Chair: President Avrum
Anthem: Arthur
Toast to King, Canada, and Rotary by President Avrum
Attendance: 15 (12 members, 3 guests) - The guests were Joan Masson, a guest of Peter Masson, and Gautam and Kalpana Acharya, visiting Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Bombay N.W. in India.
Gerd Wengler, "The Bruce Trail Conservancy."
Dhanni introduced our speaker, Past President Gerd Wengler, who provided a screen presentation, complete with video and still photos showing the beauty of the Bruce Trail scenery.
Gerd talked about this protected corridor of natural wilderness that stretches along the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara to Tobermory on Georgian Bay.
The tagline for the Bruce Trail Conservancy is, "Preserving a ribbon of wilderness for everyone, forever". The corridor is over 900 km long and is divided into 9 Club Sections, with each volunteer club responsible for maintaining their section of the corridor.
Gerd then covered some of the history of the Bruce Trail Conservancy. The escarpment was broken overnight in 1961 by excavating equipment, which caused an outcry and motivated a group of founders to take steps to protect the Niagara Escarpment for future generations. In 1962 The Bruce Trail Conservancy was formed, Canadian artist Robert Bateman being one of the founders. In 1967, the Bruce Trail won The Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The Bruce Trail continues to expand but at present is about 18,000 acres, containing 250 nature reserves and 84 species, several of which are at risk. The Conservancy is operated entirely by volunteers, including Gerd's wife Dorothy. The trail is blazed, both the main trail as well as side trails. It costs $5 Million a year to maintain it, which is covered by donations as well as interest from a Bruce Trail foundation.
Gerd and Dorothy have personally completed walking the 900 km trail 8 times, and are working on their 9th time, making for a combined distance so far of over 8,000 km. Gerd shared beautiful photos of some of their treks along this beautiful ribbon of land. Only 6 others have completed the trail 8 times in its history, but 4,500 have done the complete trail at least once.
Gordon Brown thanked Gerd for a very interesting and informative presentation.
To see Gerd's beautiful pictures of the Bruce Trail, please follow this link:
Announcements:President Avrum asked for announcements:
- Danny Cassidy reminded us about the Foundation Walk on October 15th and advised that information would be circulated together with pledge forms.
- The District Governor's visit will be on September 20th in the evening in lieu of our regular meeting and will involve 5 Scarborough Rotary Clubs. Spouses and guests are welcome. The cost of $30 per person and there will be a buffet dinner. Register and send payment to Dhanni.
- President Avrum had emailed the members about other Rotary events, including a very interesting frog race.
- Our guests from Bombay then exchanged Rotary banners with President Avrum.
Sgt-at-Arms Danny did not levy fines, but only asked for Happy Bucks, including:
- Our Bombay guest Rotarians donated some happy bucks
- Barry donated 5 happy bucks for his weeks with his son and granddaughter and their survival of a serious car crash without injury; although Barry's Malibu was not so lucky.
- Joan and Peter enjoyed a round of golf this morning.
- Others also contributed Happy Bucks.
The meeting was then terminated by President Avrum.
