Rotary Club of Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada

05/29/2026

Our club recently renewed its longstanding partnership with the 3037 Miramichi Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps and the 315 Newcastle Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron, and our Executive Commitee approved a $2,000 donation to each organization!

Some members of our club attended the annual ceremonial review co-hosted by both organizations on Wednesday at the armoury on George Street, where both organizations train. The donation cheques were presented to Army Cadet Captain Jackie White and Air Cadet Captain Krista Sullivan during that event by Rotarian Mike Walsh, a veteran in his own right who once served with The North Shore New Brunswick Regiment and spent 23 years in the Canadian Army Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Both Cadet organizations are longtime pillars in our community. Not only do they train young people for potential future careers in the Canadian Armed Forces or civilian industries, but they teach life lessons and help our youth gain leadership, citizenship, and physical fitness skills. They also provide summer camps for members to further their training, including paid opportunities.

Most importantly, these organizations support education, one of Rotary International’s seven key pillars.

For more information on these organizations, here are the links to their webpages:

https://3037army.cadets.site/

https://315air.cadets.site/

05/28/2026

Congratulations to the May winners of our trip draw! 🥳 🎉

This month’s grand prize is a five-night trip for two to Paris valued at $3,900! 🇫🇷 ✈️

Trip winners can redeem the trip, use its value as a credit to arrange to travel elsewhere, or accept a cash prize💰of 80 percent of the trip’s value ($3,120 in this case). Each winner is also re-entered into the draw for more chances to win!

Drumroll please! 🥁

Our winners are as follows:

Trip to Paris 🧳: John Richard
Runner-up ($500 💵): Christina Whitney
Third place ($150💰): Lise Eagle

Thank you to everyone who supports this major annual fundraiser for Rotary projects in our community! Also, shoutout to Rewind 95.9 FM for broadcasting our monthly draws on the air 📻 and allowing us to livestream them in-studio on Facebook!

Stay tuned for next month’s draw! Tune in to our page for other exciting Rotary news!

05/28/2026

05/28/2026

At our weekly club meeting on Wednesday at Mikes Bar and Grill, we were excited to have Max Aitken Academy teacher Hannah Williston as our guest speaker to present to us about her school’s community greenhouse project, which our club is supporting with a $5,000 donation!

Shown presenting the cheque to students and displaying our club’s banner alongside Hannah are Rotarians Preeti Sanjay Gonsalves, Michael Mersereau, and Stan Knowles.

This project will support education (one of Rotary International’s seven key pillars) and will see a garden created at the front of the K-8 school for students of all ages, while also supporting local seniors by building social connections through horticulture. A greenhouse will be built as part of the project’s first phase, with Phase 2 to include accessible pathways and other improvements.

Hannah submitted a detailed and thorough application for assistance from our club, which made our Executive Committee’s decision to support her project much easier!

Our club often considers funding applications and, when possible, tends to support initiatives that align with Rotary’s seven key pillars (supporting education, fighting disease, promoting peace, improving maternal and children’s health, protecting the environment, growing local economies, and providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene). We ask funding applicants to complete the form on our website (linked below). Please include as much detail as possible to allow our Executive Committee to make an informed decision when reviewing requests and provide a timely response.

http://rotaryclubofmiramichi.org/funding

05/21/2026

On May 15, Rotarians Michael Walsh, Preeti Sanjay Gonsalves, and Nathan DeLong from the Rotary Club of Miramichi, and Rotarians Peggy Doyle and Lisa Harris from the Rotary Club of Chatham, served among the volunteer judges at the 2026 Regional Heritage Fair Showcase hosted by the Anglophone North School District at Nelson Rural School.

Pictured are Miramichi Rotarian Preeti Sanjay Gonsalves with student Anas Ammad, who received the Students’ Choice Award and the Provincial Heritage Showcase Award for his project about Atlantic salmon; and Chatham Rotarians Peggy Doyle and Lisa Harris with student Trent Collins, who earned the New Brunswick Historic Places Award for his project about the Stonehaven New Bandon Chapel in Gloucester County.

