Six local Rotarians receive Paul Harris Fellowship awards

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Each year, the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar selects and presents members of the Club with a Paul Harris Fellowship for their volunteer contribution to the Club and the Community. This year, six recipients were nominated for the award.

Here are this year's winners and their contributions to the Oakville community. Congratulations to this years recipients; Volunteers are not paid because they are worthless - they are not paid because they are priceless!

Alan Campbell

Alan has been an active participant in a number of fundraising activities. He looks after the volunteer assignments for Delta Bingo and insuring that despite the pandemic we support Delta Bingo through social media posts that still provides us with revenue.

He is a participant in the online auction warehouse distribution centre search and participates in a lead role with the Ribfest. He was also a member of the committee who searched for options for hybrid meetings when in person meetings can take place again.

Bob Gardner

Bob has been such a hard working Rotarian. He has involvement in the Ribfest, the Internet Auction, the Hybrid Meeting Planning Committee and much more. He labours each week to make sure we have our zoom calls. Our RIOTS and everything IT that our club does.

Cathy Whittaker

Cathy was the primary person for our student exchange program where she balanced the needs of our international students with the ever-challenging environment of host families. Cathy also managed our Club Service portfolio deftly organizing events and functions.

But Cathy’s greatest challenge was assuming the leadership of the club in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was during Cathy’s presidency that we learned how to virtually pin Paul Harris Awards and deliver them in person at doorways and backyards. It is only fitting that we now should award Cathy with a Paul Harris Fellowship for her leadership, energy and her service above self. 

Desmond Jordan

Desmond has been very successful as Chair of the New Generations Committee for the past few years. He has focused on strengthening local Interact and Rotaract Clubs during this time. He played a key role in getting the Rotaract Clubs of Oakville andBurlington to combine and form a stronger Rotaract Club of Halton.

He was also very active in organizing and conducting the Youth Training day last year in Milton, which was highly successful. He was recognized by the District last year for his efforts to promote Interact and Rotaract.

Jeff Knoll

Sometimes an individual is nominated for a specific activity and sometimes, like this one, it is for a consistent behaviour. Jeff Knoll has stepped up to assist the club in achieving its fundraising goals. He has allowed his business, Film.Ca Cinemas, to be used as a bottle drive drop off location since 2020. He has sponsored and actively participated in the promotion of our Ribfests.

Most recently, he has again promoted our online auction to every viewer in his theatres. We may not see Jeff at our weekly meetings but we feel the impact of his presence in his assistance as a Rotarian.

Karen Milner

Karen is an absolutely essential part of our Club. The list of contributions she has made and continues to make is astounding. She stepped in when Jennifer Kay wasn't able to fulfill her Presidential duties. She has booked our speakers for the past few years without much input or help from other members.

She has continued to be the Chair of the Ribfest Volunteer Committee year after year and was at this year's Ribfest almost every minute (along with her husband!) to ensure things ran smoothly with the volunteers. She has now taken on the job of Indigenous Committee Chair. And she does all of this while running a very busy, successful career!

About the Club

For almost 100 years, Oakville Rotarians have raised funds through special events to support local area charities and not-for-profits, dispersing financial aid to many deserving organizations and their very worthy projects and initiatives. As well, funds are donated and leveraged to support Rotary International projects that impact the global community in a meaningful way.

For more information about the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar please visit our website www.rcot.ca or contact us at info@rcot.ca