Fall is a busy time. In addition to the back-to-school rush, fall fairs (thanks to all who volunteered to work a shift at the Kingston Fall Fair), and preparing for colder weather, our Rotary year continues to ramp up.
We had a great discussion at club assembly last week. Thanks to all who shared their thoughts and ideas. I want to give an opportunity for those who were not able to attend to share their ideas by email so we can consider everyone’s input and ideas. Please email me at trevor.rotary@gmail.com with your comments and ideas.
Jennifer and I had an inspiring meeting with Lionhearts on September 18. Their commitment to community service combined with entrepreneurial energy is truly remarkable, and we can all be proud of our support of the organization. (And extra kudos to those of you who regularly volunteer to deliver boxes in addition to our food packing).
With the shocking sudden change in policy by Best Western, we are forced to search for a new meeting place. Our pub night this week will give us a chance to test the meeting room at Loaf and Ale. (Their original Loaf and Ale in Napanee is the meeting location for RC Napanee, so we know they are supportive of community service organizations!). If you have any other location suggestions, please share with Marie-Claude or me.
Our October meetings will continue to bring us together as a club. October 1stDon Polk will be helping us learn to use our ClubRunner platform. Please attend and bring your laptop if you can. We will all benefit from learning about this great tool that clubs around the world use to support their club activities and administration. You will be amazed what how this simple technology will help us all!
October 15 our District Governor will be joining our meeting. Rather than hold separate meetings for the board and full membership, I have suggested we have only one open meeting to improve transparency, information sharing and empowerment. DG Graeme is a delightful, dedicated and funny guy, so I know we will be inspired and have fun!
Friday October 24 is World Polio Day. Stay tuned for information updates, and our club’s appeal for financial support for this important Rotary commitment.
October 29 is our Student Night. Supporting our youth is always ranked as a top service commitment our club undertakes. We will hear directly from those who participated in the various Adventures programs, youth exchange, and RYLA. Prepare to be inspired!
In closing I just want to say that our strategy discussion last week motivated me. It reminded me that there is no doubt we are a club filled with wonderful people dedicated to doing good in the world - and having fun while we do it! Thank you all!
All Club members are invited to provide input on which projects in the local community the Club should financially support in 2025-26.
At its upcoming meeting, the Community Service Committee will be brainstorming various project ideas including how to best impact local food insecurity needs through partnering with organizations like:
Martha's Table who is expanding capacity to meet an increasing community need
Local City greenhouse expansion to include vegetables (in conjunction with Lionhearts)
Funds for individuals in need (dentures, eyeglasses, mobility aids)
Other ideas at your suggestion
Please contact Jennifer or any Committee member (Russ, Don T, Don P, Don M) with your ideas.
Kingston-Frontenac inbound student Christian joined Youth Exchange students from around District 7040 for their Welcome Weekend on Sept 19-21, 2025 at Camp Smitty on Mink Lake near Eganville in the Ottawa Valley. This was the first opportunity for Inbound & Rebound students to meet since arriving in Canada and starting school earlier this month. During the weekend, they took the chairlift up for a panoramic view of the Fall colours atop Calagogie Peaks, descended underground into Bonnechere Caves and enjoyed colourful sunsets on Mink Lake. The students will get together for a District Thanksgiving & Hallowe’en Weekend in Montreal later in October.
D7040 YouthEx Committee & Students atop Calabogie Peaks
Underground at Bonnechere Caves
Andre & Christian at Sunset on Mink Lake
STUDENTS SAIL IN
FALL CORK REGATTA
September 13, 2025
International inbound YouthEx student Christian, a member of the Düsseldorfer Yacht Club in Germany, teamed up with local sailor David from Collins Bay Yacht Club to sail a C420 at the Fall CORK regatta held at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. Competing against 28 other boats from around Ontario and western Quebec, the boys navigated calm and inconsistent winds to finish as high as a Top 10 finish on Saturday and 8th place in the Sunday race. Despite conditions better-suited for canoeing, the boys enjoyed their weekend and got a great tan!
Special thanks to DGN Elsabe Falkson and Don Polk for their efforts in helping to find a local boat for the boys to sail at CORK.
2025-26 PROJECTS
THAILAND
Improving Neonatal Outcomes
at Mae Tao Clinic
- Don Polk
In the Spring of 2024, Meghan Jenkins, a 3rd year Queen's Medical student approached the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac to sponsor her practical internship in the field at the Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) in Mae Sot, Thailand on the border with Myanmar (Burma). During her internship she worked in the MTC's neonatal health unit which provides health care services and delivers upwards of 80 newborns each day to Burmese refugee mothers fleeing the civil war.
