Rotary in Review - 2025

 

 

Local Rotarians were busy in 2025 with a wide range of community events and activities including our long-standing tradition of community Pancake Breakfasts, and tending bars for many different groups and events held at Rotary Hall and other Municipal facilities.  Rotarians participated in the annual Highway 9 Road garbage pick-up to help keep Northern Bruce clean.  Once again, Rotarians participated in the graduation ceremony for graduates of Bruce Peninsula District School, announcing five scholarships awarded to students pursuing post-secondary studies – your local Rotary Club has been supporting graduates of BPDS by providing scholarships for over fifty years!   Rotary also participated in the 2025 Lion’s Head Canada Day Parade, and organized/sponsored the 2025 Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade! 

 

Many of the community events which your local Rotary Club organizes, sponsors and hosts take place at our beloved Rotary Hall on Main Street in Lion’s Head.  In the past year, these included our third annual very popular Oktoberfest, fun Trivia Nights with Caeli Mazara and Eric Perez, casual Sunday Coffee Socials, Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper (co-hosted with Christ Church Anglican), as well as serving hot beverages and snacks before and after Remembrance Day services held across the street at Lion’s Head Cenotaph, and our New Year’s Eve community gathering.  Rotarians are grateful and appreciative that the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula has invested in significant upgrading of our Rotary Hall as a community hub, with the construction of new interior stairs in 2025, new interior lighting, exterior door and windows, and as of December, a new concrete patio at the front of the Hall!  Rotarians have actively helped with the Hall refurbishment, contributing 225 hours in volunteer labour for the stair re-construction project this past year. 

 

 

[Photo: Rotary Hall, Main Street, Lion’s Head, showing the newly constructed concrete patio along the front elevation.  A fence on the perimeter wall of the patio will also be built, and the patio will provide street-side seating for Rotary events in the coming warmer months!  Our Rotary Hall - formerly known as Eastnor Township Hall - has been an impressive edifice here on Main Street in the Village of Lion’s Head since 1898!] 

 

 

For many years, your local Rotary Club has organized and hosted four community Pancake Breakfasts annually.  In 2025,  Rotary hosted community Pancake Breakfasts during holiday weekends beginning on the Victoria Day weekend (May 18, held inside Rotary Hall), continuing down at Rotary Pavilion by Lion’s Head Beach during Canada Day weekend (June 29), August Civic Holiday weekend (August 3) and concluding with the Labour Day weekend (August 31).  Over the course of these four Pancake Breakfasts in 2025, your local Rotary Club served well over 900 breakfasts – these breakfasts are our primary fundraisers, with net proceeds being returned to the community through a wide range of Rotary projects and donations.  As well, our Rotary 50/50 Fundraiser Draw was held at 11 AM at the Canada Day weekend breakfast, and the lucky winner was Brad McMillan who won the cash prize of $2025!  All 50/50 tickets had been sold by the time of the draw, and net proceeds went towards our Rotary scholarships program, supporting graduates of Bruce Peninsula District School who are pursuing post-secondary studies!

 

 

[Photo collage: Rotarians and Friends of Rotary preparing and serving delicious Pancake Breakfasts during 2025 at the Rotary Pavilion next to Lion’s Head Beach.  Full photo albums from each of our four Pancake Breakfasts in 2025 can be found at May 18, June 29, August 3, and August 31 on our Club website!]

 

We thank the many ‘Friends of Rotary’ who helped out, volunteering during these Pancake Breakfasts!  Each breakfast, these volunteers continue to help out with preparing food on our new grills and serving delicious food on the customer line, as part of our ‘Made in Canada’ Pancake Breakfasts!  We are especially appreciative of our Pancake Breakfast individual and business sponsors who generously donate product and money to defray Rotary’s costs of putting on these events, allowing us to return more of the proceeds directly back to the community of Northern Bruce Peninsula!  Our 2025 Pancake Breakfast sponsors include Russell and Abby Miners (Miners’ Maple Products who contribute all the maple syrup for each of our Pancake Breakfasts!), Jane & Dr. Dave Thomson, Tiffany Embleton & Dan Jorritsma, Barbara Dirckx (RE/MAX Grey-Bruce Realty Inc.), Dr. Pat Duronio, Garden in Thyme Country Market, and Leroy Dirckx (Atlas World Real Estate Corp.).

