YEG vs. YOW
Remember when travelling was a thing before covid-19 became the defining story of 2020? I managed to get across the country before any of this happened. Originally from University of Alberta (UoA), Edmonton, I moved to Ottawa for an internship working in the IT sector. Before I arrived in Ottawa, I knew I was going to connect with a rotaract club in Ottawa, seeing how I would be away from my home club at the UoA. In fact, where the Ottawa Rotaract club held their meetings influenced where I rented an apartment. So how do the clubs compare?
One is community based, one is university based. Both are awesome, both host social events, both have great people, the list goes on. There are many subtle differences between the clubs, however. Member size is a large one; UoA Rotaract has approximately 30-40 after members during the school year, whereas the Ottawa Rotaract club maxes out at about 20 while I've been here. The social events are great at both clubs. One that sticks out in my mind at UoA Rotaract Club is the time we went beer tasting at a local brewery. Ottawa Rotaract never disappointed and socializing always occurred after our Sunday meetings for about an hour. Going cross country skiing was a great thing to do in March; everyone thought I died but I'm still here to tell the story!
Both clubs look at addressing social issues, but do it in two different ways. UoA Rotaract is very much focused on "what can we physically do", like going to homeless shelters and helping there, or running booths on campus giving away free supplies for exams. Bake sales are a favourite activity to do as well. Ottawa Rotaract takes a different approach: they're not afraid to fund-raise. It was an interesting experience seeing fundraising actually happen at the Ottawa Rotaract club. Happy Dollars exists (a similar idea called Rotaract Minutes is present at UoA Rotaract), and so many other activities where there's a buy-in and the money goes towards a cause. Curling to raise money for the Aquaboxes for families in Yemen? Sounds like a blast - too bad covid-19 happened. Bowlathon? Sounded epic; I either do great or bad at bowling but covid-19 struck again. And now playing poker bi-weekly to raise money for a women's shelter? Another awesome activity. When I return to the UoA Rotaract club for at least a semester, I'll have to bring some of these awesome activities home with me. Ottawa has been good to me, I'll have a lot of good memories of the Ottawa Rotaract club.
