Three southern Alberta students each receive $10,000 agricultural scholarships

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(L to R) Scholarship recipients Darrick Nicol, Kelsey Gubbins and Adam Fast with Ag Scholarship Committee Chair Wayne Lindwall on Thursday, March 3 2022.

The Rotary Club of Lethbridge East and Lethbridge & District Exhibition are proud to announce the recipients of the 4th annual Agricultural Scholarship Awards.

Each year, the AG Scholarship Committee raises thousands of dollars to further recognize the importance of agriculture in our community by supporting local students in their pursuit of an agricultural career. The Rotary Club of Lethbridge East and Lethbridge & District Exhibition’s $10,000 Agricultural Scholarship(s) are southern Alberta’s most coveted awards for post-secondary undergraduate agriculture students.

We would like to thank our generous sponsors:  

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Andrew Bronson, Scholarship Committee, Rotary Club Lethbridge East – 403-795-1557

Wayne Lindwall, Scholarship Committee, Rotary Club Lethbridge East – 403-388-4253

AT LEAST ONE $10,000 AGRICULTURE SCHOLARSHIP WILL BE AWARDED ON FEBRUARY 25, 2021

    

• The 2021 Rotary Club of Lethbridge East/Lethbridge Exhibition Park Agricultural Scholarships are Southern Alberta’s most coveted awards for post-secondary undergraduate agriculture students. Scholarship(s), valued at $10,000 each, will be awarded to the successful applicants.  Due to the uncertainties caused by COVID-19, the number of scholarships presented will be dependent on the success of fundraising activities.  At least one $10,000 scholarship will be presented on February 25, 2021.
• The Agricultural Scholarships are to further recognize the importance of agriculture in our community by supporting top students in their pursuit of an agricultural career.  Agriculture and agri-business in Southern Alberta is a multi-Billion dollar industry and the reason our community has weathered the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic more successfully than the other major cities in Alberta.
• Thank you to the sponsors and agriculture students that have made this agriculture scholarship program so successful in the first 2 years of the program.  We are excited to offer Agriculture Scholarship(s) for a third year and look forward to continuing this program in the future under more normal conditions.

ELIGIBILITY OF APPLICANTS

1. Applicants must have successfully completed at least the equivalent of two full years (60 credit hours) of training at a recognized post-secondary institution in agriculture or in a related field with substantive and documented agricultural content.
2. Applicants must either be a legal resident of Southern Alberta or have lived in Southern Alberta for seven of the past ten years. Southern Alberta includes the Counties of Lethbridge, Taber, Warner, Forty Mile, Cardston, Pincher Creek, Ranchlands, Willow Creek, Cypress, Newell, Vulcan, and all municipalities within these counties (e.g. Lethbridge, Brooks, Medicine Hat); Municipality of Crowsnest Pass; and Blood (Kanai) and Piikani First Nations.
3. In keeping with the long-standing principles governing Rotary Foundation scholarships, Rotarians, Rotaractors, and their immediate family members (parent, spouse, sibling, child, grandchild, nephew, niece, uncle, aunt) are not eligible to apply.
4. Applicant eligibility will be determined by the Scholarship Adjudication Committee whose decision shall be final.

CRITERIA

1. In addition to high academic achievement in agriculture and/or an agriculture related discipline, scholarship criteria must include significant evidence of community service and leadership. Experience in agricultural enterprises and/or agricultural organizations/societies such as 4H should be elucidated.
2. Successful applicants should also be familiar with the activities of Rotary International and be able to explain how their professional goals align with Rotary principles www.rotary.org.

APPLICATIONS

Applications must include the following:

1. Completed the Scholarship Application Form
2. Covering letter that describes the applicant’s academic interests, achievements, community contributions, leadership experience and career aspirations (500 words or less).
3. Post-secondary transcripts up to January 2021 (scanned as PDF) or arrange to have institution forward transcripts to wlindwall49@gmail.com.
4. Resumé detailing academic, work, and community service history
5. Names and contact information of three qualified references (from postsecondary institution and community leaders)
6. Please arrange for your three references to send their confidential letters of reference directly to the email address below before January 31, 2021.
7. Application documents should be entirely in Word (*.docx) format and emailed to Dr. C. Wayne Lindwall: wlindwall49@gmail.com by 31 January 2021.

