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Attention: Prospective 2020 spring grant applicants—Centennial Year Alternative to Spring Grants

In the Rotary year 2020-2021, the four Rotary clubs in Kingston are celebrating 100 years of Rotary service in Kingston. The clubs are collaborating on twelve service projects. The Rotary Club of Cataraqui-Kingston will be using funds that would normally be used for our Community Service Project Grants in the spring of 2020 for one of the twelve collaborative projects--a major one that will be of wide-ranging benefit to our community. Because of that, we will not be receiving applications for grants this spring. Please check our Web site in the summer for news about our fall grants.

The 22nd Annual Rotary Community Auction raised $40,500

The Rotary Community Auction brought to you by the Rotary Club of Cataraqui-Kingston is our major fundraiser, providing funds to support our worthwhile projects. Our club is grateful to all the sponsors, donors, and bidders. These funds will be used to continue our work next year, beginning in July 2020.

For examples of our work locally, see the stories below on our recently awarded local grants.

Are you an established professional who wants to make positive changes in your community and the world? Our club members are dedicated people who share a passion for community service and friendship. We provide opportunities for youth development, partner through local grants with other organizations to meet community needs, and collaborate with Rotarians internationally to serve in Kenya, India, and other parts of the world. Become a Rotarian and join our diverse group of business and professional leaders in service and fellowship.

Annual Report 2017-2018

Elaine Power, Queen's University

Mar 03, 2020 7:00 AM

Poverty, class, food and health

View entire list...

Easter Seals Launch - Nicole and Jessica Lessiter

Our speakers today were introduced by Elizabeth Cohoe. Todd Colborne of the Kingston Club joined Rotary 22 years ago and immediately joined the Easter Seals Committee. He has been involved in Easter Seals since that time. Special guests were an Easter Seals mother and daughter, Nicole and three year old Jessica Lessiter.

Todd began with a slide presentation. We learned that Easter Seals was founded in 1922 by a group of Rotary Clubs in southern Ontario, and has now spread to all provinces. Money raised stays in the region where it was donated, based on postal codes. Easter Seals serves kids with physical disabilities. Easter Seals is approaching its 100-year celebration, and to celebrate, the Kingston Club is creating a campfire area for camp Merrywood for the centenary.

Todd outlined the structure of Easter Seals and talked about the two camps in Ontario. Children served are under the age of 19, are permanent residents of Ontario, with a permanent disability that requires a assistive device. There are also post secondary scholarships available through Easter Seals. Families apply mostly because raising a child with a physical disability is very costly. The equipment is not only expensive, but also needs to be replaced as children grow. They may need multiple devices and this can cost up to $40,000 a year. Todd showed examples of how much these items can cost. It was also interesting to hear about Camp Merrywood, as the activities that are available are pretty typical of any children’s camp. This camp costs about $2,500 for a 10-day session.

The kick off for this year’s campaign will be on Feb 20^th 5-7 pm at Kingsbridge Retirement Centre. There will be TV segments over the next month. Team fundraising will take place as it has in past. Your business can support the effort with an ad. CKWS donates the cost of these adsto Easter Seals. Todd suggested that Rotary Clubs could do an ad, and there are sponsorship opportunities also available. There are also other local events throughout the year. This year’s pancake breakfast at Smitty’s is one of them.

(Todd will send a link to a great video which will be circulated to all members.)

Todd is assisting Jim Rymerson to set up our club team. Jim is team captain this year, thanks to him for volunteering! We can donate on the page he is setting up online, and we can also donate offline by cheque or credit card. Forms are available at club meetings.

Nicole Lessiter talked about her and her husband’s experience being parents to Jessica who is three years old. Jessica was born with a very rare neurological condition called Pitt Hopkins Syndrome. It affects every muscle in her body. Symptoms include developmental delay, breathing apneas, seizures and reflux. At the age of three she is unable to walk, and some with this condition never do. She will be forever non-verbal, but it is possible for her to have a good life. They knew early that there was a problem but they had to wait for testing. They have been involved with Easter Seals since 2018. Having no benefits through employment, Easter Seals may be the only way to afford what Jessica needs. As funds are not unlimited though, they were advised in 2018 that money available had run out by August. In 2019 the funds ran out in July. Nicole talked about some of the special devices needed for Jessica and they are very expensive. For example, an appropriate walker would be $2,500. Her wheel chair was almost $6,000., and she will outgrow it. Parents try to find the money and only use Easter Seals as a last resort. Easter Seals gives parents $400 a year for diapers. The government doesn’t assist. Other needs include car seats, bed stairs and lifts. Parents try to conserve and share equipment as their children out grow things. That’s how they got their first $10,000., stroller. During Jessica’s first year, the cost for equipment, meds, and special food was $50,000. They have downsized their home twice in order to help make Jessica’s care affordable. The reason Nicole presented this information about cost was to emphasize that donations are really important.

