John Gale introduced his daughter Reagan Gale whose topic was about changes in thinking as we age.
Reagan received her PhD from the University of Windsor with a focus in Clinical Neuropsychology. She is the founding president of the Psychological Society of the Yukon and President-Elect of the College of Alberta Psychologists. Reagan is the Director of Clinical Psychology for the Yukon Department of Health and Social Services, where she has been formally recognized as one of the emerging leaders within the public service. She has practiced privately providing neuropsychological, psychological, and psycho-vocational assessment in Whitehorse. Reagan’s practice focuses largely on the areas of aging, cognition, and brain injury.
Reagan was a Rotary Exchange student to the Philippines, hosted by the Rotary Club of Kingston and the Islands, and is a current member of the Rotary Club of Whitehorse. She has two young sons, a highly neurotic dog, and enjoys running (slowly) in her spare time.
“Forget About It”
As we age, some things slow down and some things become stronger, and it’s normal for thinking to change as we get older. Cognitive processing slows and reaction time slows. Speech is harder to hear and understand. Novel problems are harder to solve, and there are small changes in working, or short-term memory. Most older adults believe that memory will decline with age, so are primed for it and look for it. The use of memory strategies can improve our ability to learn and remember new information. Examples of strategies are writing lists, and using phone reminders about things to do.
Some things improve with age, like memory for words and concepts. Emotion and logic are integrated in our reasoning. Older adults have an increased acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty. Unexpected and challenging changes would be in thinking, social behaviour, personality and self care. Some changes do merit attention. It’s normal to forget names of people, but forgetting names of close family and friends or recent events, and asking for the same information over and over is not. It’s normal to misplace items but putting objects in unusual places, such as putting keys in the microwave are concerning.
It can be normal to pick up a pill bottle and wonder, “Did I already take this?” Unfortunately, although this is normal, some older adults worry that this is a sign of dementia. Everyone has memory lapses and it’s usually unnecessary to worry about it.
It would be abnormal if one is very confused and not just slower. It is normal to find multitasking more difficult but it’s not normal if it is really hard to concentrate and pay attention. It’s normal to make a bad decision sometimes, but not normal to frequently show poor judgment in dealing with money or assessing risk. Everyone makes occasional mistakes in dealing with their own finances, but not normal if a person can’t keep track of monthly bills.
Regarding language, it’s normal to have difficulty finding a word, but not normal if this is frequent or if someone begins to refer to really common objects as “that thing”. It’s normal to lose the thread of a conversation especially if distracted or if many are speaking at the same time. To regularly lose the thread of what someone is saying is not.
Stress can increase these challenges. We tend to remember things that we pay attention to. You can’t remember what you didn’t learn, or in other words put into your memory, if your attention is elsewhere at the time. Low mood and high anxiety both impair memory and if that is the case, these should be addressed.
Usually people don’t have a problem with orientation (that is knowing who, where and when you are). It is not normal to lose track of the date, the season or the passage of time. Getting lost or not knowing where you are in a familiar place is troubling.
Most adults do not get dementia, but many people worry about it, and this can lead to thinking that normal lapses are a symptom. Depression related cognitive dysfunction leads to a quicker onset of dementia, whereas it could otherwise take as much as fifteen years. Vagueness, memory loss and slowed speech can be a sign of dementia and these can go into remission with effective treatments.
Adults today are under pressure to age perfectly. You are told that if you just do enough to keep fit, eat a healthy diet, and do things to stimulate cognition, you can do this. There is an industry in selling products to look young and this is especially aimed at women. You cannot prevent normal changes, but you can learn to be gentle with yourself and have fun.
Q&A:
There is some truth in crosswords and similar pursuits being helpful. What can be more protective is doing NEW things that are both cognitive and physical, such as learning to play a new musical instrument. It is important to maintain social relationships. This can be a challenge in retirement, and you need to be intentional. Rotary can play an important role.
Is a decline as the day progresses a sign of impending dementia? No. It could just be normal fatigue. In dementia there is a term “sundowning”. Many people with dementia evidence increased agitation and confusion as the day progresses.
If anyone would like to ask Reagan a question, she would be available by email at reagan.gale@gmail.com.
