Posted by Shelly Duben on Apr 04, 2019
Stephen Twigg is proud to serve this year as the President of the Rotary Club of Barrie-Huronia. The 102 members of this club “share a passion for service which helps them accomplish the remarkable”.
 
Barrie-Huronia Rotarians are very proud of their growing membership. They have brought in 17 new members since September 2018! They started a satellite club which meets at a different time and venue than the lunch meeting. This offered more choice for people who could not attend meetings at noon. The satellite club has no meal so this makes it more affordable for members as well. As a result, the club has new and enthusiastic members engaged in Rotary, helping on committees and making a difference in the community.
This busy club holds several major fundraisers each year. The Barrie Fall Fishing Festival is a live catch and release perch fishing tournament on Kempenfelt Bay. The proceeds from the Festival benefit environmental projects and other community projects including Rotary House which is the lodge for cancer treatment patients and their families at the Regional Cancer Centre in Barrie. The Rotary Cash Calendar Daily Lottery has been running for over 20 years and raises about $80 000 per year in support of local and surrounding community projects and organizations. Most recently, they held a very successful St. Paddy’s Day Party with the Barrie Rotaract Club in support of the RVH Cardiac Care Centre and Youth Mental Health Ward. And mark your calendars for Saturday, June 1st – the date of the club’s annual Lobsterfest! This year’s beneficiaries are the RVH Hearts and Minds Campaign and other local projects. Over the years, over $750,000 has gone back into community projects as a result of Lobsterfest.
 
 
The club runs a Christmas Hamper program every Christmas. Members buy gifts for the children, and as a club, they purchase the groceries for the families’ Christmas dinners. Families are referred to them by organizations like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Women & Children's Shelter and local churches. The Rotary Club of Barrie-Huronia has contributed to numerous projects in the Barrie community including: the Heritage Park Gazebo, Rotary Place, the Sadlon Centre, Hospice Simcoe, Barrie Public Library, the Trans Canada Trail, Milligan’s Pond, the MacLaren Art Centre and the Tiffin Centre for Conservation. Please visit their web page at http://huroniarotary.org/our-local-projects/ to learn more about the projects that the club supports.
 
Internationally, the club supports various projects, including the District sponsored R.E.L.A.Y. – Zambia project. They also sponsor an outbound exchange student and an inbound student each year.  This year they welcomed Inge Kristensen from Denmark. She engaged in Rotary activities right away and even travelled to the Dominican Republic on the most HHART project!
 
If you are ever in the Barrie area, please consider doing a make-up at the Rotary Club of Barrie-Huronia. Meetings take place on Tuesdays at 12:15PM at the Southshore Community Centre at 205 Lakeshore Drive, Barrie. The Rotary Satellite Club of Barrie Huronia meets Monday evenings at 5:30 PM at The Farmhouse Restaurant at 268 Bradford St, Barrie. They socialize between 5:30 – 6:00 PM and the meeting starts promptly at 6:00 PM and lasts one hour.
 
Visit our "Spotlight on Service" Page for more messages about other clubs.