Riding "The Wave in Arizona" in a Range Rover

Rota-teller
May 14 , 2014

Anthem:         David Seemungal                           
Grace/Invocation:      Roland List
Toast:         President  Rocco

Attendance: 11 with no guests

Anouncements:

*    Peter Masson reported that the Paul Harris Scholarship (PHS) Committee met at the Delta on Monday. They have managed to whittle the record field of 19 down to 6 winners of the $2,500 scholarship.  Funding for the additional scholarship this year will come from the local Scarborough CPA Association.

*  Lunch meeting of Wednesday June, 4th , 2014 will be cancelled for the PHS banquetr that evening at 6.30pm at the Delta Toronto East. Cost will be $25 per person which includes the cost of parking, So remember to tell your guests not to pay at the machine. Simply log their vehicle's registration at the desk. There will be a cash bar....drink enough to pay the barman, but not enough to pay the magistrate/City of Toronto!

*    Gordon Brown is reported to be on the road to recovery after his operation. He has been dischared and to return home for a month or so of gentle return-to-normal activity.

*    Day at the Races: Alan and Charles reported that it is set for Sunday, June 8, 2014 at Woodbine. We need 22 attendees; so far has 12 so get those confirmations in before your out of luck!
   
*    Rocco reported that the first meeting of this year for the TV Auction had taken place. We will need auction items to fill the warehouse (at the same York Mills/DVP location) which was kindly made available to us once again this year.  We may have a new Rotary Club participating this year.

*    Gerd reported that he had cancelled attending his high school reunion in Germany to undertake walking 50km of the Bruce Trail in just 12 hours! They are trying to raise $25,000 towards upkeep of the trail and have reached a total of $12,000 so far (including the $4,000 raised by Gerd himself). This begs the question: Hanging out with old friends, eating and drinking vs. hanging on for dear life on a cliffside trail or running from a bear in the woods; which would you choose? I know I'd have made a different choice!!
(Gerd welcomes more donations to be made to The Bruce Trail Conservancy. Just give him a cheque whenever you next see him. A tax donation will be provided).

Marbelous Draw was conducted by Charles; with Sai Foo pulling the lucky ticket from the box, our very own SAA Alan presented the winning ticket , unfortunately he couldn’t find the mutant marble, but was given $5 as a consolation which he informed us would not be fined or donated back.

Sergeant-At-Arms today was Alan Meridith. He asked for a Rotary question: with none forthcoming he moved on to extract Happy Bucks. Notably, Basil was happy to have spoken to Enbridge about being a sponsor for the Rotary Ribfest. He was actually happy about Cheryl Meridith's blueberry muffins which were the real reason he went to the meeting!

Program: 
Rocco introduced our impromptu speaker Gerd Wengler. 
Gerd spoke about a recent road trip that he, Dorothy and their dog just made to "break in" their new Range Rover. The road trip took them 12,000 km to see The Wave in Arizona. He and Dorothy won one of only 10 places available in an online auction to be allowed to visit this natural wonder. He spoke about being the only Range Rover on all season tyres taking part in a Jeep Tour up near-vertical slopes and down two foot "steps” down a mountain trail. Surprisingly, he made it with minimal damage, while some of the "tricked out" offroader Jeeps didn't. Entertaining stuff told in Gerd's inimitable style!

Gerd promised to make an encore presentation after he has their 1,000 plus photos organized and ready for a slide show.

Rocco thanked Gerd his talk, closed the meeting, and sent us on our way at 1.50

Follow link to hear more of Gerd's adventure

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r2it9zmjvw481sb/Gerd%20Arizona.MP3