Events

Our speaker for this evening, Dan Trommeter, will speak/perform on the topic,  "We've Always Done It That Way - Challenge Assumptions and Get Unstuck"

Dan Trommater empowers his clients to challenge assumptions so they can see new possibilities and get unstuck. He's a speaker, facilitator, coach and magician who has presented at over 1000 events in the past two decades. He uses his skill as a magician to help people tap into their sense of wonder so they can find new solutions to their pressing problems. You can learn about Dan and his work at www.dantrommater.com.

Go to his website for a sample of his style to whet your appetite.

The event will be held at the Grand Luxe Event Boutique, 3125 Bayview Ave., 6 PM, for dinner and meeting start at 6:30 PM.

Volunteer service with NeighbourLink all day

19 James Speight Road, Markham

Maria Jobson

This is an important meeting where policy and practice for the 2024/25 Rotary year will be discussed. Maximum attendance is encouraged.

The nonprofit Melanoma Education Foundation began conducting free presentations on early self-detection of melanoma to Rotary clubs in June, 2022 and, since then, has conducted 219 30-minute Zoom presentations. The American Cancer Society predicts nearly 190,000 new cases in 2023; melanoma can strike anyone from preteen to elderly and is often fatal but, when found early, is permanently curable in a short outpatient visit without any need for follow-up chemo or radiation.

Steve Fine, founder and president of the Melanoma Education Foundation, attended colleges in the Boston area, receiving a doctorate in chemistry from Northeastern University. He then moved to Pennsylvania, completing a year of postdoctoral research at Lehigh University. After 5 years as assistant professor of organic chemistry at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, he moved back to New England where he served in technical and management positions in high tech chemical companies.

In 1989 he started a consulting practice in the technology of high purity chemical manufacturing, concurrently serving for 3 years as Vice President of Technology for ACSI, a West Coast manufacturer of semiconductor chemicals.

Shortly after his son, Dan, died of melanoma in 1998 at the age of 26, he founded the non-profit Melanoma Education Foundation and, since 2000, has devoted full time to the Foundation.

The primary activity of the Foundation has been educating high school and middle school wellness teachers about melanoma and providing them with free online lessons to educate their students about self-detecting melanoma while it is curable. Prior to the Covid 19 pandemic over 1700 schools in all 50 U.S. states and Canada were using the lessons, resulting in saved lives of students, teachers and their loved ones.

Bio for Steve Rutledge

Steve spent his career as co-owner of a mid sized computer company in Toronto.  He has served on several boards and committees in Port Hope including the Municipal Culture Committee, Parks, Rec and Culture Committee, Skatepark committee, Capitol Theatre Board of Directors and others.  He has received two civic awards, the latest for philanthropy and is a multiple Paul Harris award recipient for his efforts (Port Hope, Whitby Sunrise, Ajax, Coquitlam Sunrise and Beirut Cosmopolitan) and awarded the Spirit of Rotary award in 2016.  In 2018, he received the Family and Community Service award from the Rotary Club of Courtice.  His most recent significant award was the Bob Scott Disease Prevention award from Rotary District 7070 in June 2020.

For the last 15 years Steve has served the rural villagers of Laos with the most basic of needs for sustained life.  Since 2009, Adopt A Village in Laos has completed over 80 villages with filtered water one family at a time, serving over 40,000 rural villagers, constructed or repaired over 2 dozen permanent water supplies, built dozens of toilet banks, 12 school construction projects and continues to sponsor university students, feminine hygiene training and kits to hundreds of secondary students, plus other special interest projects.

After the Beirut port explosion in 2020, Mr. Rutledge chaired the international sponsoring partner club committee (Whitby Sunrise club) and raised approximately $240,000 from 60 clubs towards a global grant to replace operating theatre equipment for Beirut’s only public hospital.  Steve is also Foundation Chair, and a member of the International Committee at Whitby Sunrise. He is also a member of the District 7070 Water and Sanitation Committee.

JOHNSTON SIMPSON

Born in the most easterly point of mainland Scotland at the end of the war he enjoyed a carefree childhood with easy access to the rugged North Sea coastline and open countryside. He moved ’down South’ like many Scots in his early twenties and enjoyed a career largely spent in Logistics with Unilever. This often involved unusual challenging problems in the UK/EU which stood him in good stead in his later work with Zimbabwe.  A trip in 1999 to visit a friend and visit a NGO supported by his Church via Christian Aid, lead him to support this Charity run by Jesuits in a personal capacity by supplying  items in need at a time when HIV Aids was rife. He received a small stone sculpture titled ‘Inner Feelings’ (photo) as a gift made by ArtPeace, a group of impoverished sculptors. This attractive piece ‘spoke’ to Johnston and set him thinking. After a cautious start shipping over a dozen large pieces which sold quickly at his church, he realised  the potential to support ArtPeace and their extended families of 12 to 20 trying to survive under the  brutal regime of dictator Robert Mugabe. Some artists had been tortured. In 2010, large exhibitions were organised in various URC churches across the UK. The Dean of Southwark Cathedral heard of his initiative which lead to a dedicated Cabinet displaying small pieces in their London shop. Over the years, thousands of pieces have been sold with all proceeds going quickly, direct and in full to the artists. This is no large registered charity but run by one person based on trust with no frills. Johnston, therefore, is not bogged down by bureaucracy and can move quickly and keep those who support him informed. Nowadays, travellers bring small pieces over in their luggage. His contact with the artists is daily via WhasApp using old mobiles bought through eBay. The ‘operation’ has been scaled down over the years owing to the demise and age profile of church congregations. However, sales still continue and the artists are supplied with seed and fertiliser each year which feeds families for 10 months of the year – but not this year owing to a severe drought. The lack of raw stone is a problem. Johnston publishes unique monthly articles to a network of friends highlighting the plight of Zimbabwe with stories and photos supplied by the artists.