Thirty-three years ago, after 23 years of wrangling, Rotary International finally began admitting women into Rotary.
On 4 May, 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. Rotary issued a policy statement that any Rotary club in the United States can admit qualified women into membership.
Two years later, at its first meeting after the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Council on Legislation voted to eliminate the requirement in the RI Constitution that membership in Rotary clubs be limited to men. Women were welcomed into Rotary clubs around the world.
As of June 1990, there were about 20,200 female Rotarians worldwide.
Rotarian Colleen Fennell holds up the certificate she received from Interior Health for her efforts to improve living conditions at Bastion Place by cleaning up the gardens and providing new outdoor furniture. Colleen was instrumental at leading the committee and having the majority of close contact with facility staff, during the Bastion Place project.
Our regular noon club meeting was held via Zoom on Monday 20 April. Our speaker, Len Youden, works with the CSRD doing free hazard assessments of homes & properties and offering advice on ways to reduce fire risks. 
Rotarian Mandy Hicks from the Rotary Club of Kelowna Ogopogo was our featured speaker on Monday 16 March. She told us about the Early Childhood Stimulation Programs in Honduras, which have helped 450 children in the Las Cuesta region to improve their lives and education opportunities through training in nutrition, health, playful behaviour, and parenting skills. The program has been successful in training Mother Helpers, and is now self-sustaining, making an opportunity for Rotary to develop the program in other areas of Honduras.
Healthy Lifestyle Coach Chris Johnson holds two of several vaping products she brought to our meeting on Monday 9 March. Chrissy spoke about the dangers of vaping citing the high nicotine content of all the products and its addictive qualities. She emphasized that vaping is anything but harmless, but that, sadly, more and more young people are trying it, egged on by big tobacco interests.
Our guest speaker on Monday 10 February was Carmen Massey, Project Manager of Tsutsweye, the Women's Entrepreneur & Innovation Network. The group's goal is to support entrepreneurship in the community. It provides support for women entrepreneurs to build skills, knowledge and networks and to improve and support women's business in the Shuswap.
