Gerard Kampman, pharmacist at North End Pharmacy Remedy’s Rx in the Railway Plaza, was Teresa Bartel’s guest.  He spoke about BC’s Pharmacare & Fair Pharmacare plans, beginning with a graph showing how the number of beneficiaries, compared to total population, increases substantially with age.  Pharmacare was introduced in the early 1970’s, with the publicly-funded income-based “Fair Pharmacare” program beginning in 2003.  For 2019, deductibles will be reduced or eliminated for those with low incomes, meaning they’ll have better coverage.  Gerard believes most low-cost generic alternatives to brand name drugs are reliable, with some exceptions, particularly for those suffering from allergies, or reactions to some non-pharmaceutical components.  He encouraged everyone to be sure they’re registered for Fair Pharmacare, if they qualify.

Our District 5060 Convention, held this past weekend in Prosser, WA, was attended by Dr John Wheeldon & President Elect Gillian Canniff.  Dr John was recognized for over fifty years of Rotary service.  He & wife Rina did their best to support (& embarrass!) our RYES Rachel.  He reported that speakers included former Ambassadorial Scholar Steve Solomon, the ever-entertaining Richard King, & incoming DG Sherry Chamberlain.  Gillian attended a membership session, & met up with friends from previous conferences.  The concept of a “World Peace Plus” project, to follow Polio Plus, was discussed.

Charlene Silvester hosted Abbeyfield Vernon’s Board Chair, Judy Maile, who enjoys working with seniors, following a long career in various forms of social work.  Our Abbeyfield is a purpose-built residence for ten single seniors, which opened in 1999.  Eleven of Canada’s nineteen non-profit Abbeyfield houses are in BC.  They provide affordable independent living, usually for ten to twenty residents, in a “home-like” atmosphere, with meals & personal safety provided by live-in staff.  Local boards of directors recruit volunteers & community sponsors to help reduce overhead through provision of maintenance, activities, entertainment, etc.  The Vernon group has plans to convert a guest room to use by another resident, & also to add another four residential suites, to help maximize efficiencies.

Jim Kanester hosted Leanne Hammond, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of North Okanagan, where our club has an endowment fund to support our local school scholarships.  Today, Leanne described CFNO’s participation, every second year, in VitalSigns^®, a national program to measure the vitality of communities, & support action towards improving the quality of life.  With sections on demographics, income, employment, arts & culture, belonging & leadership, environment, getting around, health, housing, income gap, learning, work & economy, & safety, VitalSigns^® provides a comprehensive overview of about 65 Canadian communities on a periodic basis.  They use existing data sets from various sources.  Our local report, along with many others for multiple years, may be found online at http://communityfoundations.ca/vitalsigns/reports/  These are an impressive resource!

Gabriel Newman is a storyteller, actor, director, writer & teacher, who operates “Ghost Tours of Vernon,” & serves as Public Education Coordinator for the Greater Vernon Museum & Archives.  At Don Miller’s invitation, he shared his story, exclaiming “we are the stories we choose to tell about ourselves.”  Gabe believes “when you know the story of a place, you have a different attachment to it.”  He sees himself as an actor, whose sets are a series of interesting backdrops around town.  A museum’s job is to tell the stories of its community, & his job, as an education & outreach coordinator, is to gather & learn those stories.  A new facility to replace our outdated & under-sized museum should offer storage, programming, archives, research & community exhibits to tell our stories.

Kathy Butler, Mike Tindall & Jane Lister, of Okanagan College, were hosted by Dave Hoyte.  They described the new $6.2m, 13,450 square foot, Trades Training Centre scheduled to open August 2018 on the Vernon Campus.  Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, pipe-fitting, residential construction and welding will be the core skills taught, though there will also be opportunities for other industry specific programs.  Aboriginals, women & high school youth at risk will be encouraged.  OC is looking to raise an additional $1m, for a combination of equipment, fixtures, and scholarships for needy students.  Our club is asked to consider being part of the community support toward this $1m goal.       

Janet Green hosted Gord Leighton, a self-described “radio junkie,” & President of Vernon Community Radio Society, which aspires to create a new over-the-air FM broadcast, with programming “materially different” from our current private broadcasters & the CBC.  Gord has long experience as a manager and sales manager in private commercial radio, most recently with Sun FM.  He described the evolution of the radio industry, leading to commercialization and homogenous programming.  There are about 200 community stations in Canada, including about 40 in BC – but Vernon is one of the largest remaining populations without one.  Gord & his Directors (including our Dave Weatherill) believe they need about $100,000, plus 4-5 radio professionals, & 50-60 volunteers, to build a viable broadcast, offering our community new voices & new opportunities.

Marty Armstrong & his wife Judy recently spent several weeks traveling through Ecuador & Peru.  He shared photos of highlights including the Larco Museum in Lima, stone funeral towers (chullpas) near Puno, Uros people on their floating reed islands in Lake Titicaca, the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, & Wiracocha remains at Racchi, etc.  There were numerous photos of blue-footed boobies, iguanas, turtles, seals, & other wonderful animals & birds on the Galapagos Islands.

Dr Craig Goplen hosted Guy Paulson, Winter Sports Manager at SilverStar Mountain Resort.  Guy has been with SilverStar for 35 years, & was inducted in 2013 to the Canadian Ski Instructor’s Alliance National Hall of Fame, for “his significant contribution to the growth of the CSIA on a regional & national scale, and for his lifelong dedication & commitment to skiing & ski teaching.”  He discussed SilverStar’s Master Development Agreement for the mountain; consideration of a resort association & municipality, to improve promotion of the resort; & the recently started replacement of the Summit chair with an eight passenger Doppelmayr gondola, which will eventually be topped by a mountaintop restaurant!  All this is in aid of diversifying year-round mountain activities, to augment skiing, boarding, cross-country & snowshoeing with hiking, mountain biking & “fat biking.”  SilverStar is looking to add to the 3,500 on-mountain pillows, so it’s better able to complement & compete with Sun Peaks’ 15,000 & Big White’s 17,000 pillows.  Craig thanked Guy for SilverStar’s long history of being a good partner & supporter of Vernon, & our Rotary club.