Dear Everyone,
I really don’t have a lot of news this week, and will leave it up to Kris to report on the minutiae, but - what a wonderful meeting we had last Tuesday night, at the launch of our Cluster’s Youth Wellbeing Project!
Brian Hodgson is to be commended for bringing all of the various parties together. The presenters, Belinda Grooby from Tribe Monbulk and Bev Joseph from SALT – Sport and Life Training – were amazing and inspirational, and Tina and Wayne McKenzie from Belgrave RC also acquitted themselves admirably.
Wayne spoke about Upwey High School’s music programme and the younger Club members may not know that Red Symons, the lead guitarist of Skyhooks fame (and later judge on Red Faces and ABC radio broadcaster) attended Upwey High school in his youth, and lived in Emerald. The music concert that is being planned to fund the project sounds very promising.
I was very proud of the way our members who had roles conducted themselves at the meeting: Chairperson’s Emma’s segues were something we should all try to emulate, and she was unflappable; for example, Emma and Ian’s timely intervention soon quelled the microphone’s hissy fit; Sergeant Gayle’s Fines’ session provided just the right amount of good-humoured criticism of the miscreants, and Peter Ravenscroft’s response was very thoughtful with a little humour thrown in for good measure.
District Governor Alma was very positive and encouraging in recognising the value of the Wellbeing Project and also provided very sound advice for us.
As mentioned at the meeting, I encourage all of you to do the Embracing Diversity – the Check Your Privilege Exercise that Alma wrote about in the 12th of April edition of “Open Doors”. You do the exercise while watching a short, well-constructed and interesting video; after I did the exercise, being part of the mainstream of society, I was not surprised to learn that I am exceptionally privileged, but some of our members may be less fortunate, and that is something we need to know. Being aware of these differences will ensure we are an even more inclusive Club, and will not be putting up potential barriers for prospective members.
Don’t forget to save your plastic bread tags please, as one of our Market stallholders, Tam collects them for repurposing into prosthetics. Bring them to our 27th of April meeting so that we can hand them over at the May Market. Tam is hoping to amass about 40,000 tags.
I would like to quote from the bio of next Tuesday’s guest speaker, DGE Daryl Moran. “His book ‘Empire’s Noble Son’ was published in October 2019 and recounts the story of an Australian Great War combat pilot who fought in the Battle of the Somme in mid-1916. This pilot from Melbourne, left a collection of over 250 letters and associated material which lay untouched for over a century. The retelling of his story largely in his own words, throws light on his unique two years of war service. The book also helps to explain how a deeply shocked Australian society of the time commemorated and mourned its 60,000 dead.
This pilot’s story is just one of hundreds of thousands that have been hidden over the course of time and is no more special than any other. Daryl encourages you to think of those stories in your own family that could and should be told, to ensure that the memory of those who served and those who gave their lives will never be forgotten.”
What happened in my family highlights the point Daryl makes here: to my great disappointment, my grandfather’s diary that he kept while serving during WW1, was thrown out before I got to see it by my grandmother, who did not appreciate the importance of this primary source of history.
Thank you’s this week to:
- IPP Catherine in conjunction with members of the Rotary Clubs of Berwick and Pakenham and the President of the St. Margaret’s Interact Club, for preparing hospital beds from St. John of God in Berwick, to ship to Timor Leste’s St. John of God Hospital in Dili through Donations In Kind (DIK).
An excursion to this amazing facility should be added to our calendar.
- John Henderson for letting us know that Kristine, Kelly, Andrew & Ian Wakefield are featured in a video on Cardinia Council’s Facebook page, talking about the KFRWT and the award.
- Thank you to those four for appearing in the video, and to Kris especially, who stood in for the unwell John and spoke so articulately about the event and the award.
- Tina for working with Peter Dompietro to produce the video of our Club’s achievements over the last year to submit to the D9810 Breakout Session of the Multi-District Conference on the 1st of May.
- Friend of the Club, Yvette’s husband Peter Dompietro for generously giving us his expertise and time to produce said video.
- Roy for using his expertise to fix the Club’s mic and amplifier.
- The members supporting Gloria in her fundraising efforts for Rotarians Against Malaria - RAM who do amazing work to combat this disease.
- Ian A. for his technical expertise again on Tuesday night.
- And lastly to our intrepid Walkers, who are clocking up the 100 kilometres for 100 years of Rotary in Australia, and Fundraising too, in rain, hail and shine.
**This Tuesday night on the 20th of April, DGE Dr. Daryl Moran talks about his book “Empire’s Noble Son” – see above. Please feel free to invite friends and neighbours whom you think may be interested.
**Next week: on the 27th of April, it is Club Assembly again.
**The following week: on the 4th of May, our guest speaker is Barry Ryder who has had a very successful life running his own business at the same time as being a marathon runner, prison fellowship worker and drug rehabilitation worker.
Thank you to Gayle for the recommendation.
So much to look forward to!!
Come and join us at The Paradise for a great night!
Stay safe and stay Rotary Even Prouder.
Yours in Rotary,
Vicki.
