David Townsend, assistant district governor to Mike French, introduced Mike to Mike's home club, sometimes a "tough crowd". But our Mike did us proud and reminded us we have every right to be proud of our club and our accomplishments. Mike thanked David for his assistance in his role which includes a fair amount of time and administrative work assisting the governor.

Mike listed a number of our pet projects including:

• The "new" trek to Nepal and raising funds to build a school there
• Building homes in Ensenada, Mexico
• Building stoves and schools in Guatemala
• Supporting the youth exchange programme
• Sorting food at the Food Bank
• Providing funds for and working at Feed the Hungry
• Delivering Meals on Wheels
• Supporting the CNIB through selling and delivering Christmas wreaths
• Raising funds with our Stampede Breakfast and our famous Strawberry Shortcakes

"Being a part of Rotary International means individual Rotarians can help even more," said Mike and cited our long-term, successful contributions to Polio Plus as an excellent example.

Mike and his fiancée, Maggie Julian, visited Uganda last year and he urged all of us to take a day of our vacation when we're abroad to visit a Rotary project in action.

An urgent project for all Rotary clubs is membership. We need more members. We need younger members and we need to keep them by giving them real jobs to do, involving them in our work and our fun.

He advised us to think of WIIFM - what's in it for me? Rotary is a great opportunity for practicing public speaking, meeting new people of similar conviction, listening, learning, contributing through service and learning leadership skills.

District Governor Mike concluded by saying, "Don't forget about the people who make the club run with their work behind the scenes, organizing the meeting, guest speakers, fundraising, our fun times and donating their time. And to all Rotarians, Thanks for doing what you're doing and keep doing it!"

Past District Governor Ted Valentine thanked Mike and Maggie for their work this year and the years prior to this. He presented Mike with his very own, very prized Boltman.

reported by Lynne Thornton