Vol. 2015-16
Issue No. 10
Tuesday
September 8
www.rotarymontreallakeshore.org
2015
THE WEEKLY BULLETIN OF THE ROTARY CLUB OF MONTREAL-LAKESHORE
Chartered February 27, 1961
GRAHAM MARTIN
September 5, 2015
Future Programs…
Sep 15: Dorothea Bye, an expert on aging, has tips on how
to make our retirement years the happiest of our lives.
Another program of really useful information about
services we need to be aware of, arranged by
President Stewart.
Sep 22: At the suggestion of President Stewart this meeting
will be devoted to the memory of Graham Martin,
the man, father and Rotarian.
Sep 29: T.B.D.
Special Events…
Sep 14: Our 14th Annual Golf Classic, Valleyfield Golf and
Country Club, Saint-Timothée, QC.
Sep 17: Board of Directors Meeting, Holiday Inn, 6:30 pm.
Nov 6-7: District Conference, Hilton Garden Inn, Watertown,
NY, from 4 pm Friday through dinner on Saturday.
We lost a true friend on Saturday, one to whom the phrase
‘a gentleman and a scholar’ genuinely applies.
Graham was loved and respected by all who knew him.
Here are just a few excerpts from the many messages
received in tribute to this fine Rotarian:
“a wonderful gentleman with a twinkle in his eye”
“ a refined gentleman and faithful friend”
“not only a friend, he was my mentor”
“a privilege and an honour to have known him”
“a huge asset to the club, he will be missed”
“Sachez que dans le deuil vous n'êtes pas seuls.”
“Caring…always attentive to the needs of others”
This Week’s Program…
President Stewart has invited Katia Minicucci, intervention
agent with the West Island Crisis Centre, to tell us about
the crisis management services they offer 24/7 for West Island
adults and their families.
Wayne will also discuss individual task assignments for our
golf tournament.
Birthdays and Anniversaries this week…
Happy Birthday, George Bradley ..... tom orrow , Sept. 9 th !
Happy Birthday, M agda Habib ........ Thursday, Sept. 10 th !
Last Week’s Meeting…
Sixteen members, one visiting Rotarian and one guest were
on hand last Tuesday, to hear our own Bill Hodges talk about
“Our Am azing Solar System .”
We missed the fellowship of Abie, Lawrence, Laurie,
Brahm, Bob, Fran, Wilfried, Youssef, JP, Jennifer,
Nestor, Marie-Josée, Christian, Serge, George Saad,
Amiel and Paula.
We were also pleased to welcome visiting Rotarian Vincent
Soumoy (Montréal Ville-Marie), and June, guest of Bill.
After giving us the news that Graham was in the hospital
and seriously ill with cancer, President Stewart invited
Wayne to give us an update on our golf tournament.
Wayne said, “We are getting closer and closer to the deadline for booklet adverts. I could still use some business card ads
as well as items for our after-supper fundraising auction and, of
course, I still need foursomes. We’re not doing great there so if
you can round up four friends to make a foursome, please give
me their names. This auction supports three West Island organizations that depend on us: the women’s shelter, the palliative
care residence and the Cheshire homes. If we’re not successful
they will suffer for it, not us. So let’s get down to business and
put this fundraiser back on track. Ads and golfers—those are
our immediate needs.
Stewart said he had received a thank-you note from the
West Island Mission for the help we gave them for their backto-school event. About 270 families were served and 480 kids
got school supplies they otherwise would not have received.
The Lakeshorian for Tuesday, Septem ber 8, 2015
Page 2
Bill told us our Kirkland blood donor clinic was a success.
“We had 85 arrivals and we believe that the final count of units
of blood was probably between 72 and 75. Our goal was 70.
inside the sun. The temperature at its core is about 15 million
degrees Celsuis! If the sun were the size of a front door, the
earth would be the size of a nickel.
“On behalf of our chief organiser Graham and of Héma
Québec, a hearty THANK-YOU to all the volunteers who
worked so hard, putting up signs in advance of and on the day
of the clinic, then taking them down when the clinic was over;
and to those who volunteered at the clinic. We had nine
volunteers for each half of the clinic, including a few who
worked both shifts—a total of fifteen in all.”
“The average distance from the centre of the earth to the
centre of the sun is about 150 million kilometers.