Upon her return in late Sept 2024, Meghan shared her experiences with K-F Rotarians and described a situation where the Mae Tao Clinic serves a high volume of marginalized and undocumented patients along the Thai-Myanmar border. She spoke of the Clinic's outdated infrastructure and that staff lack access to some of the most basic medical equipment.
In addition to her internship training and service, Meghan also conducted a review of historical data at the Clinic and, based on her experience, proposed a plan for improving neonatal infant mortality outcomes including investment in new equipment. Her proposal was the basis for a project co-developed by the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac and submitted for a 2025-26 Rotary Foundation District Matching Grant. The total project budget is US$15,376.
Funds raised from donors in Canada and Thailand, together with matching District Designated Funds (US$7,238) requested from the Rotary Foundation, will be used to purchase and install essential equipment from a prioritized list developed by Meghan in collaboration with Dr. Li Li Sumyat, the staff obstetrician gynecologist, and frontline staff at the Mae Tao Clinic: · CPAP Machines · Incubator · Infusion Pumps · Amni Hooks.
Not only was the Club's International Service Committee impressed and inspired by the opportunity to help improve the quality of basic healthcare in an area of such great need, but also to extend the Club's global reach to a new region (southeast Asia). To do so, Kingston-Frontenac contacted Jerry Nelson at the Chiang Mai Airport Rotary Club, whose extensive local experience in Thailand working on multiple past projects with Mae Tao Clinic is a great asset.
The grant application was approved by the Rotary Foundation in August 2025 and, in collaboration with the Chiang Mai Airport Rotary Club and the Mae Tao Clinic, the project is expected to be completed this Fall.
On Saturday Sept. 6, Mae Tao Clinic founder, Dr. Cynthia Maung, was in Ottawa with a group of Burmese health care leaders to study Canada's healthcare system. They are shown here meeting with K-F Project Manager Don Polk and Dr. Meghan Jenkins, now an OBGYN resident at the University of Ottawa.
The stories shared by these courageous health care leaders in overcoming extreme hardship in their homeland to make such a difference in saving lives were truly inspiring. For the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac to help bring about such a beneficial impact by leveraging Rotary's global resources exemplifies “the Magic of Rotary”!
BRAZIL
Youth Development &
English Language Scholarship
- Don Polk
In 2023-24, the Rotary Clubs of Kingston-Frontenac (Canada) and Cordeirópolis (Brazil) began a collaborative partnership to co-develop a project to upgrade the profile of economically-challenged youth in Cordeirópolis (in the state of São Paulo, in Brazil) to increase their chance of becoming employable in higher-potential and better compensated positions in the labour market and help them to achieve a higher standard living.
By working together with other key partners in the community, including Patrulho Mirim (youth identification & selection), Excellent Global Idiomas (language academy), and local industrial partners led by Cezan Embalagens Ltda (Jordana Ceruti Peruchi), a group of 10 high-school age students were selected to receive a scholarship to study English at Excellent Global Idiomas in weekly group lessons for 8 months (April-Dec 2024), be placed with a business for a paid internship where they have exposure to develop their English-language skills and be coached on developing their interpersonal skills with Rotary mentors.
Following a review of student performance completed in December 2024, the Rotary Club of Cordeirópolis recommended extending the term of the language scholarship for the original group of students through December 2025. Of the original group of 10 students, 7 have elected to continue their studies in 2025. In addition, a second wave of 10 students was to enter the program in mid-2025.
Program costs are shared equally, with the Kingston-Frontenac Club committed to providing 50% of the funding, approximately $2,000 in 2025-26. In addition, the project is co-sponsored in Canada by the Rotary Club of Kingston, whose International Service Committee contributed $1,000 in each of the past 2 years and has committed the same for 2025-26.
I am writing this from our kitchen table in sunny Tuscany. It has been 50 years since I've been in Italy, and I am enjoying many new experiences. They will perhaps be a story for a future article.
The past two weeks have been very busy for the club's International Services committee with an internal meeting on Sept 9 and the all-Kingston clubs (JIPC) meeting on the 16th. As part of my commitment to sharing more of what we do overseas, please find this summary of our projects in East Africa for 2025-26.
The RPi computer program is again our most significant investment in East Africa this year. We are focusing on training the teachers/ mentors from all 7 schools/organizations to whom we supplied RPi computers and hardware in previous years. Like all computer platforms, learning is really a self-teaching exercise, but a little bit of coaching helps smooth the bumps.
