2023 Kids Against Hunger Food Packing

Great job by the volunteers with the Rotary Club of Ajax to help provide 2,579 meals for hungry children and families in developing countries.

 

 

Ajax Rotary Wins District Awards For Supporting Polio Campaign

Ajax and Kampala Rotary Clubs Partnership

We've been nominated for 3 Readers' Choice Awards!

2019-2020 Rotary Citation

Ajax Rotary is proud to learn that we earned the 2019-2020 Rotary Citation, the most significant award a Rotary club can achieve. During a year that was challenging for many Rotarians around the world, this citation shows that our club demonstrated a commitment to achieve its goals, which ultimately helps strengthen Rotary and shape our future.

Join us online for cheese, beer and trivia!

Contact Caitlyn to book your spot - caitlyn@auradata.com

2020 Paul Harris Award

Ajax Rotary Raising Funds

Ajax Rotarian Ken Hurst presents a cheque to the Salvation Army for $2,700.

October 8th Ken attached 120 Donation cards to the shopping carts at Steve and Amanda’s No Frills. Customers added the donations to their grocery bills.

Visit the website to donate: www.ajaxrotarypolarplunge.org

Download Registration Waiver

On August 29, 2019, our club welcomed two recipients this year’s scholarship bursaries. Shown from left to right are Rotarian Paul Taalman, recipient Haniah Iqbal, club president Heather Hebert, recipient Tyrell Williams and Rotarian Ken Hurst

These two young ladies were each presented with a Rotary Certificate of Achievement and a $500 cheque from the Rotary Club of Ajax for “Service Above Self”.

The “Service Above Self” Award is awarded to a graduating student who has exemplified this key principle of Rotary by providing notable community service through voluntary actions during their secondary school years.

Join the Rotary Club of Ajax and 90,000 plus visitors in all the fun! We have 9 Award Winning Ribbers, Butter Tart Frenzy, Pickering Ribfest Midway, Buskers, Tons of Vendors and a lot of entertainment for the whole family.

We strive to create a safe, enjoyable, family-friendly community event. Our commitment to have quality entertainment, world-class ribs and food vendors, and a licensed park.

FREE Parking, FREE Admission, and FREE Entertainment

2019 Ribfest Hours

• Friday May 31: Noon - 10pm
• Saturday June 1: 11am - 10pm
• Sunday June 2: Noon - 8pm

Located at The Esplanade Park in Pickering.

Our guest speaker this past week was Alastair Field of the Enforcement Unit of the  OSC who talked to us about “protecting our money”.  Alastair spoke about his speciality of investment fraud, which many Canadians are victims of, and many are reluctant to even report the crime.  The loss may also lead to other physical or mental problems.

He talked about specific kinds of frauds

Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation and the Rotary Club of Ajax.

Our speakers were from the Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation. In this their 65th year, they noted the substantial contributions to the hospital by our club over the years, which total well over $550,000. We were there from the very formation of the APHF.

The Foundation is very happy with the way the integration in the Lakeridge Health system is proceeding, inasmuch as the foundation's fund raising efforts are permitted to help the Ajax location and not sent elsewhere.

The APHF is currently raising money for "Alaris Pumps" having committed to purchase 10 of these at $5000 apiece, and are looking to community partners such as our club to help. These pumps will significantly reduce the possibility of error in the administration of patient needs after procedures, and their capabilities will grow as the hospital IT system becomes more comprehensive.

Past President Rene Soetens introduced our newest member Rotarian George Okurapa.

Below are some highlights from George's classification speech. Welcome to the Rotary Club of Ajax!

• Donated Rotary Park to the Town
• Donated over $5,000 towards planting of trees in Rotary Park
• Has conducted Rotary Park clean up for many years
• Adopted Audley Road to conduct spring & summer clean ups 
• Won a sustainability award for waste reduction at Pickering Ribfest
• Funded Enviro-Parks at three local schools in town
• Received an “Excellence on the Waterfront Award”
• Partly funded waterfront footbridge, park pavilion and playground

Contributions to Community: 

• Donated over $600,000 to  the hospital
• Donated $100,000 to the Ajax Public Library 
• Provided over $160,000 to support various Town of Ajax projects (inclusive playground, trail, clock, Rotary Park)
• Provided Herizon House with $15,000+
• United Way has received $20,000+ over the years
• Many students achieve community hours through volunteering with Rotary 
• Pickering Ribfest – donated over $15,000. to small local organizations
• Funded War Memorial in Ajax
• Donated $12,000 to date to 3 local churches sponsoring Syrian refugee families

