Home Page | Rotary Club of West Ottawa

What interesting times we live in. As various events take place in the world it becomes more apparent that we need an organization like Rotary to help those in need. Rotary has seven areas of focus that include: promoting peace; fighting disease including the eradication of the polio virus; providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; saving mothers and children; supporting education; growing local economies; and protecting the environment. Locally Rotary has been providing assistance to so many including local institutions such as the Rotary Home, and Rotel along with the Park for Kids of All Abilities at Brewer Park. Local Rotary clubs have a long history of assisting others to improve their literacy skills. This year local Rotary clubs have given in excess of $70,000 to various food banks. The full list of our efforts and contributions is extensive.

As the new Rotary year starts we invite you to explore what Rotary and specifically our club does to make the world a better place and perhaps you can find some time to join us and make our organization even better.

We meet once a week, sometimes virtually, sometimes in person in a hybrid format to allow everyone to attend. The meeting times are listed to the right on this site. You’re always welcome to join us and find out more about our mission which is to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business professional and community leaders. We are non-political, non-denominational and non-religious and inclusive.

Please consider Rotary as a place where you can help to make Ottawa, and the world at large just a little bit better.

Join us at Noon to socialize; the meeting proper will start at 12:30 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81365346181

Yours in Rotary,

Graeme Fraser, President 2021-2022

Past President 2011-2012, Area Governor 2022-2025, Cell 613-355-6506

Want to know what's happening in the club? Read the most recent Spinoff

.. and then they were delivered

....and then they were delivered to Regina Street Alternative School

Larry Chop and Linda Flynn delivered the Storybook Ottawa books to Principal Tara Wild and two students for distribution to all students in the school. Larry kindly drove the cart around to each classroom for presentation to each student of their chosen book.

StoryBook Ottawa Gift Bags

Rotary Club of West Ottawa members Ginette Thomas, Jean Holbert-Leighton and Emilie Gendron joined Shaun Hopkins, Susan Hopkins and Ottawa Bytown members Linas Pilypaitis and Constance McLeese to prepare books for Regina Alternative School and Cambridge Public Schools students. Other helpers included Linda and Don Flynn. In total, 230 books were labelled and put in gift bags for presentation to each student with the book of their choice.

Latest Calendar Draw Winners

Ottawa Rotary Cash Calendar Winners, May 1 to May 15, 2023
Ticket #	Amount	Name	City	Win Date
0178	$25	Paula Bailey	Nepean, ON	01-May-23
3329	$25	Ms Kathy Innes	Ottawa, ON	02-May-23
1872	$50	Barb Alston	Nepean, ON	03-May-23
2018	$200	Paul Kelly	Nepean, ON	04-May-23
1704	$25	Blaise Cizimpaye	Ottawa, ON	05-May-23
2288	$50	Christine Sbardella	Ottawa, ON	06-May-23
0218	$50	Brian Drought	Windsor, ON	07-May-23
2997	$25	David Valcour	Kemptville, ON	08-May-23
0780	$100	Linda Audet	Moonbeam, ON	09-May-23
1781	$25	Leth Cormier	North Gower, ON	10-May-23
1815	$25	Carole Baker	Kanata, ON	11-May-23
4767	$20	Irene Dagenais	Ottawa, ON	12-May-23
1250	$50	Stancia Deblasi	Nakusp, BC	13-May-23
0135	$25	Ashley Foster	Ottawa, ON	14-May-23
3401	$25	George Fournier	Arnprior, ON	15-May-23

For more information please go to https://www.ottawarotarycalendar.com/

Earth Day - Our Environment

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for our members and their family's hard work and dedication during the river cleanup event. Our Earth Day activities included our 1) Great Lakes Watershed cleanup including Rotary's Brewer Park Playground and 2) developing a sustainability information brochure.

During the river cleanup, members gathered to remove trash and debris along the Rideau river's edge and bank; along with cleaning Rotary's Brewer Park playground and surroundings helping to restore its beauty. Our team of fifteen members collected approximately ten bags of trash. It was inspiring to see the teamwork, enthusiasm and commitment by our Rotary family. We had fun! We look forward to working together towards future sustainable initiatives.

