Welcome to another issue of our weekly bulletin! Find out who our upcoming speakers are, what we covered during the last weekly meeting, and upcoming events and announcements.
Mission Mars- Feature Speaker June 8th at 7pm
Feature Speaker Presentation- Tim Haltigin will speak about lasers, lakes, and the search for ancient life: The international quest to bring back samples from Mars.
Tuesday June 8th at 7pm.
Invite your friends and family to join!
This presentation will provide an overview of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign, an international relay to bring back carefully selected rocks from Mars to Earth as early as 2031. These samples will allow scientists to go back in time by close to four billion years to understand Mars's early history, its ancient climate and environment, and possibly look for signs of life.
Tim Haltigin is the Senior Mission Scientist in Planetary Exploration at the Canadian Space Agency, where he helps lead Canada’s efforts in exploring the solar system. He received his PhD from McGill University, where his research revealed similarities in the evolution of ice-rich terrains on Earth and Mars. He was previously in the running to become Canada’s next astronaut, has worked on a variety of robotic missions throughout the solar system, and has an asteroid named after him (130066 timhaltigin). Tim is currently helping lead the development of the international science program for the Mars Sample Return campaign, a decade-long effort that started with the Perseverance rover landing.
Further information in advance of the presentation can be found on the following links:
YouTube link to Tim's 2020 education session on Mars with his colleague, Canadian astronaut, Jenni Sidey-Gibbons can be found here.
And on CBC News: 'NASA's Ingenuity helicopter makes historic 1st flight on Mars' here.
The ZOOM link will be sent to you in a separate email.
June 8- 7pm- Mars Sample Return- The Search for Ancient Life with Senior Mission Scientist Tim Haltigin
June 15- noon- Your Club Membership
June 22- noon- Club Assembly meeting- Approval of Club Budget for 2021-2022 and the Three-year Strategic Plan
June 29th- 6pm- Guess who’s coming for dinner?
ANNOUNCEMENTS-
ANNUAL Club Dues- It’s that time of year again!
Rotarian Steve has now sent out the request for submission of Annual Rotary Dues. We request your assistance to pay prior to June 30th as the club transfers payment to Rotary International and the District on July 1st. Thank you everyone!!
Funds raised at this event will support our work for our Club Service teams. Contact- Howard Kudlats hkudlats@gmail.com
Rotary Great Lakes Watershed Clean up- Postponed due to Emergency Health regulations- date TBD.
The 31st United States-Canadian Golfing Fellowship of Rotarians, Golf Championship will be held on October 2 - 6, 2021 in Niagara-On-The-Lake. Contact Rotarian Martin Quick martinquick123@gmail.com
Niagara On the Lake TOASTMASTERS and Rotary- We made this connection last fall and this is just a reminder if you wish to foster this interaction. All members are welcome to join on Wednesday evenings.
We learned more about Covid at the June 1st 12 pm meeting.
President Ken opened the meeting with a toast to the Queen, Canada and Rotary, and then led members in reciting the ‘Four-Way Test’.
Today’s Speaker:
Dr. Robin Williams:
President Ken introduced the meeting’s guest speaker, Dr. Robin Williams.
Presentation:
Dr. Williams gave a presentation entitled ‘Covid-19 – Here We Go Again’. Dr. Williams explained how her day starts with looking at the Data Dashboard, or ‘Daily highlights’, which includes figures on new covid cases, fatalities, vaccination update, etc. Some of the latest Canadian covid related statistics are that approximately 9 million vaccinations have been given to date, there are approximately 135,000 vaccinations per day, and that people over 80 years old are now receiving their second shot.
Some of the key points in Dr. Williams’ presentation include:
Public confidence is a fickle. For example, recently the public is suddenly moving away from the Moderna vaccine, although there is no scientific reason to do so.
Youth Strategy: Dr. Williams emphasized the importance of schooling with respect to the mental health of children. With the temporary closure of schools due to covid, there has been an increase in anxiety, depression, substance abuse and anorexia for many kids. We need the ‘Love of Learning’ to come back for students.
The role media plays is important. For example, encouraging people to get the vaccine so that herd immunity can be obtained. In addition, the media has a role in fighting against anti-racism and pushing back against fake news.
We need 80%+ vaccination to reach herd immunity.
At the end of her presentation, Dr. Williams fielded a number of questions from club members including topics such as: will there be mixing of vaccines (“further research on this is continuing”); is Canada looking to incentivize the public to get the vaccine like in the US (“no, instead medical officials have been focussing on educating the public”); has the surge in vaccine research resulted in advances with other medical issues (“not that she is aware of but would not be surprised to eventually hear of some”); and is Niagara a pocket of vaccine hesitancy (“pockets exist, but Niagara is not one of them”).
Dr. Williams concluded her excellent presentation by emphasizing that ‘We will build back better.”
President Ken thanked Dr. Williams for taking the time to provide members with up-to-date information on the vaccination program, and for answering members’ questions.
