Celebrating 50 Years of Service!

 
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Club News
Using the money we raised at our November Guatemalan Fashion Show and other donations we have been able to purchase 44 refurbished Chromebooks. The first 8 were brought in luggage in January and the rest are coming through our friends in Texas.  
We are working with organizations in Guatemala that provide skill training that provide jobs for thousands of disenfranchised Guatemalans. These laptops and the money we raised will allow us to set up 6 rural and community schools with a computer lab and Digital Bibliotheca Education system called RACHEL from Mundo Posible.
THANK YOU to everyone who participated in our Earth Day Celebration and Challenge.
Even though this was not a fundraiser we still received $428 in donations for Ocean Legacy. We served over 200 free hotdogs and drinks to kids and parents who participated. Our club filled a pickup truck with trash from the bushes around Transfer Beach and Slack Point.
 
The Rotary bottle Drive returns and we are once again accepting returnable / refundable donations of bottles and cans to help support local Ladysmith Rotary projects. 

Honouring the Fallen in the Age of Covid

The Rotary Club of Ladysmith paid tribute to the fallen from their homes on Remembrance Day due to requests to not attend in person. President Eileen Beltgens arrived at the Cenotaph at 11:15 after the minute of silence and placed a wreath for the Club.
 

Rotary Club of Ladysmith 50th Anniversary Meeting and Celebration!

Eileen Beltgens
 
Thursday, October 1st the Rotary Club of Ladysmith invited members, district leadership, Rotarians from District 5020 from Washington and BC, and community friends and leaders to our Zoom celebration of 50 years of fellowship and service in Ladysmith.  

What fun it was to hear some of the stories, especially in a video from charter members Pat Bryan and Bob Bafaro.  We recognize the depth of the legacy our current membership enjoys from the past, and look forward, inspired to re-invent our service for the future!  We so appreciated those who took the time to attend and to support our efforts!

We heard Mayor Stone read the Proclamation to create Rotary Day and Rotary Club of Ladysmith Week; we welcomed guests – community members and Rotarians throughout the BC-Washington Rotary District; we revisited a list of projects completed over these 50 years and some stories about the past; we heard from the first woman and a two-time President who joined Ladysmith Rotary thirty years ago; student Interact leaders celebrated the past and the future; a fellow Rotarian and historian summed up the community building and support in his discussion about why Rotarians and members of other service organizations do what they do for their communities with passion and commitment.  It was a great evening to be inspired and hopeful amid challenges in how we meet and work together.

Ladysmith Rotarians are a small club committed to working collaboratively with other organizations to build our community.  It takes a community of people to build community.
 

Celebrating 50 Years of Service - The Ladysmith Golf Course Story
Author: Ed Nicholson, Club Historian

Introduction: The Rotary Club of Ladysmith was formed in 1970 and received its Charter on September 31. It was and still is very active and took on some major projects in its first 10 years, but nothing as big as the commitment to build a community Golf Course.  Ed Nicholson spent many hours in the archives researching this story with the help of Andy Bohay. Here is the story of the project that is still an important part of Ladysmith, even if it did nearly kill the Club. - Gerry Beltgens, Club Public Image