 

 

Rotarians tended 26 different Bars in 2025, for a wide range of events both at Rotary Hall and Lion’s Head Arena, as well as other venues such as the Tobermory Community Centre.  These events included four Trivia Nights held at Rotary Hall, four Harbourside Inside musical events at the Hall, three Curling Bonspiels held at Lion’s Head Arena, as well as many specialty events such as Oktoberfest at Rotary Hall, the SWANS annual Fashion Show and Lion’s Head Hospital Auxiliary Fish Fry at Lion’s Head Arena, as well as the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula Volunteer Appreciation Day at Rotary Hall.  There were also bars held for many other public community and private events including ‘Celebrations of Life’ for local residents who passed away in 2025.  Most Club Rotarians are formally certified under the SmartServe program of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (ACGO), to responsibly and safely serve alcohol to the public at Rotary-hosted and sponsored events. 

 

 

[Photo collage shows some of the Rotarians who tended and/or helped with set-up/stocking bars at Rotary Hall and other Municipal venues this past year: Rotarians Sue Kolundzic, Cathryn Buckley, Denise Blay, John White, Catherine Henderson, Doug Embleton and Rob Hiscott.  Contact any Rotarian if you or your group are interested in having Rotary host and tend a bar for an event at Rotary Hall or other Municipal facility!]

 

 

For many decades, your local Rotary Club has maintained a tradition of awarding scholarships to graduating students of Bruce Peninsula District High School to help support their pursuit of post-secondary education goals.  This year, Rotary presented five scholarships at the BPDS graduation ceremony at the end of June, worth $1,500 each, $7,500 in total.  These Rotary scholarships can be applied to costs associated with post-secondary studies in university, community college, trade or vocational programs. 

 

 

[Photo collage from June 26, 2025 Graduation Ceremony at Bruce Peninsula District School.  Top left: Kayleigh Baxter received the Keith Hopkinson Memorial Scholarship (presented by Rotarian Gwen Bestard), an award to a student pursuing post-secondary studies in a medical or health-related field. Kayleigh entered the Psychology / Cognitive Neuroscience program at Western University in London, Ontario this past fall.  Top right: Ava Cameron received the Bob Spearing ‘Service Above Self’ Scholarship (presented by Rotarian Doug Embleton), an award which goes to a student whose volunteer activities exemplify the Rotary motto of ‘Service Above Self’. Ava entered the English and Concurrent Education program at Nipissing University this past fall.  Bottom left: Jayden Quesnel received the J.C. Buckley Memorial Scholarship (presented by Rotarian Gwen Bestard), which is awarded to a student pursuing post-secondary studies in power engineering, skilled trade or similar technical program. Jayden entered the Electrical Techniques course at Georgian College this past fall.  Bottom right: Dylan Munn received the Mary Cameron Award for ‘Most Improved Student’ (presented by Rotarian Doug Embleton). The recipient of this award is selected each year by BPDS.]

 

 

[Photo from June 26, 2025 Graduation Ceremony at Bruce Peninsula District School:  Annabelle Galasso received the Rotary ‘Highest Academic Proficiency’ Scholarship (presented by Rotarian Rob Hiscott), having earned the highest Grade 12 average across six 4U/4M courses – this past fall Annabelle entered the Bachelor of Science, Nursing program jointly offered by Western University and Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.  Rotary congratulates all the graduates of the Bruce Peninsula District High School Class of 2025 and wishes them well in all future endeavours!

 

 

For a second year, your local Rotary Club has hosted Sunday Coffee Socials at Rotary Hall (a regular event initially proposed by Rotarian Dan Bryans) during the winter months of the year (January-March) as an opportunity for local community residents to come together in conversation with Rotarians over hot beverages and snacks, including homemade soups.  In 2025, there were six Sunday Coffee Socials held, and we experimented further with having pop-up sales during the time of a couple of these socials – Franken Farms made products from their 2025 seed collection available for purchase at Rotary Hall which proved to be very popular! 

 

 

[Photo: The pop-up sales for Franken Farm seeds held during Sunday Coffee Socials were very popular with the public, and Rotary hopes to expand pop-up sales events at coming Coffee Socials in the new year!]

 

Rotarians endeavour to promote the use of Rotary Hall as a community hub, bring people together when possible, and these Sunday Coffee Socials are an example of encouraging the local public to come out and enjoy time inside the historic Hall.  Along similar lines, Rotarians provided hot beverages and snacks at Rotary Hall both before and after November 11^th Remembrance Day Services at Lion’s Head Cenotaph (just across the street from the Hall), and since 2024 we have hosted a casual New Year’s Eve get-together at Rotary Hall open to the general public. 

