Year 2004-2005 Summary -composed by Lana Rodlie

Social gatherings included a number of Pub Nights, however, more people showed up when the name was changed to Rotary After Hours. This included a farewell night for popular long-time Rotarian Ernie Lalonde who was transferred to Kelowna. Other socials included: the annual installation dinner and fun golf, the rained-out pizza night on Lana's wet deck, a barbecue at Margarita's for the visiting GSE team from Brazil, and an awesome gathering at the Cytras for the visiting GFE team from India.

We went out on a limb and hosted a dinner meeting with guest speaker Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress (and made about $1,000).

In the fall, the club raised a few pennies doing a Crown and Anchor at Festa Italiana; followed by a new fundraising wine and cheese party and silent auction, A Christmas Affair. Also at Christmas, we raised about $1,800 for the Salvation Army at the annual Choral Fest, and we treated our children and grandchildren to a lunchtime Christmas party and visit from Santa.

The second attempt at a dinner theatre in February with Phoenix Players made money but it was decided to bury that particular event for a few years and try something new.

In the spring, Rotarians planted 500 trees and made an arrangement with Communities in Bloom to sponsor the flower bed in front of the arena. Rotarians will need to pull up plants and put in new bulbs in the fall, and then prepare the bed and plant in spring. We also installed a new sign at Rotary Park - this one a huge block of granite.

The Cytras and Loyolas participated in a Group Friendship Exchange to India, and we hosted an exchange student from Germany, Mareen Kraus, who stayed with families in Rossland. We had no outgoing student this year but continue to promote the program. It was Trail's turn to host all the exchange students in the district for a barbecue, which was held at Kiwanis Park. We hired a band and the kids rocked the night away. Everyone had a great time.

New international chair Piotr Zielinski organized a Career Night for students at the high school featuring talks with students interested in careers in law or trades (electrician).

Trail Rotary also shared some of its wealth this year: a $1,000 scholarship went to a deserving Crowe student, $100 US was sent to the Priest River club in support of Dean Cummings' water project in Africa, $300 US was sent to visiting Rotarian Oswaldo's club in Brazil for a housing project, $1,000 was sent to the Castlegar club which supports a project in Honduras, $3,000 was given (out of the Erikkson Trust Fund) to Sanctuary to help them buy their building, and a fountain was sent to the Spokane Conference as an auction item. The club remained committed to helping the Trail Family and Individual Resource Society raise money for a hospital accommodation project.

And Rotarians proudly showed off the club with a float in the Silver City Days Parade.

Club member and assistant DG Elizabeth Cytra was nominated and picked to become District Governor in 2007-08.

But perhaps the greatest achievement for president Lana Rodlie was the establishment of a new Interact Club at J. L. Crowe secondary school. Twenty-three students signed up; the club held an election to establish an executive and decided to meet throughout the summer in order to start raising money and chose a local and Third World project to support.

While the club welcomed a few new members, many long-time members left the area, hence our numbers remained around 60.
The speakers program continued to be valuable and inspiring and the executive worked hard to keep the Rotary wheel rolling.
A big thanks goes out to everyone who helped make our centennial year such an "uncommon" one.

Lana Rodlie