What are we doing to support our foundations? The Rotary Foundation is the source that supports our projects. The Rotary Foundation provides funds for Grants, Global Scholars, and Peace Fellows. Let's support our foundation generously.
 
Most of us are meeting virtually and not spending any money on our meals. Here is a challenge to all of us, let's each one of us make a $25 donation to the foundation during November. Imagine if 1635 members in our district make a one-time donation of $25.00! That is over $40,000. Remember, these funds come back to us and support our projects and grants we apply for. Click this link to see how your donations can help https://www.rotary.org/en/donate ou ici en français https://www.rotary.org/fr/donate
October 24th was World Polio Day. Three clubs in our district organized a successful online musical concert. It was viewed from many countries all across the world. Well done to our Rotarians from the Rotary Club of West Ottawa, D7040 Passport Club, and the Rotary Club of Lake Placid. This concert generated upwards of $5500 in support of polio. However, the link is still active for viewing and donations continue to come in. Special thanks to the organizers who spent countless hours to make this happen. I am also overwhelmed with the response to the challenge that I put out to our district members last month to raise funds for Polio. Remember each $1 we raise it is matched 2:1 by the Gates Foundations. Thank you for your generosity.
 
Our first ever, free, online District Conference was a tremendous success. It was something that we never planned for. Our team worked hard to make it happen and shifted from an in-person event to online. We had few challenges throughout the process but with the help and ingenuity of our program chair Gayle Oudeh and her team we produced an excellent event. We had great keynote speakers, our facilitators managed to get our speakers to present on time and helped facilitate the question periods as if we have done this many times before.
 
Our Conference Chair Teresa Whitmore had done a phenomenal job organizing the team to produce an excellent event.  We managed to put out a great House of Friendship, a fantastic silent auction that generated over $3400 which will support our Rotary Foundation, and we had many generous sponsors who helped us cover some of the expenses. All of this would not have been possible without our MC extraordinaire Jacinthe Paille who did a terrific job and our technical director Chris Cochrane who managed to operate 6 laptops and kept an eye on the operation of this process. I am grateful to everyone who worked with us on making this a successful event.
 
We had audiences from all over the world attend. At one of the sessions, we had as high as 256 attendees. I am so proud of our team. The House of Friendship and videos of the sessions are still available on our website.
 
I want to thank our Area Governors, committee chairs, club presidents, and others for their support during these challenging times to keep Rotary and our district visible. Also, a shoutout to our members who are helping their communities. We should not forget that we should support our local community shops who cannot survive without our support. Reach out to our front-line workers and say thank you to them.
 
By the end of November, I will have visited 45 clubs whether virtually or in-person. I am looking forward to visiting all the clubs in our district, and please keep me posted on the events that you are holding. I would love to come out and work with you on your projects.