2014 Speakers

As is our tradition, this month’s meeting featured a Christmas Sing Along with Bob Henderson and John Butler leading members in a jolly and festive singing of carols. Robin Fancott; Jeff Maissan and John Sallmen volunteered to sing the parts of the three Kings.  Then we were treated to a Christmas Trivia Quiz led by Art Currie.  Only he had the answers, so...

Malcolm “Mac” Stockwell, our speaker, and his son, Tim undertook an expedition to Normandy are in France with the goal of making a pilgrimage to some of the battlefields where his father, Noel as well as his uncles Bill, Ollie and Reginald fought in the Second World War. They visited: Vimy Ridge where on April 9, 1917 Canadians succeeded in...

Paul Chapman gave a highly informative presentation on “St. Catharines, Past, Present And Future 1783 to 2050”. He used a hand-drawn map outlining the 15-mile creek to the west, the 12-mile creek as the centre, and the 10-mile creek to the east, coupled with the native Indian trails along what is now Niagara Street, Pelham Road and the top of...

Our September meeting is our Annual General Meeting.  At this meeting the Executive of Probus St. Catharines reported out on our very successful 2013-2014 year. We also elected a new executive for the 2014-2015 year. As is our tradition, new members introduce themselves to the club members with a short presentation. Ron Tarr, our newest member, did just that at...

Ron Dale was our speaker at the August 12th, 2014 Probus meeting. The title of his talk was “Girding for War: Canada and the beginning of the Great War”.  In his presentation he discussed the beginning of the war and the amazing feat of recruiting, training and equipping the Canadian Expeditionary Force in record time in 1914. On June 18th,...

Bri-Ann Stuart spoke at our July 8th, 2014 Probus meeting. Bri-Ann is the General Manager of The Outlet Collection at Niagara. Her presentation was entitled “Defining the Outlet Experience? Outlet Collection at Niagara”. She provided us with some fascinating statistics about the Mall and its development. Here are just a few of them: Situated on a 63 acre site Largest...

Our speakers, Lori Seraphino-Harper and Dave Ceglie, who were introduced by Henry Becker, represent Hotel Dieu Shaver, Audiology and Hearing Aid Clinic. David as  Manager of Specialty Clinics and Lori as Senior Audiologist. Lori explained what they do in providing services to infants, children and adults as: assess hearing, provide hearing related information and aids for hearing. Lori discussed the...

Brian Mergalis and his father Water continues to capture the attention of the financial community, and jurisdictions from around the world are creating clusters of water researchers, start-ups and multinationals with the intent of capitalizing on solving the global water crisis. Brian Mergalis, the CEO of WaterTAP (The Water Technology Acceleration Project), an organization that the province created to champion...

Gerald Archambeau of St Catharines was our speaker at the April 8th, 2014 Probus meeting. He discussed his autobiography entitled “A Struggle to walk with Dignity- The True Story of a Jamaican-born Canadian”. His is a unique perspective on Canada from an immigrant’s point of view.  He grew up in Jamiaca in a racially mixed middle class family but immigrated...

On March 11th, Fiona Hunter of the Biological Sciences Department, Brock University spoke to us on the topic: “Global warming: Are Infectious Diseases Moving North?” Her research involves studying the behaviour of tics, blackflies and mosquitoes. Fiona significantly increased our knowledge of the role that these flies play in the spread of infectious diseases.  A few of the things that...

At our February, 2014 monthly meeting, Bert Murphy of Brock University, provided us with a comprehensive tour of the geology of the “Niagara Isthmus”.  He noted that most of us call it the Niagara Peninsula but it is actually an isthmus.  Many of us learned a lot as he explained that: The Niagara Escarpment is actually over 1,000 kilometres long...

Mira Ananicz Mira Ananicz was our speaker and she spoke about ice wine in a presentation called  “Winter’s Gift in a Glass”. Mira was the first woman to make wine in Canada. She had 29 years of experience at Vincor, the country’s largest winery before retiring in 2006.  In her career, she was especially proud that her 1982 Vintage Red...