Today's lunch speaker, Ken Manderville, representing 100 Men Who Care, was introduced by Rotarian and one of the 100 men who care, Ken Wheeler. Ken Manderville thanked the Rotary Club of Belleville for inviting him to speak today to the members. As a former Rotarian with the Picton Rotary Club and a retired principal, he recognizes the work that the Rotary Club does, embodying Service Above Self as its motto. In the community, people enjoy the Rotary Music Park, the Pirate Ship, a game of golf with Rotary Loves Kids tournament or playing baseball at the Field of Ability, a project supported by Rotary. These locations are not always noticed, but are very important to the community.
The 100 Men Who Care Quinte came about after finding out a little more about the initiative from someone in Kingston. The Quinte Chapter is now in its 9th year of existence and overall have donated a total of $313,950 to the local community. 100 Men Who Care Quinte is a non-organization! It is informal, unregistered and has no board, no chair, no treasurer, no bank account, no revenue and no expenditures. It is based on the concept of simplicity -- minimum input and maximum impact. The Quinte Region for this initiative spans an area from Brighton in the west to Napanee in the East, Madoc in the north and Picton in the south. The 100 Men Who Care Quinte meet quarterly and at each of those four meetings, the goal is to collect and give away $10,000+ to allow the selected charity to do something of significant impact that would not have been done otherwise without the support of 100 Men Who Care. The charitable organizations must serve the Quinte Region and provide individuals tax receipts directly to contributing members.
Each member commits to donating $100 at each of the four meetings. Members get to vote on the charity they would like to support, selected from the list of charities submitted by all the members. At each meeting, three charities are chosen from a ballot box. The members who nominated the chosen organizations, are then asked to do a brief presentation, followed by a vote from the membership and the charity with the most votes by simple majority will be the recipient. At that point, each member is asked to make out their $100 cheque to the charity chosen by the group. Members who did not vote for the selected charity agree to make their donation regardless. New members are always welcome, the next meeting is September 16th at 7:00 p.m. at the Belleville Club. On the 100 Men Who Care Quinte website is a quote by Winston Churchill -- "we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give". Ken Manderville was thanked by Rotarian Jared Bellemare, recognizing the work that is done by giving back to the community.