2024-25
President: Jan.-Feb. 2025 Leader: David Brian
President-Elect: David Brian
President Nominee: Kees Boeters
Past President: Ron Bolohan
Treasurer: Reinout von Martels
Secretary: Paul Brown
Sergeant at Arms: David Klatt
Directors: Henny Boeters, Kees Boeters, Ben Van Heeswijk, Bob Wilson and David Brian
Attendance:
Members: 13
Guests:
Birthdays: Brian P., Jan. 10, 2025
Anniversaries:
Meeting Date: Jan. 6, 2025 at the Anglican Parish Hall. After the usual wonderful meal prepared by the ACW, David started this meeting by thanking the ladies in the kitchen.
Correspondence:
- Chatham-Kent Hospice Foundation Fall 2024 Newsletter and request for a donation
- Diabetes Canada Fall Summary of the Impact of our Support and asking for continued support
- Both will be discussed at the next Directors’ meeting
Program: Paul introduced Kees to present a video on Saving Amsterdam, Netherland’s ingenious fight against the rising waters
- Kees showed a video about how to keep the water level in and around the Netherlands constant
- Amsterdam is one of the cities the most at risk, being 4m below sea level with the airport 6 m below
- The dykes, man-made barriers keep the water away
- The ring dyke protects Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague
- Much of Holland is made-made
- They closed off the North Sea with the 32 km dyke (20 years in the making) called the afsluitdijk.
- They would build dykes around an area and then drain it to create farmland
- Amsterdam is on soft land, clay and sand, so all buildings are built on poles
- Now, because of droughts, the water level in the canals goes up and down, exposing the poles so they must be protected
- On Feb. 1, 1953, a huge storm caused considerable damage, breaking over the dykes in 89 places
- Amsterdam was spared
- They then built impressive dams to protect the land in the south, taking 36 years to build
- They have doors that can be raised whenever the water raises more than 3m
- Thy have also built two huge doors that can swing together to protect one of the most vulnerable areas
- Because of climate change and the fear that the water level will rise, two scientists have come up with the idea of building two walls, from the southern tip of England from the southern tip of England to France and tip of Wales to Norway
- The Dutch have always shown great scientific ingenuity and they will certainly need it all in the coming years
- This was an extremely interesting video, and hard to keep up with everything shown
- Leader David sent out to members a link to see this video,
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzMwvBsgHY4&t=379s
Committees:
1. David B: Raised Outdoor Garden Boxes
- David has made 7 raised garden boxes using garage doors thrown out at the scrap metal bin
- Kees first made one in the spring of 2024 and then he and David made a new one
- David has since made 7, with two szies, 71” and 45”, both by 21”
- The plan is to make a total of 10, and sell them for $125 and $100 respectively
- They could be sold at the farm sale each weekend in Ridgetown and advertised on local sites
2. Brian: Committee for the 2025 Car Show
- Bob is the chair
- It will be on Sunday, July 13th, 2025
- It is hoped that we can have RM Restorations show a car or two
3. Ron: Special for the 150th Ridgetown Anniversary
- We need to have a committee formed at the next meeting to plan for our involvement in the Ridgetown 150th Anniversary celebrations
4. Ron: Decision on the Feb. 17th meeting
- The Feb. 17th meeting has been rescheduled to Feb. 24th, 2025 and will be a business meeting
New Business
- Paul met Adam and Angie Frazee at the Scout Hut while out on his morning walk
- The Municipality has a new person in charge of buildings
- They are doing some upgrading on the Scout Hut
- They are repainting the small room, all white
- They will be updating the washrooms and perhaps fixing the main hallway
- They are buying new tables since the present ones can’t hold that food etc donated for The Gift and the IODE book sale
- The Scouts have been asked to not take any more donations of tables
50-50 winner was David Brian
Leader David asked if there was “Anything for the good of Rotary?”
Leader David closed the meeting at 8:15
The next meeting is on Jan.20, 2025 with Paul doing a presentation on the Mary Webb Centre.
The theme for the 2024-25 Rotary year is “The Magic of Rotary”
.png)
