On this episode of Talking Rotary Randy Nickerson and I talk with Peter Hernandez of the Oshawa Rotary Club. Peter is a Rotarian a competitive public speaker who likes nothing more than being out and about in the community.
Peter's energy and commitment will inspire you.
On this episode of Talking Rotary Randy Nickerson and I talk with Peter Hernandez of the Oshawa Rotary Club. Peter is a Rotarian a competitive public speaker who likes nothing more than being out and about in the community.
Peter's energy and commitment will inspire you.
Welcome to this episode of Talking Rotary. I'm Peter Tonge and I'm a member of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg Charleseood.
Mandy Kwasnica:And I Mandy Kwasnika past president and also a member of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Charleswood when we are so happy you joined us here and I are so excited for this new podcast and thankful to our many listeners. Let's start Talking Rotary.
Peter Tonge:Hi, everyone, welcome to another episode of Talking Rotary. I'm Peter Tonge. I'm here with Randy Nickerson. Randy is from the Rotary Club of Oshawa. How are you, Randy?
Randy Nickerson:Peter, I'm doing terrific and it's always good to talk with you.
Peter Tonge:We're gonna have some fun. We're here with Peter Hernandez, who's also from the Rotary Club of Oshawa. And we're going to talk Rotary and Toastmasters. So, Peter, can you tell me how this collaboration between Rotary and Toastmasters came to be?
Peter Hernandez:Yeah, you bet. Thanks again, Peter, and Randy for the opportunity to be here with you and, and your listeners. So it was a few years back when the heads of Rotary and the heads of Toastmasters continue to partnership which had been started many years before that it had actually just morphed together. For Rotarians on the call and listening. There's something called Rotary Leadership Institute, (RLI), some people may know that. So RLI is an educational component slightly independent of Rotary to teach new Rotarians and experienced Rotarians I like about rotary and all rotaries reach within this educational component. Rotary International was borrowing chapters, on personal improvement, personal development, specifically around speaking, public speaking, communication and leadership. And they were borrowing this material from Toastmasters International. So likely that was the first, I guess the first look at Toastmasters by Rotarians. The first exposure experience for many Rotarians came through Rotary Leadership Institute, through this component, this communication component within an educational program to improve confidence in public speaking. And since then, up at the top, they came together, the leaders of both organizations said, we have a lot in common. We're all over the world, both clubs were all over the world, in every country of the world, and most every city of the world. We are here to develop communities, we are here to develop individuals. And it just seemed like a natural pairing. So they did come together and formally announce a few years back that we are entering into this partnership. Mind you, the details on the specifics of those partnerships are just being developed year to year as we continue to grow and go and it's up to the various individual Rotarians through some direction from above to see how they will integrate rotary and in Toastmasters on the ground level.
Peter Tonge:Okay, fair enough. Now, I'm hoping that most of our listeners have a pretty good idea of what Rotary is, but they may not know what Toastmasters is. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Peter Hernandez:Yeah, you bet. I've been I've been a Toastmaster now for 10 years. I've been a Rotarian for four years, I entered and walked into a Toastmasters room 10 years ago when I was living in Montreal, uncertain exactly as to what it was. But knowing what I was looking for. I was looking for the opportunity to improve my confidence through speaking. There was always lots that I wanted to say lots that I could feel on the inside, but that I would have pulled in and hold back. And that was troubling. And that was difficult. Because I wanted to express an opinion, I wanted to say something. But ultimately there wasn't that confidence necessarily, to voice it to speak it. So when I walked into Toastmasters, I knew more or less it was supposed to help with this confidence building around speaking and speaking in front of groups and communication. I didn't know exactly what it was till I got there. And when I walked in the door, I discovered the simplest and I mean, the simplest of formulas, a formula that holds true for most anything in life. By doing and by putting yourself in a certain situation, repeatedly, repeatedly going back and taking on a task, then you will grow. And by that, I mean, when you walk into Toastmasters, there is a very friendly group of individuals that are all like minded, similar to Rotary, but like minded for self improvement, they're all there to help each other and push each other tackle their their uncomfortableness, tackle their challenges. So as a group, every week, most Toastmasters groups, like many and most Rotary groups meet weekly, and every week, you show up. And you either have a speaking role, where you're actually giving a talk. Or you have an evaluation role, where you where you're evaluating someone openly on what they just spoke about, or you have the opportunity to speak off the cuff, impromptu. And then all this is done is within a structured meeting, where there are different roles, someone who calls the meeting to order someone that introduces the guest, this and that. So by participating and going back to these sessions, week after week, before you know it, you're doing this regularly and automatically now, you're getting comfortable introducing guest speakers, you're getting comfortable doing the impromptu speaking, you're getting comfortable practicing for and delivering a prepared speech. So little by little, it just starts to unravel. I almost look at it as magic, just by being there. And by going back week after week after week, it just happens naturally. You don't even recognize yourself six months later, a year later, those things that used to bother you or intimidate you. They may still bother you and they still may intimidate you, because they're not here to to relieve you of any fears fully are any stressfully fear and stress is a good thing. Toastmasters just helps you manage it, and then communicate in a more calm and confident manner. It's not rocket science. Once again, it's a very simple process of learning by doing and doing repetitively and on an ongoing manner.
