Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, C.M., is the Founder and Executive Director of Rainbow Faith and Freedom, and Senior Pastor Emeritus of Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, where he was at the forefront of ministry to the LGBTQI2S community for over 40 years. On January 14, 2001, he officiated at the first legal same sex marriages in the world. He received the Order of Canada, the Order of New Brunswick and three honorary degrees for his stand on social justice and human rights within the LGBTQI2S communities.
Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions are those expressed by Speaker and do not necessarily reflect
the official views or opinions, policy or position of The Rotary Club of Toronto or its Members.
Christmas Hampers for Progress Place
On Saturday, December 19th eight Rotarians and friends/partners gathered together in Covid safety at the Daily Bread Food Bank to fill gift Hampers for Progress Place members. The group met at 11 o’clock in the morning and spent three hours filling 240 boxes of food. There was a half hour pizza break, courtesy of the Food Bank. The Hampers will be distributed as gifts to Progress Place members who are, for the most part, living alone in this lockdown. Many of them are in their 60s and 70s.
The group in the photo from left to right include Harold Hetherington, Harold Weir (Rotarian friend of Pat Neuman) Pat Neuman, Don Bell, Mardi Michels (Neil Phillips’s partner), Neil Phillips and Neisely Eugene.
Neil Hetherington, the Bank’s executive director, supervised the operation and when we had finished packing, personally delivered four pallets of boxes in the Daily Bread Truck to Progress Place on Church St. As many of you know, Neil is the son of our member Harold Hetherington and a past member of our club. Our Community Service Committee has made a donation to the Food Bank in support of this effort.
What you Missed, December 18, 2020
Yes, we missed the lovely buffet that we normally enjoy at The Fairmont Royal York. But celebrate we did! Many thanks to Dauna Jones-Simmonds for a fantastic presentation. We enjoyed a performance from persons from Progress Place and several Seasonal songs from our member Alan Ely. Thank you.
Then we had our Christmas tree videos from Members. From John Fortney's multiple trees (with icicles!) and Maureen Bird's 1"x8" wooden tree - both decorated with heirlooms to June Brown climbing the windmill to put up the lights. We saw so many of our friends' special treatments.
We dressed up - President John in his tux - and celebrated with special cocktails and treats.
And from our Foundation Chair Susan Howson - At this special lunch each year our charitable foundation donates $5,000 to a charity of choice. This year the Rotary Club of Toronto Charitable Foundation has selected 2 very deserving charities to support with a donation of $2,500 each.
The first charity is Scott Mission, which addresses the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of a wide range of men, women, families and children and youth in Toronto.
The second charity is Jessie’s, The June Callwood Centre for Young Women, which is dedicated to helping young Mothers and their families. Both very deserving choices.
At the first half of our Annual Meeting we approved the auditors Report for our 2019-20 year.
As we took a break at the end of this tough year we wished each other a Happier and Healthier 2021.
I was born and educated in England, at a boarding school in the South of England founded nearly five hundred years ago and still going strong. I spent the first ten years of my working life in the London property business before emigrating to Canada in 1958.
I was lucky enough to be hired in 1960 by a fellow Brit who needed help in expanding his fledgling real estate investment company called MEPC Canadian Properties Ltd. acquiring sound commercial real estate investments.
In 1978, having merged with Morguard Investments Ltd., we found ourselves working for some of the larger Canadian pension funds. When I retired in 1996 we had under management about two billion dollars.
The Real Estate classification in our club originated with Murray and Ray Bosley who proposed my boss, Peter Anker, for membership in 1966 and he in turn proposed me in 1971.
I decided at the outset that my primary interest would revolve around disadvantaged young people…..so the Crippled Children’s Committee (yes that is what it was called in those days) was the first committee I joined..
Identifying worthy projects for support by our wonderful Foundation has always been a satisfying challenge for our members. We used to call them “Signature Projects” and back in the early eighties I was able to identify the West End Creche as one such project. Since 1908 the WEC had been treating emotionally disturbed pre-school children and their headquarters building on Euclid Avenue in the West end had become hopelessly inadequate. Peter Hermant was appointed Campaign Chair and our co-sponsorship of the National Ballet of Canada’s production of the Merry Widow at the O’Keefe Centre became the focus of the campaign. The opening night was quite something!
