Please join us on ZOOM at Noon, October 21st for a special presentation to recognize World Polio Day from Gabor Gasztonyi.
An award-winning professional photographer, author, gallery owner and filmmaker, Gabor Gasztonyi lives in New Westminster with his wife, artist Judith Copland.
Gabor is a two-time winner of the prestigious Nikon Press Award. He is a regular lecturer at Emily College University and a Bernie Legge Cultural Award winner.
A dedicated member of Rotary, Gabor is currently the Polio Chair for District 5040 and is keenly interested in rehabilitation for Polio Victims particularly in Ethiopia. He is also interested in promoting accessibility for Rotary meeting spaces.
Contact lperrynewwestrotary@gmail.com for ZOOM link
Vera LeFranc was born in Prince Rupert, attended grade 1 in Terrace, grew up on Haida Gwaii and lived in the Okanagan before ultimately moving to the Lower Mainland. With connections to northern and interior British Columbia, Vera brings a unique combination of skills and experience to her role as COO of Elizabeth Fry Society of the Lower Mainland.
With a degree in Business and Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University, Vera brings a solid mix of business sense and a passion for social justice and reconciliation to her work.
Vera is currently a member of the Provincial Child Care Council, with a mandate of providing support and advice to The PCCC provides advice on the policies and programs that affect the affordability, quality and accessibility of child care. Its members are appointed from throughout the province and represent key partners in delivering universal child care: Indigenous communities, the business sector, child care providers, the education system, the non-profit sector and local governments.
For over a decade, Vera worked with Vancity Community Foundation and the Surrey Homelessness & Housing Society to distribute almost over $5 million in funding to organizations working with Surrey’s most vulnerable. As well, Vera led the team that administers over $10 Million in Homelessness Partnership Funding annually to organizations working across the region to reduce homelessness. This meant closely working with EFry and other organizations delivering programs to our most vulnerable residents.
From 2014 to 2018 Vera was an elected City Councilor with the City of Surrey where she led initiatives such as the Surrey Urban Aboriginal Leadership Committee, laying the foundation to ensure the full economic, social and cultural participation of the Indigenous people who call the City of Surrey home. In addition, Vera was the Vice Chair of the Finance Committee, Co Chair of the Social Policy Advisory Committee including extensive work on poverty reduction, Co Chair of four very successful Social Innovation summits aimed at creating a culture and eco-system conducive to tackling significant social issues in the City of Surrey, Chair of the Surrey Aboriginal Social Innovation Strategy, grounded in the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action, Vice Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Co-Chair of the Healthy Communities Partnership. In addition, Vera was named by the Federation of Municipalities as one of the inaugural 2018 Top Ten Best for Canada Municipal Innovators.
Vera spent has spent the majority of her career working within women serving organizations to advance women’s equality, provide employability and life skills training, develop programs that meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including crime prevention, housing and homelessness, and community economic development.
Vera has been married to Jen for over 14 years. They live in Guildford and are deeply involved in the community volunteering to support young people who are exiting the foster care system.
Please join us on ZOOM at Noon, September 16th for a presentation from Lily Nichol about the New West Farmers Market.
Lily Nichol grew up in New Westminster, but lived in Kamloops, and Prince George as a teenager and young adult, finally landing back where she started in her favourite city. Lily has experience working in nonprofits, the tech industry and radio broadcasting, and has been running the New West Farmers Market since 2018. She takes great pride in building the market and being a part of the community in her hometown. She loves supporting small local businesses, eating seasonally, and getting to know more of her neighbours at every market. When not at the market, Lily is a rescue dog and cat mom, avid reader, fiestaware collector, and home baker.
Contact for Zoom login info
Please plan to join us on ZOOM at 7PM, Thursday May 27th for a special presentation from Dr Robert T Ssekitoleko
Robert will be speaking about the Bio Medical Engineering Program our club has been involved with for the past 5 years. He will discuss the need for the services as well as the success of the program. He will share what some of the past students are doing now.
Dr Ssekitoleko is a lecturer, researcher and the head of the Biomedical Engineering Program at Makerere University.
He completed his MEng Degree in Medical Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London in 2007.
email lperrynewwestrotary@gmail.com for ZOOM link
Please plan to join us on ZOOM at NOON, Thursday May 6th for a
presentation from St. John Ambulance to hear about the
Start Me Up BC initiative.
As a social enterprise, the revenue generated by St John Ambulance BC&Y is reinvested in community services programs and training, which in turn further supports the mission of the organization to save lives at home, work, and play.