Randy Nickerson:Yeah, I think fear and nervousness means you care about what you're trying to do. And I'm a big fan of saying this to a lot of people. Don't let fear stop you from doing great things. So now you've had you've had some success in Toastmasters. Peter, you've competed at a few Canadian wide I think maybe in some international competitions. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about that?
Peter Hernandez:Yeah, you bet. I ended up in in Toastmasters, like I mentioned, just to tackle this fear. But then it was it was a few years later that I realized, hey, the fears is still there. But speaking has become fun. Speaking has become a personal challenge. And now I want to challenge myself in expression, challenge myself in in giving humorous speeches, challenge myself and giving inspirational speeches, not just making someone laugh, and I love to make people laugh, but then also trying different ways to connect with them on a deeper level, and usually that's through emotion and sharing of yourself. So with regards to taking it to the next step, Toastmasters, another part of the curriculum is annual contest, annual speaking contest. So that's a lot of fun, too. Because the first time you put your your your name into a hat to speak at a contest, it is like, whoa, what am I doing? Who am I to compete and, and I'm going to have all these eyes on me now in a competitive way. So it's it's imitating you get through that first contest, and then grown so much, and you put your name in the hat for a second contest, maybe the next year and the next year, so I probably didn't really start competing until maybe five years ago. And then it became like this passion, something inside of me. Every time I could look at an audience in a comfortable way and look at them. Am I and get into their world. It's almost like that song from Billy Joel, the Piano Man, where the lyrics of that song, the piano man's. The bartender asks some, hey, hey, what are you doing here, and he says he, he goes there to help people forget about life for a while. So I feel that same way, when I'm on and I'm ready to give a speech, and particularly in a speech contest. And I can, I can look at someone in the eyes, who I know has just finished coming from a busy day at work, or maybe dropping off their kids or maybe rushing around, and they sit down in that seat, and I have the opportunity to do my thing and connect with them. And I see them laughing. And I see their eyes following me around the screen. They're forgetting about their life for a while, because they're present to what I'm saying. So back to your question. I've been competing in Toastmasters speaking and international speaking competitions, and one at the club level, one at the division level, one at the area level. So that was a lot. It was a lot of fun, because once again, each time, it builds your confidence. But what I like to now that I've been competing for for several years, is that I see myself in some of those newer competitors. I'm no longer a first year competitor, I've been competing now for four, maybe five years. So when I see a first year competitor that I'm up against, my competition is not with him or her my competition is with myself, and the challenges and the voices in my own head. And I can see them and I see maybe their their insecurities or things that they will eventually grow on. And and that's actually if after competition, sometimes, I will do my best to give them feedback and say, You know what, I love this about your speech. I love that about your speech. Keep going, you're really good here, you're really good there. Maybe consider this this amount. But yeah, I've also been speaking outside of Toastmasters. And with regards to Randy's questions about competitive speaking, there's also an organization called Speaker slam. And Speaker slam is a community of individuals that are focusing on inspirational speaking. So once again, this is slightly different. It's inspiration, where you have five minutes to connect with an audience deeply, emotionally to the core. And you're competing again, sometimes 10 to 12 other speakers up on stage on a specific theme for the night. And it's prepared speeches as well. And in actually it was it was this past year in 2020, that I finished third globally. The winner was from the US. Second place was the UK. I was the top Canadian and third overall, in an annual contest that brought together the winners from the entire year. So that was huge. That was massive. And it just went to to reinforce that I'm doing this for fun. I'm doing this for the challenge. And I enjoy public speaking now in my life is so much better because of it. And so different from when I walked in the door at Toastmasters, 10 years ago in Montreal.