Heather Nogrady offered our thanks, and as a loaf of bread was out of the question, Reagan said she would go and make herself some toast and peanut butter for breakfast.
Reagan's presentation can be viewed at https://portal.clubrunner.ca/1091/Documents/en-us/1363f16e-bd43-4853-975b-66ad1cce1ac7/1/
Greg Mumford introduced Paul Elsley, one of our speakers. Paul is the President of the Rotary Club of Kingston, and is a real example of Service Above Self. It was Paul with his affiliation to Isthmus who brought the Covid 19 food project together, and he is also involved in a back pack project every fall. Paul has been Bill Egnatoff’s partner in Adventures in History, and with his connections to the schools, he has been instrumental in getting students to attend Rotary youth programs. He took over RYLA when it came to Kingston three years ago, and took it virtual this year. Paul is going to be assisted by Jorja Majury, who is a student who attended RYLA this year.
RYLA 2020:
RYLA occurred in May from the 29th to the 31st. It’s always difficult to find a time that works for all the school boards with differing exam and course schedules.
The rationale for Rotary Youth Programs is schools are less able to provide enrichment programs, and these experiences can be transformational. They build cultural literacy and provide a place to form life-long friendships. Youth programs are integral with the Rotary International ethos. They also serve as a place to expose youth to Rotary and eventually have a relationship with Rotary. Paul attended RYLA as a student in 1975, and he has also found that many of today’s members were introduced to Rotary through youth programs.
Recruitment is also a challenge – this doesn’t work without including schools in the process. The idea is that it should be a collaboration between Rotary and the schools. We should also invite youth who have attended a program to come and speak at a club meeting.
Numbers – There were 53 students, representing 25 Rotary Clubs in District 7040 and 7010. They were 15 – 18 years old, between their third year in high school to their final year, and there were 13 male students and 40 were female. There were 12 from the USA and 41 from Canada. A unique benefit of being online is that American students can participate without the hassles of border crossing!
Location – This is the last year in the cycle for Kingston. RYLA will move to Montreal next year.
Key Personnel – Leaders came from multiple Rotary Clubs and Rotaract Clubs.
Hurdles – This year, the Covid 19 pandemic made recruitment a challenge because the schools were physically closed. It made it more difficult to connect with the delegates. There were technical challenges due to running the program virtually. Typically, we can engage with students within a classroom setting but this wasn’t possible.
Opportunities – There were some benefits in the way RYLA was held. Kids are familiar with technology. Costs were reduced and some logistical problems with the international border didn’t exist. Time commitment was limited, 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. The potential number of participants was unlimited. The fee was $100 rather than $500 so some clubs sponsored multiple students.
Jorja took over and talked about her experience as an attendee. She found that the speakers were amazing, and she gained confidence in talking to and meeting people. She learned a lot about leadership, identifying her own leadership style and skills. The participants developed a project called Fitness 4 Food that is going to raise money for the Covid 19 food project.
Paul said that being in charge of RYLA has been a rewarding experience. There was a lot of collaboration between Rotary Clubs, and seeing it evolve over three years was interesting, as it improved every year. There was great support received from the schools as well as the Rotary Clubs.
For the Fitness 4 Food project the students will be choosing an activity and then looking for pledges. Jorja was asked to send an email that will be forward to all of our members.
During the question period, we learned that Greg Mumford has known Jorja for about 10 years, as it was her grandfather Greg Hasted who brought Greg into Rotary.
John Gale thanked our speakers, pointing out that this year’s theme for Rotary is “Rotary Brings Opportunities”. This presentation showed that Rotary brings opportunities to Rotarians as well as youth. John also noted that the Rotary FAR project wants to establish an Interact Club.
President’s Prologue
I spent the last week at cottage on the north shore of Lake Huron, a fabulous week. Last night, I got a call from my daughter in Whitehorse, calling to congratulate me for beginning our new Rotary year. She joined Rotary in Whitehorse. We discussed the new theme for the Rotary year—Rotary Opens Opportunities. She sees the impact of COVID on Rotary as an opportunity to redo how we do meetings and to rethink how we do our fellowship. I am finding meeting through Zoom more interesting than our breakfast meetings. We seem to all be able to talk with one another, not just with the same people at the same table. Her club is old, and we’re also an older club. If we rely on new media, we have an opportunity to invite people and make it an attractive meeting place.
