Rotarian Connie Reid introduced our Guest Speaker and retiring President Tracy Bray for her final meeting of the year. While certainly not requiring any introduction of who Tracy is to the club to the benefit of guests in attendance, Connie provided a bio of Tracy discussing in great detail who Tracy was and highlighting her dedication to both the Rotary Club of Belleville both in her year as President but during her entire tenure as a Rotarian in Belleville. But Tracy's community engagement is not limited to solely Rotary and Connie talked about Tracy's support of various charities in the community and also her involvement with her daughter Annissa's activities including skiing and soccer. During the past year Tracy has focused on all these things along with coordinating and organizing a 50th anniversary party for her parents. Connie said that Tracy has shown us what it means to be a Rotarian through all of her actions as a Rotarian. Connie then formally welcomed President Tracy to the podium to provide her review of her year as Rotary Club of Belleville President.
President Tracy's review of her year as President was augmented by a visual review of pictures taken of events throughout her year as President.
President Tracy first started her discussion with an introduction of her assistant from her business Sarah Steenburgh and talked about how important Sarah had been in helping her manage her year as President. Sarah reiterated Tracy's commitment to the Rotary Club of Belleville during her year as President and while she is happy to see the end of year, that she is sure Tracy will miss her role as President. Tracy thanked Sarah for all of her efforts during the past year by presenting her with a Rotary Toronto Convention ball cap. Tracy thanked Connie and Jeanette Minaker for their leadership in leading Fellowship and Programming during the past 12 months. Tracy said her year had passed very fast but was drawing to a close with tremendous excitement as the Toronto Convention nears and discussed her excitement for the number of club members who were attending the Toronto Convention and our hosting of a dinner for club members and Rotarians from all over the world. Tracy thanked Rotarian Kevin Bazkur for his leadership in coordinating our dinner at Toronto Convention at the Royal Toronto Yacht Club. Tracy talked about some of our Monday meetings including 4 classification talks with Kevin, Tim, Jennifer and Ashley completing classification talks during her year as President. She talked about the presentations by City of Belleville Mayor Taso Christopher and his vision for the future development of the city and MP Neil Ellis talking about the legalization of marijuana being undertaken by the Federal Government. Tracy talked about the importance of having speakers from programs that have been funded by the club as opposed to speakers asking for funds allowing club members to see first hand the impact of our support to both our local and the global community.
Tracy talked about other meeting highlights such as our Community Paul Harris night, 2 AGMs talking about the past of our club and future of our club through review of previous year's audited statements and the recent AGM with the 18/19 budget presentation. She talked about our joint meeting with the Satellite club and one of her personal favourite events which is the Special Needs Children Christmas party and the participation of so many Rotarians seeing the smiles on the children and their families who were in attendance. She thanked Tim McKinney for the leadership of the Satellite club and the enthusiasm that they bring to our club. Tracy thanked those in attendance for their support during her year as President and to those who attended the President's night dinner and reiterated many of the thanks to her board members for their dedication to the club and their support and to all members.
Tracy closed her presentation with an online Ted Talk she had seen via You Tube and the things that had the most impact on people living longer and while things like quitting smoking, getting exercise helped but not as much as getting a flu shot but the things that were the most predictive of a long life would surprise you and that the 2 most influential predictive elements of a long life were how many close personal relationships you have with people who will be there when you need them and the amount of social integration and face to face interactions you have, the more you have the longer you live. This is what Rotary provides us through our weekly meetings and by being involved in our community both locally and internationally.
Tracy thanked everyone for their support and called up President Elect Andrew Bandler to present him with the President's Pin. Andrew talked about Tracy's commitment to the club and his decision to award her the first Rotary Warrior pin at the President's Night Dinner for her incredible dedication to the club both as President but since she became a Rotarian. He feels he takes over the club as President at a great time in our history and defined the club as a very good car that had just been detailed. PE Andrew provided Tracy with her Past President's pin.
Rotarian Jeanette Minaker thanked Tracy for her presentation and for her dedication to the Rotary Club of Belleville and that she truly embodies the Rotary 4 Way Test.