The link for Easter Seals Eastern Ontario is http://www.easterseals.org/contact-us/ontario-east-region/

Krista Leclair of the Kingston Club is the Senior Development Officer for the Kingston Area

The link to Camp Merrywood is https://www.eastersealscamps.org/about/camp-merrywood

Heather Nogrady thanked Todd and Nicole and presented our traditional loaf of bread to Nicole.

Steve Snyder, Queen's Golden Gaels Football Coach - "Dog Stamps and ABC's"

John Farrow introduced our speaker Steven Snyder, Queen's Golden Gaels Head Football Coach. Steve is only the fifth coach in Queen’s football history (no pressure there), so there's the weight of history on him! Born in London, Ontario, Steve played football for St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, but returned to coach at Western University. John thanked Queen’s Alumni Magazine for reporting Steve's story, giving him the idea for the invite.

Steve began by thanking us for the invitation. People only see the 'game face' of Queen's Football and don't realize that there is so much going on behind the scenes. There are 110 student athletes on the team – the staff recruited all of them, and purposely brought them to Queen’s. Queen's Football operates 365 days a year and the student athletes are committed to the team 6 days a week! There are also 13 coaches, 5 of whom are full-time paid employees, plus 3 team doctors, 2 physiotherapists, 2 videographers. 2 equipment managers and more. This means there aree over 125 people as part of the Queen's football family.

Steve focuses heavily on team culture and coaching his assistant coaches – which is a different role for him from when he was one of the assistant coaches at Western. At 34 years old, Steve is the youngest university football head coach in Canada. The foundation of his philosophy and team is ‘reliability’. This translates to the ABC's: A-Always show up for your commitments, B-Be on time (early is on time), and C-Communicate (beforehand, if you can’t do A or B). If you live your life by the ABC's success will follow.

Pride in a team comes from ownership – the greatest teams are formed when the teams themselves take the leadership role. In Steve's first team meeting the names of all the players were posted and the team members were asked to vote on the most reliable members – those 14 guys unite the team and drive the culture forward. Called the Unity Council – they have a direct role in what the team does. When Steve wants to institute a new protocol, they help him roll it out.

Relationships are key and there must be broader connection than just football – even if football isn’t going well, Steve wants to have a healthy, positive connection through mentorship. To this end, Steve also developed the 'Gael for Life' program, which teaches life skills for success beyond football and Queen’s. The influence of a coach is so extensive in the lives of the players (Steve sees them more than their parents do) - why would they want to confine their world to 'just chasing a football'? The idea is to prepare people for life beyond football with life skills. The Unity Council helped to decide what life skills are most important to learn: networking, responsible social media use, home ownership, job interviews and resume building, basic financial literacy….. and the team was even taught handshaking! Can’t have a sub-par handshake! Steve believes that the players will be meeting many people over their careers and first impressions count.

Steve says this is the most fun as he's ever had as a coach – for 6 days, 12 hours a day, the coaching staff interviewed every player in a mock job interview situation and then gave each other feedback. Then the staff shared top job interview questions to be prepared for when the players are in this situation again. All the players wanted to know when they could do this again! This led Steve to ask us to please consider our students for any summer employment opportunities you may know about. You will benefit from having a dedicated employee at your business.

As part of the Gaels' commitment to Kingston, the team has a Community Engagement coach – team members participate in food bank fundraising (Tackle Hunger), autism mentorship, and are in the local schools several times a year. Steve says we have no professional football team, so the Gaels want to be the best team representing Kingston.

The Gaels only play 8 regular season games in a year, and can only play a maximum of 13 if the go all the way, but we keep working every day for the balance of the year. There is no 'sitting on the couch' for these guys. Every day the work on conditioning, developing football skills, and preparing for that next game.

Right now Steve and the coaches are in the recruiting phase. Each week they bring 4-6 student athletes to campus to check us out. This week there are 4 from British Columbia, next week students from Manitoba. We have 3 separate evaluations of each candidate’s potential : physical (in person or videotape of playing - the 'dog' stamp), academic (transcripts - the 'scholar' stamp), and most importantly, character – that’s where Steve comes in : will they contribute to the culture? Can we trust them? Will they be reliable? They snoop on them (social media), talk to their High School coach, visit the family home, high school etc. The team is looking for OKG's (Our Kinda Guy) for the final stamp – driven to graduate (can they succeed even without football); passionate about the ‘process’ of football (90% of what we do is preparation); respectful and responsible: you’re representing our team – we must treat everyone with respect. Our number 1 goal is to be the most respected team on campus and in the community. Our number 2 goal is to win the championship. Steve wants to build champions that can win us a championship.