Peter Tonge:I'd like I'd like to ask you a little bit about sort of that journey from walking in as a nervous, uncomfortable speaker to where you're then competing internationally. What was a little bit of that journey? And when did you start to feel like, Hey, this is something I could do and probably have fun doing it.
Peter Hernandez:Yeah, you bet. You bet. And you know what, if I even go back to childhood, you remember in grade school, once a year, at least when I was in grade school, once a year, there was the annual get up in front of the class and have and do a prepared speech. That for me was the nightmare of my life. Every year, I would start sweating and being uncomfortable and not being able to sleep months before that. And then I found myself in the corporate world having to give speeches to fellow colleagues or to customers. And it was an extension of that uncomfortableness. So then when I walked in the door of Toastmasters, this had already been an uncomfortable feeling for much of my life. So then at Toastmasters, like I mentioned earlier, the learning is gradual, so you don't recognize it. You see it and other people see it in you and sometimes members will come up to you two months later, or even two weeks later, and say you know what? You That was a great speech. I love the way you you made eye contact. Someone else may come up and say hey, you know what, that was really funny. When, when when you when you give that delivery, why don't you stop a little bit more, just pause the Give some silent time. So the audience can take in the the humor even more. So it wasn't a question of what When did I see it, I just I just felt it. And then it was reinforced by other people in the same predicament, all other Toastmasters, who were getting to know me in all these clubs, and by all these clubs, I mean, all the different Toastmasters clubs that I was either a part of or a guest at, are giving you that reinforcement. And there, there are manuals, you follow along and do different project manuals. So some speeches may be humorous speeches, some speeches may be an introduction of yourself in your life. Some speeches may be a business type speech. Other speeches may include PowerPoint, other speeches may be a research type project. So you go checking these off. And as you check these off, you develop in the difference in the different designations that Toastmasters has.
Rotary Ad:Possibilities are all around us. We see potential in unexpected places. And when we share our knowledge, vision, and connections, we turn great ideas into action. Together, we can make real change happen. We're Rotary, we are people of action. Get involved today at rotary.org/action.
Randy Nickerson:Peter. I know you very well, I mean, you know, we're coffee butter buddies. And I noticed you're very active in the community and social media is a tool that you use to to to relate to everybody in the Oshawa area. So one of the things I always thought of is like, What's your most memorable experience? When you're out in the community? And you're meeting people? And you know, what, this? Are there any experiences that stand out for you?
Peter Hernandez:Good question, you know what I do fall back on social media a lot. And by that, I mean, I'm make sure that I'm present, make sure that I'm updating the social media. But here's the thing, if you post something on social media, and it's just a photograph, it's not as impactful if you share that photo, and, and give a little bit of additional verbage, about what that experience was, and what it meant to you. And by that, I mean, if you if I share a photo of my children, it's just a photo of my three girls. If I say what this is their favorite place in the world to go, every time we go there, we have a great time, and it just means so much to them, then people can connect with your photo, but they can also connect with your, with your words, with regards to a specific event. That's a tough one, I probably go out to say 300 events a year or more. Some days, I see myself just looking at a community calendar and say, Hey, this looks like fun. This looks like fun. This over, here's really cool and important too. So Will my family, my wife, my girls will get in the car and we'll we'll go visit this one, then we'll scoot over here, maybe get some ice cream over here. Maybe go for a pony ride over here, maybe see a cultural event over here. And everyone you just here's the thing at every one. You're meeting new people, it's it may be something that you you're not necessarily familiar with when you show up. But then after having done it, we walk away from all these different community things thinking that was really cool, or they were really nice. Or it was great to have met them. Are we gonna do that again?
