Rotary in Review - 2024

2024 was a very busy year for your local Rotary Club, and also marked the 70^th Anniversary of our Club!  There were several new Club initiatives in 2024 as described below which we’re very proud of and hope to continue!  We are certainly evolving as a service club, while remaining true to our commitment to our local community of Northern Bruce and living up to our Rotary motto of ‘Service Above Self’!  As always, our success as a service club is in large measure due to the wonderful support and generosity of the Northern Bruce community, and we are deeply appreciative of this!  By participating in our Club activities, sponsoring with generous financial support, and volunteering time and effort towards Rotary events and causes, the Northern Bruce community helps our small club succeed – Thank you for all your help!   

 

 

 

We had a fantastic Celebration Event at Rotary Hall on the evening of Saturday, April 13, 2024, celebrating our 70th Anniversary as a Rotary Club in Northern Bruce!  The event was titled ‘Celebrating 70 Years of Service: Honouring the Past, Building the Future’.  Active Rotarians met with Past Rotarians, Friends of Rotary, Rotary Sponsors and members of the community to mark this important milestone!  Nearly 80 people were there at Rotary Hall for a delicious dinner prepared and served by the ladies of our local SWANS service organization, to hear an inspiring talk by Dr. Trace McKay on her exciting experiences as a Rotary exchange student to South Africa back in the 1980s, for presentation of Paul Harris Fellow awards and a 50/50 draw for $700.00 won by Barry Thorn of Lion’s Head who generously donated half of his winnings to our Rotary Scholarships fund!  Paul Harris Fellow awards were given to Active and Past Rotarians and Friends of Rotary who made significant contributions to Rotary and our community of Northern Bruce.  The first Paul Harris Fellow award of the evening was for the late Bob (Bonzaii) Spearing, accepted by Captain Jerry Greig on behalf of Denise Spearing, Bob’s daughter. Other Rotarians receiving Paul Harris Fellow awards were Douglas Greig, Wendell Thomson, Dan Bryans and Rob Hiscott, as well as Friends of Rotary and long-time supporters of our Club Dale Diebel and Dr. Dave Thomson.

 

 

[A photo album for this event can be found on our Club website at Our Club’s 70^th Anniversary.]

 

Your local Rotary Club (in association with District 6330 Rotary Youth Exchange) sponsored Matthew, a Rotary Exchange Student from Taiwan who will spend a year living and studying here in Northern Bruce!  Past Club President Cathryn Buckley coordinated our Club’s sponsorship of Matthew, and Rotarians Cathryn and Tom Buckley in Tobermory were Matthew’s initial host parents upon arrival from Taiwan.  This fall term, Matthew was hosted by Jennifer and Scott Parker, while during the winter term he will be hosted by Stephen Woeller and Dr. Trace MacKay (a past Rotary Exchange Student), and then hosted by Julie and Brent Wheeler in the coming spring term of 2025. 

 

Matthew attends Bruce Peninsula District School here in Lion’s Head where he is actively involved in BPDS Outers, school sports such as volley ball, and cooking classes, in addition to taking academic courses.  Matthew has already experienced a wide range of new activities since arriving in Canada and settling in Northern Bruce, which have included volunteering with local Rotary Clubs, canoeing on Lake Huron, hiking and exploring Bruce Peninsula National Park, bird watching near Stokes Bay, viewing the Northern Lights, ice skating at Lion’s Head Arena, enjoying winter activities in the early heavy snow of Canadian winter, in addition to celebrating special days such as Halloween, his birthday and Christmas Holidays!

 

 

[More photos of Matthew’s experiences as a Rotary Exchange Student to Canada, here in Northern Bruce can be found on our Club website photo album at Rotary Exchange Student.]

 

 

Your local Rotary Club hosted a ‘meet & greet’ social gathering for one past and four current Rotary exchange students at Rotary Hall on October 30th, for an evening of conversation over cake and coffee with Rotarians from local Clubs including Wiarton, Walkerton, Southampton, Port Elgin, and of course Northern Bruce Peninsula. The five guest Rotary exchange students that evening included Dr. Carsten Schepp from Germany (a past Rotary exchange student who attended Bruce Peninsula District School in 1988-89), Katie from Thailand (hosted by Wiarton Rotary Club), Vi from Brazil (hosted by Walkerton Rotary Club), Lena from Germany (hosted by Southampton Rotary Club), and Matthew from Taiwan (hosted by our Rotary Club of Northern Bruce Peninsula).

