Rotarian Cassandra Bonn introduced the lunch speaker, Dug Stevenson, Executive Director of the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board.  Dug grew up in the dairy capital of the Maritimes, Sussex, N.B. before leaving for his undergrad at McGill University and then moving to Toronto for grad studies at Humber College.  Dug has led the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board since 2016 where his team of five (5) have been recognized with national and provincial awards in tourism and economic development for their marketing, branding and projects, including the Lieutenant Governor's Award from the Economic Developers Association of Ontario -- their highest marketing honour.  The Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board is a public-private Destination Marketing and Management Organization with a mandate of marketing tourism and resident attraction for the partners of Belleville, Brighton, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, Napanee, Quinte Home Builders' Association and Quinte West.  As ED, Dug is responsible for overseeing all of the operations, setting strategic goals and ensuring the organizations mission is effectively carried out.

 

Dug introduced the 10th Edition of the Bay of Quinte Discovery Guide and this book is packed with information about what is happening in and about our region.  You can get a copy of this book at visitor centres and popular spots around the area.  You can also go to their website bayofquinte.ca and have a tour and visit numerous links to many attractions, opportunities, job openings, eateries and even a map to get you where you want to go.  You can vote for your favourite local businesses and attractions in over 50 categories in the Best of the Bay Contest.  The way people travel is changing in terms of the relationship between the visitor and the destination.  Experiential tourism seeks to connect visitors to the local stories that are the heart of a region.  One of the main goals of the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board is to be at the forefront of that change and stay locked in step with tourism trends domestically and internationally.  We are lucky to live in such as biodiverse region with so many incredible natural assets that we have a responsibility to grow tourism sustainably and to protect those assets for our residents.  By fostering positive visitor behaviour through these new experiences we help to develop, we foster tourism as a force for good for the Bay of Quinte communities.  It is evident that Dug and his team have developed a brand and destination for our region with innovative ideas that have attracted tens of thousands of people and really put the Bay of Quinte on the map.   A few visitor facts were shared.  Over 30% visit our area for the outdoors such as golf, hiking, boating, beaches.  Two plus million people visit a year and 60% of those stay overnight.  Check out the annual report for more information on the return on investment that tourism and resident attraction bring to this area.

 

Tim McKinney thanked Dug for his presentation, admitting that he learned lots from the book review alone!

 

 

 

 

Assistant District Governor Sandi Ramsey introduced Virginia O'Reilly, District 7070 District Governor for 2024/2025.  Virginia joined Rotary to connect with the community.  It gave her an opportunity to meet people and do community work.  Now she is excited to be District Governor at the same time as Rotary International President Stephanie Urchick, the 2nd female to hold an RI role in the history of Rotary.

 

Virginia's top passion is having dynamic, committed members and one of her goals and that of RI President is to grow the membership.  Tell people what Rotary is doing.  Get them involved.  Keep current members engaged.  Virginia encouraged President Karen Baker to share the Club's goals with the membership and to outline the Club Action Plan.  What is Belleville's Magic of Rotary story?  On the spot examples -- October 26th Tree Planting towards a goal of 50,000 trees and the astounding success story of RLK raising in excess of $1.4 million!!!!

 

DG O'Reilly has asked all Rotarians to make the Magic of Rotary come alive with every project worked on, every donation made, every time collaboration takes place to improve the lives and conditions of the people in our community, locally and globally.

 

Virginia discovered a "light bulb" idea in Belleville.  President Karen has decided in her year to acknowledge one Rotarian from the Club, one Angel each month, who demonstrates what it means to be a Rotarian and to put Service Above Self.

As President of the Rotary Club of Belleville, Karen Baker considered it a privilege and pleasure to welcome into membership Amanda Smith and Julia Ross.  Amanda currently works with Tim McKinney Realtor group and has already jumped in to assist with the Rotary Loves Kids promotion and golf tournament and has expressed interest in other areas.  Amanda's classification is that of Real Estate.  Julia Ross is the current co-owner to New Hope Surrogacy and Egg Donation and has a vast amount of volunteer experience in the community.  Julia connected with the Club online.  Both have been invited to membership and the Rotary Club of Belleville has accepted them as persons of good character, high ethical standards, who exemplify the ideal of service in their actions and words and are leaders in their vocation and the community.  They have agreed to accept the obligations of membership in the Club and to follow the Club's Constitution and By-Laws and have become part of a worldwide organization dedicated to encouraging and fostering the ideal of service.  President Karen was unable to present each with a Rotary Pin, recognized around the world as an invitation to attend Rotary meetings and functions wherever they may be, but will do that as soon as the pins come in, they are on order..  The Rotary wheel on the pin signifies friendship (inward) and service in the community and around the world (outward).  Each new member was also presented with their red lunch badge.  The badge will be replaced with a blue one once the new members have presented their classification talk to the membership.  And with that, President Karen delared both Amanda and Julia duly inducted as the newest members of the Rotary Club of Belleville and welcomed their strong arms and strong heart for service as we are People of Action who, in 2024-2025 share the Magic of Rotary.  (Pictured L to R are District Governor Virginia O'Reilly, new member Julia Ross, President Karen Baker, new member Amanda Smith, Tracey Vandervoort Membership Chair, Assistant District Governor Sandi Ramsey).

