Speakers

Alvin Law is one of us…sort of. He’s an honorary life member of Calgary Rotary East. He’s an honorary Paul Harris Fellow. He has presented to Rotary District events as far away as Uganda. And Alvin believes that the Rotary motto of “Service Before Self” may be one of the best mission statements ever.

 

That will be the focus of a short program we will be privileged to experience for our first meeting of 2024 and what a way to kick things off, because Alvin is actually a member of the  Canadian Professional Speakers Hall of Fame and he was inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame in 2018. Alvin said that was both an incredible honour but also caused some internal conflict as his family taught him there was no such thing as a “disability”, just some human beings with a bigger challenge than the rest.

 

And indeed, Alvin may appear “challenged”. He has no arms. He will explain why in a story that will leave everyone with a powerful impression about him, and Rotary. This is a meeting you don’t want to miss.

Jeromy “Pathfinder” Farkas is a Calgarian mentor, athlete, and community mobilizer with over $10M in successful fundraising in the social, post-secondary and political sectors.

Born-and-raised in a newcomer refugee family in Dover, his early years included shifts at the Forest Lawn Dairy Queen and Ogden shingle mill as he worked to pay off student loans and become one of the first in his family to earn a university degree.

After graduating, Jeromy built a small business focused on data analysis. In 2015, he won first place in the City of Calgary’s “Hackathon” technology competition of the city’s up-and-coming entrepreneurs. In 2017, he was elected as Calgary’s youngest City Councillor and the first openly LGBTQ person to hold municipal elected office in the city.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation gave a rare kudos to Jeromy for refusing Council’s “Golden Pension” plan and the large “goodbye cheques” council members receive if they quit or are defeated. The CTF estimates this decision amounted to upwards of $1.1 million.

In 2021, Jeromy ran for mayor of Calgary and received the most donations, ever, of any candidate for municipal office. He lost -- but used that experience the following year as a springboard for a successful 5000-kilometer solo run from Mexico to Canada.

That run raised nearly half a million dollars of new operating funds for Big Brothers and Big Sisters and is their most successful fundraising campaign to date. In January 2023, he embarked on a follow-up fundraiser, climbing 25 consecutive peaks over 25 consecutive days, raising nearly a hundred thousand dollars for medical care for Calgary’s homeless through The Alex Community Health Centre.

Jeromy is a certified Wilderness First Responder and Search and Rescue volunteer. He currently serves as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation, with a mission to protect and promote one of Alberta’s newest provincial parks through engagement, education, collaboration, and conservation.