In closing, Steve talked about their marvelous stadium, and invited us to come out see a game (maybe a Rotary Day?). He also spoke briefly about his time playing professional football in Germany, where he met the women who would become his wife.

Steve was thanked today for his presentation by Ed Thompson. Steve is an intense fellow who is should take the Gaels football team to new heights, and develop some amazing young adults in the process.

Doug Townsend, Honourary Rotarian

President Ana Sutherland was pleased to induct Doug Townsend as an Honourary Rotarian this morning. Doug is a Charter Member of Cataraqui Rotary.

"Godfather" Fred Richmond with Doug

In reflecting on his almost 35 years as a Rotarian, Doug told us that in 1985 the two Kingston clubs (Kingston and Kingston-Frontenac) realized that there was a need and room for another Rotary club in Kingston, and that the new club should be a breakfast club. On May 10th, 1985, The Rotary Club of Cataraqui-Kingston was chartered with 26 members, although the club had been meeting since April of that year. Membership has waxed and waned over the years, as has membership in many service clubs.

Another significant event that Doug reflected on was the admission of women in to Rotary in 1987. Rotary was taken to the California Supreme Court where it was determined that it was a public organization, not a private club. Shortly after the decision Kingston and Cataraqui-Kingston admitted their first female members, much to the benefit of Rotary according to Doug. One practice that fell by the wayside was the telling of jokes to avoid a fine from the Fine Master, as the jokes were on the risque side. How far we have come!

Initially our major source of funds was from bingo, and the club made many donations to local organizations, including major ones to KGH. Doug has been very involved with the local grants process over the past ten years, where his actuarial training has been invaluable in collating hundreds of grant applications into easy to handle summaries. Doug has also tracked the numbers and told us that we have handed out over $250,000 during the 10-year history of the present grants process (and $100,000 to International projects it was added).

Being granted Honourary membership legitimizes his work on the Grants, annual Auction, and Rotary Centennial Project. Doug is honoured to be a member of Cataraqui Rotary.

Leah Werry, The Nanny Angel Network

John Farrow introduced Leah Werry, Kingston Champion for the Nanny Angel Network. Leah was drawn to the amazing work that the Nanny Angel Network (NAN for short) when she was introduced at a fundraising dinner in 2018. NAN is the only charity providing free in-home specialized child care to the children of mothers with cancer. Leah learned NAN was looking for its first satellite location, she recommended Kingston, and was recruited to be the Champion. The Kingston location began operations in 2019. In October 2019 Leah represented NAN at the Astellas Oncology Changing Cancer Care competition, which funds the most innovative non-medical ideas in cancer care. NAN took home the $100,000 US first prize, and Leah shared her winning pitch with us.

When moms get sick, they choose between their own care and their children’s care. She had an experience of her food poisoning, but didn’t call for help! How many women with cancer, do the same thing, or don’t have anyone to call? Cancer treatment needs a dose of humanity for the whole family, especially if it’s the mom who has cancer. The Nanny Angel Network provides in-home child care, up to 4 hours per week. To date, the Network has helped over 800 families. The Network was filling a huge gap, but new needs emerged. Kids were not prepared to deal with the illness and sometimes the loss of their mothers. Stress from the situation shows in many serious ways, including acting out, and even suicide, and also affect health later in life. She shared her experience as a youth age 14 of her dad fighting for his life after a disastrous accident, and the complete loss of normalcy in family life. The Nanny Angels are carefully trained to provide regular support, offering some consistency in family life. Often families don’t have the remarkable community support that she experienced when her dad was injured. The Network provides kids with coping skills, attention, care, and an opportunity to laugh and let loose.

She learned about the Nanny Angel Network serendipitously, through an invitation of one of her business clients to a gala. Soon she was volunteering to help set up a branch of the organization in Kingston. So far, since beginning in the summer of 2019, they have been helping 12 families. The organization was selected out of over 240 organizations around the world to receive a grant of $100,000USD. The need in Kingston is huge and the catchment area is large. The organization is in need of volunteers and in help in getting the word out about their services.

Questions and Discussion

Q: Talk about the camp?

A: We haven’t set it up yet in Kingston, but hope to. Summer is often one of the most difficult times. We are looking for partners to help make a camp opportunity available for children. We help children up to age 16,

Q: What about your event in February?

A: February 5th, at the Sanctuary co-working space. We’ll provide you with more information. It’s an opportunity to learn about our services and opportunities for volunteering.

Q: Did you create a TED talk?

A: We are going to TED Med in Boston in the spring.

Q: How to contact you? Charitable? Canada Helps?

A: Web site, Yes, Yes

Robert Reid, also at Sanctuary, thanked her, saying that moms are the most awesome people in the world.

