Club Information
Corner Brook

We meet In Person
Thursdays at 12:30 PM
Glynmill Inn
1B, Cobb Lane
Corner Brook, NL A2H 2V3
Canada
Regular Rotary lunch meetings are held weekly at the Glynmill Inn on Thursdays at 12.30pm - 1.30pm. Rotarians and friends call 709 634 -3789 for more information.
Home Page Stories
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, November16, 2023
Vice- President Olaf chaired the meeting.
Guest Speaker
Program- Chair Ian introduced the guest speaker, Dr Svetlana Barkanova, Professor of Physics at Grenfell Campus. Svetlana began by speaking of herself being originally from Latvia and her study of the nature of dark matter and though dark matter exists no one quite knows what it is.
 She then spoke of the telescope at Grenfell Campus which is one of the largest in Canada which is accessible to the public through arranged tours.
She continued by looking at an analysis of the distribution of gender in Science and Engineering (STEM) fields in Canada and considered why the proportion of female students was so low.  
This led her to talk about a new project with which she is involved. She is one of the NSERC-Chairs for Inclusion in Science and Engineering in the Atlantic Region. This two-year pilot project is to support a team of researchers who contribute to a culture of inclusion in the natural sciences and engineering fields by catalyzing networks of supporters of this work, promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the research ecosystem, and undertaking activities to enhance awareness and understanding of barriers and inequities faced by members of underrepresented groups in these fields.
There are different projects, but the ones Svetlana focused on was looking at physics in rural classrooms for Grades 7 – 12, and the total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024.
Looking at rural schools and staring in Labrador, she is hoping for presenters with expertise in physical science, engineering and technology visit different rural schools. She is hoping to link the presentations to a relevant curriculum to be developed which will refer to regional priorities including indigenous knowledge.
She showed the area of total eclipse that will pass over Newfoundland on April 8, 2024. The last total solar eclipse crossing this region was in 1970 and the next one after next year will be in 2079. She would like to plan multiple eclipse parties on the afternoon of April 8th and to engage entire communities.  Students from equity deserving groups will be able to apply for travel funds to be in the areas of total eclipse.
Foe both projects she will be looking for coordinators, presenters, and educators.
Chris thanked Svetlana on behalf of the club after she had answered several questions.
The meeting adjourned at 1.30pm
 
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, November 9, 2023
President Jackie chaired the meeting.
Club Business
Fundraiser Toonie Quest West
 The weekly Toonie Quest West draw took place earlier today with no winner for this week.   This means next week the winner will receive double winnings. Make sure you have paid your toonie for this week’s draw. 
 On Wednesday afternoon as usual collected toonies and bills were counted and collated. Rotarians and Xavier House representatives had collected all the monies earlier in the day from the different stores.  
Each Wednesday Rotary will be looking for volunteers to empty and collect the monies for the weekly draw and in the afternoon at the Port Office, to help with the counting and collating of the collected money. 
Don’t forget to drop by to help if you can between 1pm and 3pm.
Guest Speaker
Guests from outside the province, Nick Healey and Jennifer Snow were welcomed as were prospective Rotarians from Xavier House, Donna Luther, Karen Foley, and Darlene Compagnon.
Program-chair Peggy introduced guest speaker Alison Duffell. Alison a registered massage therapist and Reiki master is the owner and operator of the 
Meridian Holistic Health Center, Corner Brook which offers a variety of natural healing services designed to restore the mind, body, and soul.
Alison talked on The Mind - Body Connection.
Alison began by talking about her own career and how passionate she is about the mind-body connections in her work as a massage therapist and the value of being aware of life-force energy. She spoke more about life force energy which includes the energy a person gives out to the world.  She went on to speak of studies looking at mind-body connection. She noted that when people try to improve their posture, their confidence also increases,
She went on o speak of the benefits gained when smiling and how a smile.
can help combat stress. She urged her audience to practice smiling as this helps everyone feel better. She continued by speaking how love is the most powerful universal energy. Everyone should practice loving oneself first. The other emotion to celebrate is joy particularly in everyday life. Write down things that bring you joy and remember to be joyful for simple things, have joy in movement, in the creative arts and in recognizing other people’s joy. Remember also that peace of spirit, forgiveness of self are all lessons well learnt that are important when looking at the mind-body connection. Alison finished with a quote before answering questions and being thanked by Kathleen for her interesting, informative talk and by listening to the laughter and smiles that followed her talk most enjoyable.
 