 

 

 

During the early months of 2024 (January-March), your local Rotary Club introduced Coffee Socials at Rotary Hall on Sunday afternoons (from noon to 4 PM), as opportunities for having conversations over hot beverages, giving the local community the chance to meet local Rotarians and find out more about our Rotary Club.  We also experimented with combining these Coffee Social events with pop-up sales for local merchants, a chance to do some shopping while socializing at Rotary Hall!  We held eleven Coffee Social events in 2024, and hope to continue with these fun socials into 2025 – hope to see you there! 

 

 

 

Your local Rotary Club hosted the inaugural Chili Cook-off at Rotary Hall in November which was a great success, raising over $2,000 towards the Bruce Peninsula District School trip to The Netherlands in 2025, taking place during the 80^th anniversary of Canadian soldiers liberating that country at the end of World War II.  Around 100 people came out to support this school trip and taste sample up to eight different chili recipes prepared by different service organizations and groups in the Northern Bruce community.  BPDS students and their parents/teachers volunteered that evening to serve cups of chili (along with delicious corn breads) and bus tables, while Rotarians tended bar through the evening.  Pots of chili recipes were prepared and served by local service organizations for customer taste-testing and ranking.  These organizations included Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association, (top ranked customer choice chili prepared by Patricia Sein), Rotary Club of Northern Bruce Peninsula (second place chili prepared by Rotarian Sue Kolundzic), our local SWANS organization  (third place chili prepared by Judith Friend), with other great chili offerings submitted by Bruce Peninsula Men's Shed (providing two different recipes), Bruce Peninsula Environment Group, Lion's Head Hospital Auxiliary, and a second Rotary Club of Northern Bruce Peninsula contribution.  All prepared chili recipes for the evening were delicious, making it a tough choice for customers to select a favourite recipe.  This was a very popular and fun event, one which Rotary will do again as a future fundraiser in 2025! 

 

 

 

 

In late February 2024, a dedicated website was launched for our Rotary Club of Northern Bruce Peninsula (on the ClubRunner platform) to support the objective of keeping our local community informed about Rotary events and activities before, during and after these take place.  The Rotary website complements our broader public image strategy which includes regular Rotary reporting in the local Bruce Peninsula Press newspaper, along with posting on social media platforms, on our Facebook and Instagram pages.  During the first ten months of the website, there have been over 3,000 views by 752 unique visitors.  Content has been added to the Rotary website throughout the past year which now totals nearly 60 web posts/stories and close to 200 photos across 11 photo albums covering a range of Rotary events and activities over the past year.  Rotary thanks the generous sponsors of our Club website which include Carla & Scott Hellyer of Scott’s Home Hardware, OuterVision Adventure Tours & Club Café, and Claire Jackson, Registered Massage Therapist – their financial support of our Club website project is much appreciated!  If you haven’t already done so, we hope you’ll take some time to explore our Rotary Club website, to discover a little more about ‘who we are’ as a service club, and ‘what we do’ to support Northern Bruce! 

 

 

 

 

Rotary hosted four community Pancake Breakfasts during holiday weekends in 2024 beginning on the Victoria Day weekend (May 19), continuing with Canada Day weekend (June 30), August Civic Holiday weekend (August 4) and concluding with the Labour Day weekend (September 1).  Over the course of these four Pancake Breakfasts in 2024, your local Rotary Club served close to 800 breakfasts and raised nearly $11,000, which is returned to the community through Rotary projects and donations.  We thank the many ‘Friends of Rotary’ who helped out, volunteering during these Pancake Breakfasts!  These events are primary fundraisers for your local Rotary Club, and we will continue to offer community Pancake Breakfasts in 2025, and look forward to seeing everyone come out for these Breakfasts! 

 

Rotary also thanks our very generous business and individual sponsors for their support towards our community Pancake Breakfasts during 2024!  Our Pancake Breakfast sponsors in 2024 were Russell & Abby Miners (Miners’ Maple Products), Jane & Dr. Dave Thomson, Rydall Construction, Terrapin Social Finance, Dr. Pat Duronio, Tiffany Embleton & Dan Jorritsma, Barbara Dirckx (REMAX Grey Bruce Realty), Kathy Austin, David Hosken and Wilfred Laman (Lion’s Head Beach Motel).  Financial contributions from our sponsors help to significantly defray the costs of putting on these community Pancake Breakfasts. 

 

 

[Rotarians and Friends of Rotary preparing and serving delicious Pancake Breakfasts during 2024 at Rotary Hall and at the Rotary Pavilion next to Lion’s Head Beach.  Full photo albums from each of our four Pancake Breakfasts in 2024 can be found at May 19, June 30, August 4, and September 1 on our Club website!]