President’s Address
The theme for this year is Rotary Opens Opportunities. The impact of Zoom and new technologies has been beneficial for our club. I first want to talk about how successful our year was last year. Fifteen months ago, I challenged us to embrace a big project building on our international connections, to build connections with Pathways. It has now been approved by the Foundation and is well underway. We now have an opportunity to deliver that project to the community. Already, because of this project, we are building a whole panel of Rotarians who want to act as mentors. There are many more graduates than mentors, so I hope that many more Rotarians will want to become mentors to the Pathways graduates. I expect that the mentorship role will develop. I expect that other Rotarians and other people in the community will volunteer to act as mentors. It becomes a way to build connections not simply with Pathways but to draw other members of the community into what Rotary is doing in Kingston. It is a way to introduce ourselves to the community as a whole and to bring people into our club, without relying on the old personal-connections model.
Because we’re now involved with Pathways, we have the opportunity to do other things besides mentorship with the Pathways project—the Rotary FAR (Facilitator of Alumni Relations) Project. For instance, we just helped Pathways celebrate the graduation of their high school students. That will bring other opportunities to build and deepen the relationship with Pathways. Our focus in the Rotary FAR program is on getting students into post-secondary education and into the workplace and to help graduates find employment. One of the key partners is KEYS Job Centre, an organization in Kingston that is focusing on helping youth find employment in the Kingston area. It will be a key participant in making the FAR program a success. It’s an opportunity for us to build a relationship with KEYS, to assist them in helping graduates from the Pathways program to find employment.
Lots of things will happen for our club this year as we work on delivering the FAR Project. We will have to build relationships that will help to build the brand of Rotary in the community and bring people into our club.
Other things happened last year in addition to embracing Pathways and doing something that’s really ambitious. At the end of the year there were three big projects that involved a lot of “sweat equity”, as Murray (Cotton) likes to say. Through our National Committee, we have the development of a relationship with the community of Loughborough and the Loughborough Public School. We’re now talking about building a greenhouse, assisting that school to integrate with its community in a way it hasn’t done before, through the re-establishment of a home economics course at that school. We’re going to be able to build on that throughout the year. We’ve put a lot of our funds into making that happen. We’re going to assist the community and the school to work out how that’s going to work. It’s an opportunity for us to facilitate and integrate the efforts of the community in that part of Kingston. It will also be a way to build awareness of Rotary, to build personal connections with that community, and to draw members of that community into Rotary.
That’s the product of the work of our National Committee over the last year or two. We’re now starting to see real accomplishments and the possibility for big impacts because of the efforts of that committee. Finally, the COVID-19 food hamper project, a co-operative effort of all of the clubs in Kingston, is a real opportunity for sweat equity. Many of us are delivering or packing food hampers. That’s a way to build relationships among our clubs. This COVID-19 project has really facilitated individuals from the various clubs to get together and to talk to one another again in a way they haven’t done in many years simply because our clubs become silos. We talk among ourselves but we haven’t really had a lot to say with the other clubs because we’re not going to their meetings. Participating in a joint effort like the food hamper project leads to meeting Rotarians across clubs regularly. We build links that are very helpful for building the Rotary brand in Kingston. Rotarians start to think of themselves simply as Rotarians, rather than as members of particular clubs. Those are all good developments that provide opportunities for building our brand, delivering meaningful service to our community, and attracting new members.
I remember when I was first thinking about how I would go to the club and talk people into a big project that was going to last for a few years, with total cost over $100,000US. I thought that most people in our club would shirk that because it seemed overly ambitious. It was a much larger project financially than we had ever bitten off. It turned out that finding the money wasn’t the most difficult thing at all. We found the money because we were able to build on our international network, but we were also able to get the support of other clubs in Kingston. We should never forget that the Rotary Club of Kingston put in $6,300 US into that project. That’s almost $10,000 Canadian. That’s a big contribution. We wouldn’t have been able to do the project without that or it would have been that much more difficult to accomplish. But because we were able to raise that money, building on our existing relationships, we got that project going. Now the challenge is to actually deliver the project.