Congratulations to everyone who received awards, and to all students selected to present their projects at the regional event. Thank you to everyone who makes this showcase possible every year in support of education, one of Rotary International’s seven key pillars.

05/21/2026

Our club would like to congratulate our friends at the Miramichi Literacy Council for their recent recognition with the 2026 Dr. Marilyn Trenholme Counsell Literacy Award for Community Literacy Programs!

The literacy council was founded in 1978 to help adults improve their literacy skills and to promote literacy awareness. READ NB is its parent organization. We are pleased to partner with the literacy council through projects including, but not limited to, the Retelling Our Stories Initiative, which teaches writing skills to inmates at the New Brunswick Women’s Correctional Centre. Our club sponsored that project last year with $6,800 from Rotary District 7815’s District Grant Program, and we prioritized it again this year in our 2026 district grant application!

Supporting education is among Rotary International’s seven key pillars, and helping with literacy initiatives is one of several ways that our club advances that cause.

Congratulations to Miramichi Literacy Council team for receiving the 2026 Dr. Marilyn Trenholme Counsell Literacy Award in the Community Literacy Program category. Accepting on behalf of the Miramichi Literacy Council was President of the organization, Pat Hegan (also pictured: Nadine Pesch). She spoke of their mandate of “Each One, Teach One” and thanked their parent organization, READ NB.

05/16/2026

After assisting with the Fabricate Your Future Summit hosted on May 5 at NBCC in Miramichi, members of our club were pleased to deliver surplus food remaining from the event to the Miramichi Youth House that afternoon. This facility, operated by Miramichi Housing Solutions Inc., assists vulnerable youth in our community.

Miramichi Housing Solutions is a local not-for-profit organization which also manages a shelter for community members experiencing homelessness and other forms of housing insecurity. The link to their website for more information is as follows.

https://miramichihousingsolutions.ca/

05/12/2026

The Rotary Club of Miramichi was proud to be a bronze sponsor ($500 contribution) of the 2026 Fabricate Your Future Summit held last Thursday, May 7, at NBCC in Miramichi! Several members of our club also assisted with preparations for the event and served snacks and lunches to more than 200 high school students in attendance from across New Brunswick!

Fabricate Your Future is hosted by the Centre of Excellence for Skilled Trades and Manufacturing (New Brunswick Centres Of Excellence). It invites high school students province-wide to explore careers in skilled trades and manufacturing through hands-on experiences, interactive learning, and direct connections with industry professionals.

Supporting education is among Rotary International’s seven key pillars, and sponsoring this event is one of several ways our club has worked to advance this cause.

Rotarians pictured below include Michael Mersereau, Preeti Sanjay Gonsalves, Catherine Flett, and Michael Walsh. Also, thank you to Michael Mersereau’s son, Hiew, and daughter, Liana, for helping us with this event, as well as Michael Walsh’s wife, Colleen, and daughter, Karen.

05/12/2026

Our club was pleased to be a bronze sponsor for this event!

05/04/2026

On Saturday, several members of our club had fun participating in the Team Up 2 Clean Up event co-sponsored by The Point Church and Towne Auto Group! We cleaned up a section of Island View Drive, in the former village of Nelson, between Route 126 and the CN Rail overpass.

Thank you to Rotarians Catherine Flett, Nathan DeLong, Greg MacDiarmid, Jack Christie, Michael Walsh, and Michael Mersereau for taking part!

Team Up 2 Clean Up is an annual community cleanup event that encourages residents to tidy up their neighbourhood or a section of road in the community, then text a number to have someone come by in a pickup truck to collect their garbage for disposal.

Our club participated in Team Up 2 Clean Up this year as part of Rotary District 7815’s Epic Day of Service, which encourages clubs across Atlantic Canada and St. Pierre & Miquelon to do hands-on service projects on May 16 (or any other day in May). We chose Team Up 2 Clean Up because helping the environment is one of Rotary International’s seven key pillars.