Caroline DeWitt & Sucha Mann, Co-Chairs RCWO Environment Committee

Rotary D7040, No Mow May (see pic) lawn signs are available. No Mow May can play a crucial role in supporting pollinators allowing wildflowers and other plants to grow freely providing a much-needed source of nectar for bees, butterflies, and other important pollinators. Thanks to President Graeme offering to assist in accessing/distributing the lawn signs.

Our committee developed a brochure/poster to support sustainability efforts by raising awareness about Dim the Lights energy conservation initiative. The attached brochure, Ontario Home Energy Use provides options for eco-friendly practices.

Your Cash Calendar Money at Work

Every $20 paid for a Rotary Cash Calendar goes towards donations to Ottawa area groups doing much needed work and support.

To each and every person who purchased a Rotary Cash Calendar - THANK YOU!

Lynne Fraser (far left) was a busy member today as she delivered a cheque to the Minwaashin Lodge and below she can be seen at the Salvation Army.

Miriam Fraser (on left) delivered a cheque to Nelson House, Susan Sherring Legacy Fund.

Lynne's second stop today was at the Salvation Army.

Heron Emergency Food Center Receives Much Needed Funds

The need to help food banks is critical this Christmas season. The Heron Emergency Food Centre gladly accepted our donation of $1,000 to help in addressing food insecurity in our city.

Boys and Girls Club Donation

Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa were very pleased to receive a donation from our club of $1,000!

We are doing it Again!

Dictionary4Life books are again headed into 11 schools

Books have gone from warehouse

to Flynn garage

to volunteers' cars

to curbside drop offs at schools.

And how can you resist those excited school children faces!

Thanks D4L Volunteers!

The Latest on Our Pollinator Gardens!

Look at these gardens grow!

Award Winners 2021/2022

Posted on Sep 20, 2022

Once again - - Wow, some incredible award winners this year!

Here is a list of the awards given out at our June 28th final meeting of the Rotary Year 2022. Click on their name to discover their amazing contributions.

Paul Harris Fellows, non member:

Ava Hill

David Bettney

Mark Barnes

Ruth Martin Awards:

Shepherds of Good Hope

Family and Community Service Award:

Shelter Movers of Ottawa

Nathalie Maione

Lloyd Loynes Award:

Susan Diening

Paul Harris Fellow Awards for Club members:

Bea Osome

Caroline DeWitt

Larry Chop

Mike Traub

Honoured Life Members:

Douglas Heyland

William (Bill) Morris

How Do I Make a Donation or Pay Dues & Happy Dollars?

Ever wonder how to pay your annual dues or Happy Dollars? Or perhaps you would like to make a donation to the RCWO Service Fund be it a general donation or to The Rotary Foundation (Annual Program Fund and Polio Plus Fund). Click on the "how to" guide to learn more.

And Our Community Service Does it Again!

Miriam Fraser presented a cheque to Marilyn Matheson, Executive Director of Caldwell Family Services.

More Community Service!

Both Shepherds of Good Hope and Mathew House received cheques from Community Services Chair, Baxter Willis.

Sharon Adunmo, Co-Ordinator Data Base and Gift Giving

David Botha , Project Co-ordinator for Furniture Bank, part of the Matthew House non-profit organization.

Rotary Home Cheque Presentation

A cheque for $10,000 was presented to Peggy Gilmour, chair of the Rotary Home; Gina St Amour, Executive Director of the Rotary Home; Bruce Brooks, Treasurer of the Rotary Home Foundation by Graeme Fraser, President of RCWO and also board member of the Rotary Home Foundation.

Building and Planting the Pollinator Garden at The Rotary Home 2022-05-28

Led by Marcia, on a sunny Saturday morning, 28 June 2022, Jen, Andrew, Larry and Jean journeyed to the South of Ottawa where we built a raised pollinator bed and planted area native plants.