Please contact lperrynewwestrotary@gmail.com for the Zoom link.
Please plan to join us on ZOOM at SEVEN PM, Thursday April 29th for a presentation from The New Westminster Hyack Ambassador Candidates.
The candidates will present a selection of their prepared speeches.
Contact lperrynewwestrotary@gmail.com for link. www.newwestrotary.org
To learn more about this wonderful leadership programme please visit https://www.hyackfestival.com/hyack-ambassadors
Please plan to join us on ZOOM at NOON, Thursday April 8th for a presentation from Freddie Marsh.
In 2015, Freddie Marsh became a living kidney donor to his friend, Anna Maria. Freddie is an advocate for organ donation and volunteers his time at BC Transplant sharing his story. Freddie donated extra funds from a fundraising campaign to BC Transplant. This donation went towards BC Transplant first, Live Life Pass It On Scholarship that will be awarded to two grade 12 students who lead an organ donation awareness project.
Freddie has a passion for traveling and movies.
Contact Louise Perry by email for ZOOM link lperrynewwestrotary@gmail.com
Spring has Sprung! Please join us April 1st at Noon on Zoom for a special program.
Eric Young will present The Art and Science of Dahlias
Claire is the daughter of Michael and Melissa Haffner, and is sister to Grace. She is in grade 11 at New Westminster Secondary, where she plays both basketball and volleyball. Claire also plays volleyball outside of school, and dreams of continuing to play for a university, as it is one of her biggest passions. Having played many sports in her lifetime and after taking the career course in grade 10, she has been looking at jobs in Health Sciences (physio therapy, genetic counsellor, etc). buat has also recently been interested in business and technology, and she looks forward to exploring her options. Claire also plays piano and has volunteered at many small events, but looks forward to doing more volunteering in her community through the Hyack Ambassador Program.
Claire is most inspired by her parents, as they are the kindest, most supportive and hardworking people she has ever met. They always push Claire and her sister to do their best and make them take risks even when they don’t want to. She is very thankful to have them in her life.
Claire's most treasured keepsake is her Pandora charm bracelet. Almost every
important event that has happened in her life is represented by a charm. It shows her family, friends, travels, May Day and so much more.
Her proudest moment of her life so far was receiving female athlete of the year for her grade last year. "I worked really hard during the volleyball and basketball season and it was nice to
be recognized for my effort."
Claire's favourite thing to do in the Royal City, besides the Hyack Festival, is going down to the Quay in the summers, getting gelato at the farmers market and walking along the boardwalk with her friends. "At the end of the boardwalk, there used to be
beach volleyball courts and I loved playing there. Or relaxing in the hammocks the city would hang. It was the perfect place to relax."
When asked who she would trade places with, past or present, Claire says:
"I have always wanted to know what it was like to live during the renaissance so I think it would be interesting to trade places with Marie-Antoinette. When I visited France, I got to go inside
the place of Versailles and it would be interesting to see how the royal family lived back then. The society was very divided and it would be different to live in a monarchy government, especially to be the Queen. However, if I was to trade places with her, I would want to leave before the French Revolution."
If she could give advice to her 13-year-old-self, Claire would tell herself not to care what anyone else thinks or says. "It’s typical to be self-conscious at that age but the only thing that matters is how you see yourself." She would also tell her 13-year-old self to not worry so much about the future and to just live in the moment.
Claire believes she would make a good Hyack Ambassador because no one loves this city more than she does. She
loves our traditions like the Hyack Parade and May Day. "We are a small community but our spirit is big. My parents grew up here and it only seems fair that I do my part to give back by
volunteering and representing my Royal City."
We refuse to accept conflict as a way of life. Rotary projects provide training that fosters understanding and provides communities with the skills to resolve conflicts.
As a humanitarian organization, peace is a cornerstone of our mission. We believe when people work to create peace in their communities, that change can have a global effect.
By carrying out service projects and supporting peace fellowships and scholarships, our members take action to address the underlying causes of conflict, including poverty, discrimination, ethnic tension, lack of access to education, and unequal distribution of resources.
Our commitment to peacebuilding today answers new challenges: how we can make the greatest possible impact and how we can achieve our vision of lasting change. We are approaching the concept of peace with greater cohesion and inclusivity, broadening the scope of what we mean by peacebuilding, and finding more ways for people to get involved.
Rotary creates environments where peace can happen.
Since we can’t travel why not learn about each other’s past adventures!
