Lesson plan given a global reach
Rotary clubs in Ontario’s District 7070 help establish Durham College’s virtual classroom
When you tune into one of Lon Appleby’s Durham College classes, which are all livestreamed on YouTube, one of the first things you see is the professor’s podium. It’s labelled with a message acknowledging that Appleby’s Global Classroom is made possible by local Rotary clubs. “Together,” it proclaims, “we’re leading the way.”
At the Oshawa, Ontario-based institution, Appleby was teaching courses rooted in real time and addressing an international audience even before the Zoom era. But since 2020, those classes have been held in the Global Classroom sponsored by clubs in Rotary’s District 7070.
In 2017, Don Lovisa, who was then the president of Durham College, approached regional Rotary clubs about raising funds for the college’s new Centre for Collaborative Education. As an added enticement, Lovisa suggested that Appleby’s state-of-the-art classroom, which would be a focal point of the new centre, would proudly showcase the clubs’ crucial contribution.
The Global Classroom at Durham College is one of the many lasting local legacies bestowed by the Rotary Clubs of Durham Region.
Courtesy of Lon Appleby
The 10 clubs of the Rotary Clubs of Durham Region, along with the Rotary Club of Port Hope, agreed to support the effort to the tune of more than $100,000 over the course of three years. Ron Dick, the district’s 2021-22 governor, insists that fundraising for the college was not a hard sell. “Every Rotary club in our district, either with this campaign or past campaigns, has raised funds for Durham College,” Dick says. He credits Dave Andrews, who is the executive secretary and director of the Rotary Club of Oshawa-Parkwood, with doing the “heavy lifting in the background” that made the fundraising campaign a success.
Like the newly opened, club-sponsored swimming pool for Grandview Kids — a 72-year-old organization in Ajax, Ontario, that serves children with developmental, communication, or physical needs — the Global Classroom stands as further evidence of the many local contributions made by the Rotary Clubs of Durham Region. It also recognizes the ongoing and growing partnerships that link Durham College and the Ontario clubs with people around the world. In addition, it helps fulfill the promise of a more educated and interconnected world. “The Global Classroom can bring low-cost or free education to anyone,” Appleby says. “If you don’t have the technology, we will bring it to you through Rotary volunteers on the ground.”
The Global Classroom also offers a unique opportunity to keep the district’s members involved in the projects that they support around the world. The classroom’s video conference system “allows anyone using the facility to have a class with the world,” Appleby says. “You can connect with Rotarians across Canada and speak with fellow Rotarians on every continent.” Being on the ground doing international service work and meeting the people it impacts can “light a fire in you,” Dick says. But he also acknowledges that not every club member can visit those projects. “All the members of my club can come to the Global Classroom,” he says.
Since 2018, the region’s Rotary clubs have assembled in the Global Classroom, both physically and virtually, to observe World Polio Day and engage with vaccination projects around the world. (Again, Dick credits Andrews as “the driver behind” the annual gathering.) Earlier this year, members of the Durham regional clubs sponsored their second annual International Women’s Day event at the Global Classroom, an occasion they intend to observe in the years ahead.
In a more fundamental sense, Appleby believes that the Global Classroom strengthens the ties, built on shared values, that exist between Durham College and Rotary. “The Global Classroom stands for a vision I have,” he says. “Education is the new vaccine,” and in that context, the classroom is a “successful demonstration of how Rotary is making education as important as its fight against polio.”
This story originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of Rotary Canada magazine.