddle Classification Talk (August 7th, 2020)

In our August 7th Club Meeting, Val Liddle presented her classification talk summarizing some of her life efforts in guiding others to better destinations, whether her lovable grandchildren, her clients at her Singles’ Travel Club (https://lloydstravel.com/personnel/val_liddle/), or the homeless and other marginalized populations through numerous lower mainland charities. Val shared her diverse experience, including travel tips from her first visit to Canada from Liverpool and visits to international rotary clubs in their efforts to address poverty and disasters.

Val is known for her kindness and dedication to Rotary’s principles of service above self. She is accommodating to all, whether young interactors in high school starting their journey in rotary in her role as District Interact Chair, guiding members to join Rotary as Rotary Club of Burnaby Director of Membership, or leading young-at-heart seniors to vacations and connection that are all the more important due to issues of social isolation.
We at Rotary Burnaby are grateful that Canada and Rotary Burnaby are her home even with her frequent journeys, travels, and adventuring spirit!
For more information:
To contact Val, especially if interested in learning more about Rotary Club of Burnaby Membership: https://lloydstravel.com/personnel/val_liddle/
This Year’s Executive Board, including Val: https://rotaryburnaby.org/744/Page/Show?ClassCode=StoryDetails&Slug=2020-2021-executives

July 31st Social Distance Gathering

The Burnaby Rotary Club was happy to host a social distance gathering at Burnaby's Fraser Foreshore Park on Friday! It was great to see members, without the risk of zoom fatigue!

Like many Rotary Clubs in BC, we have been adapting to COVID through ongoing efforts such as planning virtual walks, stay-at-home galas, and virtual auctions to raise funds and good will while maintaining provincial health guidelines. For example, the Rotary Club of Lions Gate North Vancouver ran a virtual Canada Day celebration!

Thiha Maung Presentation (July 17th)

Thanks to Dr. Thiha Maung from the Karen Return and Reestablishment Committee (KRRC) who presented to Burnaby Rotary his organizations’ work to return, house, and employ Karen refugees displaced from Myanmar to Thailand.

Dr. Maung, a graduate of Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University, summarized his and the KRRC organization’s history in housing and development as well as a proposal to produce eco-friendly areca leaf plate factories to employ returning Karen population. We were happy to see these efforts to sustainably support vulnerable refugee populations, especially during COVID.

Teresa Lung Classification Talk (July 10th)

To open the new Rotary year, Teresa Lung presented her classification talk on her geographical journey from China to Canada and her vocational journey from Nursing to a ``temporary’’ job in financial services at CIBC that continued for 33 years!

Teresa works diligently, whether through supporting her bank's small business clients, designing lovely wedding decorations, guiding Rotary Club of Burnaby Fundraisers such as the Heart of the Matter in her role of Director of Community and International Services, or fundraising for her Church at St Mary’s Parish in Vancouver.

For more upcoming talks covering varied vocations and valiant volunteering see the Rotary Burnaby Calendar!To learn more about Teresa and the other Rotary Club of Burnaby Board of Directors click here.

Opening the New Rotary Year: 2020-2021 Executives

Welcome to the 2020-2021 Rotary Club of Burnaby team! Hover your cursor over an image for more info on this year's directors dedicated to opening opportunities in and out of Burnaby:

Samantha Kwong, Club President.

As a realtor and person, Sam is dedicated to opening the doors of homes and hearts and continuing the club's local and international projects, such as raising $6000 for COVID-19 PPE for Bali medical staff.

Peter Beynon, Stalwart Secretary.

Engineer of oil platform tech, minutes, bulletins, and club accountability. Beyond managing club business, Peter was our club's champion for the $150,000 Foreshore Park Fitness Circuit project.

Doug Rennie, Admirable Administrator.

A deliverer of good news, good will, and good service, administrative or otherwise. Doug is known for his tireless support for Burnaby Rotary projects and initiatives.

Eugene Choi Talk: COVID-19 and Fear (June 19th, 2020).

Our thanks to Dr. Eugene Choi for his June 19th presentation to Rotary Burnaby members and guests on leveraging neuroscience to overcome fear, create positive lasting change in the world, and activate the part of your brain that permits these changes. A summary of the talk is below, adapted from notes of our Club's stalwart secretary Peter Beynon:

"There are two main states in the functioning of the brain: the survival state and the executive state.The Survival State is associated with stress, anxiety, anger, impatience, jealous, and selfishness. This state is associated with the amygdala and the ``fight, flight, or freeze'' response that is also impairs your body's ability to fight infection. The Executive state relates to Hope, Joy, Gratitude, compassion, a growth mindset, selflessness, taking ownership, and is associated with activity in the prefrontal cortex. Dr Choi discussed how to transfer your state from survival to executive via exercises, meditations, and deep breathing that activates the parasympathetic nervous system and gets you back to the executive state. He also discussed the benefits of tracking brain state with devices and being mindful of what state you and others are in."