Announcing that our 50-50 pot had grown to $188.50,
Stewart asked June to pick the winner of the right to draw for
the Ace of Spades. Stan won that right but the card he drew
from the spread was the six of spades. Right suit; wrong value.
The September 8th pot will undoubtedly exceed $200.
We had two jokes last week. Joe told one about a priest, a
rabbi and a confessional—a little irreverent but very funny. Bill
told one about a sociologist taking pictures of kids in an African
tribal village. Also funny.
Stewart told us that Bill would now give us a lesson in astronomy, specifically about “Our Amazing Solar System.”
With the aid of a
pictorial PowerPoint,
Bill gave us quite a
bit of information
about
our
solar
system. He began by
saying when he was
a kid in school he
had learned that
there
were
nine
planets ---- Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and
Pluto. “But in 2006, Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet,” he
said, “so now we are down to only eight.
“Mankind is, by nature, extremely curious. We have explored
the planet we inhabit, the sky above us and the depths of the
oceans that surround us. But we are so curious that we often
can’t wait to explore other areas of interest before we have
completed the one we are currently studying.
“In the beginning, all the big brains of the world apparently
lived in what is now the UK. In northeast Scotland they have
discovered a monument they believe to be an ancient astronomical calendar built about 8,000 years BCE! And Stonehenge,
in the south of England, also had an astronomical purpose and
it dates back to about 2,600 BCE. Later the big thinkers moved
to warmer climes, like Greece and Egypt. They were all
fascinated by astronomy and they left records of how they
were thinking…and they all got it wrong, telling their students
that the sun and the planets revolved around the earth. It took
Nicolaus Copernicus in Torun, Poland, to correctly postulate the
heliocentric theory, that everything revolved around the sun!
“Our solar system consists of eight planets, several dwarf
planets and thousands of asteroids and comets.”
Bill then proceeded to give us reams of data on our sun and
everything else in our solar system. His talk was filled with
interesting information and great illustrations, both photos and
artists’ drawings.
Here are just a few examples of the things we learned:
“Our sun is a ball of gas, huge in size. It makes up 99.8% of
the total mass of our solar system. A million earths could fit
“Mercury, the smallest planet and the closest to the sun, is
about the size of our moon. Its daytime temperature reaches
430°C and drops to minus 180°C at night.
“Venus is slightly smaller than earth. Its toxic atmosphere
consists of CO2, and nitrogen with clouds of sulfuric acid droplets. Venus rotates in the opposite direction from Earth.
“Mars, the ‘4th rock from the sun,’ has been the subject of
more than 40 space probes, including orbiters and landers.
With its thin atmosphere of CO2, nitrogen and argon, Mars
surface cannot support life as we know it. It has been called
the Red Planet because of rusting iron minerals in its soil.
“Tens of thousands of rocks, called asteroids, orbit our sun
between Mars and Jupiter. Many asteroids have a moon or two.
“Jupiter is the largest of our planets. If earth were the size
of a nickel, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball. It’s a gas
planet and is thought to have a core about the size of Earth. It
has 50 known moons and 17 more awaiting confirmation
“Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter. Its spectacular rings are
made of chunks of ice and rock. Its atmosphere of hydrogen
and helium cannot support life as we know it. It has 53 known
moons and 9 more awaiting confirmation.
“Uranus (pronounced ‘Ur-anus, not Ur-‘anus), is roughly the
same size as Jupiter and Saturn. It’s an ‘ice giant,’ with 80% of
its mass made up of ice, methane and ammonia. Like Venus, it
rotates backwards; the sun rises in the west, sets in the east.
“Neptune would be the size of a baseball if Earth were the
size of a nickel. An ice giant like Uranus. it has 14 moons and 6
rings. Its atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and methane cannot
support life as we know it.
“Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, more than 40 countries
have launched thousands of artificial satellites into orbit around
our earth. A few hundred are still operational while thousands
more and their fragmented
remains orbit the earth as
space debris. About a hundred
of these are space telescopes
that orbit the earth beyond our
atmosphere and can thus ‘see’
more clearly than an earthbased telescope. The bestknown of these is the Hubble,
launched in 1990 and still in
service, over 25 year later.”
President Stewart
thanked Bill for his
presentation.
At Knud’s urging
Vincent Soumoy
came forward and
gave our President
a cheque for $1,500
toward our Burundi
medical equipment
project.
Stewart
said it was a happy
day for our club.