We have many opportunities for personal service—as mentors to the students in the FAR Project, as managers of the COVID-19 food hamper project, or as facilitators or community organizers at the Loughborough Public School and the greenhouse project there, or packing or delivering food hampers. We have real opportunities as Rotarians and members of the club to actually physically deliver service to the community.
In each case, with all of these projects, we start with the money to get things going. Money is important to us because we’re a service organization, but it’s just the key that allows us to help facilitate the planning and delivery. It’s what we bring to the table initially, but what we also bring is our own talent and time to devote to these projects. We have time and talent to contribute, not only to those three projects that we have going. As we begin to think more ambitiously about what we might do, all of us have contacts in the community as a whole. As people become aware of the potential that Rotary presents, our members are going to be able to come back to us with suggestions for what else we might do. But in each case, I think we’re going to find that the first ask from members of the community is going to be our money, but the second ask is our time and talent. Actually, I think our time and talent is the bigger, better contribution, one that we’re going to be able to deliver. The real opportunity for us, going forward, is to be able to develop other projects that our members think are important. We’ll be able to support one another in doing these things.
I want to end with this. Our first contribution to most of these projects in Kingston is the delivery of money, but, I think, not the most important and certainly not the last. Contributing funds enables us, if we wish, to become involved in the planning and delivery of the projects that are undertaken. We become facilitators. This is different from what we used to do a few years ago, when we raised money and gave it to other people (organizations) and they went off and did their stuff. Often we never heard from them again with respect to whether their projects were successful. We should be levering our money to get into planning and delivery of projects. That’s an opportunity that Rotary provides to us. The funding of our projects, whether internationally or locally, has enabled us to develop a whole network of contacts. We’re going to be able to go back to those people, the people that we’ve worked with in the past, and to new people who become attracted to us, to develop projects.
As a service club, we need to raise and spend money. How do we contribute meaningfully to our club’s major fund-raiser this year, our Internet auction? It has been on hold for a while. The people who have been planning it feel that we should go ahead this year. I want to emphasize how important it is for us as a club to raise those funds. I thought about issuing a challenge that we should aim to raise so many thousands of dollars per member. Maybe that’s better left for a later discussion among our members. We ought to be establishing a target, I think, bearing in mind that the money we raise allows us to finance serious projects, but more importantly, our financial contribution really is the way that we get to the table to be engaged in planning and delivery, the sweat equity that Murray has talked about on many occasions. There’s no point in simply raising money to give to other people. If we raise the money to have a role in deciding how it’s spent, that’s much more fun.
That leads me to the final point—remembering how Ana finished her talk at the beginning of the year—let’s not forget that we have fun. And we did. We had more fun last year than we have in a long time. I hope that we’ll have as much fun this year as we did last year because we all pitched in and got enthused about Rotary.
Comments
Ana: I like what you said a lot and I plan to support you every step of the way!
John Farrow: I noticed with interest that our new RI president did not rise through the ranks of Rotary in the traditional way; he came through very active involvement in student exchange and he is dedicated to getting more young people involved in Rotary.
Doug Hicks: Thanks to John Gale. Based on observation from experience in several cities, and membership in two Rotary Clubs and Kiwanis, he knows we need a stable platform from which to do our work. We have that, a template for other Rotary clubs. More important is our vision for the future. He thanked the club for the opportunity to be part of it.
Although we could not meet in person, our annual year-end meeting was a great success. The evening started off with Bill and Joan Egnatoff, aka Classic Delights Duo, performing some summer themed music for our listening pleasure. The sound was great (on my speakers anyway).
Then Ana called the meeting to order. There was much to cover. Ana talked about the achievements of the Club in a year that saw significant challenges since mid-March. After a short break our meetings resumed using Zoom, thanks to Ana pushing us to keep meeting, and to Ed's technical help. Funds from the Club, community donors, Rotary District 7040, and several NGO's like the United Way were pooled to support a food delivery project that helped the most vulnerable in Kingston - kids who depended on The Food Sharing Project for healthy food, and their families. The program will continue through the summer. It is a great example of Rotary coming together in tough times. International Projects continued, especially the Breat Cancer Detection Project with our sister club in India. And the Pathways Project (officially FAR) came to fruition. There is much to look forward to in John Gale's Year as President.