 

 

Rotarians tended Bars for 36 different events in 2024, for a wide range of events both at Rotary Hall and Lion’s Head Arena and other venues such as the Tobermory Community Centre.  These events include all of our Trivia Nights held at Rotary Hall, Harbourside Inside and other musical events held at the Hall, Curling Bonspiels held at Lion’s Head Arena, as well as many specialty events such as dances, fashion shows and other public community and private events.  Most Club Rotarians are certified under the SmartServe program of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (ACGO), to responsibly and safely serve alcohol to the public at Rotary-hosted and sponsored events. 

 

 

[Rotarians (l-r) Doug Embleton, Captain Jerry Greig and Paul Cinanni tending bar for an event at Lion’s Head Arena, for the Rick and Nancy Thompson 50^th Anniversary Party held on April 27, 2024.]

 

 

Beginning in 2023, your local Rotary Club started hosting Trivia Nights at Rotary Hall – this continued this past year with eleven Trivia Night events held between March and November of 2024.  These Trivia Night events were hosted by Caeli Mazara and Eric Perez, while Rotarians tended bars selling drinks and snacks during the evenings.  Trivia Nights have proved to be popular events with the local community and Rotary plans to continue holding these fun evenings at Rotary Hall in 2025!  We hope you can come out to test your trivia knowledge and have some fun! 

 

 

 

Your local Rotary Club has maintained a tradition over many decades of awarding scholarships to graduating students of Bruce Peninsula District High School to help support their pursuit of post-secondary education goals.  In 2024 we were able to increase the value of each of our scholarships from $1,000 to $1,500, for a total of $7,500 across the five different scholarships awarded annually.  Also in 2024, we renamed our Rotary ‘Service Above Self’ Scholarship as the ‘Bob Spearing Service Above Self Scholarship’, in memory of long-time Rotarian Bob Spearing who passed away in March 2024 – Bob exemplified the Rotary motto of ‘Service Above Self’ in all that he did for Rotary and his community of Northern Bruce. 

 

This year’s Rotary scholarship recipients include Gracey Williamson (Highest Academic Proficiency Scholarship for highest Grade 12 average), Reagan Taylor (Bob Spearing ‘Service Above Self’ Scholarship), Elise Stewart (Keith Hopkinson Memorial Trust Scholarship), Luke Belanger (J.C. Buckley Memorial Trust Scholarship), and Ruth Wilkens (Mary Cameron Scholarship for ‘Most Improved Student’).  Congratulations to the ‘Class of 2024’, to all students graduating from Bruce Peninsula District High School!

 

 

 

Your local Rotary Club participates annually in the Ontario ‘Adopt a Highway’ program, helping with trash pick-up each year, to help keep Northern Bruce clean!  Each spring, a team of Rotarians pick up trash and clean up a four-kilometre stretch of Bruce County Road 9 between Lion’s Head and Barrow Bay, as well as smaller sections of side roads. 

 

 

[Rotarians (l-r) Paul Cinanni, Captain Jerry Greig (coordinator), Tom Buckley, Dan Bryans, Catherine Henderson, Stacey Bridge, Anne James, Peggy Beghetto, Cathryn Buckley, John White, along with (not shown) Rotarians Wendell Thomson and Rob Hiscott all helped out with trash clean-up on the morning of Thursday, May 2nd, 2024.]

 

 

For a second year, your local Rotary Club sponsored a very popular and successful Oktoberfest celebration (September 28^th) at Rotary Hall.  This year, the afternoon portion of the event started with our outdoor beer and food tents, and a family-friendly hike.  Oktoberfest food available throughout the day included sausages and sauerkraut, pretzels and strudel, with drink options of Tagwerk Biers – Oktoberfest Draught, wines and ciders, coolers and soft drinks.  The evening portion of Oktoberfest featured live entertainment with the rock band Road Rash, the very popular Beer Stein Hold Contest (with separate competitions for ladies and men this year), and a 50/50 draw at the end of the evening. 

 

This year’s winners of the Beer Stein Hold Contests were Rotarian Sue Kolundzic for the Ladies’ Competition (with a time of 2 minutes and 47 seconds), and Peter Hormann for the Men’s Competition (with a time of 6 minutes and 4 seconds) , and the winner of the Rotary 50/50 Draw was Ruthann Decker of Stokes Bay who received $1,500!  Rotary thanks Bill Floyd of Bruce Trail Association for leading an Oktoberfest family-friendly afternoon hike to Lion’s Head Village Side Trail, Williams’ Cave Side Trail, and Bannister Hill Loop Side Trail –a great hike experience!  Rotary also thanks Master Brewer Christian Klaus Reimerschmid von der Heide of Tagwerk Bier, Friends of Rotary and other volunteers who helped out during the event, making our second annual Oktoberfest a huge success! Rotary is especially thankful to the sponsors of this year’s Oktoberfest event, including Hellyer’s Foodland and ACN Electric, Craig McDonald Ridden Insurance Brokers (Chatsworth), and Cardinal B&B Retreat.  We’re looking forward to hosting the third annual Oktoberfest celebration at Rotary Hall in 2025! 

