Join Us at the 2012 Dragon Boat Festival
The 2012 Orillia Dragon Boat Festival will be held on Saturday September 15,2012. For information on how to register a team, be a sponsor or volunteer to help, please contact Paul Taylor at cptaylor@bdo.ca .
Hello from Lake Country Rotarians
Welcome to the website of the Rotary Club of Orillia-Lake Country ~ Orillia's friendly little club.
Come and join us for breakfast on Thursday mornings. We meet at the Best Western Mariposa Inn at 7:00am. To find out what we are doing this week, click here . We would appreciate the opportunity to share with you some of the major projects we supported in the past as well as potential future initiatives in the upcoming year.
Once again we will be co-hosting the annual Rotary Festival Of Trees this November at the Orillia Square Mall so drop by our raffle booth and say hello!
A Little Bit About Us
Orillia-Lake Country is a growing morning club with a diverse membership. Chartered in the spring of 2002 it became the 44th club in District 7010. Since its inception it has partnered with the Orillia Rotary Club and the Orillia Lions Club to fund raise for community projects. Its major fundraisers include the Rotary Festival of Trees and the Civic Holiday Rotary/Lions FUNFEST. Recipients of club efforts include the following:
ROTARY PLACE (twin pad arena); Soldiers' Memorial Hospital Building Foundation; Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre at RVH, Barrie; the Orillia YMCA Expansion Project; the Children's Touch & Learn Gallery at the Orillia Museum of Art and History; Project Umbrella Burma; Ryan's Well Foundation - wells in Uganda; Wheelchair Foundation (in the last three years 30 chairs have gone to Jamaica, El Salvador, Ecuador); MG Projects in Thailand; the Philippines, India and South Africa; Shelter Box (disaster relief most recently to Haiti); Simcoe County Services Foundation; Couchiching Jubilee House; Greenhaven; The Sharing Place (Food Bank); World Literacy of Canada; City of Orillia - parkettes; Red Cross - South Asia Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina relief efforts; secondary school sports teams and arts groups; Orillia soccer and lacrosse organizations; the Orillia Rowing Club; Kids of Steel triathlon; students participating in Global Youth projects; Camp Oochigeas - cancer camp for kids; individual requests for unique and special needs.
We are involved in several youth programs. Along with the Orillia club we have sponsored and hosted international exchange students. We have sent students to Ottawa for Adventures in Citizenship and have sponsored a program here in Orillia-Adventures in Law & Security. This year we sent 6 students to the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) weekend at Geneva Park.
Group Study Exchange teams have also visited Orillia. The most recent groups were from Russia, Brazil and India. Along with the Orillia club we have also hosted graduate students from the University of Toronto during a February weekend. This is an opportunity for students from around the world to take part in winter activities and interact with Rotarians sharing culture and experiences.
Club members are an active group - enjoying interesting morning programs every Thursday; organizing the annual Seniors' Light Tour; participating each spring in PITCH IN; hopping on the big bike for Heart & Stroke; cycling in July with the Rotary Club of Brampton-Hart Lake to raise awareness for Camp Oochigeas through the 200 Miles for 200 Smiles campaign; and of course working with the Lions to run the summer FUNFEST and the Orillia club to bring a winter wonderland of trees and activities to Lake Country each November. As members of the Orillia and District Chamber of Commerce we have a keen interest in our business community.
We are looking for additional members. If you are interested in finding out more about Rotary please come and join us on a Thursday morning at 7:00 at the Mariposa Inn. For more information on joining our club go to our Membership Page.