Southampton Rotary Club is over 80 years old and is on the move. In 2019, the year was marked when, for the first time, a Club Rotarian was appointed District Governor of Rotary District 6330 and the Club received a Presidential Citation.
Tony Sheard, was nominated by Rotarian Pat O’Connor and seconded by Rotarian Jenny Amy, and has taken on the role with enthusiasm.
The role of District Governor is broad and includes overseeing 10 zones in a large geographical area from the tip of the Bruce Peninsula to south of Sarnia and London and also part of northern Michigan. There are 56 Rotary Clubs, two Satellites, six Rotaract and 12 Interact clubs.
On Wednesday, November 27th, Tony Sheard, brought the Southampton Rotary Club up to date on his and Sylvia’s travels throughout the year. To date, they have visited 54 of the 56 Clubs within the district and 2020 appears that it will be a busy year as he hosts the International Rotary conference that will be held at the Unifor Centre in Port Elgin.
After extensive training, his role includes leading the District, carrying out an administrative role and helping to promote the role of Rotary world wide.
Sheard, who is from the U.K., worked in the power generation industry including in North Africa and the United Stated before moving to Canada in 2000 to work at Bruce Power. He became a Canadian citizen in 2007 and has been active not only in Rotary but in the community.
In Rotary, he was President in 2012 and then Assistant District Governor from 2012 to 2015, in addition to being a Paul Harris fellow, before being officially selected as District Governor in June of this year.
In the community, he has held the position of Director of the Saugeen Memorial Hospital Foundation and was Chair of the major Hospital Fundraising Campaign for the new MRI in Owen Sound regional hospital, in addition to sitting on the municipal Town Hall Revitalization Committee.
Sheard said that he has four priorities within Rotary: to increase Rotary impact; enhance participant engagement; expand Rotary’s reach and increase Rotary’s ability to adapt.
On Wednesday and as part of his role of District Governor, he also congratulated Southampton Rotary Club on their Presidential Citation received for 2018/19. Southampton is only one of three clubs in the District to ever achieve this.
“Last year, we also achieved a significant net gain in members,” said Sheard. “It is vital we continue to build on this momentum, whilst at the same time ensuring our new members are fully involved so we may do even more good in the world or, as one young Rotaractor said at the Hamburg Convention, “DOGOODERY!” … I believe this will be the word of the year!”
Sylvia Sheard also brought the members up to date on the Rotary ‘Magic Cupboard’ in India. “This is a wonderful program for young students. If they achieve something special, they receive a reward from the ‘Magic Cupboard’, a cupboard that is filled with little things like pencils or a book. Because they can buy things much more inexpensively over there, it is best to provide funds as a little goes a long way. So far, we have been able to provide approximately $2,000.”
In his personal life he likes to travel (a good thing as a District Governor), golf and watch Formula 1 car racing.
