Brent Collingwood, Rotary 5370 district governor, spoke to the Rotary Club of Lloydminster on Monday and Border City Rotary on Tuesday during his tour of all 63 clubs in the district.
The Guvmobile turned some heads this week at Rotary Club meetings in Lloyd.
The VIP vehicle was driven by Rotary District 5370 governor Brent Collingwood to a presentation at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster’s Monday lunch meeting.
He told the media in attendance he and his wife Adele also planned to take the SUV to the Border City Rotary breakfast meeting on Tuesday.
“We have over 60 clubs to visit. I’ve done about 18, so I’m about a third of the way through, I’m trying to do the rural clubs in the fall, so I’m not driving in the wintertime,” he explained.
Collingwood is a retiree from the Edmonton Riverview Rotary Club with a mission in mind on tour.
“We have a common message and a theme we like to bring,” said Collingwood.
“The theme this year is to create hope in the world. So we talk about how can Rotary clubs in their own communities create more hope in the world.”
Collingwood says they also talk about the Rotary Foundation and ask members to contribute to that.
He applauded Rotarians on hand for contributing $2,874.07 to the annual fund and $2,501.54 to Polio Plus for a total of $5,375.61.
“That (Foundation) does what we call local grants through what we call district funds and we also have so many global projects where we help smaller developing countries all around the world,” noted Collingwood.
He describes the activity level of the two local Rotary clubs as amazing.
“They’re both incredible clubs. We’re just so proud of all the work that they do,” he said.
He also invites members from both clubs to attend the 2024 Create Hope Convention in Edmonton on May 3 and 4.
“One of the focuses of Rotary this year is mental health and trying to break down the stigma of speaking out about mental health,” said Collingwood.
“I’m going to touch on that and touch on our conference and touch on our Foundation.”
He showed local Rotarians the Don’t Bottle It Up slogan for mental health and provided some tips for members to advance that cause.
In the big picture, Rotary aims to regrow memberships after they dropped off during the pandemic.
“We’re trying to rebuild our numbers because the more we have, the more work we can do and the more we can serve local communities and global communities,” said Collingwood.
“Growth of memberships is really a key for us.”
Collingwood says Rotary is the oldest service organization in the world dating back to 1905 and is the largest too.
“If you want to help the world, let Rotary help the world. We recommend and suggest that people look to Rotary as that way to give back to their community,” he said.
