And What a Week it Was

The week started like most weeks, work, home, Rotary, not necessarily in that order but pretty close. 

 

Then came the Assembly on Tuesday July 23rd.  President Joel used the occasion to rally the troops for the wheelchair distribution on Saturday, July 27th.  He mapped out the approximate plan and energized the members to prepare themselves for a day of service above self.

 

Given the time constraints, President Joel truncated his presentation on the budget and plans for the coming year but shared that the board had approved using unspent budget allocations from the 2018/2019 Rotary year to fund projects in 2019/2020 year.  He advised that he was working with the Service Projects team to formulate a plan for a Diabetes Youth Camp to be held in the second half of the year.  This project would be championed by Rtn. Zanique who was a participant in the first such camp and who is able to provide great insights into the real benefits that she received as a participant.  The Service Projects meeting has been postponed to August 5th.

 

Members expressed strong  support for the school feeding project which they felt had far reaching benefits for the children who received a hot breakfast as a result.

 

It was a great evening of comradery and discussion.  Rtn. Lenny once again hosted the evening at the Windjammer Landing Resort, conference room.  As always the offerings were greatly appreciated by the members.  We ran well over time as we fellowshipped well into the evening and some of us had difficulty with early morning starts the next day as a result!

 

And then came Saturday.  No idea what happened to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, they simply seemed to disappear.  Call to arms got moved forward to 8.00 am and by golly, most of us made it pretty well on time.  I sense an air of autocracy creeping in!!!

 

First we loaded the pickups; first one was PP Gene who headed off to deliver seven chairs in the North of the island with Rtn. Maggie and the Rotaractors from Rotaract Gros Islet; two for Micoud - Rtn Ernest and Yours truly, and one for Vieux Fort - Rtn Simone.  The truck that PP Lenita managed to procure from the City Council was then loaded and that took the bulk of the chairs to Vieux Fort where the undelivered chairs are stored at the Lions Den until they can be distributed.

 

One bad lucky moment at the beginning   Poor Rtn. Rachel got a flat tire as she parked at the warehouse and had to go get it sorted which prevented her from making the trip. 

 

An impressive 20 Rotarians (including 3 from the Satellite Club South) and 13 Rotaractors (inclusive of guests and 1 Rotaractor from South Saint Lucia) turned out for the day long activity.  I am not sure how much a wheelchair weighs but try lifting chairs up and out of their boxes, over and over again - you are guaranteed to get an effective workout!  PP Matt and Ravs showed up early and worked like trojans but were not able to make the trip south due to prior commitments.    Great spirit prevailed thought the day

It was great to see Rotaractor Clint out and about after his long and grueling ordeal with leukemia.  He reports that he is feeling good which is great.   The wheelchairs were evidently well received and the message was imparted that they were purchased by the Hoteliers through the Tourism Development Fund.    We saw people who have drawn very short straws in life and were humbled by their cheerfulness.   An to the South - After sorting our blow away tarpaulins on a couple of occasions and stopping to cover up where none were used and it rained, we arrived in Praslin   The young man had been in a vehicle accident and is paralyzed from his waist down.   

Rotarians Jenny, Trudy and Adrian managed to find all of their recipients, something that was quite remarkable as our support network on the ground did not show up.   PP Len and Rtn Ernest suffered as we did (PP Astrid and Yours truly) from lack of information but we found a few.   Rtns Simone, Ty, Carina and Lisa in action.  Ooops, back to PP Gene in the North with Rotaract support.  You tried pumping one of those bicycle tires lately???   Rtn. Ernest and Rotaractor Sohle visit with one of the recipients.   We gathered at the Lions Den in Vieux Fort,  which doubles as a Pre-School and where we were kindly allowed to store the chairs that we were unable to find the recipients for.  Many thanks to Lion Marvin Joseph for stepping in at late notice and assisting.  At this stage a number of the wheel chair elves were somewhere out there delivering chairs.  We grabbed some food and drink before pressing on to Laborie  And then we moved on to deliver the last batch of chairs that we had directions for.    Not easy to find and not easy to get to, but we are People of Action!

 

There are many more photos that I have not received and which will eventually get posted to the photo album that will be created on the website but as always we rounded the day out in fellowship.  This time we met at Zoe's in Laborie for a bite and a drink.  Most of us got home about 9.30pm