We met Andree Cazabon in 1998 at an Urban Peace Conference which we organized here in Toronto. She was looking for help to make her movie “Letters to a Street Child”. This we did with help from our Foundation, once again, and some of us actually performed in the movie. It was a great success and subsequently she told us that her dream was to see the creation here in Southern Ontario of a long term, residential treatment facility similar to the one in Utah which had put her back on her feet.
Thus was born The Pine River Institute with four of the original six member board being Rotarians including Ron Crane in the Chair. Once again the Foundation (together with the Tippett Foundation) stepped up to the plate with a generous donation and the opening of the facility took place with a ribbon cutting ceremony in 2006. A separate girl’s dormitory is presently in the course of being completed and once again our Foundation has generously lent its support.
Hands-on projects have always been some of the most satisfying projects we have undertaken and the one I am most proud of was the School Mentoring Project we undertook in 1998 jointly with the City of Toronto and Jesse Ketchum Junior public school at the top of Bay Street. Several of us volunteered to be mentors and that meant spending an hour each week with our mentee on the school property. Marlon was the seven-year-old youngster assigned to me and we met each week either in the library or on the basketball court. He loved basketball and went on to play semi-pro in Europe. We have kept in touch. He is now thirty years old, gainfully employed and about to start a family of his own.
This project came about through first the President of the Buffalo Rotary Club whom I met in Chicago. They were operating a successful mentoring project which he told me about and that is where I got the idea. Secondly the Mayor of Toronto, Barbara Hall, who told me about the City’s own mentoring project and finally Steve Reesor who was the city of Toronto’s Deputy Police Chief at that time, a member of our club and the chair, that year, of our Youth and Children’s Service Committee who were to be responsible for the roll-out.
How much the club has changed over the last fifty years and I am heartened to hear the plans for how it is to adapt to present day circumstances and move confidently into the future. At the core we are and will continue to be a community of caring people with a proud history of service to the city of Toronto and the wide world beyond.
The Health Bus: it was the brainchild of Gerry Nudds and Bob Rutherford. As club president at the time, it fell to me to do the honours when the bus was officially launched at the Wellesley Hospital in September 1996. With the Mayor and other dignitaries present it was quite an affair.
Fellowship & Entertainment Activities
Pat Neuman, Chair
Fellowship and Entertainment Committee January 2021
We are pleased to report that all club members were contacted via phone before the holidays, to wish Season’s Greetings.. unfortunately some were not available so a message was left. But, we missed a few of you as your phone number has changed.. please update your profile in Club Runner so we can reach you next time!! Thank you, F&E Committee members for all your work!!
Plans for the upcoming six months are as follows:
Virtual Cooking Club – last Saturday of the month - January 30th.. we would love to have you join us.. contact Neil at nphillips@dgn-marketing.com
Euchre: Third Tuesday of the month in the evening contact Jay at
Across Borders Virtual Cocktails.. Friday, 6:30 pm..We will meet with various clubs across Borders..Canada/US. The one with Moose Jaw. Sk. Wakamow Club is originally scheduled for Jan. 8 but may be postponed to Jan. 15 due to timing.
Book Club..to be revived seeing as we all have to stay home.. will look at later afternoon timing.
Virtual Dinner Club: NEW.. Several Hosts will invite 5 to 6 guests for Virtual Dinner on the third weekend of the month.. you may share the same dinner virtually, make your own recipe..or order from the same restaurant… up to the Host.. more info in Club Runner this week.. sign up!!
If anyone has any ideas the you would like us to work on, please contact Pat at pat.neuman@rotarytoronto.com
Happy January Birthday to our Members
2 June Brown
4 Paul Truelove
5 Ester Simone
8 John Lloyd
11 Tim Lang
14 Dauna Jones-Simmonds
16 Don Bell
19 Binoy Luckoo
21 Richard White
23 Daniel Massicotte
27 Keshev Chandaria
27 Jeff Dobson
28 Doug Hughes
SERVICE ABOVE SELF
The Rotary Club of Toronto, Fairmont Royal York Hotel, H Level