This was an opportunity to safely interact with other Club members outdoors and, at the same time, participate in a service project that will help pollinators to survive in the urban environment and provide visual enjoyment for families requiring respite services at the Rotary Home. It's a win-win-win situation.

The full set of photos are at

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aidvpvhO0bio3Adh0b7cryNC2hBVGBbd

Storybook Ottawa & RCWO Partner to Give Books

Storybook Ottawa and our club partnered to give books to every student in Regina St. Alternative School. Each of 181 students chose a book from a list of 4 choices for each grade. They were presented to the school by curbside drop off. The process for preparing the books for the drop off can be seen in this very short video

Esiandumba Toilet Project

Our member, Bea Osome, again embarked on an African project. This time it was a pilot water & sanitation (toilet) project which received District Matching Grant funding. Rotarian Bea and her husband, Ben recently travelled to Esiandumba, Luanda South, Vihiga County, Kenya, Africa to build toilets for boys and girls at the Esiandumba Primary School. The specific objectives were to: 1. Install a hygienic facility 2. Prepare and implement an operations and maintenance program for the facility and 3. Introduce an enhanced sanitation education at the school. And voila!

A successful project launch was held on Friday 18th March,2022.

Short video link : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17W5Uz10VZgiSSbLqay_Obsa8GHoU28US

Esiandumba Elementary School Water & Sanitation (Toilet) Project

Ottawa Food Bank Receives our Donation

Community Service Chair, Baxter Willis presented a cheque for $1,500 to the Ottawa Food Bank.

The Rotary Foundation

The Mission Continues

The Rotary year is almost over, but the continuing mission of The Rotary Foundation never ends. The programs of the Rotary Foundation are for the present and future needs – educational programs, medical assistance programs, community assistance and development programs, and disaster response programs – all to improve the lives of the people around the world.

Thank you for supporting The Rotary Foundation programs and for allowing "the good work" of Rotary to continue. We should be proud of our accomplishments as this has been a fantastic year and our continued efforts to "End Polio Now."

La mission Continues

L'année rotarienne est presque terminée, mais la mission continue de la Fondation Rotary ne se termine jamais. Les programmes de la Fondation Rotary répondent aux besoins actuels et futurs - programmes éducatifs, programmes d'assistance médicale, programmes d'aide et de développement communautaires et programmes d'intervention en cas de catastrophe - tous pour améliorer la vie des personnes dans le monde.

Merci de soutenir les programmes de la Fondation Rotary et de permettre au « bon travail » du Rotary de se poursuivre. Nous devrions être fiers de nos réalisations car cette année a été fantastique et de nos efforts continus pour « mettre fin à la polio maintenant

Yours in Rotary Services DG

Fay Campbell

DG - 2021-22
Rotary District 7040

Rotary Club of Orleans

Dictionary4Life

Many thanks go out to our volunteers at the Bushtukah warehouse on August 15th who loaded 1,910 dictionaries into the vehicles of 10 participating clubs from District 7040 and 7810. Left, in the warehouse, to be delivered were our club's 480 plus 64 surplus dictionaries and 116 Sackville, NB dictionaries. Our 11 teams of volunteers will deliver them to RCWO's 11 schools by curbside drop off due to Covid-19 again this Fall.

Meet last year's volunteers in this short video (or paste this url in your browser https://youtu.be/KZULLycOLHY) Here are some of this year's volunteers. Video to come that will tell the full story by end of November.

See what a difference one dictionary can make for life! RCWO's 60 second entry to the DGs challenge to tell the story of a club project. http://youtube/uCwcZQKQ6nE

To encourage donations for our local literacy project, Dictionary4Life, the Rotary Club of West Ottawa (Service Fund) Inc. has a profile on Canada Helps (www.canadahelps.org). Donating to this project has never been simpler! Simply click to make a safe & secure donation. A $20 donation will purchase at least 2-3 dictionaries! A tax receipt will be issued by Canada Helps for donations.

Esiandumba Elementary School Water & Sanitation (Toilet) Project

Service Above Self