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, November 2, 2023
President Jackie chaired the meeting.
Club Business
Fundraiser Toonie Quest West
 The weekly Toonie Quest West draw took place earlier today with the winner taking home a sizable win.    
 On Wednesday afternoon as usual collected toonies and bills were counted and collated. Rotarians and Xavier House representatives had collected all the monies earlier in the day from the different stores.  Each Wednesday Rotary will be looking for volunteers to empty and collect the monies for the weekly draw and in the afternoon at the Port Office, to help with the counting and collating of the collected money.
Xavier Fundraising Dance
Xavier House is planning a fundraising dance to be held at the Canadian Legion on Saturday, November 4th. Tickets are available from Xavier House and Rotarians are asked to help at the dance.
 
Guest Speaker
Program-chair Paula introduced Richard Butt, Program Coordinator of the Western Newfoundland Food Hub. The Western Food Hub is a social enterprise by Food First Newfoundland. Three years ago, this was a pilot project but this year this online local food shopping organisation funded by the Northpine Foundation opened an office at 17, Herald Avenue, Corner Brook.
The goals and objectives of the Western Food Hub are to build a sustainable and resilient food system, to help local producers reach more customers, make it easy for customers to access local food and to reduce the carbon footprint of the food. The Food Hub model is an exciting connection between producers and customers, actively managing aggregation distribution and marketing using a Farm-to-Customer model. The scope locally is to achieve sustainability of the project, and this is week 14 with a customer base of around. 1200 and about 80 orders each week.
The way this works is that between Friday – Monday customers can place orders online.  On Tuesday producers are emailed a pick list with Wednesday being the day when ordered items are collected and sorted at the Food Hub so that customers can pick up their orders on Thursday at the Western Food Hub office, 17 Herald Avenue.
The benefits for producers are that they can reach more customers, can sell more products, they gain business exposure, distribution expenses are reduced, and they are contributing to food self-sufficiency and for the customer they are eating locally grown and produced food.
To sign up the customer goes to NLfoodhub.ca to create a customer account. On Friday customers receive an email showing the products available. The items for the coming week can be ordered between Friday to Monday and then can be picked up at the Food Hub office on Thursday. For further information contact foodhub@foodfirstnl.ca  at 709 – 501 – 8894 or NLFoodHub.ca@NLFoodHub.
Richard answered several questions before being thanked by Gerry on behalf of the club for the excellent and informative presentation.
 
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, October 26, 2023
Vice-President Olaf chaired the meeting. The corporate members from Xavier House were welcomed- Heather Jennings, Donna Luther, Darlene Compagnon and Karen Foley
 
Club Business
Fundraiser Toonie Quest West
 The weekly Toonie Quest West draw took place earlier today with no winner taking home the winning amount of $915.    This means the registered person with the winning number did not play a toonie for this week’s draw. This amount will be added to the winnings for next week’s draw.
 On Wednesday afternoon collected toonies and bills were counted and collated. Rotarians and Xavier House representatives had collected all the monies earlier in the day from the different stores.  Each Wednesday Rotary will be looking for volunteers to empty and collect the monies for the weekly draw and in the afternoon at the Port Office to help with the counting and collating of the collected money.
 
Xavier Fundraising Dance
 
Xavier House is planning a fundraising dance to be held at the Canadian Legion on Saturday, November 4th. Tickets are available from Xavier House and any help Rotarians can give on the night by collecting tickets at the door, selling 50-50 tickets etc. would be appreciated. 
 
Guest Speaker
Verbon, for program-chair Dean, introduced the guest presenter Paul Thomey. 
Paul's presentation was entitled ‘Eating Disorders - A Serious Mental Health Issue, Not A Choice.’  In his presentation, Paul spoke about the Eating Disorder Foundation and its mission. He gave an overview of eating disorders and the impact they have on many individuals and families in this province. 
He began his talk by speaking of the title of his talk and the Foundation’s work. The Foundation is a leadership and advocacy group that works with Newfoundland and Labrador Health services but is not a treatment provider. The Foundation works to provide education to family members and has a role in helping a family understand and help a loved one suffering from an eating disorder. Another function of the Foundation is to provide support to health professionals, and to provide presentations to the public to provide awareness and explain the effects of eating disorders. The busiest month is February which is designated Eating Awareness Month.  The Foundation is not-for-profit so needs so raise about 88% of its budget and so holds a lot of fundraising events.
Paul went on to consider why it was important to be concerned about eating disorders and explained what an eating disorder is.
There are different types of eating disorders that include Anorexia Nervosa,  Bulimia Nervosa, binge eating disorder, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, other specified feeding and eating disorder, pica, and rumination disorder.
Possible causes of these disorders could be biological genetics, low self-esteem, an inability to cope, personality type, society with the need to succeed being linked to thinness plus other factors.
Eating disorders can cause health and physical complications such as brain thinking, slow heart rate, tooth decay, irregular bowel movements and the potential for gastric rupture liked to periods of bingeing.
Paul looked at the prognosis for those with eating disorders and the earlier an eating disorder is detected followed by treatments the better the outcome.
He continued by speaking of the Foundation’s work with healthcare professionals,
and the different programs and support groups offered by the Foundation. He noted that may programs are now offered by video conferencing. 
He ended his very informative talk by speaking of the services offered in Western Newfoundland and that the fine team of Western Zone Mental Health can provide excellent support. 
Paul answered several questions before being thanked by Chris on behalf of the club.
The meeting adjourned at 1.35pm.
 
