Submitted by Rob Hiscott
On Tuesday, July 15th, Rotarians and friends gathered at Rotary Hall for a farewell bar-be-que for Matthew, our Rotary youth exchange student, before he returns to his home in Taiwan after eleven months of living and studying here in Canada. Matthew arrived in Canada last September, enrolled in Grade 11 classes at Bruce Peninsula District School, and stayed with four different host families – initially with Rotarians Cathryn and Tom Buckley in Tobermory, before going to the home of Jennifer and Scott Parker, followed by Julie, Brent and classmate James Wheeler, and most recently with Trace MacKay and Stephen Woeller. As a youth ambassador for Rotary, Matthew actively volunteered his time on various Rotary ‘Service Above Self’ projects in several local communities, also served as one of Santa’s elves during the Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade, helped out with Earth Day events at Lindsay Tract trails, helped at 40 Hills Flower Farm, and gave a public presentation at Rotary Hall about life in his home country of Taiwan.
Matthew successfully completed his Grade 11 courses at Bruce Peninsula District School (BPDS), and actively participated in school activities such as Outers (including a fall hike into Bruce Peninsula National Park) and playing on the BPDS senior boys volleyball team. Matthew tried out a variety of winter sports activities while here in Canada including ice skating at Lion’s Head Arena, skiing in the Thornbury area, snowshoeing through area woods, along with other leisure activities such as canoeing on Lake Huron, and bird watching near Stokes Bay. As a special ‘bucket list’ treat, Matthew saw the Northern Lights at night in our Dark Sky Community of Northern Bruce Peninsula!
While living with host families, Matthew had wonderful travel opportunities as well – beyond exploring our beautiful Bruce Peninsula, Matthew visited Toronto (going up the CN Tower), Sudbury (for a ski conference, races and tour), Embro (Zorra Township for Scottish Highland Games over the Canada Day weekend), Long Point along Lake Erie, plus a spring break trip to Georgia and Florida (with a visit to the NASA Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral). As an enthusiastic spectator, Matthew also enjoyed basketball games in Detroit and Atlanta, an Owen Sound Attack hockey game, as well as Toronto Blue Jays spring training camp in Florida.
Over the course of the past year, Matthew shared in Canadian holiday experiences including Thanksgiving, Hallowe’en (gutting and carving his first jack-o-lantern, trick-or-treating with high school friends), Christmas (Lion’s Head and Owen Sound Santa Claus Parades and Festival of Northern Lights in Owen Sound, decorating a Christmas tree, and Christmas season feasting, treats, gatherings), and also celebrated his 17th birthday!
We all wish Matthew well in his future endeavours and hope to see him again when he returns to Canada!
Rotary Pancake Breakfast
August 3rd in Lion’s Head
On Sunday, August 3rd, your local Rotary Club is hosting the third of four community Pancake Breakfasts from 9:00 to 11:30 AM at Rotary Pavilion, next to Lion’s Head Beach! Our breakfast will feature ‘Made in Canada’ ingredients including buttermilk & vanilla pancakes with real maple syrup (from one of our sponsors, Miners’ Maple Products), as well as eggs, sausage, juice and hash browns from Canadian producers!
Pancake Breakfasts cost $15.00 per adult, or $7.00 for children aged 12 and under, and payment can be made by cash or debit/credit card.
Once again, Rotary encourages people to bring their own plates and cutlery to help reduce waste from this breakfast event, and there will be an option for breakfast pick-up for those wanting to take away their breakfasts.
Rotarians thank our many ‘Friends of Rotary’ who have helped out at each of our community Pancake Breakfasts with preparing food on our new grills and food handling on the serving line to serve breakfasts to hungry customers! And Rotarians also thank our individual and business sponsors who generously donate product and money to defray Rotary’s costs of putting on these events, allowing us to return more of the proceeds back to the community of Northern Bruce Peninsula!
We hope to see you at our next community Pancake Breakfast!
