Open house Sept. 23 at Lakeview Gimli Resort
You’ve seen the signs on the edges of towns and cities across Canada: Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Lions. You may have driven past Rotary Towers in Gimli and wondered its story.
So, what do all those signs represent?
“They are service clubs,” said Gimli Rotary Club president Diane Fjeld. “They all do different things. But they all have one goal in common: to give back to their communities.”
Fjeld would love to tell you more about Rotary at an open house Sept. 23 at the Lakeview Gimli Resort from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The Rotary club in Gimli prides itself on its service to local youth, particularly the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program.
This August, the club sent four teens to the annual camp held at Clear Lake.
Liuba Smyrnova, one of the participants, fled to Gimli with her mom, brother and grandmother in September of 2022 after war broke out in Ukraine. Her father stayed behind to fight for their country.
“RYLA is a magical place with magical people. It’s fun and encourages awareness of mental and physical health, and it’s the perfect place to find friends you can stay connected with for life,” said the Grade 11 student.
One of the things RYLA does is to help teens discover and develop their leadership styles.
“I’m a Type C, I’m a quiet leader,” Smyrnova said.
That means she’s a listener. She hears what others are saying and includes everyone.
“Well, I wouldn’t always say she’s quiet,” laughed her friend and RYLA partner Vira Balaban.
Balaban, now in Grade 12 at Gimli High School, came here with her family in 2016 as the conflict in Crimea broke out.
“My leadership style is more Type A,” she said. “I’m action-based, focused on doing things, making things happen.”
It is clear that RYLA is helping bring out the best in both young women. They both serve on the student council, are accomplished musicians in the Jazz Band, and are active participants in the Enviro Club. They volunteer for the Kiwanis Key Club and help younger students in the Wave Club, which operates the Snack Shack on Gimli Beach and runs after-school programs.
The girls also work, Smyrnova at Tergesens and Balaban at Chicken Chef.
Both of them have yet to learn exactly what they want to do after high school is over.
“That is why I am in all the clubs and do all these things such as RYLA,” said Smyrnova. “I will figure it out. I am working on life skills.”
Adds Balaban: “Our band teacher used to tell us, ‘focus on what kind of people you are, not on what you want to do someday.’”
Smyrnova and Balaban said people often say they act more grown up than their ages.
“That’s because we have lived two different lives, in Ukraine and here,” Smyrnova said. “We have experienced different countries, different communities. I feel older than I am because of my experience.”
The two young women even found time to help with some tree planting recently with members of Gimli Rotary. Over the past three years, the club has bought and planted more than 140 trees around town. This year, the RM of Gimli hired Nadine Gislason as a full-time gardener with the public works department. She was able to get some trees donated through the East Interlake Watershed District and she and gardening partner Janine Munro joined the Rotary Club on a recent Saturday morning to show how to best plant and care for them.
Planting trees is another way the Rotary Club serves youth. After all, not all of its current members will be around to enjoy the trees when they mature.
But if some Gimli teens one day sit beneath those trees while plotting how they can contribute to the town and build their bright futures, it’s a job well done.
There are many Rotary projects you might be interested in supporting. Operation Red Nose is in December, and Lobsterfest and the Book Sale are both in the summer. The club contributes to a school nutrition program, delivers Meals of Wheels and offers several scholarships to local high school graduates each year.
You may have some projects of your own you’d like to bring to Rotary.
“We need new people and new ideas,” said Fjeld.
“Our open house on Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lakeview Gimli Resort will give you a chance to meet our members and share those ideas with them.”
