Box of Culture Pictures

At the meeting on October 23rd the club took time to open the Box of Culture. The pictures are just making it up now.

The Box of Culture is an international project of the FUTA Rotarct Club in Rotary District 9130, Nigeria. They packed a box full of Rotaract info, pictures and cultural products from their home and sent it to our club.


The box was actually a small parcel, but we were in for a surprise when we saw how much was squeezed in there!


President Michelle did the honours opening the package...


.. and right away was intrigued with what was inside.


We were excited to see everything from Rotaract bumper stickers....


.... to certificates....


... to district newspapers!


All in all that little package had a lot of culture stuffed in there! It was impressive to see how organized Rotaract is in District 9130. Considering that we only have 4 clubs in our district it was eye opening to see so many events and materials produced by Rotaractors.

Also in the parcel were CDs with pictures of events from the FUTA club - which we posted to our Grande Prairie Rotaract group on Facebook.

Next up is our return package for FUTA! Don't forget next meeting is the last opportunity to contribute something.

Visit with DG Dave Taylor

On Sept. 28, 2007 several club members had a special Rotaract lunch with District Governor David Taylor and his spouse Elaine who were in Grande Prairie for Fall Assembly. DG Dave was very interested in hearing what could be done at the district level to help Rotaract clubs. He also mentioned that there will be two new Rotaract clubs chartering in the next couple of weeks - one in Lloydminster and the other in Edmonton.


Club members chat with Dave, Elaine and Assistant DG Allan.



After the meeting everyone posed for a quick group shot. Thanks again to Darrell for remembering to bring the camera!

A few club members attended training sessions Friday evening and Saturday morning. Word is all the sessions were very informative and provided many good strategies for member recruitment & retention among other things. President Michelle passed on a "Thank You Rotary!" for hosting these sessions here in Grande Prairie.

Rotary Food Bank Drive

On Sept. 22, 2007 several club members volunteered with the city-wide Rotary Food Drive, collecting food door-to-door for the Salvation Army Food Bank. Luckily Darrell remembered to bring along a camera and we snapped some pics of the action.


Member Darrell Winwood carefully crosses the street with his bootie of food for the Salvation Army


Member Bill Given and a young volunteer from St. Joes High School pack the bootie into Bill's campaign crui... er.. make that PT Cruiser.

September 4th, 2007 Social Event

The social event for this Tuesday was supposed to be a visit to the corn maze just north of the city. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with Cory's plans and the ground was too wet so the maze was closed.

Luckily Cory had a back up plan! He booked us in for a little mini-golf and was good enough to bring along some watermelon and other snacks. There was a really good turn out with a number of members and guests meeting at Muskoseepi park. Unfortunately the gates to the course were locked even though the "club house" phone message said it would be open.


So, we ate some watermelon....


... did a little dancing....


... and went to the back up, back up plan of playing pool and having a few drinks at Better than Fred's.




All in all, it turned out to be a great night! Many thanks to everyone who came and to Cory for planning everything and "rolling with the punches".

Rotaract Cup 2007

Today President Michelle presented the Rotaract Cup to the Grande Prairie Rotary Club in recognition of the club's support of the Rotaract club through out the past year.

President Michelle Speaking to the Rotary Club


President Michelle presents the Cup to Past President Harry Sandhu


Rotaractor Cory sits with a table of Rotarians at the meeting. All together, five Rotaract members were in attendance to support President Michelle and say thank you to the Rotary club.

Red Cross Rocks

August 12th, 2007 Red Cross Rocks was an event to support the Red Cross Summer Youth Program in Grande Prairie. There were a number of bands who put on a great concert inspite of the down pour and cold weather.

Rotaract manned and operated the "Red Mile", with the goal of filling a Red Cross symbol with a mile worth of loonies and twoonies. In the end we raised about $326 total for Red Cross and they donated 20% of that to the Rotaract Club. Congrats to Cory Tretiak for organizing the event and all club members who braved the cold and wet weather to volunteer.