 

 

For a number of years, your local Rotary Club has participated in the Ontario ‘Adopt-a-Highway’ program, helping with road clean-up to keep Northern Bruce clean!  This annual project involves helping out with trash pick-up along the shoulders of a four-kilometre stretch of Bruce County Road 9 between Lion’s Head and Barrow Bay, as well as along the shoulders of the Cemetery Road.  This year, Rotarians (l-r) Captain Jerry Greig (coordinator), Mary Fowler, Denise Blay, Tom Buckley, Tanner Blasko, Stacey Bridge, John White, along with (not shown) Wendel (and his brother Frank) Thomson and Rob Hiscott all helped out with trash pick-up along a four-kilometre stretch of Bruce County Road 9 between Lion’s Head and Barrow Bay on the morning of May 14, 2025. Wendell and Frank also covered road clean-up along the side Cemetery Road between Bruce Road 9 and Highway 6.

 

 

 

Rotary hosted the third annual community Oktoberfest event at Rotary Hall on September 27^th, starting with our beer tent and Oktoberfest-themed food in the afternoon, followed by music with the Paul Williamson Band at Rotary Hall in the evening, along with food and drink and the always-popular beer stein hold contests held that night!  The winners of the Beer Stein Hold Contests this year were Rotarian Sue Kolundzic for the Ladies’ Competition with a time of three minutes and ten seconds – Sue’s second year of winning the ladies event!), and Daniel Stewart for the Men’s Competition (with a time of four minutes and 42 seconds) – Congratulations Sue and Daniel!

 

 

[Photo collage of our successful Oktoberfest 2025 event held at Rotary Hall!]

 

Rotary thanks our sponsoring partner Tagwerk Biers with special thanks to Master Brewer Christian Klaus Reimerschmid von der Heide of Tagwerk Bier! We also thank volunteer Friends of Rotary who helped out throughout the day and evening, making our third annual Oktoberfest a huge success! We thank Cedric and Ashley Scott for providing the wagon drawn by their mules Pearl and Becky to transport the first beer cask to be tapped to open Oktoberfest 2025 at Rotary Hall! And we thank our very generous sponsors of this year’s Oktoberfest which included Tyler Hayes of EPH Tools & Machining Ltd., Ted and Phyllis Hayes of T&P Hayes Investments, and Kyle & Kara Hellyer of Hellyer's Foodland, Lion's Head!

 

 

Your local Rotary Club sponsored three fun-filled Trivia Nights at Rotary Hall during 2025, which were hosted by Caeli Mazara and Eric Perez, while Rotarians tended bar during each evening.  These fun events are open to the public who can organize their own teams or join an existing team, with typically four to six players per trivia team. 

 

 

 

Your local Rotary Club entered a float in the Lion’s Head 2025 Canada Day Parade held Saturday evening, June 28th, which began at Bruce Peninsula District School and following the route down Helen Street, across Scott Street, and back up Main Street, before returning to the School on Moore Street. Thanks our Rotary exchange student Matthew and BPDS student Stephy for participating in the Parade and riding on the Rotary float, and thanks as well to Rotarian Jeff Labonte for towing our float with his 1947 Dodge pickup truck ‘Moonshine’!

 

 

[Photo collage: Rotary exchange student Matthew and BPDS student Stephy were on the Rotary float for the Lion’s Head Canada Day Parade held June 28^th.]

 

 

The 2025 Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade sponsored by your local Rotary Club and held on Saturday, December 6th was a great success with a wonderful turnout to greet Santa during the Parade and then at United Church Hall after the Parade! This year, Santa had helpers Emily Burgess and Malcom Sargla who assisted him with distributing goodie bags for kids at the Hall, and then to residents of Golden Dawn Seniors Home here in Lion’s Head. ‘Friends of Lion’s Head Library’ were once again on hand in the Parade, and then after at United Church Hall to give a new book to every child visiting Santa – a wonderful Christmas tradition! We thank Rotarians Sue Kolundzic for being our Parade Marshall and Jeff Labonte for pulling Santa’s sleigh/trailer! Rotary thanks our Parade sponsors this year –Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula and Grey-Bruce Cottages Inc. – and a special thank you to Lion’s Head United Church for allowing us to use their Hall for Santa’s ‘meet & greet’ with kids and parents while construction was happening outside of Rotary Hall!

 

 

[Photo collage: Santa arrives in Lion’s Head for the Parade, Santa’s helpers Emily Burgess and Malcom Sargla at United Church Hall, and Rotarians packing goodie bags for kids and seniors in our club room at Rotary Hall!]

