Check out our latest newsletter created by our Secretary, Melissa Wells!

Please click on the picture to view the newsletter.

How much trivia do you know? Come and find out!

Join us for our annual Trivia night!

Date: Thursday, February 23, 2012
Time: 6:00pm until 9:00pm
Where: The Central Pub, 603 Markham Street south of Bloor Street and 1 block west of Bathurst Street. Only a two-minute walk from Bathurst Subway Station.
Cost: $5.00 only! Tickets are sold at the door.

This event is open to Rotaractors and friends. Teams of four will compete for an awesome prize (to be announced). Please post your team name and name of all four members on the event wall (http://on.fb.me/xME0XV). Even if you don’t have a team come out and join us and we’ll set you up with a team on the night of.

See you there!

When: Thursday, February 16, 2012 from 8:00 p.m.

Where: Gabby’s 192 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Cost: $10

Although most people are aware of the economic and technological advancements achieved by East-Asian countries, they often remain uninformed of the conditions or even the existence of those segments of the population that are neglected because of their geographical distance away from the urban centers of industry and commerce. Northern regions in Thailand remain grossly underdeveloped and are deprived of electricity, waste sanitation, water filtration and other goods and services that even their fellow countrymen have begun to take for granted for the last twenty years. In these regions, manual, subsistence agriculture remains the principal, daily priority for men, women and children. These regions are also fragmented on cultural faults with each segment practising a distinct set of customs and speaking a unique dialect; making attempts to integrate into mainstream Thai society impossible.

Every year we hold a clothing drive to support the Yonge Street Mission – an organization that offers help and support to people in need in Toronto through community centres, clothing resale, health services and housing assistance. Try your best to bring pre-loved clothing – particular business wear – to our club meeting on Monday, February 27th.

Thank you for your help!

Note: No physical tickets will be issued. There will be a guest list with your name on it, so please bring a piece of photo i.d. with you.

See you on Friday!

- Kelly

Come watch Benda Bilili at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and help us End Polio Now.

Join us for our largest fundraiser of the year! We are raising awareness about Polio and raising funds to eradicate this disease. You will not want to miss this. Tickets are limited.

Event: Purple Pinkies for Polio Fundraiser
Hosts: Rotary Club of Toronto, Rotaract Club of the University of Toronto, and The Rotaract Club of Toronto
Film: Benda Bilili (IMDB Review)
Price: $30.00 Click to purchase tickets! *No physical tickets will be issued. There will be a guest list with your name on it, so please bring a piece of photo i.d. with you.
Date: Friday, January 27th, 2011
Time: 7:30 – 10:00 PM (Registration at 7:00 pm)
Location: 350 King Street West (King & John)
Place: Tiff Bell Lightbox, Cinema 4
Note: Tax Receipts will be issued by the Rotary Club of Toronto via e-mail. Donations will also be accepted online through our link.

Websites: http://www.rotarytoronto.com/, http://www.uoftrotaract.com, and http://www.torontorotaract.com.

We reached our goal of raising US $200 Million for the End Polio Now campaign.

Rotary International has succeeded in meeting the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s US$200 million match in funding for polio eradication, raising more than $202.6 million as of 17 January!

Please click here for the full article: http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/120117_IA12_polio.aspx

To date, Rotarians worldwide have contributed more than $1 billion toward the eradication of polio, a cause Rotary took on in 1985.

To contribute towards this cause join us at our ‘Purple Pinkies for Polio’ Fundraiser for End Polio Now on January 27th, 2012 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. You can purchase your ticket here: http://rtc.r-esourcecenter.com/event//index.asp?Event_Id=25.

Thank you,

- Netila Demneri

Winning the bid for Interota 2014

In case you have not heard already, Canada has won the bid for hosting Interota 2014 in Toronto and Montreal!

The competition was certainly felt with Lebanon, Greece, Hong Kong, Ghana, Nigeria and Poland also bidding for Interota 2014. In the end, though, our presentation and presence there won Canada the majority of the votes with a considerable difference and we got the honour to bring back home the Interota bell for 2014!

We have an exciting three years of planning ahead of us! Please follow us here for regular updates: Facebook Page

Cheers,

- Netila D.

Rotary Christmas Seniors' Party

On Friday, December 9th, our club members volunteered at the Rotary Seniors’ Christmas Party held at the Fairmont Royal York. The Rotary Club of Toronto hosts this party once a year to bring Christmas cheer to 250 seniors who are primarily shut-in seniors. The guests were treated to a traditional Christmas Turkey lunch followed by live entertainment, carols and a special visit from Santa! Happy Holidays!

In 1961 the first Seniors’ Christmas party event was held. Those selected to attend came from the Second Mile Club, Little Trinity Church, The Salvation Army plus a few named by members of the Club.

After Rotary Laughlen Centre was built in the 1970′s with the capital from a member’s estate the luncheon was continued as part of the Club’s philanthropic work and has remained since then. With the inauguration of Rotary Laughlen Centre many seniors from there were included each year for the luncheon. Currently, the Laughlen Centre has been closed and there are no residents at Edward St. but a number of them are still invited from the residences where they now live.

Seniors’ Party

Most of the people invited are shut-in seniors who are picked up and taken home after the party, a coutesy arranged by our members. In some cases this is the only our Seniors get out in the year. Most are on fixed incomes. Each year we invite 250 guests and they are treated to a fabulous, traditional Christmas turkey lunch carefully prepared and presented by the staff of the Fairmont Royal York. The Seniors then enjoy a program of entertainment, a visit from Santa and and each guest is given a gift bag containing some of the most essential items, which they consider quite a treat. To see these Seniors enjoy the afternoon is most rewarding and their pleasure is infectuous! Some enjoy quite a nostalgic journey down “memory lane” as in their hey day, they attended many gala evenings at the Royal York.

- Courtesy of Valerie Clarke