Applicants must apply before January 31, 2021.

Complete applications must be received by January 31, 2021. Applications received after this date will not be considered.

50/50 DRAW PRESENTED BY WITDOUCK FARMS

Introducing The Rotary Club of Lethbridge East and Exhibition Park $10,000 Agricultural Scholarship Award

Andrew Bronson is watching Lethbridge Food Bank staff unload 10,000 pounds of Quick Oats.  This is part of the 14,500 pounds donated this year.  Total donations from the combined efforts of the 4 Rotary Clubs is over 53,000 pounds.  

Our darling Cassidy returned to Canada from Brazil ! No one is more excited than her mom and her granny. We say "welcome back" !! and we can't wait to hear all Cassidy's stories  .................... about plenty of hot running water, great water pressure, an exciting home-away-from-home, and lots of adventures and experiences.  

( For other views of Brazil and all its beauty AND soccer arenas : tune in to the FIFA world cup  !! )

2012-2013 District Governor : Fran Leggett  

 

Fran has been the very first female Governor in the history of our District. Since joining our Club in 1997 she applied her organizational skills and became an advocate for Rotary. She has been instrumentally involved in large-scale projects including the Lethbridge Rotary Dragonboat Festival, and the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park established by Rotarians in 1932.

Fran has dedicated countless volunteer hours to the evolution of District programs in many years. As District Governor she completed the extensive travel throughout our District, and the 2013 District Conference was held here in Lethbridge in May this year.

Click District 5360 site to visit the District website of her successor : 2013-2014 District Governor Pat Killoran.

Laura is our Club’s  inbound exchange student  from Troyes (pop 61,200), the regional capital of the Champagne-Ardenne district in the North-East of France. The area is beautifully rolling land, inundated with vineyards producing the world-famous champagne. Troyes has old architecture including Cathedral St. Pierre et St. Paul and timber-façade buildings, and sits along the river Seine 150km southeast of Paris.

Laura lives in a rural type setting in a large house with her parents and an older sister. Laura’s high school is a converted hospital from WWII ; she lives in residence and goes home on the weekends. She says she likes her family because, “They are not perfect”. Her mother was a tennis pro and national winner when Laura was younger; she now is a tennis teacher and Laura is very proud of her.  Her father works for the government ; he likes tennis - and that is what brought her parents together.  Her sister is into horses and participates in competitive riding. The whole family enjoys tennis.

Laura's hobbies includes playing guitar, photography, reading and writing and she would like to learn to play piano.  Her friends are her second family because they live together all week, Her best quote is, “It’s very important to have friends, because they are the best things in the world”.

When Laura goes home, she will take her final year of high school and will aspire to be a lawyer (avocat) specializing in International Law.

Laura is a delightful bright young lady, with whom we have shared various Alberta adventures - one that includied getting her gloves on fire over a Coleman stove pot when warming her hands after snow-shoeing with some of our club members …. . She is enthused and “agreeable” about the love our Club has for her and visa-versa, and she is learning a lot about life here. She is now 17 years old and is excitedly looking forward to becoming 18 in March of 2013. 

Enjoy your year Laura, it goes quickly……

We are very proud to have long-time club member Bob Hironaka in our midst. Bob recently received the Alberta Order of Excellence recognition. Bob is an exceptional Rotarian, citizen, community inspiration and productive innovator.

Bob is an outstanding Rotarian, recipient of 5 Paul Harris Fellowships for his contributions to The Rotary Foundation, and a genuinely positive organizer for Rotary events. Bob has been deeply supportive of Group Study Exchange programs, through which young professionals visit other countries to learn in their fields and to build international relationships. Bob supervised a GSE group to Japan, and has hosted and planned visits and functions for countless incoming GSE groups.

For many years, Bob was one of the principal proponants and participants in the Young Voyageurs Program through which students from Quebec and Alberta participated in an exchange to enhance understanding within our Canadian culture. Bob has also been a strong supporter of the Rotary International Student Exchange, supporting both incoming, and outgoing Lethbridge students.