Randy Nickerson:Well, you know, Peter, I think probably one of you know, and you dragged me to this last week was after we raised the polio flag at City Hall, he says, You know what? The NDP leader is just going to be down the street. Let's go and I'm gonna you know, like, because, you know, like, but so here we go. I'm following Peter. And don't we get selfies here with Jagmeet Singh? Right. Like, I mean, come on. Well, and we had a great time, to be honest. I mean, there's a lot of energy there. I mean, and we walked away and Peter said, yeah, that was a great experience. Right. And what I know about Peter, that's a lot of of him. It's having the experiences. I mean, I ran into him at The Troubadour series. Remember Peter the singing outside free singing like just there he was with his family. So in Oshawa, you know, it's hard to go anywhere without running into him.
Peter Tonge:I think that's a brilliant idea, though, it's just to watch the community calendar and see what looks interesting. And then you're not siloed in your neighborhood or in your house, you know what's going on in your community?
Peter Hernandez:Yeah, sometimes we can, as a culture, we can spend too much time, in front of the television in front of the news in front of Netflix, when there's so much going on outdoors, if you just open the door and, and go for a walk or drive downtown or drive to a farmers market, or a festival or a hockey arena, or a flag raising, there's just so much out there, and it's all so different. And you don't have to know what the outcomes going to be in advance. Because inevitably, you'll you'll mean something that really connected with you. And that's interesting, because that same mindset is what is what led me into into Toastmasters to walk through that door, not knowing exactly what I was walking into. So I find that that's actually become a bit of my personality now, too, to seek out things that I may knew I may know little about, or want to learn more about, and just put myself in that atmosphere and see what comes of it. Yeah, many of the time, I will go to, to, to a campaign rally or to, to a political event. And trust me, I'm not political, and I don't have a political party, what I look for is is, is that energy is that excitement, or are the words in the communications coming out of an individual's mouth or out of a candidate's mouth, and, and that's what I navigate towards is, is is authentic people, authentic experiences, exciting experiences, and always looking for a bit of diversity and just, and just fun. This past weekend, we went to a very nice concert, I believe they're called the legionaires rock'n'roll music from the 1950s. Now, I wasn't born in the 1950s. But it just was a nice thing to go to. And therefore there, Peter, Peter, and I probably were born in the 50s. Sorry about that gentleman. But then after, but then after that, because it the the Establishment Clause fairly early, we walked across the street downtown in Oshawa. And in there was another type of music. I think it was like heavy metal music now, maybe it's not my thing. But once again, it was an experience and it was fun, how to how to drink and just took it all in and had great conversations.
Peter Tonge:And there you go. Peter are very curious about what's the synergy? Or what's the advantages for Toastmasters and Rotary to come together? The fight of their own word, what are they doing joined together?
Unknown:Yeah, you bet. And, and you're doing fine on your own and Randy's doing fine on his own, and I'm doing fine on my own. But you can always take anything you do in life to a next level, even if even if you're great at it right. You could be an expert in your field. But taking anything you do to a next level is always worth considering. So there are Rotarians who are top notch speakers, and there are Rotarians who don't really care for, for for speaking, there are Rotarians that are incredible leaders, and there are Rotarians that are new Rotarians, younger Rotarians, who maybe have Have you ever been in a leadership role. So Toastmasters is about the individual. Rotary to me, is about the community. So when you walk in the door at Toastmasters, it's to improve your own personal leadership skills. It's to improve your own personal communication skills. And trust me, I've given many as a Toastmaster talk at Rotary. And the first thing people might say when they see me at the screen is on the screen is Peter. I don't have a problem with speaking, right. But it's not about speaking. It's about effective communication. We all have that. We've all had that math professor at university. They knew there. They knew their equations. They knew the formulas perfectly. You knew they knew it. And there they were at the front of the class like mad scientist, putting on the chalkboard, all these formulas. But could they connect and communicate that to their students? Most of the time? No, everybody was doing this. So just because you're you're you're an expert. That's something doesn't mean you can effectively communicate it, so Rotarians that want to take their game to the next level Rotarians that want to improve their meetings, we all go to a weekly meetings, we all go to zoom, zoom meetings, we all go in person meetings, we all go to rotary conferences and conventions, many of the time those speakers up there could use a little fine tuning. And this isn't to be critical of anyone. This is just accepting the reality. I could use a lot of fine tuning, trust me. So if there's a program to help fine tune, something that I'm going to be doing anyways, why would I not accept it. But once again, Toastmasters like anything in life, you get out of it, what you put into it, there's a program there, if you're willing to just discover it and explore it, and get into it. And and admit that maybe you're not perfect here, there and there. Or you could use a little bit of improvements here and there, then you can improve your communication style, you can improve your meetings, you can have efficient, effective on time meetings, that started a certain time and they finish at a certain time respecting people's time. You can you can improve how that that meeting basically runs right you can you can have a nice meeting organized agenda. Many meetings are just off the cuff and they're very conversational. But do they go through a specific, well organized process, not necessarily to each their own, but I'm just saying these are leadership tools that you can pick up quickly because they are at the core of all things Toastmasters, and implement those in your rotary experience.
