The Rotary Club of Belleville

The Rotary Club of Belleville

Group Study Exchange Visit

October 20 – 27, 2010

The Aussies descended upon the Rotary Club of Belleville on Wednesday October 20, 2010 for a week long visit to the Quinte area. The team, comprised of mental health professionals from Rotary District 9750 in Sydney, Australia, included

(clockwise) Dot Hennessy (Rotarian team leader), Matthew Ireland (police officer), Melisa Quig (school counselor), Alyssa Milton (mental health clinic manager), Stuart Balzan (rehabilitation counselor) and Matthew James (mental health nurse)

The Group Study Exchange (GSE) is a vocational exchange involving professionals from another Rotary District who participate in a reciprocal exchange to immerse themselves in their vocations in another country. The intent is to trade best practices with your vocational hosts and to network with other professionals. There is also a cultural component to the exchange aimed at enhancing world understanding and goodwill.

Family hosts were President Sam Brady, Len Kennedy, PP John Cairns, Tracy Bray and PP Karen Baker.

Rotarian Lilly Duffy hosted the team on Thursday October 21^st. They spent the day touring Prince Edward County, having lunch at the Waring House, touring Waupoos Winery and Black River Cheese and Lake on the Mountain.

On Friday the team was greeted by Rotarians Maureen Piercy and Dianne Spencer from Loyalist College. The team spent the morning touring the College and spending time with the College staff and faculty who provide academic and health and wellness support to the students. They also visited with faculty in the police foundations and service worker programs. After a false fire alarm and lunch at the Shark Tank the team took to the 401 for the drive to the District 7070 Conference in Niagara Falls.

Saturday morning and early afternoon had the team attending a variety of Rotary sessions at the Fallsview Resort in Niagara Falls. In the mid-afternoon they ventured outside into the rain for a trip to the Maid of the Mist. Despite very wet, cool and windy conditions, the team was quite taken by the Canadian Falls.

Stuart, Alyssa, Matthew, PP Karen Baker, Dot

(Front) Matthew, Melissa

Saturday’s dinner included a musical revue featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, June Carter and Elvis Presley. The team was seated front and centre for the show and enjoyed the musical stylings and comedy of the performers. Afterwards they ventured to downtown Niagara and the Fallsview Casino for people watching.

    

Matthew, Tessa Bell, Dot                                   Alyssa and Melissa                             Elvis

On Sunday morning, the Team made a presentation to the conference attendees that featured a very unique case study about a young man named Heath. As the case was presented, each team member talked of their professional role in assisting Heath in his battle to acknowledge and then live with his mental illness.

On Sunday evening the team returned to Belleville and enjoyed dinner at Paulo’s Trattoria before returning to their host families.

The team presented to the Rotary Club of Belleville at their regular Monday lunchtime meeting. After lunch they visited City Hall and spent about 90 minutes with Mayor Neil Ellis. It was election day in Belleville and the team managed to get themselves on You Tube as there was a group filming Mayor Neil for the day.

(L to R) Matthew Ireland, Matthew James, Dot Hennessy, Mayor

Neil Ellis, Stuart Balzan, Alyssa Milton and Melissa Quig

After departing from City Hall, the team tried unsuccessfully to see the Belleville Bulls on ice practice in preparation for their Maple Leafs game on November 6^th. The Bulls had finished early but the team did get to wander the Yardmen Arena and see some of Belleville’s recent construction projects. Leaving the Arena, they ventured for the first time over the new Veteran’s Memorial Bridge to Starbucks and the Quinte Mall for a relaxing coffee.

The RC Belleville arranged a Happy Hour Fellowship event at Earl & Angelos for later Monday evening. Many Rotarians dropped in to say hello, including some who dressed up in the spirit of Halloween.

 

            Alyssa and PP John Cairns                                                 Carol Feeney and President Sam

After Happy Hour, the team ventured down

Front Street

to visit the post-election celebrations of Rotarian Richard Courneyea and Mayor Neil Ellis. On both stops they managed to meet many new people including more Rotarians who were supporting friends and colleagues in their election bids.

Tuesday brought day long vocational visits for all of the members of the team. Stuart Balzan and Melissa Quig spent the day at the Hastings Children’s Aid Society with Rotarian Len Kennedy and his staff, Matthew Ireland spent the day with Rotarian Paul VandeGraaf at Belleville Police Services and Alyssa Milton and Matthew James were hosted by Michael Whiteman and the staff at Quinte Health Care. Dot Hennessy travelled to Trenton to spend some time with Quinte Recycling, an area of vocational interest for her. All the team members commented on how much they enjoyed their time with their counterparts in the Belleville area and of the contacts they made and how similarly, yet differently, they practice their vocations in each country.

Tuesday evening PP John Cairns hosted a BBQ for the team. Everyone had a wonderful time laughing and telling stories. Later in the evening, each member of the team carved a pumpkin graciously provided by Rotarian Wayne Dewe. Halloween is not celebrated in Australia so the team was excited to get right into the guts of the pumpkins and carve away. By the end, they were wondering how to get pumpkin seeds to start this annual autumn tradition Down Under.

  

Sadly, Wednesday saw the end of the Aussie’s time in Belleville. They spent the morning packing and saying their goodbyes before heading to Cobourg. Enroute the team stopped at Campbell’s Orchards to grab some goodies and some hot apple cider for the trip.

Arriving in Cobourg, the last item on the Belleville agenda was a presentation sponsored by the Northumberland Hills Hospital Association – a presentation by Bill MacPhee, a schizophrenic who talked about his life pre- and post-diagnosis of his illness and how he has made a success of himself as a survivor of, and proponent for, schizophrenia and as the publisher of SZ Digest, a magazine for and about the disease.

When that was complete, the team was handed off to Mike Parker of the Rotary Club of Cobourg who took the team to meet their next hosts, the Rotary Club of Willowdale.

Mellissa, Matthew, Dot, Matt, Stuart and Alyssa with the Big White Beast (van)

graciously provided to the RC Belleville by Mike Parker of the RC of Cobourg.

For the remainder of their time in District 7070, the Aussie team will be hosted by the Rotary Clubs of Willowdale, Cobourg, Richmond Hill and Whitby Sunrise.

When leaving us, the team said that they had a great time in Belleville and that we are a wonderful and fun group of Rotarians who enjoy our community, how Rotarians connections and what we do for a living. They will miss us all and felt that we have set a very high bar for the remainder of their hosts.

We will miss them.

To continue to follow their District 7070 adventures, follow their blog at http://rotarygse9750.blogspot.com/

District 7070 also has a mental health team in District 9750 in Sydney. Follow their daily adventures at http://www.vttaustralia2010.blogspot.com/

To learn more about the Group Study Exchange, now called the Vocational Training Team, click the following:

http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_pdf/fv_global_grants_vtt_participant_application_en.pdf

http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/100608_news_vtt.aspx