Bob has been a tireless organizer and supporter of Rotary community activities, and has held nearly every Executive / Committee Chair postion in the Rotary Club of Lethbridge East. He has introduced many people in the Lethbridge community to Rotary with his unique talent for identifying people's strengths. Bob is well known throughout the District and has become one of the "elder statesmen" for Rotary.

Bob is an outstanding citizen, a true inspiration to his community, and a very constructive innovator. Bob was behind the coming to fruition of projects such as the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, Communites in Bloom, and so much more for our community ! Bob has also contributed to educational advancement in our City, as Chancellor at the University of Lethbridge.

Click Dr. Bob for more information about this incredible man !

Click News Flash Dr. Bob for photo of the 2012 Award Recipients.

Recently a Celebration Dinner was hosted in honor of Bob's special recognition - click Celebrate Dr. Bob  for photos of that event.

The 2012 Rotary Roses
fundraising campaign
was a huge success ! 

On the Thursday before the Thanksgiving weekend,  over 400 dozen rozes were wrapped and delivered to happy, surprized and gratefull Recipients. The volunteer crews were comprised of club members, their spouses and friends, Rotaractors, high school students. Many of the wrappers and the driver-teams worked multiple shifts and tasks - some worked all day ...... it was a great day of solid team-work ! THANK YOU to all Volunteers !!

Emily Carscadden is our Club’s choice for outbound exchange student for the 2012-2013 school year.

Emily is eldest of two sisters and attended  Lethbridge Collegiate Institute. For her final year of study. Emily will be attending school in Mazatlan, Mexico -- her departure is slated for August 13. She will be returning a year older and many years wiser.   Our club’s expectation is that she will be an outstanding representative for CANADA and return with many stories, a good many of which will be in Spanish.

Emily enjoys guitar among other avenues of interest. She receives high marks in school, is self-assured and is a good public speaker. Time for her will go much quicker than she expects.

Prior to departure, Emily’s excitement was palpable. She has never done anything out of her comfort zone like this before. With a rock-solid family behind her and the full auspices of Rotary to watch over her, Emily will be free to experience the ups and downs of a young teenager learning another culture. More importantly, she is going to learn about herself. Our club will follow her blog and it has been broached that we will entertain a few SKYPE calls throughout her year during our regular Club meetings.

Good Luck Emily. Work hard at being an Ambassador for your country. We are excited for you and expect to be even more excited at your return.

 



Preparing to roll from one Rotary Year into another, our Club hosted the Passing the Gavel event at Fort Whoop-Up. All four city Rotary Clubs were represented : Lethbridge, Lethbridge East, Lethbridge Sunrise and Lethbridge Urban Spirits - as well as the Winston Churchill High School Interact Club and University of Lethbridge Rotaract Club.

Outgoing Presidents relayed some of their Club events and vied for bragging rights, thanking their executives for the year. They passed the gavel on to the Incoming Presidents who hinted at exciting events coming up in the new year.

The atmosphere at the Fort was relaxed and sunny, the BBQ meal was tasty, and the whole ambience was conducive for good fellowship between the participants. Another memorable Rotary Event !.

Presidential Citation

At the District Conference in Canmore our Club was awarded the 11/12 Presidential Citation - one of only six clubs in the District to receive this recognition.

Every year the criteria for the award are set by the current Rotary International president.
11/12 President Kalyan Banerjee focussed on membership growth with emphasis on increasing the number of women in Rotary. Globally, Rotary International still has fewer women than men, but in most Western nations there is a noticeable shift.

The other main focus was on contibutions to The Rotary Foundation and its Annual Program Fund. Contributions in this Fund become available in three years to the Rotary Districts, then providing a valuable source for Grant moneys issued by the Districts to Clubs applying to match these funds for their International or Community Service projects.

We are proud of this achievement, our Grant Applications are fruitful, and the Community benefits !

Tuesday Jan 24 2012 was officially the 51st birthday celebrated by most of our members. We recounted anecdotes of the Club's past and celebrated with frivolity, fun and cake. It was a memorable evening..

51 and still going strong!