Zone 24 Director

Director 2020-22
Rotary Club of Collingwood-South Georgian Bay
Ontario, Canada

Valarie K. Wafer retired in 2017 after a 27-year career at Tim Hortons, one of Canada’s iconic restaurant brands. In addition to owning six franchises in Toronto, Wafer worked at the corporate office as a financial accountant. Wafer’s restaurant operations were widely recognized for their inclusive hiring practices, particularly the employment of people with disabilities. “Rotary clubs are like our franchises in the community — innovation happens at the grassroots level,” Wafer says. “When you are inclusive and innovate, people come, and when they identify with you, they are likely to stay.”

Wafer joined Rotary in 2005. She has served as an RI training leader (“the best assignment you can have in Rotary”), 2018 Toronto Convention Host Organization Committee member, assistant regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, and RI president’s representative. She has led a vocational training team focused on youth suicide and depression, audited Rotary Foundation grant projects in Tanzania and Kenya, and volunteered during a 2012 National Immunization Day in India.

Wafer and her husband, Mark — who became a Rotarian after Wafer recruited him during her year as club president — are Paul Harris Fellows, Bequest Society members, and Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation. In 2012, Wafer received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, in recognition of her leadership with the Economic Case for Inclusion in Canada, an inclusive hiring initiative that was adopted by provincial and federal governments.