Agincourt Community Services Association

Rotary Club of North Scarborough

Chairman- President Rocco Colangelo

O Canada- Peter Masson

Grace-   Al Meredith

Attendance- 17 Members and 2 Guests

Guests- Lee Soda from Agincourt Community Services Association

-          Thomas Mo from the Kowloon Golden Mile Rotary Club, Hong Kong. His club has 78 members and is the largest club in Hong Kong.

Announcements-

-Kevin Manuel asked everyone to start bringing in their items for the auction. At present there are only three items processed.

-David Seemungal announced that the Foundation Walk is being held in Newmarket, on October 6/13 at 10am with lunch to follow at noon. Please register for the event as they need a count for lunch.

- Thomas Mo informed us that his club is looking worldwide, for a very deserving person, to be recognized as “The One” for their service to others. (e.g. A modern day Mother Theresa ,if you will). This person will be flown to Hong Kong to receive this honour along with $150,000 US dollars. The three runners up will each receive $50,000 US dollars. For more information please contact Thomas Mo re: the application process.

-Peter Masson informed David Seemungal of an article in the Globe and Mail which actually gave RI credit for leading the way to Polio Eradication. The Big Idea started in the Philippines and has grown to where it is today. Please check out the article. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that Rotary has received credit for this initiative.

Sargeant at Arms:  Lee Soda pulled the lucky number #456 which belonged to Jim Boyko. Unfortunately, the mutant marble lives for another day. Jim was rewarded the consolation prize of $5.00.

 Happy Bucks-Jim Boyko immediately gifted the club with his winnings.

-Jim asked how many members thought that the Leafs would make the play offs this year. The four dreamers were fined.

-Dhanni  Rhamdeen was thrilled with the success of their first off- site meeting. Mike Mushet set the bar high as host.  The meeting was held on his sail boat, and included an evening sail and dinner. The Club was interested to know just how much work was done.

-David Seemungal wanted to thank Group 1 for pressuring Group 4 into having an off-site meeting, as he felt it could well be the best location of the year. 

Program-

David Seemungal introduced our Guest Speaker, Lee Soda, Executive Director of Agincourt Community Services Association (ACSA).

The details of Lee Soda’s Presentation will be provided via a voice file separately at:

https://www.dropbox.com/home/ACSA%20Lee%20Soda.MP3

but she advised us that that ACSA has been hard at work in Scarborough. ACSA will be 40 years young next year. Lee has been trying to prepare an elevator speech to explain what ACSA does for the past couple of years, with no success, so she chose to show us pictures of events that they were involved in, as she read thank you letters and impact statements from many of the people who they have been able to help.

ASCA believes that it is important to give a “Hand Up” not a “Hand Out” since they are reliant on grants and donations; therefore they never know just how much they can do at any one time. Last year they were able to purchase five hundred snow pants, coats and boots with North Scarborough Rotary’s donation. These were well received by the children of many new immigrants to our city.

ACSA has been busy teaching the newcomers how to garden in order to grow food. They also provide canning facilities so that they can learn how to preserve the food that they grow. This is a great savings for them.

ACSA receives funding from the United Way and all three levels of Government. It is also important that they receive donations such as ours as the need is so great.

Our Club presented Lee with a cheque for $4,000 to take back to ACSA .

Joan Manuel thanked Lee for the update on what the ACSA is doing within our community. A certificate to restore the eyesight of a person in India was presented to Lee for her presentation.