 

The Rotary Club of Belleville is known for its great work with youth and has been involved in projects such as Camp Merrywood, the Quinte Rotary Music Festival, Kids Against Hunger, Amarok Society for literacy in Bangladesh and academic scholarships.  These are just a small sample of the many local and international projects the Club is involved with.

The Rotary Cub of Belleville presents a Paul Harris Fellow recognition to those Rotarians who have been members for ten (10) years.  Rotarian Heather Hall has been a member of the Rotary Club of Belleville since 2019 and prior to that she was an active member with the Brantford Rotary Club.  One of the initiatives that Heather introduced to her former Club as well as to the Rotary Club of Belleville is Clowns for Kids.  Heather is the Chair of this fundraising committee.  Community members and fellow Rotarians dress up as clowns in a fun and unique way of blending fun and serious charity fundraising.  Clowns act as goodwill ambassadors by greeting the crowd and children as the clowns walk in the Santa Claus parade.  Stay tuned for this fun and exciting event on November 17th in the City of Belleville.  Pictured is District Governor Virginia O'Reilly and Rotary President Karen Baker presenting Heather Hall with her Paul Harris certificate and pin at the lunch meeting on August 29th.

Tipi Moza is an urban First Nation, Metis and Inuit housing providing in the City of Kingston.  It is governed by a seven member volunteer Board of Directors.  The Rotary Club of Belleville, as part of the Indigenous Peoples Partnerships under the Chair Birgit Wartenberg have been working with and supporting Tipi Moza since 2017.  Most recently the Rotary Clubs of Belleville, Trenton, Palgrave and Catarqui-Kingston supported the Backpack Program put together by Tipi Moza.  By providing financial support and school items, Tipi Moza was able to help 17 children with a new backpack filled with most of the school supplies needed to return to school.  Thanks for Rotary's never-ending support.  The generosity provides the families with peace of mind and assistance in transitioning to another school year.  Rotary's support goes a long way to setting these young students up for academic success.  Dozens have been assisted along the way and Tipi Moza expressed gratefulness for everything Rotary does.  This Backpack program would not be able to continue without this support. 

During her year as President of the Rotary Club of Belleville, Karen decided to acknowledge a Rotarian from the Club, one each month.  The August recipient is a recent member of the Club, joining in December 2023.  In a few short months, he has truly demonstrated what it means to be a Rotarian and to put Service Above Self.  This member has maintained a 100% attendance record since joining and has managed to bank a lot of makeups for committee work.  Since July 1st, he has manned a spot on the Waterfront Festival parking team, working the entire shift.  He also did trible duty at Party in the Square, acting as a Captain as well as a Bar Server.  His wife, Shannon and daughter Bella helped sell bar tickets.  A family of "Smart Servers".  He has also sold Belleville Senator 50/50 tickets on behalf of the Club (pictured here in action with his wife Shannon)

 

Rotarian Jared Bellemare was asked to the front so that Karen could present him with his Angel Certificate, an Angel pin and in recognition of this year's Rotary theme "The Magic of Rotary", Jared was invited to choose a magic wand from the box.

Today's lunch speaker, Ken Manderville, representing 100 Men Who Care, was introduced by Rotarian and one of the 100 men who care, Ken Wheeler.  Ken Manderville thanked the Rotary Club of Belleville for inviting him to speak today to the members.  As a former Rotarian with the Picton Rotary Club and a retired principal, he recognizes the work that the Rotary Club does, embodying Service Above Self as its motto.  In the community, people enjoy the Rotary Music Park, the Pirate Ship, a game of golf with Rotary Loves Kids tournament or playing baseball at the Field of Ability, a project supported by Rotary.  These locations are not always noticed, but are very important to the community. 

 

The 100 Men Who Care Quinte came about after finding out a little more about the initiative from someone in Kingston.  The Quinte Chapter is now in its 9th year of existence and overall have donated a total of $313,950 to the local community.  100 Men Who Care Quinte is a non-organization!  It is informal, unregistered and has no board, no chair, no treasurer, no bank account, no revenue and no expenditures.  It is based on the concept of simplicity -- minimum input and maximum impact.  The Quinte Region for this initiative spans an area from Brighton in the west to Napanee in the East, Madoc in the north and Picton in the south.  The 100 Men Who Care Quinte meet quarterly and at each of those four meetings, the goal is to collect and give away $10,000+ to allow the selected charity to do something of significant impact that would not have been done otherwise without the support of 100 Men Who Care.  The charitable organizations must serve the Quinte Region and provide individuals tax receipts directly to contributing members.

 

Each member commits to donating $100 at each of the four meetings.  Members get to vote on the charity they would like to support, selected from the list of charities submitted by all the members.  At each meeting, three charities are chosen from a ballot box.  The members who nominated the chosen organizations, are then asked to do a brief presentation, followed by a vote from the membership and the charity with the most votes by simple majority will be the recipient.  At that point, each member is asked to make out their $100 cheque to the charity chosen by the group.  Members who did not vote for the selected charity agree to make their donation regardless.  New members are always welcome, the next meeting is September 16th at 7:00 p.m. at the Belleville Club.  On the 100 Men Who Care Quinte website is a quote by Winston Churchill -- "we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give".  Ken Manderville was thanked by Rotarian Jared Bellemare, recognizing the work that is done by giving back to the community.