District Governor's Newsletter May 2004

The portfolio is a tool to report to employers the "soft" skills of self-management and teamwork. This allows students to participate in a self-reflection model and use the resulting information to plan and illustrate their continued learning of needed skills.

A portfolio could be perused as a student writes a resume or prepares for the all-important job interview. As an adult, this self-reflection could then be practiced while planning educational and skill needs for a career and setting goals for life-long learning.

The most important function of the portfolio is that it assists the student to gain a picture of them self in a purposeful, organized manner and allows the student to analyze where he/she wants to improve skills and set goals to do so.

Submitted by Joyce Zwick, Club President, Fort Macleod

Eight children under the age of 5 were at play, assisted by one volunteer. Some were in ordinary clothing while others were in their usual Mennonite dress. From their dialogue, you could not tell that a few months ago they did not mix and could speak little or no English.

Two young Mennonite women were speaking animatedly to their instructor with a slight Germanic accent in their spoken English. Sometimes they lapsed into German to clarify some idea they wanted to express. A woman coming from a doctor's appointment, joined them with a government form she needed help to fill in. None of these women could speak English when the program began.

 It was time for reading comprehension. I was able to assist, reading a charming story about kittens. Now and then a child would approach their mother, sit on her lap for a few minutes, then return to play with the others. There was a discussion based on a story from Memories of My Childhood, and a related discussion of childhood memories with these women who seemed barely out of their teens.  Part focused on friends who had drowned. Mennonite children, though they spend much time near rivers, never learn how to swim. One mother commented on how wonderful it would be if her children had the opportunity to learn to swim, and that perhaps with her improved English, she could get a job off the farm. 

I had joined the class half way through. It had begun with a review of their journal writing, a review of grammar plus a new grammar lesson, and ending with a half hour video on parenting.  When these classes first started, the children were kept separate from the adults.  Bringing them together helped the children to learn English much quicker, and was less disruptive to the family. This week the children ended the session with an Easter egg hunt.

This is the first time this ESL (English as a Second Language) class has been offered in Fort Macleod, a joint effort of Project Read (Willow Creek Community Adult Learning Society), and the Fort Macleod Rotary Club. The instructor is a Literacy Co-Ordinator for Fort Macleod.  With the assistance of W.A. Day Elementary School, who provide the classroom, and Lethbridge College, who provide the lesson plans and with the help of a couple of volunteers, this is truly a community effort.  A District Simplified Grant provided the funding for the Dictionaries and Basic English Grammar books for the attendees - 5 Mexican Mennonite women, one Chinese woman, and a Dutch woman. Next week will be their last class until fall as they have gardens to plant and animals to look after. 

Sir William Van Horne High School, the Rotary Club of Calgary Olympic members and Cardinal Coach Lines employees have enjoyed a very successful eleven year partnership. Students in this school are at risk of leaving school before they complete their high school programs. Many also suffer a loss of self-esteem due to their lack of success, which contributes to their academic challenges. The partnership has had a profound impact on many students through mentoring, conducting a highly successful public speaking program, and providing work experience opportunities. The students have also been involved in supporting activities of their partners. One is Olympic’s support of St. Sava School in Ribnica, Serbia. David Johnston of Olympic, discovered the school on a trip to the region. Forty-five percent of the school is comprised of refugees from the war torn former Yugoslavia. It had nothing—no books, school supplies or equipment of any kind. The club took St. Sava on as a project, and has sent school supplies purchased with cash donations, as well as equipment (18 computers and sports equipment), over the past two years. This endeavor has created international friendship, and resulted in our primary contact with St. Sava School, being made an honorary member of our Rotary club. In addition, another contact for the school, has chartered a new Rotary club—Belgrade Metropolitan. Students at Sir William Van Horne High learned of St. Sava and its plight, and decided to help out. The leadership group created two fundraising projects to donate to St. Sava School. The first was an entrepreneurial one, creating a recipe and the baking, packaging, and marketing of dog biscuits. Bon-anza biscuits were made of wholesome ingredients and contained no additives or preservatives. They proved to be highly popular, especially among the canine recipients. The second fundraiser was the sale of chocolates. A cheque for $491 was presented to the Rotary Olympic Club by representatives of the student leadership at a dinner held for the club by Sir William Van Horne High’s commercial cooking club.

President Bernie Carriere of the Lethbridge club visited Togo during April on an Individual Grant from The Rotary Foundation. Togo is an African country where malaria claims more victims than does AIDS. Bernie visited hospital facilities and helped to plant some replacement coconut trees where trees had previously been devastated. He also had the very powerful experience of participating in their (Polio) National Immunization Day.

Bernie made many friends, young and Rotarian, and has brought back a list of community needs for our clubs to consider. His lovely photo of the school children of Togo demonstrates so much optimism in the face of adversity.

Our district conference held in April in Lethbridge has received a lot of praise – and there was no snow storm to contend with. For those of you who did not attend, a separate report will be posted on the district website. The organizing committee is particularly pleased with the success of the children’s program, another part of our district’s Family of Rotary initiative, which now makes attending a conference a much more attractive proposition to our Rotarians with young children. The report includes a summary of the matters that came before the business Annual General Meeting of the district and awards made to the clubs.