Rotary Ad:Talking rotary is a proud supporter of Shelterbox, which is an international disaster relief charity, that hand delivers the emergency shelter, and tools families need to self recover after natural disasters and conflicts around the world. Shelterbox is proud to be rotary International's project partner in disaster relief, further strengthening a global circle of friendship. Together Shelterbox and rotary are transforming despair, into hope for families after disaster. Learn more by visiting Shelterboxcanada.org.
Peter Tonge:That leads me in to another thought. If we have listeners that go this sounds really good to me, those are the kinds of skills I like to build. How do they become involved?
Peter Hernandez:How do they become involved? It's interesting right now, I'm a member of a Toastmasters club that is aimed at Rotarians called the STAR Toastmasters club. It's an acronym for serving Toastmasters and Rotary (STAR). So this is one such club, that's a virtual Club, where many of the Toastmasters members are also Rotarians. And you don't necessarily have to join a Toastmasters club right away. And many people might think they don't have time. But what you could do is just go out as a guest to a club, a virtual guest or an in person guest if the meetings have started up, it costs you nothing. Like I mentioned at the beginning, there's probably one if not more than one Toastmasters club in any city around you. And you just look them up and you find out when they meet. Because just like Rotary, they meet different days of the week, different times of the day. So you call them up and you say, hey, I'm interested in coming out as a guest, they will receive you with open arms and and you just go in and you sit as a member you observe the the proceedings and, and and take part in the program wherever you feel comfortable. So you, you toastmasters.com
Peter Tonge:Perfect, that's gonna that's gonna help some of our listeners. Now, Randy mentioned that you were spending a lot of time on social media and for alot of Rotary and alot of Rotarians, this is kind of a new thing. How can our organizations be using those tools in a better way?
Peter Hernandez:How can our organizations be using the Toastmasters tools in a new way?
Peter Tonge:I'm thinking more of the social media tools, but we can tie it all together.