                                                                    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, October 19, 2023
Vice-President Olaf chaired the meeting.
Club Business
Fundraiser Toonie Quest West
 The weekly Toonie Quest West draw took place earlier today with the winner taking home $823.    On Wednesday afternoon collected toonies and bills were counted and collated. Rotarians and Xavier House representatives had collected all the monies earlier in the day from the different stores.  Each Wednesday Rotary will be looking for volunteers to empty and collect the monies for the weekly draw and in the afternoon at the Port Office to help with the counting and collating of the collected money.
 
Xavier Fundraising Dance
 
Xavier House is planning a fundraising dance to be held at the Canadian Legion on Saturday, November 4th. Tickets are available and any help Rotarians can give on the night by collecting tickets at the door, selling 50-50 tickets etc. would be appreciated. 
 
Guest Speaker
Program – Chair Leslie introduced her guest speaker Brittany Noseworthy, library technician of the Corner Brook City Library. Her dynamic talk was about the many varied community programs offered by the library.
 In her presentation, Brittany went through the different community programs and services offered by the library. The number of programs available amazed everyone. She began by listing and speaking about the community services offered which included in-person or digital services. In the library itself, there is internet and WIFI offered, computer access, printing and faxing, photocopying services, a microfilm reader with printer, home reader service plus interlibrary loans and an e-library.  Also offered are large print books, talking books, audio books, CDs, DVDs and videos and The Western Star on microfilm from 1900. Brittany continued by talking about the in-library activities which include a variety book clubs and the chance for book clubs to borrow kits for their clubs.
 The library holds its own writing group and holds book launches for local authors. One she mentioned was the one for local author Shelley Kawaja. 
Regular activities are held such as ESL Conversation Café, crafty afternoons, Dungeons and Dragons for ages 14+ and all experience levels, new board game group, children’s groups, library yoga, Lego time for ages 3+ that encourages imaginative play with Lego blocks, family story time plus different not-for-profit groups can meet in the library by booking space. The list continues with kits that can be borrowed by library patrons such as borrowing the new Orion library telescope, Get Moving Physical Literacy Kits that encourage and motivate activity, Bird watching kits for kids, adults, and families. The library also offers computer skills sessions for any age group giving individual or small group sessions.
 Brittany continued by talking about the digital library offerings that offer resources for all ages. Books, audio books, magazines and newspapers are available for download to e-Readers, IOS, and Android devices.
Brittany answered several questions before being thanked by Olaf.
The meeting adjourned at 1.30pm
 
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, October 5, 2023
President Jackie chaired the meeting. Visitors Ellen Janzen and Jill Crocker, partner of the guest speaker Steve Ragnall, were welcomed.
Club Business
Fundraiser Toonie Quest West
 The first Toonie Quest West draw took place today and the winner was a lady from Halfway Point.
On Wednesday afternoon collected toonies and bills were counted and collated.
Xavier House representatives had collected all the monies earlier in the day.  It was exciting to hear that the winner to be selected on Oct. 5, would take home $1004.
Rotary will be looking for volunteers to empty and collect the monies for the draw on October 11 and to help with the counting and collating of monies collected in the afternoon.
Guest Speaker
Olaf introduced the guest speaker his friend Steve Ragnall. Steve is from Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, and has a lifetime's love of the sea and its history. Though he had a 25-year career in banking, he describes this as a “sojourn” and, upon retirement, he decided that he “should do something useful for a change and returned to maritime history.” He has written and published books on that theme, lectured on that theme, and today spends much of the year with his partner Jill on cruise ships where he entertains and informs passengers with talks on that theme.
Steve began his presentation by thanking Rotary International for the work done to eradicate polio. He himself had polio as a small child and he feels the work being done by Rotary has saved thousands of children from the effects of polio.
His talk was presenting a Corner Brook cruise ship visit from a passenger’s perspective. His talk ‘A Few Random Thoughts from the Ambassador Cruise Line’ began by showing the planned itinerary of the cruise ship Ambience, Ambassador Cruise Line. The ship left London Tilbury, on September 12 sailed to the Faroe Islands and the next port of call was meant to be QaQortoq, Greenland but the ship was caught in the middle of a hurricane so could not land. The seas were extremely rough, and the ship suffered some damage and the loss of an anchor.  The next port of call was St John’s for 3 days where repairs were done and then on to Sydney, NS, Charlottetown, PEI, and several ports in Quebec before on October 5 docking in Corner Brook.  The ship has 1200 passengers on board.  This is Steve’s fourth visit to Corner Brook.  His talk became quite humorous as he talked about how rumours are spread aboard a ship. He feels this is a very safe and easy way to travel and compared it to a holiday camp at sea.  He spoke about the entertainment on board and the different shore tours available to passengers.
He feels that there is much to do in Corner Brook for passengers and there is more here than in some of the ports of call.  
Steve’s talk was very entertaining and enjoyable. Jackie thanked him on behalf of the club before the meeting adjourned.
 