Thanks to all attendees, especially visitors from other clubs in the district, including incoming District Governor Dave Hamilton. We appreciate your interest and support!

For more info on Dr. Choi:
His Business: Destiny Hacks at https://destinyhacks.co/
His Medium Profile, including an article on COVID-19 and Fear: https://medium.com/@EugeneKChoi

End Polio

We ask Rotary members to continue the fight to end polio and support PolioPlus. Please help by donating at www.endpolio.org/donate.
#endpolio

We recognize the COVID-19 emergency will affect some aspects of polio eradication program. While addressing the new challenges of today, we ask Rotary members to continue the fight to end polio and sustain our commitment. Learn why: endpol.io/rtyc19

Akhilesh Jalakanta

Akhilesh Jalakanta was inducted as a new member, classification is Pilot. He was a member of a Rotary Club in Mumbai, India. Akhilesh is a mechanical engineer and is currently taking a pilot instructors course at Abbotsford. A very warm welcome to Akhilesh!

Vanessa Wideski-Low Entropy

Vanessa Wideski Executive Director of Low Entropy had a unsettled childhood, poverty, abuse, drugs, homelessness. To find herself she travelled the world, stayed a monestaries, walked pilgramage trails, 40 day fast (water only) in Panama.

Vanessa returned to Vancouver area, met her husband and they started a business, and had 2 children. Five years ago they split and she started group conscious connections where people coould provide help/support/compassion for each other. This has grown into 8 groups and became a registered charity 3 years ago - Low Entropy.There are womens groups, a mens group and relationships group - conscious coupling.

Low Entropy works on the basis that you can not change people, they must want to change themselves. Provides a safe space for personal growth. Sessions are run by volunteers.

Low Entropy has also started corporate training - compassional conversations.

Recently youth groups have been formed YEY, Youth Empowering Youth. The demand for this group is growing rapidly.

Low Entropy is having their second fundraiser May 2nd at 6 PM at the Hard Rock Casino in Coquitlam. There will be a 60 minute Polynesian Lu'au and dinner for $85, ($100 after March 31) visit:http://lowentropy.ca

Peter Beynon-Oil

Peter, substitute, substitute chair introduced Peter the speaker. Peter the scribe does not have to write much since Doug (thank you Doug and all the other tech people that helped at the meeting) sent out a pdf of my talk.

I would like to add that my introduction to omega oils was at a Rotary meeting back in the mid 1990's when Udo Erasmus gave a talk at one of our meeting. There is a video that I highly recommend you watch "www.naturopathy-uk.com which explains many of the research projects Udo and others have done that illustrate the benefits of omega oils. Please be clear that he is talking about plane based omega oils, not fish oil. |Also Udo's book, "Fats that Heal Fats that Kill is very worth reading. It has a lot of technicl stuff in it but also is a great reference.

To The Heart Of The Matter

http://totheheartofthematter.ca/

Save the Date – February 7th 2020

To the Heart of the Matter’s 22nd Annual Fund Raiser and Valentines Community Event will be held Friday, February 7th, 2020 at the Inn At the Quay. The event includes a champagne reception, buffet dinner provided by the Boathouse, silent and live auctions, as well as a raffle. Last year the evening netted $45,000, which benefits the Royal City Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Burnaby and Monarch Place – a safe house in the New Westminster/Burnaby area for women and children fleeing violence. Both Rotary Clubs sponsor local and international projects while the money raised for Monarch Place remains here in our New Westminster/Burnaby communities.

The anticipated revenue from the raffle ticket sales will be shared among the three beneficiaries. The Royal City Rotary Club plans to use their funds to sponsor a hot lunch program for students in need at New Westminster Secondary School. The Rotary Club of Burnaby will use their funds to support the Progressive Housing Society, a non-profit organization in Burnaby who provides support and services to adults living with mental illness and other issues relating to homelessness as well as the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC. Monarch Place receives a portion of their funding from BC Housing, with the balance of their budget to be raised through sponsorship of events such as To the Heart of the Matter.

Del Paterson-Rotary Foundation

Larry Klier and Del Paterson

Gold Citation

Past District Governor Darcy Long presented Past President Sammy Li with a Gold Citation award. Well done to Sammy and his team of the Rotary Club of Burnaby Rotarians!

District Governor - Bala Naidoo