Peter Hernandez:Oh, yeah. No, the social media, of course, I find that social media for many people is, is very automatic and intuitive, but for others, not so much. And even myself, I find that I have no issues in somewhat dominate my presence on Facebook. But then when I switch to a new part of social media like Instagram, then it's a whole new learning curve. And then there's Twitter. I have yet to tackle that. And some people use LinkedIn very well as well for promoting events and promoting themselves. So with regards to how to best use it. It's just by choose one of them. Because if you haven't used any of them choose one focus on that one. Maybe your age group or your demographics, like in my case, maybe in your cases is Facebook has as a first, right because there's even the new one Tik Tok, which is also for a younger demographic. So choose one that matches up with your demographics to start, and just one. And then just consistently start with something simple like posting a photograph, sharing a photograph and making a comment. And just doing it consistently, a lot of people won't even take the time or the energy. And I don't know, sometimes it our mindset is around, I don't want to look a certain way. And by that, I mean, I don't want to look too arrogant. I don't want to make people uncomfortable. I don't want to look like I'm bragging. And it's interesting, because you know, you don't and we've all seen it. There's there's, we are charitable people. As Rotarians, we are charitable, we are charitable by nature. And maybe we as a club or as an individual, you write an organization a check for $500 for $5,000. For $50,000. There are people that are uncomfortable take taking that photograph, with the receiving party taking a big cheque photo and posting it online, because they believe that that diminishes a good deed or they believe that you are somewhat bragging about it. But I've taken that and I've spun that around to the opposite degree. And I feel that when you do a charitable deed, like donating money, or giving up your time by volunteering, and it's a good thing to post that on social media, it's a good thing because other people will see it. And it could spur action. In their minds, it could get them to say, hey, that wasn't there was a volunteering opportunity, or there was an opportunity to donate. And it doesn't have to be rocket science. It's just the everyday the everyday steps that you take in the community, as an organization, as an individual, get them up on social media, ask your members to share it. And and just get the word out there. Because otherwise you're just doing a great thing and keeping it to yourself. You're being too humble, as opposed to sharing the good deeds that rotary does. And the club benefits, your organization benefits when the community knows what we do. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we just did the, the polio day flag raising at the region theater. And, you know, John Henry was there. And, you know, I took some video of that, so that when we do the world, polio day up at Durham College in the classroom, there, they have some content. So I mean, using social media to get the message out to let's take it even simpler, you know, you want to raise some money so that you can help something in your community. Well, hey, everybody, on Thursday, we are going to be doing XY and Z at this place, which allows people to under it's a bit of advertising to write get people to come so that we can raise money. And it it doesn't cost any money to do that. So that's just one simple way. I think that rotary takes advantage of social media.
Peter Tonge:Okay, absolutely. I mean, I think that I think there's, there's more to do, which is why I wanted to address it, but it's coming and I was to a presentation several months ago about rotary and communications and social media. And, Peter, I think you're right, I think this is this is where that for 80% of Rotarians Facebook was their platform, right?
Peter Hernandez:You can even spend a little bit of money as a club. If you set aside a few $100 Every year, as a club, if you post a great event, then you can also boost it, which means in essence, you're paying for Facebook to get that advertisement or get that photograph out within your community within a certain geography. There's some very effective things on social media free as well as for a little bit of spending.
Peter Tonge:Absolutely. So for me, Peter, I'll give you the opportunity. Do you have a particular event or project or something like that that you want to share with our listeners?
Unknown:By the time this airs, we will have already been through this weekend's Oshawa Rotary drive thru Rib Fest which is something that's huge for our club and and huge for our community. Rib Fest is something that, that the Rotary Club of Oshawa, brought to Durham Region many, many years ago historically. And there was no Rib Fest last year because of COVID. And this year, we had already gone right through the summer with no Rib Fest. And finally, we're able to pull the trigger for this upcoming weekend in Oshawa. So whether this airs in time or not, why this is special to me, is because it meant a lot of maneuvering a lot of knots, a lot of not letting go, it would have been easy to say, oh, let's wait, let's do this next year. Let's, let's let's wait another few months till the spring and do a Rib Fest there. But we decided as a as a club as an organization that, that we would push through with this for the good of our membership and for the for the good of the community. So we're rushing around racing around putting this together and it's going to be a great success. It was going to be lots of fellowship, and it was going to be lots of fun and laughs and and just a great time a Rib Fest this year.
Peter Hernandez:We also have something very special that we started last year and I'm excited to see that guess repeat itself this December, which is the Christmas tree lots. So Christmas trees, everybody loves Christmas trees. It's and then Christmas is such a festive time. And last last year, one of our Rotarians put together a Christmas tree locked. And it was special to not just because of the season, but because it always it also brought together two clubs. It was the two local Oshawott clubs, the Oshawott club and the Oshawa Parkwood club. All all the volunteers were from both clubs. We had a great lot at the large mall mall and City Mall in Oshawa called the Oshawa center. And we sold through all the trees we had very quickly. And a lot of community members too, were donating trees. So they would show up and they would sponsor a tree for 60 or $70. But not take it home, not take it home with them. They wanted to purchase it for someone who maybe wasn't going to have a tree that year. So that was special. And it was a lot of fun. And it was new to our club last year and kind of put together because of the the the reduced amount of fundraisers because of COVID. This one came out of that as something we'd never done. We tried it. And it was a great success. So I'm excited to to see that one repeat itself again, this
Randy Nickerson:There was a lot of people that just bought the trees for someone else. And when you see that happen, it like I just got a little bit of tingles there when you brought that up, because I'd forgotten how many people there wasn't just one or two, it was quite a few that bought trees for someone else.