Headmaster & computer teachers of Ruicho Secondary School, Kagera, TZ
We will host a week-long training session at Tegemeo Primary School, Kagera (northern Tanzania, west of Lake Victoria, just south of the Ugandan border). This location was chosen for its facilities and proximity to the other Kagera school, Ruicho Secondary. The Kagera schools were the last to get the RPi hardware, hence have the greatest need for one-on-one training. We are bringing our 3 champions from Agnes Zabali Boys and Girls Club (AZBGC) in Kamengo, Uganda. It is a full days journey by bus and the first time any of the boys have been out of the country. To say they are excited would be an understatement.
Also joining us will be my friend Francis Ngowi who I met 10 years ago when he ran a welding Vocational Training Centre. Francis now heads up the Mara region of the Tanzanian Chamber of Commerce who promote business opportunities for small and medium size businesses in Tanzania. As in most countries around the world, this is the sector that is most likely to provide employment for youth, a chronic problem in the developing world.
Francis’ son is enrolled in computer science at the University of Dar es Salem and, if available, may join his father for the training session. We have another computer science student who is assisting tutoring at Trinity Academy while he awaits his university entrance confirmation. Extending the RPi platform to University Computer Science students is one of the natural progressions of this program to ensure its long-term impact.
Hussein Mbaga and I will travel from Moshi. Hussein is our local computer guru and is indispensable to our program. He will lead the technical sessions and provide individual tutoring.
Hussein developed our RPi server which allows us to provide off-line internet content to the RPi work stations or to anyone with a smart phone, without requiring them to use data. This is a huge advantage as none of the students and many of the teachers cannot afford the data costs. With the support of the Kingston Club, we will provide a server at each of the Kagera schools and upgrade the servers at AZBGC and Trinity Academy.
We will be providing a modified version of the Kagera training to our partners in the Kilimanjaro (Moshi-Boma) area. These are represented by Trinity Academy, Bright Future School (where Ilet attends) and Nuru Academy. We will have a strong representation from students and teachers at Trinity Academy since their RPi program was the focus of last year’s project. We are working on multiple one-day events which can be extended into the new year if additional funds are available.
The RPi seminars are supported by the club with a $3,500 allocation combined with a $1,000 contribution from the Kingston Club. We would like to provide an additional 12 workstations ($300 ea.) for our partner schools and are looking for funding from other clubs or individual members.
ECO-TOILETS FOR SOUTH AFRICAN CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CENTRES
- Greta Du Bois Cleynhens
The Rotary Club of Morningside, together with the Adopt A Loo, a project of the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn, have initiated a project in Diepsloot, South Africa to provide toilets to Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. Many of these have inadequate or no toilet facilities, creating health problems and damaging the dignity of children from an early age. Depending on the location of the ECD centre, this project will involve either the construction of new EcoToilets or the refurbishment of existing facilities.
Morningside has started with building four EcoToilets at the Khensani Collections school in Diepsloot and to date have had requests from an additional 27 ECD centres. The goal is that all ECD centres in Diepsloot have safe and sanitary toilet facilities that maintain the dignity of the children, benefiting more than 1,200 children.
As of June 4, 2025 eight toilets have been installed, one of which is a toilet for physically challenged children, three are under construction and will be completed soon, and a further three have been identified for construction once the current ones have been finished.
Thanks to contacts made by K-F Rotarian and past Morningside member, Greta Du Bois Cleynhens, the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac donated C$ 1,500 and the Rotary Club of Cordeirópolis (Brazil) R$ 1,500 for the Eco Toilet Project in June 2025, becoming the first overseas Rotary clubs to support this important initiative.
Rotarians from the Kingston-area Rotary Clubs, including Kingston-Frontenac, volunteered at the admission gates of the 193rd annual Fall Fair. With outstanding weather for the entire weekend, a record crowd of 30,000 enjoyed all the attractions - from the agricultural pavilion to the midway - making sure Rotarians were kept busy scanning and selling tickets, assuring a safe and orderly entrance and helping to help make sure of a good time for all!
Thanks to K-F Rotarians Susan Freitas, Randy Beck, John Mirski, Jennifer Patelli and Don Polk for volunteering to raise funds to support future Club projects.
(l-r) Susan Freitas (K-F), John Shideler (K),
Randy Beck (K-F), Kate Green (K)
Rear: Don Polk (K-F), Krishna Burra (K), Cynthia Surette (Nap)