Join us January 28th at 7pm on Zoom for a presentation from Rotarian Mike Crean - come sail away with Mike!
Since he was a youngster Mike was always drawn to the sea. His father was a marine physicist and they spent time on research boats and sailing. Over the years family and life made it difficult to spend much time sailing, but he was always drawn back to it. In recent years Mike was able to sail more and wanted to do a major ocean crossing. When a friend told Mike about the Clipper Race he decided to put himself to the test and do a leg of the Clipper Round the World Race. Novice, intermediate and experts can all participate in the experience of ocean racing through The Clipper Race, either round the world or on a single leg. The Southern Ocean is reputed to be the wildest ocean experience - he chose to do the Southern Ocean.
For Zoom login contact lperrynewwestrotary@gmail.com
Milo loves to give high-fives & shake his booty! 
Photo by Gabor Gasztonyi (January 2016)
We meet weekly on ZOOM and always give our guests a warm welcome. To hear what we are doing please contact
An award-winning professional photographer, author, gallery owner and filmmaker, Gabor Gasztonyi lives in New Westminster with his wife, artist Judith Copland.
Gabor is a two-time winner of the prestigious Nikon Press Award. He is a regular lecturer at Emily College University and Bernie Legge Cultural Award winner.
Recent exhibitions include The Sudanese, at the Surrey Art Gallery, in 2015, as well as two selected and featured exhibits at the Capture Photography Festival in Vancouver.
His film No Way Out premiered at the Harlem Film Festival in New York, in May 2019. It won the award for Best Cinematography.
A dedicated member of Rotary, Gabor is currently the Polio Chair for District 5040 and is keenly interested in Rehabilitation for Polio Victims particularly in Ethiopia. He is also interested in promoting accessibility for Rotary meeting places.
ZOOM in at NOON, October 29 for this presentation, Polio, a personal journey.
For login information email lperrynewwestrotary@gmail.com
DR. IRWIN STEWART HEARING HEALTH CENTRE – UGANDA
Special Club meeting October 15 on ZOOM. See details on the Event Tab.
Deaf and hard of hearing children in Uganda face a myriad of challenges, and very limited resources. To address those challenges, the Rotary clubs of New Westminster in Canada, and Kololo-Kampala in Uganda are sponsoring the establishment of a Hearing Health Centre in memory of Dr. Irwin Stewart.
The Centre will target children under 6 and their families. Intervention at this stage has the greatest potential for lifelong impact. The Centre will address early diagnosis, early intervention services, a pre-primary education program and parental support and outreach. Additionally, it will provide staff and other ENT professionals with mentoring/training in modern prevention techniques and the treatment of hearing and other ear disorders. This will help to sustain the initiative. The Centre will be partly based in a clinical setting at Makere University Hospital in Kampala. University personnel can provide only limited support. Professionals will be hired locally. The Centre will be operated by a registered NGO, Hear His Voice. Dr. Brian Westerberg of Vancouver, a colleague of Dr. Stewart, will coordinate medical and professional support from Canada.
Dr. Irwin Stewart, and his wife Lois, spearheaded many overseas humanitarian health projects and dedicated much of their retirement to improving Hearing Health Care in Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe and Uganda. Irwin was a hugely committed Rotarian, a member of the Rotary Club of New Westminster who served Rotary in many capacities, including District Governor. As a physician, Irwin was recognized as a pioneer in the medical profession, he was a full Clinical Professor at UBC, Head of Otolaryngology, Professor Emeritus, a member of the Fellowship of Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) who received many honours including the Order of Canada. Both Irwin and Lois exemplified Rotary’s motto “Service Above Self” and they have left a huge legacy of service in hearing treatment, education, and training through their volunteer efforts, at home and abroad, and very significantly in Uganda. They will forever be remembered as humble and kind humanitarians.
The Hearing Centre builds on and extends the work begun by Dr. Stewart and continued by Dr. Westerberg and others through a number of Rotary projects. Establishing the Centre, and naming it in honour of Dr. Stewart, are fitting tributes to a remarkable Canadian Rotarian.
Funding for the Centre is coming from a Rotary Global Grant project sponsored by the two Rotary Clubs. A good deal of the $133,000 (US) project cost is being provided by Global and District Rotary Foundation grants, along with a $40,000 (US) contribution from the Government of Canada. The Rotary Club of New Westminster is committed to raising $23,000 (US) to complete the project funding. Some donations have been received, and the Club itself will provide part of the funding.
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Service Above Self
New Westminster, BC
Canada