Peter Hernandez:I think that's brilliant. I really do. I like that. So I was just gonna ask Randy, if those were tingles that he got her if they were jingles?
Randy Nickerson:They were jingles and tingles.
Peter Tonge:The only thing that I can tell you Peter is through recording some episodes of this podcast. I've met I don't know, half a dozen people from the Durham Region. And everybody is talking to me about the Rib Fest. So it must be quite the event.
Peter Hernandez:Yeah, yeah. You bet. You bet. Like I'm excited for it, and the community is excited for it. Yeah, it can really bring in a lot of dollars for the club to then dole out in activities for the community. I know, the Bowmanville Rotary Club has raised, I think six digits from their rib fests with their sponsorship. And what that's allowed them to do is to have a, a free drive in, sort of, they get a field and they you know, they do that pop up screen, and they offer free driving for families, because the money, it's way of giving back, you know, and those are the sorts of things that are pretty, pretty impactful. Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting, because when we think about these events and fundraisers, obviously, the key word and fundraiser is fund, right. So we're, we're all looking to make good money so that we can then disperse it among the different charities in the group, but one way in not in the group in the community. But but one of the things that I find equally important, is, is the contribution that you give back in kind to the community. And by that I mean, this year, it's a drive thru repair. So you show up you place your order, you stay in your vehicle, you receive your order, and then you either drive home or you can drive to a park and eat it. But in past years, the traditional Rib Fest has included midway rides, vendors stations, music bands, beer tents. So it's very much a festival, carnival atmosphere typically. And what's beautiful about that, and the part in the in the part you don't see in the bottom line are all those people that that took in the experience and the smiles on the kids faces, with smiles on the teenagers faces with smiles and watching somebody sing along to their favorite song. So it's that it's that human side that sometimes we can't calculate in the numbers. But we know we've given that back to the community through our rotary initiatives.
Peter Tonge:And absolutely, No, Peter, we only have one set question in our podcast episodes. And that is your busy guy, you've got lots of things you're doing, why are you giving your time and energy to Rotary?
Peter Hernandez:Why am I giving it to rotary and giving its rotary because it's connected with me in a way, in that way is like anything I do, I give my time to it. Because I feel that I get back as well. So and that's not to come across as selfish. But that that that that part that I get back is in satisfaction, that part that I get back is in like those, the that that feeling of having given just like we just spoke about at the, at the the Rib Fest was that knowing somebody has, has had a great time because of something you you've coordinated. So I give my time to rotary because because of that, because when I give, then I get in what I get back is that sense of satisfaction, that sense of, of completion, that sense of personal growth, as well with all these projects, and then sometimes I'm running around like a chicken with his head cut off, because I'm going from this project to this project to this meeting to this meeting. But by the end of it, I know that I'm I'm growing too. So that's what I get. But I get back this personal growth. And I get back this personal gratification. And I it this is an opportunity that I have now. So I'm taking the opportunities as they're presented to me. And you get to meet great people, right? Like Peter and Randy on this call. Right? And that's just one opportunity leads to another opportunity. Whether this is a Toastmasters mindset or just a personal mindset, when you say yes to something, then you don't want it builds it grows to another opportunity being asked somewhere down the road. You just keep saying yes. And it just continues to open up a lot of beautiful and incredible opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to you.
Peter Tonge:Excellent. Peter, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to talk to you and so glad to hear about all the great things that are going on in Oshawa. Randy, thank you very much as well. It was very nice to be the co host with me here again.
Mandy Kwasnica:Thank you so much for joining us on another great episode of talking Rotary. We would love to hear from you. Please send us your comments and story ideas and you can share with us easily by sending us an email at feedback at talking rotary.org Let's keep Talking Rotary.