Monday July 17 - We fly north for several days of club and project visits in the Prince George area and Mackenzie. Our great AG Bill Hellyer gets us around in his trusty pickup. Bill meets us at the airport on arrival and we set off to tour some Rotary projects in Prince George. They are not hard to find here as Rotary is well represented in this city - on the space of just three hours we have visited the Rotaract Splash Park and Rotary Playground in Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park, and also drop in at the Rotary Hospice (an amazing facility), the Rotary Hair and Wig Salon in the Kordyban Lodge (Cancer centre), drive by the Rotary Soccer Fields, visit the Rotary Centennial Pavilion at UNBC and more! After this amazing afternoon, Bill and Kathy have time to host us at their beautiful place for dinner.
In this touring around, we also got to see the incredible work being done by volunteers in the community in helping the evacuation victims form the wildfires which still have more than 35,000 displaced from their homes in the Cariboo region - many of them are Rotarians pitching in as we always do. There is much need for support right now, and the communities that are housing the evacuees are working hard to do everything that can be done. Our thanks to everyone involved.
Tuesday is our official DG visit to the Rotary Club of Prince George and we enjoy lunch with the club (and with a great turnout- thanks! We get to meet many of the Prince George Rotarians and learn more of the work that this club does in the community. President Kevin Beatty is at work here. After this we visit with Tourism Prince George (exploring a possible future District Conference in Prince George) and also visit with our insurer Wendy Hinton at Porter MacMillan (who provides insurance coverage for all our District 5040 Rotary Clubs.
Wednesday we start off a very busy day with the breakfast meeting of the Rotary Club of Prince George Nechako and President Robert Quibell. We again learn of many of the great things the club is involved with. Many projects and activities in Prince George are done by the three clubs in partnership - we get to sit in on one of their Tri-Club Presidents' meetings - well done!
Then it is off with AG Bill to Mackenzie where we join co presidents of the Rotary Club of Mackenzie Amber Hancock and Anna for their lunch meeting. Most of their club members are there is a nice and casual interactive discussion on Rotary and their club and projects. After the meeting, we head off with Amber and Anna to visit projects such as Morphee Lake Park, the Skateboard Park and the Alexander Mackenzie Landing Picnic Shelter at Williston Lake - all things this small but active Rotary club have a hand in. Now back to Prince George to meet with the board of the PG Nechako club!
Thursday caps off the trip with the Prince George Yellowhead Rotary club with president Dave Wilbur. Again we find a very active and vibrant club and enjoy our time with them. Collectively the three Prince George Rotary clubs have over 125 members and together they do great work in the community and abroad. It has been a great week in the North with amazing and active Rotarians. Now it's time to fly home to Vancouver to end a very busy Rotary week - and while waiting at the airport we get to see the Canadian Forces Snowbirds Aerial Acrobatic team fly in!