 
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, September 28, 2023
Karen Foley, Heather Jennings, and Darlene Compagnon, from Xavier House, were welcomed.
Club Business
Fundraiser Toonie Quest West
Darlene said that there had been a soft pick-up from the Toonie Quest Boxes so that a data base could be started.  The first draw will be October 5th. Xavier House will look after emptying the boxes on Wednesday so that the cards and cash can be sorted and collated on Wednesday afternoon. Rotarians and friends are asked to meet in the Boardroom, Port Office to help count and collate the monies taken in at 2pm. This will be the first draw so as many Rotarians as possible are asked to help.  (Please note this time has been changed to 1pm, Wednesday Oct. 4th).
Darlene explained how the boxes are to be emptied into bank bags which will be taken to the Boardroom ready for the counting and collating crew to get busy in the afternoon.
 
Guest Speaker
Program - Chair Lorraine introduced the guest speaker Lloyd Hollett of the Newfoundland Insectarium.  Lloyd is the owner operator of the Newfoundland Insectarium in Deer Lake, and this is the 25th Anniversary of its opening.
Lloyd began by giving his own history and how his interest in the insect world began. He was working at the Department of Forestry starting in St John’s and then Pasadena. When working in Pasadena he began an insect collection which grew. He began visiting schools to give talks about insects not only local insects but those from throughout the world. He wrote to many countries requesting insect specimens from their country. Boxes began to arrive, and the collection grew as did his visits to schools.
In 1990 he started trying to get financial help from the government but after 8 years of trying, he raised the money himself.  He bought a barn in Deer Lake which was renovated to become the Newfoundland Insectarium.
He went on the discuss this tourism business and how the Insectarium is open from May – October and is a very popular venue for school groups and tourists. He spoke about the effect on the business due to covid, but the tourists’ numbers have rebounded and last year there were 29,00 visitors. This year has been an even busier one. The main attractions are butterflies then ants followed by bees.
Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, September 21, 2023
Darlene Compagnon, guest of prospective corporate member Donna, was welcomed.
Club Business
Fundraiser Toonie Quest West
Donna and Darlene had brought a sample Toonie Quest West box and several Rotarians registered to play. Donna give an update on the work done towards setting up the weekly game.  Stores have been approached and Dennis Blackwood of Blackwood Signs has kindly donated signage to go with each Toonie Quest Box. She spoke about the money spent in the set up and the first draw will be October 5th. All the boxes are in place and players can now register and then play in this draw.
Xavier House
Xavier House is planning a drive-in bingo on October 15th and Rotarians will be asked to help.  Another fundraiser is planned for November 4th when there will be a Benefit Dance for Xavier House at the Canadian Legion. More details about these events will follow.
Guest Speaker
Program - Chair Lorraine introduced Rob Thomas. Rob is the Experience Coordinator for the Newfoundland and Labrador Indigenous Tourism Association and is pleased to be involved with community development. Rob spoke about how tourism is growing in the province and that there is plenty of room for development. In his role, he works closely with Indigenous Canada. He travels to small communities in Newfoundland and in Labrador to see in what way tourism can be developed. Indigenous tourism has different offerings and by using a rigorous application process for a project it means that once accepted then the indigenous tourism project can be marketed at a national level.
Rob then changed topics and spoke of his involvement in the Cabox Geopark development and the need for its recognition by UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in recognizing the Bay of Islands as an area of distinctive geological importance.
This will have tremendous effect on tourism of the area and the Saltbox Restaurant, Benoit’s Cove features a Cabox Geopark information centre. This designation will enable Corner Brook to become a tourist destination. He spoke how the application was proceeding and hopefully next fall delegates from UNESCO will visit this area. Rob noted the Cabox Geopark is partnering with researchers at the University of Alberta to prove the area has geological importance. 
 He then looked into the future as to possible tourism Indigenous developments that would enable tourists to go into the Lewis Hills and see the earth’s crust and other geological features. There would economic benefits that would affect the whole area.
Gerry thanked Rob on behalf of the club for his very interesting and informative talk.
 
Site Pages
Upcoming Events
Club Executives & Directors
President
President Elect
Immediate Past President
Secretary
Treasurer
Public Relations/Image Director
 
 
Music Festival
Rotary Arts Center