Queen's Career Apprenticeship Program

John Farrow introduced Tom Hewitt, Nour Mazloum, and Erica McIlquham this morning to give us an update on the Queen's Career Apprenticeship Program (QCAP). In the first year of the program Tom had come to speak to our club (about two years ago), so it was timely for them to come back and report on the results.

Tom thanked us for the invitation and briefly spoke on his role as Chief Development Officer and his 30 years experience in fund raising for hospitals and universities. Tom also reviewed that there are too many arts graduates in Kingston leaving Queen's without meaningful work (and often a pile of debt). Arts graduates offer much to employers - critical thinking, communications skills, problem solving skills, flexibility, adaptability, and digital literacy. QCAP empowers firms in Kingston to hire and keep Queen's grads in Kingston by offering subsidies of up to $4,000 per month for the first four months of the first year of guaranteed employment. This comes from the largesse of Alan Rottenberg, father of a Queen's grad who invested some of his considerable fortune in a foundation to provide funds for the program. Alan sits on the advisory group with representatives from Queen's and KEDCO.

QCAP launched in 2018 with 10 students, then expanded to 20 in 2019. This year's ambitious goal is jobs for 40 students. Firms need to be at least 5 employees to qualify, and jobs should be posted by January 30th. Students have until February 13th to apply and following interviews and selection, students begin work in May. Results from the first two years are promising - 25 students have found permanent work, attracting $1 million in investment and generating $3 million in new payroll. All of it in Kingston, and all high quality jobs! Nour herself is a success story of QCAP - she secured a communications position with KEDCO and is enjoying her work there.

If you are interested in getting involved, think about how your business could benefit from a recent graduate as part of your workforce. Spread the word to prospective employers (deadline is January 30th). If you need more information, go toKingstonEcDev.com/QCAK, or email Nour at mazloum@kingstoncanada.com.

One questions asked was what is the long-term future of the program? How long will it be funded. Mr. Rottenberg is looking to expand to other universities, and is approaching other philanthropists to help in the expansion. At some point Tom said perhaps the value will be seen and the subsidies may not even be necessary. Bill Egnatoff suggested there could possibly be a tie in with a new Rotaract Club.

John Gales thanked our presenters for coming and updating us on this innovative and important program.

The Machine Mavericks Robotics Team

John Farrow introduced Olivia, Charlotte, and Sara from the Machine Mavericks Robotics Team. Olivia reached out to Bill Egnatoff who suggested them as speakers. The Mavericks are a community High School Robotics team made up of students from 5 area schools who in their inaugural year made it to the world championships!

The Mavericks compete as part of the FIRST ( For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology ) Robotics Canada. At the high school level, teams of 10-50 students design, program and build a 125lb. robot. FIRST has 4 categories, starting with Lego robotics for kids as young as 6 years of age.

The Machine Mavericks are 20 students from 5 different Kingston high schools and are 52% female in membership. They are unique as they are the only team with their own machine shop (6,000 square feet, with milling machines and plasma cutter), computer lab and practice field. They are getting lots of media coverage, even from The Agenda on TVO – particularly around their goal of gender parity in club membership. The Mavericks chose 50% instead of an all-female team because they want to reflect the reality of their future workplaces.

The Mavericks were a bit discouraged after their first competition in Toronto, but did some redesign work and won their next competition in Windsor (failure and reworking a project is a big part of the learning process according to the girls). One success from the first competition was the awarding to the Mavericks of the Rookie Inspiration Award. They then went on to the provincial championships which they won, along with getting the Rookie All Star Award, and then went on to the world competition in Detroit, placing 30th out of 68 teams in their division. Detroit was a big deal - there were 400 teams from 37 countries! 47,000 people in total descended on the city for this competition. The competitions require the teams to design and build their robot, then the robot must play a 'game', negotiating obstacles and placing items like balls in a target. A new game comes out every year and they have just received details of the new game for this year.

Outreach is a huge part of what the Mavericks do too. They have been involved in presenting to and working with younger kids' robotics teams, sponsoring international teams in Puerto Rico, and working to start a 'breakfast with bots' group in local schools. They have also created handouts on promoting diversity and teamwork. And they are gracious enough to let the other two area teams use their practice space.

After several questions from members, Ed Thomson thanked the members of the team with the usual loaf of bread. Quite an impressive group of young people judging by their presentation.

Annual Holiday Party

Last Tuesday members and guests gathered at the Oddfellows Hall for Cataraqui Rotary's Annual Holiday Party. The Dr. Chris Alfano Jazz Trio provided jazzy seasonal music and the Oddfellows prepared a delicious turkey dinner. There was great conversation and a chance to catch up with spouses and significant others and share some holiday cheer. Thanks to Ana and Ron Pols for organizing this great event.