1990 - 1991, by Bill Harris

1990-91. President Rick Sulker, Vice-President Cam Smith, Treasurer Pat Morrell, Secretary David Jones and Directors Dinker Joshi, Dick Northorp, Eric Nejat and Dennis Egan. The club continued to take an active role in the Student Exchange Programme and our Exchange Student for the year was Mano Pedrazzoli from Catanduva, Brazil. Nicole Zinn returned from her year in Finland, speaking Finnish and Swedish in addition to the English, German and French she had mastered before her Exchange year. She is quite a linguist. The District 707 Conference was held at the Sheraton-Parkway Hotel with John Denver as the main speaker and a number of Exchange Students and Foundation Scholars were hosted on the Saturday night by club members so that they could attend the youth events on the Sunday morning. A Blue Spruce was planted at the hotel to commemorate the conference theme "Preserve Planet Earth", which subsequently died and was replaced sometime around 1996 or 7 with a Maple donated by Shelagh Harris and planted by Bill Harris and John Rumble in the pouring rain. Unfortunately, this tree also died and has now been replaced by an Evergreen, presumably provided by the hotel. The plaque is still there on the rock but maybe this says something about the state of the environment in Richmond Hill! The International Night took the form of a Canada Night this year on February 22nd., 1991. In the fund raising activities this is the first year that I see Christmas Ham sales mentioned, making a profit of $540. Another fund raising effort was made in co-operation with the new Super Centre. Each Saturday morning from June to Labour Day the Rotary volunteers cooked and sold hamburgers and hotdogs and drinks from 10.30 to 3.30pm.. This was a good fellowship event and I remember being surprised at how early the demand began each Saturday morning. The club made $1,976 this year, but the demand slowed in subsequent years. The TV Auction raised over $35,000 of which $22,587 was distributed to various charities and $7,500 given to the Hospital Foundation.

1991-92. President Cam Smith, Vice-President Paul Vyrostko, Treasurer Bob Correll, Secretary David Jones and Directors Deen Farouk, Alvin Rice, Eric Nejat and Ray Butcher. Another active year in the Exchange Student programme with the departure of Mano Pedrazolli and the arrival of Berenice Jimenez from Mexico. Debbie Jones was our outbound student who went to Brazil and stayed with Mano's family in Catanduva. This is an unusual occurrence. During the course of the year a two Paul Harris Fellowship Awards were given to outstanding members of the community. Bryan Buchan was given the award for his adoption of seven Vietnamese children, Gloria Crotin received hers for her work as CEO of the York Central Hospital. Carmen Salerno, News Room Director for Classicom Cable was presented with a plaque for his work with the TV Auction. The first of the 12 Club Rotary Meetings was organized by the Aurora Club on June 1st., 1992. Vice-Admiral Robert George was the guest speaker. These have continued to this date (2001). The club also sponsored a Rotary Foundation Scholar, Dina Minutillo, who studied strategies for teaching deaf students. One of the items on the March 31sr., 92 statement lists $500 donated for the new Town Crier's uniform. The TV Auction raised $36,000 with $23,302 distributed to charities. There was no International Night as they had become less profitable and it was decided to concentrate on the TV Auction as our main fund raising activity. A shame, as they were a lot of fun! Turnover Night at the Sulker's was notable for the appearance of Mae West to give President Cam a "gin and sofa".