The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded April 4, 1949 with its headquarters in Brussels and consists of 30 member states from Europe, North America and Asia committed to the mutual defence of its members. We are fortunate to have as our speaker today Robert Baines who is the President and CEO of the NATO Association of Canada where he is focused on communicating the importance of NATO and the international-rules based to Canadians. The Association is a charitable non-profit organization which hosts events across Canada, publishes hundreds of articles online every year and engages young Canadians through social media. Robert is a regular commentator on NATO issues in the Canadian media and has represented the NATO Association at conferences including the 2016 NATO Warsaw Summit, the 2018 Brussels Summit and the 2019 NATO Leaders in London. In 2017 he became a director of the Canadian-Turkey Business Council and Corporate Development Officer of the NATO Association. He is a passionate collaborator and commentator participating in the most important conversations about NATO, Canadian defence and business. Robert received his Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and History from Trinity College at the University of Toronto and his Master of Arts in History from York University and obtaining his MBA through the London School of Economics. He serves in the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve at Toronto and has been with the Canadian Armed Forces for 19 years and Naval Intelligence Officer since November 2020 and has received the Canadian Forces Decoration for his service. He has served as President of the St. George’s Society of Toronto and co-Chair of the Young Professional Board of the Canadian Opera Company
Good News!
At this point we are planning on all meetings being Hybrid until the end of June. Join us in person or online.
Reporting the War News by Females
Rotary’s guest speaker on March 25th was Hilary Brown, a Canadian who was a trailblazer in this field. With the war raging in Ukraine, we are receiving courageous reporting from many female reporters like Adrienne Arsenault at CBC and Clarissa Ward at CNN. They bring us a different perspective on war and its human effects. For 35 years Hilary reported from 19 war zones. She was the first female war correspondent for the American television ABC News and she has recently published a book titled War Tourist., Memoirs of a War Correspondent.
Speaker Hilary Brown and host Alex Brown
Alex was in charge of book sales
Making a direct impact with Ukraine Aid – You can join in the $51,000 plus Matching grant!
ShelterBox is looking at providing both shelter within Ukraine for people who have been displaced and aid packages with essentials like blankets, solar lights, sleeping mats and so on, for refugees who make it out of the country. Our Club's President and Our Charitable Foundation's President under joint authority have approved $15,000 towards this aid via ShelterBox.
You can help – The matching campaign is now up to $51,000. Special thanks to the Andras Foundation for doubling the matching commitment of the Foundation. In addition we are receiving a match of $21,000 from DMP Flowers. If you choose to help, your donations will be matched $ for $ up to $51,000.
DMP Flowers has been serving Durham Region and the surrounding areas for over 35 years. The Yun Family started the shop as a convenience store with a few flowers. About 9 years ago they changed it to a full flower shop with giftware. The parents ran the store for quite a few years but as they got older their sons took over. Paul Yun is now the owner and does all the buying from the flower markets to fill our huge fridge!! It was his idea to do the fundraiser for Ukraine and along with his amazing staff it came to life.
We have to thank our community because without their support we would just have had a bunch of flowers made up to sell! Along with our wholesalers who donated some of the flowers and small businesses in the community that donated their product, we were able to make this happen! We are still shocked by the amazing response we had. So many kind people in our community. We never expected to raise this much! We are thrilled. Thank you to the Rotary Club of Toronto for finishing the process we started.
This may be your best time ever to really get to know your fellow Rotarians while making a difference for inner-city children.
Best to come for the weekend but if you only have one day come for breakfast on Saturday and stay for dinner.
Camp Boss Susan Howson sent out an email earlier this week. Watch for updates and sign up!!
Our District Conference is back live!
Be a Driver for Change
with District Governor Ron Dick
The upcoming District Conference is from May 13 to 15 at the Courtyard by Marriott in Oshawa. Our Club will be hosting a hospitality suite at the conference. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet Rotarians from our 54 clubs and exchange experiences. The organizers have created a fabulous program for expanding our knowledge and also entertainment.
All you have to do is go to Linktr.ee/RotaryToronto and you will be connected to our club’s landing page. You can buy a ticket in $5, $10 or $20 increments. The winners are posted weekly on the website and depending on your tickets and the card you choose you may win the weekly draw prize or even the jackpot.
Our club receives $0.85 for every $5 purchase, $2.95 for every $10 purchase and $7.15 for every $20 purchase.
With Covid still affecting us this is one way to help our club.
Speaker Hilary Brown and host Alex Brown
Alex was in charge of book sales