 

 

Each year, your local Rotary Club donates to individuals and organizations within the Northern Bruce community to support their causes and projects, and 2025 was no exception.  We support Golden Dawn Seniors Home by purchasing hanging baskets of flowers to place outside in the patio and walkway areas of the facility.  Rotary also hosted a birthday celebration at Golden Dawn for residents to celebrate birthdays in the month of November each year – in 2025 residents celebrating November birthdays included Jean and Gary.  Rotary partnered with Christ Church Anglican to host a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at Rotary Hall on March 4^th with proceeds going to Lion’s Head and District Food Bank.  Your local Rotary Club also made donations to the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association, Bruce Peninsula Hospice, Lion's Head and District, and Tobermory Food Banks in 2025.  Beyond these donations, Rotarians volunteered 225 hours of their time towards the stair re-construction project at Rotary Hall, and purchased the paint to finish the project. 

 

Rotary also sponsored the water collection/reclamation project in Guatemala (but were not required to make a financial contribution, as funds were raised by other clubs and the Rotary Foundation).  Our Club did make a donation to Rotary District 6330 ‘Hand Up’ Project in support of global initiatives, focused on funding and implementing sustainable development projects like clean water, maternal health, and education in developing countries. 

 

 

Rotarians and friends gathered at Rotary Hall on July 15th for a farewell bar-be-que for Matthew, our Rotary youth exchange student, before he returned to his home in Taiwan after eleven months of living and studying here in Canada.  Matthew arrived in Canada in September 2024, enrolled in Grade 11 classes at Bruce Peninsula District School, and stayed with four different host families - initially with Rotarians Cathryn and Tom Buckley in Tobermory, before going to the home of Jennifer and Scott Parker, followed by Julie, Brent and classmate James Wheeler, and most recently with Trace MacKay and Stephen Woeller.  As a youth ambassador for Rotary, Matthew actively volunteered his time on various Rotary ‘Service Above Self’ projects in several local communities, also served as one of Santa’s elves during 2024 Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade, helped out with Earth Day events at Lindsay Tract trails, helped at 40 Hills Flower Farm, and gave a public presentation at Rotary Hall about life in his home country of Taiwan.  We all wish Matthew well in all future endeavours and hope to see him again when he returns to Canada! 

 

 

[Photo collage: Matthew with host parents at his farewell bar-be-que.  A full photo album of Matthew’s time here on the Bruce in Canada can be found on our Rotary website at https://www.rotarynbp.org/photoalbums/rotary-exchange-student]

 

 

Rotarians were deeply honoured that our local Rotary Club was selected by the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula as the recipient of the 2025 ‘Outstanding Community Group Award’ presented at the Volunteer Recognition ceremony held at Rotary Hall on  April 16, 2025.  Mayor Milt McIver presented this volunteer award to Club President Catherine Henderson at the event.  In the words of Mayor McIver,

 

“It is a distinct pleasure to present the Outstanding Community Group Award, which celebrates a group whose collective volunteer efforts have made a meaningful and lasting impact on the well being of our community. This award honours not only the work that's been done - but the spirit of collaboration, dedication, and heart behind it.  For over 71 years, the Rotary club has been a cornerstone of community service in Northern Bruce Peninsula. With just 22 members, this group has delivered a remarkable range of services, from education and health care to beautification and celebration, Rotary touches every corner of life in our municipality.” 

 

After reviewing the wide range of projects and events your local Rotary Club is involved with, Mayor McIver concluded:

 

“This is community service at its finest - multi generational, deeply involved, and quietly impactful. Their legacy is not only their projects but their people - those who show up, roll up their sleeves, and make good things happen.”

 

 

[Photo: Club President Catherine Henderson (left) and Past Club President Cathryn Buckley showing the ‘Outstanding Community Group’ Award received from Mayor Milt McIver at the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula Volunteer Appreciation event held at Rotary Hall on April 16, 2025.]

 

Local Rotarians will continue to support and serve the community of Northern Bruce Peninsula through a wide range of ongoing projects and activities, always striving to live up to the Rotary motto of ‘Service Above Self’.  The Rotary International theme for the 2025-26 Rotary year - Unite for Good - calls on all Rotarians to be a force for unity in a divided world.  We are very thankful and appreciative of all the support received from the community of Northern Bruce – our ‘Friends of Rotary’ who volunteer their time to Rotary events and projects, our generous individual and business sponsors (contributing towards our Pancake Breakfasts, our Club website, and annual events such as Oktoberfest and the Lion’s Head Santa Claus Parade), and to everyone who comes out to Rotary events, participates and financially supports Rotary projects and initiatives ... helping our small service club achieve our goals!