Fort Garry Rotary Club celebrates 60 years, honours longtime member

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2022 (1445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FORT GARRY

WILDWOOD

The Fort Garry Rotary Club marked its 60th anniversary by unveiling a new bench near Wildwood Park.

In a ceremony on Oct. 3, the club launched the bench, which honours 60-year member Edward (Ted) Foreman. Fort Garry Rotary Club president Barry Hartley, Rotary district governor Fred Wright and Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry city councillor Sherri Rollins were also in attendance.

“Ted has exemplified service above self,” Hartley said. “The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise.”

The Fort Garry Rotary Club is a non-profit organization that maintains a commitment to local and international communities. Rotary, a global network of 1.4 million people and more than 46,000 clubs, work together to promote peace, fight disease, provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene, save mothers and children, support education, grow local economies and protect the environment, according to Rotary International’s website.

“Solving real problems takes real commitment and vision. In more than 110 years, Rotary’s people of action have used their passion, energy and intelligence to take action,” he said. “We’re always working to better our world and stay committed.”

“It’s important to celebrate service and a lifetime of service,” Rollins added. “It was my honour to be the city councillor for so many Rotarians. You hold this city up in ways that a lot of folks don’t know, and I’m really proud of your service.”

Foreman, 88, joined the Fort Garry Rotary Club in 1962 because he was interested in helping others. His father was a Rotarian, and he joined him at several father-son luncheons when he was 16 and 17 years old. He recalled being “very impressed” by the fact he was in the room with more than 200 of Winnipeg’s top business people.

“And here these fellas are helping others … They don’t need to help others. They have big businesses to run, but they’re giving back,” Foreman, who owned a gas station off Pembina Highway before joining Investors Group for over 40 years, said.

There have been a number of standout moments in his Rotary career, Foreman said, but one that’s particularly special to him is a dinner hosted at the Fort Garry Hotel in the early 2000s while he was president of the club.

“We arranged the dinner for Janice Filmon, who was a cancer survivor, and I believe we had 300 people at that dinner and raised over $100,000, of which we gave about ($90,000) to the hospital and kept the rest of it for the things we do at the club,” Foreman said. “It was just a great evening, and was probably my most proudest moment.”

Looking back on his six decades with the club, Foreman never expected to have a bench made in his honour.

“Anything like this, you’re just overwhelmed, quite frankly. I never thought anything like this could ever happen to me,” he said.

For more information about Rotary, visit www.rotary.org