2 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEB, 18,2016 EDITOR JAKE COSTELLO South Van Rotary Club spins out The local chapter of the international service club announced on Facebook that it has disbanded By BRIAN KUROKAWA fter almost 70 years of operation, Ae: Rotary Club of Vancouver outh has disbanded. According to a recent Facebook post, one of the reasons is that many mem- bers of the club have moved to the Yale- town, Arbutus and Richmond clubs. “Over the years, it just started get- ting smaller and smaller,” said former public image chair Ralph Case. “It was really hard to recruit members.” Because of this, Case said he felt like the need for a social organization in the area no longer exists. He said the club used to feel more exclusive, only allow- ing one member from each profession. But when the club began to struggle maintaining membership, that restric- tion was lifted. It’s unclear how the closure will ef- fect the service work of the club in the community. The South Vancouver chapter previ- ously offered the Herb Addington Me- morial Rotary Scholarship for photog- raphy to Langara College. The Arbutus Rotary Club will now offer it instead. The Rotary Club had a long relation- ship with Sexsmith Elementary, spon- soring their annual Santa pancake breakfast. Ross Cassie, the school’s principal said in an email that he often attended the club’s lunch meetings saying. “The members [were] very keen to hear about what [was] happening at our school and in public education,” said Cassie Jeff Charles, author of Service Clubs in American Society: Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions, said a change in the role of local business in the community is re- sponsible for the decline in service club membership. Charles said in an email that local businesses today have become less im- portant in many areas, and big corpo- rations are not as invested in support- ing service clubs. “Many communities, from small towns to large suburbs, are dominated by big box stores,” Charles said. NICO HERNANDEZ photo The Shao Lin Hung Gar Kung Fu Association performs a lion dance at the opening ceremony of a community police fundraiser on Feb. 5 Festive fundraiser falls short Community police are $1,000 away from buying a bike storage trailer 66 We will have the funds neces- sary to make our purchase of the trailer in time ADRIEN BALAZS SVCPC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR By NICO HERNANDEZ visit from Canada’s defence minister did not help the South Vancouver Community Policing Centre (SVCPC) reach their fundraising goals at a gala last week, but organizers still believe it was a suc- cess. SVCPC held their annual fundraiser dinner, which coincided with the Lunar New Year, at the Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant Feb. 5 in order to raise money for a mobile storage trailer. Since the policing centre moved to a new location one year ago they have been using an office room to store bikes in lieu of proper storage. The fundraiser was around one thousand dollars short of reaching its $10,000 goal, but Adrien Balazs, SVCPC executive director, said they were suc- cessful in bringing the community of South Vancouver together. “We were ex- tremely pleased [about] the turnout of the fundraiser, and the support that was provided by the community members, our local HARJIT SAJJAN politicians, and National defence minister even the minister of national de- fence” said Balazs. “We're certain that we will have the funds necessary to make our purchase of the trailer in time.” Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, who is also the MP for South Vancouver, showed his support to the community by attending the dinner. Sajjan said he believes a community policing force is important for prevent- ing crimes. “Tt’s a great asset to connect with the community,” said Sajjan. “Arresting people isn’t the only option because there are so many aspects to crime pre- vention that we as a community can work [on] together.” Andrew Jaromamay, a long time SVCPC volunteer, said that the new mobile storage trailer would rejuve- nate the policing centre because more bikes would be available to the volun- teers, increasing their presence and deterring people from committing crimes. “By having a mobile storage trailer, we can move our bikes, make it easily accessible, and our volunteers would have the proper equipment to help the community,” he said. e —_ = ad ROBERTO TEIXEIRA photo Emmy Guy and Fu Shou Dong practise English together. Seniors Hub fights isolation Immigrant seniors are building a community and learning English through a new conversation program By ROBERTO TEIXEIRA is helping immigrant seniors combat isolation by practicing English, building a strong support net- work and exploring Canadian culture. Beyond the Conversation is an Eng- lish conversation circle for seniors held at 11 locations across South Vancouver that was started last November by the Seniors Hub. Attendee Emmy Guy said that the program has changed her life. “After my husband passed away, I stayed home all the time, so lonely and isolated,” said Guy, who emigrated from Hong Kong 60 years ago. She likes having the opportunity to meet people in her community and to A. program in South Vancouver practice English, something she didn’t do when she was married. The program started as an English course for immigrant seniors, but changed course when organizers rec- ognized the particular needs of the community. Christine Nguyen, one of the pro- gram’s facilitators, said the group is about social inclusion. “It’s not necessarily about teaching them English, that part is sort of the vehicle,” she said. Project creator Amie Peacock is ex- cited that the program has moved be- yond language classes. “Now we are using English to culti- vate relationship and to bring people out of isolation,” Peacock said. After 10 weeks Guy has gained the confidence to start training to become a program facilitator. “Tcan help other people, especially if they are from China,” said Guy, who now speaks three languages. “If we understand each other more, the community [grows] more.” STATS about language HE More than 500,000 Vancouverites don’t speak English or French at home HE More than 100,000 Vancouverites can’t speak English or French HE The most common mother tongues in Vancouver other than English are the Chinese languages (338,000), which include Cantonese, Mandarin and other dialects, and Pubjabi (147,000) Source: Statistics Canada's 2011 Census Program