CHRISTMAS DINNER

Thanks to Bert and Marolyn for all their hard work in making our annual Christmas Dinner evening such a wonderful event. We'll certainly miss having Theo's banquet hall for events in the future. We were reminded that SBS Rotary's charter night was held in that very same room. Beryl did the honours as Emcee, and President Peter presided over the more 'official' parts of the evening.

We took advantage of the night's festivities to induct an impressively attired Duncan Cameron into the club.

Duncan was sponsored by Kenny, who did the pinning honours.

And there were more celebrations to come. Bert presented Marolyn with a Paul Harris fellowship...

...and Judy was presented with her third Paul Harris. Very impressive!

Bert had arranged some great entertainment for us, in the person of Eric Roberts. Eric has an uncanny knack of impersonating the singing voices of such legends as Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. He even threw in a little bit of Don Ho — singing "Tiny Bubbles" while Marilyn fluttered about the room blowing bubbles to add to the song's ambience (below).

CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST

Full House!

Happy fellas...

Bell ringer...

Guerra Gals

Santa and Sophie

Fraser needs a tailor...

Hilda begins her clown apprenticeship...

Happiness is...a kid at Christmas!

HITCHING KAREN AND TIM

Judy provided these salient details:

• Married Dec 5 Abkhazi Gardens, in the house


• Beautiful sunny day


• Tim's kids—Elliott and Jory


• Karen's girls—Kate and Maude


• Served champagne and wonderful appies


• Honeymooned at the Aerie and The Pier Hotel

FOUNDATION FUNRAISER

In speaking with attendees and observing the interactions over the evening, the Foundation Fundraiser held at the Batemans on November 23rd seems to have been an unqualified success. People freely circulated through the house and had a good time in conversation with fellow Rotarians and their spouses. Having appetizers and desserts as finger food, as opposed to a sit-down meal, seemed to promote such interaction, as did having it in the homey, comfortable and relaxed environment of the Bateman's house. This appears to be a good formula for some social events. Several members have already volunteered the use of their home for similar future endeavours.

Thirty-seven members and spouses attended, and $1195 was raised. These monies will be a separate line item in our budget, and will act as seed money for next year's World Community Service project for which we will apply for matching grants from our District and RI. The newly formed WCS Committee of Bruce Burns, Jinny Hambly, Stuart Lang and I will keep you posted on our progress in this new venture.

This endeavour could not have taken place had it not been for the Club's enthusiastic and generous support. Many thanks are due to the Batemans for opening their home to us, to the Smiths for supplying a great selection and quantity of wine, to the participants for not only coming out, but also supplying a rich variety of delicious desserts and appetizers, and to the four generous members who did not attend, but still contributed $50 or more to the fundraiser. The WCS Committee is gratefied by the Club's response.

Cheers, John Bardsley

_____________

Peter Bradley fired up his digital camera and captured a few moments from the get-together:

Party Princess...

Stuart holds court in the kitchen...

Cozy kitchen conversation klatches

Lady in Red...

The boys caught in the the act with the appies...

BLOOMIN' WONDERFUL!

Jinny sends along the following about our poinsettia sales fundraising efforts:

A huge thank you to our members who helped with the success of the poinsettias this year—taking orders, managing the orders, our auditors, sorters, and deliverers (in particular, spouses). It is getting to be a rather large undertaking for one day. We delivered 945 poinsettias on Thursday!! That means we made about $3,800 dollars for our efforts [UPDATE: ACTUAL FINAL TOTAL: $4,100] . Marie has additional orders for the other 2 Peninsula Rotary Clubs and the Airport, many thanks Marie. Congratulations for a fund raising job well done, we couldn't have done it without you.

HOT STUFF!

Hardy Rotarians braved the cold of a clear, moonlit Saturday night to do a little fund-raising by selling hot chocolate to the masses of folks who surged down Beacon Avenue to watch the Lighted Sailpast after the Sidney Sparkles parade. Thanks to Judy for making sure that we all had what we needed to keep the hot chocolate flying over the counter as fast as we could make it! Maria and Meredith got great facials, working over the steaming pots mixing up the hot chocolate. Highly recommended—with a bonus of aromatherapy from the effects of inhaling the scent of chocolate! Judy sent along the following:

Jinny did the numbers on the hot chocolate and we pulled in $664.65 I would like to thank Maria, Meredith, Horst, John Bardsley, Jinny, Fraser, Theresa Scrivens, Marie and the two main electrical and hot water managers—Jim and Rick.

PAUL HARRIS FELLOWS

Joan Firkins was our guest speaker on November 22nd -- speaking to us about—what else?—the Rotary Foundation. Joan is our former District Governor, and currently the District's champion of the Rotary Foundation. She gave us a great presentation about the kinds of projects the Foundation supports around the world, and also shared with us her deeply personal connection to a few of them, including Polio Plus in particular.

We took advantage of Joan's presence to have her present a number of Paul Harris Fellowships to some terrific SBS Rotarians. This was particularly appropriate, given that November is Rotary Foundation month.

Paul Harris recipients Stuart Lang, Del Wergeland, District Rotary Foundation Chair Joan Firkins, John Bardsley, John's wife Ann Doran, and Jinny Hambly.

Jinny Hambly receives her Paul Harris. Jinny's husband Lou Sontra was on hand to help her celebrate.

We were very pleased to have Del Wergeland come back to visit us and receive her Paul Harris from Joan. We hope that once she's a little less strapped for time, she'll be able to once again join us on Thursday mornings.

Stuart Lang receives his Paul Harris from Joan. Stuart's wife Hilda joined us for breakfast to see Stuart honoured.

Joan presented John Bardsley with his Paul Harris, but it was his wife, Ann, who did the honours when it came time to "pin" John—after she had us all (including John) getting a bit teary-eyed relating the story about how she fell in love with the heart and soul of this fine man.