| We were delighted to have District Governor Kalma McLellan with us. Kalma presented her thoughts on "Why we Love Rotary". There were 58 people attending with Diana Biddle from the UK joining in, and visitors from other Rotary Clubs as well as past members of the Wahroonga Rotary Club. A busy meeting indeed! Kalma's presentation is included in a link here including a movie clip showing Rotary connecting with local and international Communities. |
|
President Doug together with DG Kalma, presented the Club's Youth Chair - Bob Howe - a Rotary International "Avenues of Service Award" for his long standing management of the Club's Youth activities - a certificate and a decorative clock.
PE Janelle Speight asked our members to recall some notable moments in their Rotary history and some accounts are included below in
"Read More" below
Peter Smith provided an update on the MOGO project-- a precis of which below.
Earlier this year Peter Smith organised a Wine Tasting fundraiser to support the Mogo Men’s Shed destroyed by bushfire. Everything was ready then Covid-19 struck and the event was postponed. However, 75 people had booked and made their donation so we ended up with $7,500. We also appealed for donations of surplus tools. With Rotary’s help the $7,500 is tax deductible and the Men’s Shed plans to buy a Jointer for straightening and squaring up timber.
New initiatives are under way to continue supporting this worthy cause.
In conjunction with the theme for the meeting, some members provided reflections on their Rotary experiences.
Doug Reid writes about his favourite experience
"I have been a member of the Club for over 11 years and so where does this put me on the club’s leader board of active members?
Nowhere! I am down at number 37 in the list of our members’ length of time in the club. With club membership growing to well over 60 folks, where else would you find a more committed group of longevity. The only sadness for me is that Gary Webb is missing from our list.
So, here is my favourite picture during my time with the club.
This is Bob Howe volunteering at the Bobbo showing a distinct lack of commitment. Bob is located out at the roundabout in Terrey Hills and as team leader, I have just asked Bob to sweep the roundabout. In the prior year’s Bobbo, someone had scattered tin tacks on the roundabout.
Needless to say, service was above self and Bob “sprang into action”."
Barry (James) Edmundson reflects on his joining Rotary
"I joined Rotary Turramurra Club after Ross Warden spoke to me in the Wahroonga shops. I used to be a Mason in South Africa but did not continue this membership after arriving in Australia. However after 18years in Rotary I have never regretted the move and found each year a rewarding experience. The humour and friendships are something I will never forget nor the incredible effort that so many people put into it."
Mentie Knowles writes about her visit to PNG - her experience led to a Rotary project
"Perhaps this story fits the topic for this week. I will leave it to your discretion.
The little girl being held by a gentleman in the photo below is Talitha. The photo was taken at Mt Hagen, PNG, when I visited there in 2006.
Talitha has cerebral palsy. At the time the photo was taken she was 5 years old.
When I met her, she was sitting in the base of an Esky in the yard of her family home. This is where she spent her days, because she was unable to walk and had become too heavy for her father or mother to carry her when they went out into the fields to work.
When I returned to Australia, I contacted the Rotary group in Western Australia that make wheelchairs. Normally they would not supply a single chair, but this time they did. The chair (all boxed up) was transported to Sydney courtesy of a transport company that supports Rotary (I think it was Toll, but it’s a long time ago and I can’t be sure). The chair was then flown to Port Moresby. How to get the chair from Port Moresby to Mt Hagen? As chance would have it, someone who knew the story of this little girl and my endeavour to get her a wheelchair was flying from Port Moresby to Mt Hagen and put it on the plane as their luggage.
The next thing I know I hear that the chair has arrived, together with a crocheted rug that accompanies each chair, and there is one very happy Talitha who is now much more mobile thanks to the combined efforts of Rotary, its partners, and its friends.
The out-of-pocket cost of this endeavour was just $300, borne by my local Rotary club. Such a small price to improve the life and happiness of a little girl and her family."
Rob Giacometti writes of his early years joining Rotary in Malaysia.
"I joined the Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur in 1970. This was nearly 50 years ago when I was in my mid thirty’s. This was a great decision and I am still enjoying Rotary. I was also a member of the Rotary Club of North Sydney from the late 70’s to 1985 when I joined the Rotary Club of Wahroonga.
I was invited to join the Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur by Peter McKenzie, the assistant Australian Trade Commissioner. It was a club of about 60 members with membership comprising Malays, Chinese, Indians and Expats like myself. Meetings were held at lunch time on Tuesdays at the Merlin Hotel. It was great to be a member and get to know all the interesting members.
As a club we did all the regular Rotary things. I recall Joan and I were the first host family for an exchange student from USA. She was 18 going on 25 and announced on arrival she was vegetarian. We had no idea what it really meant but somehow battled through. It was not the best exchange but no more about that.
Another interesting event was our club being hosted by the Russian Embassy for dinner. The embassy was quite large with a long entrance driveway. As we went in and out there were many Russians behind trees to keep an eye on us. They had a large embassy staff and we thought more were spies than diplomats.
Spying was obviously popular in those days as an American member of our club was sent home in 24 hours as he was CIA. Also we learned years later that another member worked for ASIO as well as his regular job.
We went to Malaysia for nearly 4 years in late 1969. This was about 6 months after the riots earlier that year. My job was to manage a small company making carpet and underfelt. This was the time when the hotel boom started in Singapore and Malaysia and were successful in providing carpets to major hotels like the Hilton and Shangri La as well as Mosques & palaces.
Joan had 3 young children to look after but still had time to play a lot of tennis.Timah our amah had 13 children. It was an interesting time with many memories. My son Cameron, was in the same class as the Agong’s daughter and went to the palace for her birthday. I had the privilege of meeting and chatting briefly to Princess Anne.
Kuala Lumpur in those days was a small city of about 500,000 people. Very different from the thriving 2 million of today. My office was in Batu Rd, later changed to Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and the factory was about 20 minutes drive from the city in Old Kuchai Rd."
John Cameron reflected on his Birmingham International Rotary Convention visit ( June 2009) and the people he met.