Ana also had the pleasure of inducting for new members and welcoming two new friends of Rotary. Geln Roberts and Jim Rymerson have both transitioned from Friends of Rotary to full time members, and Sean Goodall and Doug Hicks were inducted as new members. We'll hear more about Doug and Sean soon, and Glen and Jim too. Amanda Stolk and her partner Mike Amess were also welcomed as friends of Rotary. It's been a long time since 6 inductions occurred at one year end meeting - it bodes well for our club's future.
There were 5 Paul Harris Awards given out at the year-end meeting as well. Ana awarded Rick Fiedorec with a Paul Harris for all he has done for the club since handing over the reins to Ana as President (more about Rick later).
The Foundation Committee awarded four members, but first, never missing an opportunity to talk about our Club and member support, John and Bernie highlighted some of the achievements of the year - our Club is first in per-capita Annual Fund donations, and also first in total Polio Plus donations. Bernie also highlighted some notable milestones for Polio - a new vaccine has been developed that is safer, thank to The Gates Foundation. Nigeria will likely be declared Polio-free in August, and next year India will celebrate 10 years being Polio free.
John first awarded Murray Cotton, noting that Murray is an extraordinary fundraisers in all the club's activities, has pushed us to make "sweat equity" projects part of our club experience, and always questions how we do things and thinks of how we can be a better club.
John also awarded Robert Reid. Robert has steered the National Committee for several years, making it an integral part of our donations, improving the lives of Aboriginal communities and furthering the cause of understanding in area schools.
Bernie awarded Paul Harris recognition to both Ana Sutherland and Ed Thomson, one of our "dynamic duos" of C-K Rotary. Ana has led the club with skill and grace, pushing us to keep meeting via Zoom, and making sure that our physical meetings ran smoothly in our new location, often being the first to arrive and the last to leave. Ana also took on the role of Area Governor even before her term was up - a big sacrifice at any time, bigger when you are still President.
Ed Thomson was also recognized as being a driver of our weekly meetings, helping with set-up and takedown most weeks, and also helping with the technology end of things for the speaker when needed. Ed also helped us get our Zoom meetings up and running, as well as participating in the auction committee as an aid to John Farrow (with Doug Townsend) in the task of gift entry. Ed also performs a valuable behind the scenes role as keeper of our auction database (information is power!).
Thanks to all five recipients for all you do for the Club and for Rotary. There is much more that could be said about the work these folks do, this is just a sample of how valuable they are to us.
Ana also had the pleasure of rewarding the Rotarian of the Year Award to Rick Fiedorec. Rick transitioned from two terms as President and did not miss a beat this year. He assumed the role of Treasurer and tackled the task of getting the books in order from the last few years. Working with our new bookkeeper, he achieved that task about mid-year. His work as Treasurer has helped guide the Directors and we have been kept well informed of our financial position. Rick has also acted as a mentor to Ana through her year as President.
Ana introduced John Farrow, who actually needs no introduction, as our speaker. John did say that he joined the club in 1990.
The Rotary Foundation:
John talked about what it is, why it is important, and how you can help.
The Foundation was created in 1917 following the Atlanta Rotary Convention, with an initial amount of $26.50. (Scribe’s note – The Bank of Canada says the value in 2020 would be $473.16). Every year, 50% of your Annual Fund donation goes back to the Districts (District Dedicated Funds, or DDF), and 50% goes to the World Fund to advance the goals of Rotary. The Global Fund matches District Designated Funds and makes the scope of projects larger. There is never enough money to match all the applications that are received. The Foundation encourages - and requires -partnerships among Rotary Clubs. These will be even more important as starting July 1st R.I. will no longer match club and donor monies for a project. John notes this is a challenge, but with the partnerships our club has made thanks to people like Bill Gray and John Gale (and others) we can overcome this. The ending of R.I. matching dollars is actually a testament to the quality of the projects out there.
The grants in order of the amounts awarded go to the following areas of focus. 1. Preventing Disease, 2. Clean Water, 3. Education, 4. Growing Local Economies, 5. Saving Mothers and Children, and 6. Promoting Peace.
Charity Navigator gives The Rotary Foundation the highest rating possible, as 92% of the money goes to projects.