 

 

[A photo album for this event can be found on our Club website at Oktoberfest 2024.]

 

 

Your local Rotary Club sponsored the annual Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade held on the afternoon of Saturday, December 7^th.  This year, there was a great turnout to see Santa as he visited Lion’s Head to join the Parade and then ‘meet & greet’ children and their families inside Rotary Hall!  Santa was accompanied by his elves Ava Perrault and Annabelle Galasso, along with Matthew, our Rotary Club exchange student from Taiwan!  Well over a hundred children (plus parents, grandparents and other relatives!) visited with Santa inside Rotary Hall after the Parade, where every child received a goodie bag from Santa’s elves.  ‘Friends of Lion’s Head Library’ participated in the Parade and were also on hand at Rotary Hall to offer a new book to every child visiting with Santa!  After meeting all the children and parents who came out to Rotary Hall after the Parade, Santa and his elves headed over to Golden Dawn Seniors Home to visit with residents and spread some holiday cheer! 

 

Rotary thanks all the Parade participants who came out to make this year's Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade a huge success!  Rotarian judges Catherine Henderson and Mary Fowler had a difficult time choosing winners from this year’s Parade participants because they were all so fun and enthusiastic!  The best judged entry for motorized floats this year was Clark's Mobile Millwright Services, and the best walking Parade participants were Friends of the Lion's Head Library and Clifford, the Big Red Dog!  Fan favourites were all the animals in the Parade, with the winning animal team this year being the mules Pearl and Becky, owned by Cedric and Ashley Scott.  Other animals included two beautiful horses Thunder and Dragon from Farzana and Jules Fabios' farm, Val Phillips' horse Duke, and the ponies Jimmy and Oscar (shared by Ezra Mast and the Wiarton Agricultural Society).  Rotary thanks our community sponsors this year (Peninsula Roots Landscaping Ltd. and Spa on Six - Connie Palmer), along with the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula, helping make our Santa Visit with the children such a great experience!  Rotary also thanks Rod Barr for being Parade Marshall for another year of our popular Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade, and Jeff Labonte for once again pulling Santa’s sleigh/trailer!  Your local Rotary Club looks forward to sponsoring and organizing the annual Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade every year!  Thanks to everyone who helped this year! 

 

 

[A photo album for this event can be found on our Club website at Santa Claus Parade 2024.]

 

 

Each year, your local Rotary Club donates to individuals and organizations within the Northern Bruce community to support their causes and projects, and this past year was no exception.  Early in 2024, Rotary donated $1,000 towards Bruce Peninsula District School’s student trip to Europe which will take place in 2025 to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands!  Rotary also hosted the 2024 ‘Cooking off the Chill’ Chili Cook-off at Rotary Hall which raised over $2,000 towards the same school trip.  Additionally, Rotary paid $500 tuition for each of two BPDS students to attend and participate in the Rotary-sponsored seminar for Leaders of Tomorrow, held at Western University in May 2024. 

 

Each year, your local Rotary Club purchases hanging baskets of flowers to place outside at Golden Dawn Seniors Home in Lion’s Head.  Rotary also hosts a birthday celebration at Golden Dawn for residents to celebrate birthdays in the month of November each year – in 2024 residents celebrating November birthdays included Juanita, Dee, Carol, Margie and Gwen.  Rotary partnered with Christ Church Anglican to host a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at Rotary Hall on February 13^th with proceeds going to Bruce Peninsula Hospice.  Your local Rotary Club also made a donation of $1,000 towards Wendell’s Walk in 2024, in support of Wendell’s initiative to ‘help keep health care local’. 

 

 

This past year, Rotarian Wendell Thomson successfully completed his second annual walk to fundraise for local health care on September 10^th - Wendell walked over 60 kilometres from his home base of Pike Bay to Sauble Beach and back, over 14 hours across a two-day period, and exceeded his goal of $50,000, raising nearly  $52,000 for Brightshores – Lion’s Head Hospital!  Wendell’s Walk began in 2023 (with a 60-kilometre-plus walk from Tobermory to Pike Bay which raised over $29,000 in support of the local Lion’s Head Hospital), and continued in 2024 with a more ambitious fundraising goal which he surpassed – Congratulations, Wendell! 

 

 

[A photo album for this event can be found on our Club website at Wendell’s Walk 2024.]