President Jackie chaired the meeting.

 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.

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.

 

Vice-President Olaf chaired the meeting. The corporate members from Xavier House were welcomed- Heather Jennings, Donna Luther, Darlene Compagnon and Karen Foley

 

 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 House is planning a fundraising dance to be held at the Canadian Legion on Saturday, November 4^th. 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. 

 

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.

 

                                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President Jackie chaired the meeting. Visitors Ellen Janzen and Jill Crocker, partner of the guest speaker Steve Ragnall, were welcomed.

 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.

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.