Why is it important to us? It aligns with our reasons for joining Rotary. Our club has benefited by thousands of dollars over the years. There are always six or seven active projects involving our club, representing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Many of our members donate to The Foundation. It puts the “international” in Rotary International as Bill Gray reminded John recently. The Annual Fund invests money for three years before investing in a project, and the interest accrued helps pay many of the expenses of running the Foundation.
"Rules are a good thing", according to John. There are very rigorous rules to adhere to in order to receive a grant. A project must be sustainable. A Rotary Club partner is required at the other end. It’s important for a club to have champions, and we have this in Bill Gray and John Gale. We also have dedicated people in District 7040. Bonnie Black and Bette Miller lead the effort in our District, and John remarked after attending the Global Grants Workshop, he was even more confident in donating to the Foundation.
John then used our Rotary FAR project to illustrate the way that money can be combined. Our club contributed $15,000, and with money we raised outside of our club funds it became $21,200, but the Rotary Clubs of Kingston, Napanee and the Passport Club all contributed. Five clubs in India contributed, as well as District Designated Funds, and The World Fund. So…all combined to support a project that has a value of almost $109,000. Through working together with other clubs, and with The Foundation, we can do things that we couldn’t do on our own.
How can you donate?
The Annual Fund is the primary source of money for project grants. We have a goal of “Every Rotarian Every Year”. Every year, 50% goes to the World Fund and 50% to the District Designated Fund.
You can donate by writing a cheque, by a monthly withdrawal plan, or monthly on your credit card. You can choose a specific area of focus where your money will go. You can also support Polio Plus, and you can also support a specific project that you know of until it is fully funded.
The Endowment Fund ensures long term viability of Rotary International programs. Money is invested and only the interest is used.
A Benefactor is someone how has added The Foundation as a beneficiary of their will.
John outlined the various qualifications, you can achieve, starting with being a member of the Paul Harris Society ($1000). Increased donations take you to Major Donor, Bequest Society, and Arch Klumph Society. Our club aims to have every member donate every year. There is also a Rotary credit card in which a small amount from every purchase goes to The Foundation. It’s a small amount but has raised over $8.6 million in recent years.
Our club has constantly been at our near the top of giving, with the average per member of $360 - first in the District to date. Over all donations have been $65,750, with $7,214 to Polio Plus, again, first in the District.
You may contact John for any information you need about making a donation to any of the funds.
Questions:
Thinking about directing donations, is the Rotary FAR project now fully funded? Yes but there are always new projects being proposed.
Bill Gray noted that most clubs don’t have enough money to do large projects, and so they find allies. We have a very active International Committee. Cooperation between clubs is increasing and we are finding new partnerships. We have built a network of partner clubs around the world, and it has benefited our FAR project.
Ana offered our thanks to John for his presentation.
Paul Harris Society recognition:
Ana announced that Heather Nogrady is not only a Paul Harris Society member but has achieved recognition for being a Paul Harris + 2.
Speaker thanks was offered by Bill Egnatoff who also noted the many ways that John has contributed to our club and to Rotary. He pointed out an interesting slip that John made that actually formed a new word, “transparity”, which seems to describe balancing the inequities in the world.
Michelle Clarabut, Ph.D, Programs and Communications Manager, Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston
John Farrow introduced our guest speaker. Inspired by a recent TV news segment on the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes and the news that Brett Smith has helped to “repurchase” the building that used to house the Museum, he contacted Michelle Clarabut, Programming and Communications, to talk about its Memory Project, commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic.
Michelle - It’s great to be out in community. I’m the Programs and Communications Manager, in a full-time staff of two. We will have two summer students, one of which has started just last week. Two years ago, we had to leave our 55 Ontario Street location. We leased the building from the Government, which sold it, but we now own the building. The Museum has been temporarilyhoused at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and hope to get back to our original location some time this year. We are closed to the public right now, but hope to open soon.
A lot is happening behind the scenes. We have recently completed our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan, Steering into the Future, which emphasizes our mission to create an inclusive space that inspires the enduring connection with the maritime heritage of Kingston and the Great Lakes, including social, economic, and environmental history of our area. The plan provides an overview of our own history and outlines our thee priorities for the next five years. We are re-imagining what the Marine Museum will look like, and are also working on our business plan, including our 5-year capital and operational budget. We are researching the acquisition of a new historic ship. The Alexander Henry was returned to Thunder Bay a while back, where it was built.
Last summer, we were given by a former museum member, the Red Jacket, a very well-known Canadian racing yacht. It was designed by George Cuthbertson and George Casisan and built by Erich Bruckmann. It was the first Canadian and non-American boat to win the overall title at the Southern Ocean Racing Conference in 1968 in her second year. This vessel will be a great addition to our exhibits.
Typically, we have summer camps and educational programs at local school. Last summer we reached over 578 Kingston youth. We also have Nautical Nights, a winter speaker series, January to March. This year it was cut short because of COVID in March We also do public tours, including in local retirement homes. We’re very active in the community, trying to engage people with maritime history.
After the March break, we started Virtual Challenges to take the place of cancelled live events.. The first was a one-week boat building challenge—build it, name it, see how many marbles are needed to sink it; a lot of fun—open to everyone. We have had others in the past, including environmental challenges (building water filters, talking about pollution in the Great Lakes) and art-related projects (designing a Great Lakes cruise ship). These provide opportunity for youth, families, and groups, to be creative.
This Thursday, June 18th is our first Virtual Talk, “Turtle Talks,” by Mabyn Armstrong. This talk is about local ecosystems and invasive species. Join us on the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes Youtube channel. Information is on our Facebook page.
Forged in Fire: Kingston Goes to Sea was a project I put together, with a personal and community story. To commemorate 75th Anniversary of the end of World War II and the Battle of the Atlantic. Kingston a had huge role in the Battle of the Atlantic and the Second World War through ship-building. Twelve ships built here served as convoy escorts in the North Atlantic. Two didn’t make it home. The huge contribution of Kingston is a story that doesn’t often get told. The project is about the ships, the people who built them, and the men and women who served including Wrens, volunteer reserve, and Merchant Navy. The project is about community engagement. Many veterans are unfortunately deceased, but we would love to have stories by the second and later generation about a loved one who served—people from the Kingston area and involved in either ship-building or having served in another maritime capacity. It could be about how they met their husband or wife during the war, funny anecdotes about their training experience, personal stories and anecdotes that were passed on. The project Web space is a place where people can come and share their stories including pictures or artifacts. mareinemuseum.ca/forgedinfire . Once a story is submitted, it becomes available to the public. A few have been submitted so far. We are especially interested in those who built the ships, often forgotten and also those who served on the ships built in Kingston. We are collaborating with RMC Museum. We intended to create a 2020 pop-up exhibit, but COVID-19 has prevented that (so far). We are discussing making it a virtual exhibit and feeding into a blog series to bring stories together. We are looking for commonalities or links across the stories; e.g., people who were on the same ship at the same time, unknown to their families. We are also hoping to share hidden stories, e.g., community gatherings for launches - we have some amazing pictures of that. We are also developing educational program, for schools and local community groups. Now after three months that we’re going to be opening up, it will be interesting to see how that will work out.
Discussion
Bill Egnatoff mentioned how much he appreciated the opportunity of having Adventures in History work in the Museum and visit its archives. One student said, “This smells like history.”
John Farrow: Have you reached out to the Genealogical Society? He will connect the Museum through his wife, a member. A call could go out through all Ontario branches.
John Gale: Will you be able to give sense of how many women were employed in the shipyards?
Michelle: Unfortunately, a lot of records have disappeared. WWII years are a gap in the records. I would love to find information on that. I would like stories of women serving as “Wrens,” (WRCNS, Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service), and stories from Indigenous communities. I am reaching out to Prince Edward County, and Gananoque (part of the Kingston area). Individual stories are not being told; I want to find them. They deserve to be told.
Murray Cotton: I loved the first photo of the Canada Steamship Lines. My father worked for them for over 50 years. He wanted to serve, but was deemed an essential worker so had to go back to the docks. I refer you to Terry Hicks.
Robert Reid thanked Michelle. He is pro-development downtown, but was very concerned to learn about the sale of the property where the museum was housed. He was very happy to learn of the recent purchase of the property so the Museum could move back in. He visited with his children, and was also there for the funeral held there. He acknowledged the very aggressive plan and budget. Robert thanked Michelle with a virtual loaf of bread.