Outstanding Customer Service: 

• Ajax Rotary Pancake Breakfast has been running for over 30 years to the delight of the Town's residents
• Pickering Ribfest has grown from 32,000 to 52,000 to 70,000 to 90,000 satisfied customers
• Ribfest has won the AjaxPickering NewAdvertiser award every year as BEST EVENT
• A Customer Service Survey is done at Ribfest
• Ajax Rotary members employ good customer service skills that are used in their own businesses
• Club members are successful business leaders in the community
• Many vulnerable community members approach us for help / solutions / understanding
• Numerous sponsors and volunteers align with us due to our integrity 

Career & Business Achievements: 

• Cec Winters was the first Ajax Rotary President
• 4 Ajax Mayors were Rotary members
• 1 former Mayor of Whitby Rotary was a Past President
• 5 Ajax Rotarians have been the Chair of Ajax Homeweek
• 1 Rotarian was a member of Parliament
• 3 Ajax Rotarians were Volunteer Citizens of the Year
• Ajax Rotary was in operation before the Town of Ajax was incorporated
• Over 66 years of successful fundraising as a local service club

Ethics: 

• Rotarians commit to and live by Rotary’s Four-Way Test. 

The Four-way Test:

• First – Is it the Truth?
• Second – Is it fair to all concerned?
• Third – Will it build goodwill & better friendships?
• Fourth – Will it be beneficial to all concerned? 

Marketing & Promotional Achievements: 

• Pickering Ribfest has been our biggest success in the last few years
• Rotary Golf tournaments have sold out most years
• Post mortems done on all events / activities

The Object of Rotary

The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster: 

• FIRST.  The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
• SECOND.  High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
• THIRD.  The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;
• FOURTH.  The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persona united in the ideal of service.

Our president, Donna, got our meeting started, inviting Paul to play the anthem as we sang. Grace was led by Tom and the toast to the Queen was proposed by Nick. Our guests were Steve King Jr. and prospective member, Paulo Caporusso. 

An application for membership in Rotary has been received from Paolo Caporusso.
This is the single posting of this application. Anyone with comments should contact a Director
(listed on ajaxrotary.org) on or before Monday April 22, when it will be otherwise finalized by the Directors.

News and Announcements

1. Please consider getting your Smart Serve certificate in time to help out at this year's RibFest.
2.  Rene is now older and so we sang him a song. 
3. There is a board meeting this Monday and you can come. 
4. Nominations for Paul Harris fellowship awards should be forwarded to Clarence. 
5. April is earth month and Randy is proposing we spend 20 minutes on Friday the 19th at 2pm cleaning up Rotary Park.
6. Donna auctioned off a cuban cigar
7. Dick has done yeoman's service at the welcome desk and we appreciate it!
8. Happy bucks flowed like it was Spring.

Speaker

The weather outside was frightful, but the speaker was delightful. Our own Paul Butler gave us a lot of insight into a difficult disease, Muscular Sclerosis. Paul himself was diagnosed with MS when he turned 60. He now uses his scooter to improve his mobility. 

Paul reminded us that May is the month when we focus on MS. The Walk for MS will be held on May 5th this year, and club member are welcome to sponsor Paul as he participated with his family members. Last year the walk raised $4.8 million. That money has allowed many people to remain living independently. Paul benefited from the support personally by getting two chair lifts to help him navigate his split level home. Money from the walk stay in our own community.

Paul taught and demonstrated that a positive attitude is the most important thing to have in order to stay on top of the symptoms of MS. Paul was momentarily interrupted when a cell phone went off, but was quick to quip, "Tell them I'm busy!" That ready good humour stands Paul in good stead when the frustration of the disease could get him down.

Thank you Paul for your informative talk and for your service to Rotary.

Pictures of last year's walk are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/msontarioevents/sets/72157630064688423/

By the Way...

There were no winners in the 50/50 draw and our intrepid president walked away with the wine having had the wherewithal to do it!

With the new month - July 1 - starts one more New Rotary Year, the Rotary Year 2011 2012- that's Rotary always looking ahead; always working for a better future.

Under the direction of the new Club President, Don Brewer, a new Board of Directors has been unveiled.  

Check out their names on the bulletin on our homepage.

From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians have been concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is The Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy.