Inspirational Rotarian Libby Bleakley, from Blackheath Rotary was guest speaker this week. Libby shared part of her story about creating the Sentru Formasaun Ba Juventude no Comunidade - Centre of Learning for Youth & Community, Timor-Leste. Libby has an incredible background and is an extraordinary person.
Many of you expressed an interest in her book. If you would like to purchase a copy of Libby's book please go to - On a Mission (orders collected by Rob Ferguson must be placed by 25th September). Many thanks Libby for your talk.
The International Committee’s Trivia night is not far away now! Saturday 26th September is the date. I know I am looking forward to the evening! Anyone who can’t attend but would like to make a donation click here https://www.trybooking.com/book/sessions?eid=645566.
Thanks to John Collins who will be the MC for the evening and also thanks to Doug Reid, Stuart Armstrong and Simon Clegg who will be looking after the technical running of the online Trivia. Jim Fulton will be standing in for Anne as the Chair of the International Committee whilst she is on leave.
There is also a planned online Wine auction to support the Trivia night which will launch on Monday 21st Sept, at 6.00am and close on Sunday after the Trivia evening. These wines are top quality wines from Petersons Winery and Glandore Estate kindly donated. There are only 5 auction packs available, two bottles in each. An offer that will be snapped up fast. To bid on the auction please click here: https://www.32auctions.com/WRINT
As you know the Rotary 100 Years (R100) celebration is coming up in 2021 (April) and we are busy talking to communities about projects for the centenary. Over the last two weeks a few of us from the Club have met with Ku-ring-gai Council and others to discuss a community project in Turramurra. This project aims to be launched in 2021 and we will be looking for volunteers. For more information on this exciting news please read Phillip Comfort’s report further on and see photos.
Greg Starr, Peter Kirkwood and myself met in Wahroonga after Wednesday’s meeting to discuss possibilities of another R100 community project in the area and to see what we can do to refurbish the Rotary Noticeboard which is located in a prime location.
On Friday I attended the North Ryde Rotary Club breakfast meeting on Zoom. Guest speaker was Rev. Bill Crews PHF and he spoke about the work he has done and is continuing to do with the Exodus Foundation with disadvantage people especially the homeless youth.
This coming week we are looking forward to hearing from Bob Howe and his Youth Committee team. Lots of exciting news from Youth about a raffle and auctions, stay tuned as all will be revealed.
Have a good week and stay well and safe. See you at the next meeting!
Our 25th Zoom meeting was a total inspiration thanks to the opportunity it gave us all to meet Libby Bleakley, who represents the best of Australia in so many ways: in her humour, her straightforwardness, her courage and passion for justice and most strikingly, I thought, in her compassionate acceptance of the human condition.
Libby is a member of the Blackheath Rotary Club which has taken on her Learning Centre in Timor-Leste as their RAWCS project. The Centre includes a school for teaching English, a Sewing Centre which enables its employees to make a living through commercial sewing and a Plus Fitness Gymnasium. It sounds bland enough, saying it like that, but listening to Libby it became apparent that this project is an extension of Libby’s peace-keeping mission in life, expressed through the lives and conditions of the East Timorese people with whom she spends a third or more of her days.
Interestingly, Libby chose to search for land for her project in one of the most troubled regions of the country and can claim that since the Centre opened in 2016 there has not been a single machete attack in their area. Children flock to the school, fibbing about their age in order to qualify, coming early and staying late. The Sewing Centre has ‘pivoted’, as we like to say in COVID days, from making aprons and bags to sewing protective masks and the income has empowered the women so greatly that one staff member has been able to save enough to build her own home.
Students keen to learn
A budding teacher in years to come
Bento, H.E Xanana Gusmao and Centre Manager Dede da Costa
The Gymnasium is one of the best in Timor-Leste and has a compelling drawcard in that membership is free. The catch is that any applicant for membership must be interviewed for their suitability and they must be prepared to contribute by helping with cleaning and maintenance of the gym. Its clientele is drawn from the rival outlawed gangs of the region who specialise in stand-over, drug trading and prostitution but they leave their hostility behind when they enter the Gym where the key word is Respect and machetes, knives and other weapons are banned.
Instead they focus on bodybuilding and beating their rivals in weightlifting and muscle expanding contests. They have even formed a gang to clean up Dili, a bit of news that troubled Libby until she found out that their target was actual refuse, not humans, inspired as they have been by pride of ownership in their Gymnasium and Centre.
Libby told many heart-warming stories, especially about the power of the Days for Girls kits that the Sewing Centre also make.
Many of us will take up Rob Ferguson’s offer to supply copies of Libby’s book, On A Mission, for $30 which will go towards meeting the $40,000 annual cost of supporting the Centre.
Another way of helping is to buy coffee from Roasters with Altitude, a business that Libby operates to help fund the Centre. You can find them each Saturday at Carriageworks Market, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015.
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The other highlights of the meeting were seeing Banjo Patterson’s desk, which Sue Owen has been legally working on for the past several decades and gaining access to the McWhannell Towers crypt where lie the arcane secrets of our Club. Also unforgettable was the meeting opener when acting Sergeant John Collins outed himself as a Life of Brian fanatic and technophile Simon digitally enabled us to view-him-viewing-the-promo of the film for several tantalizing moments.
Members were very concerned to hear of Sergeant Anne’s ill-health and unite in wishing her a fast and complete recovery. Sincere good wishes also to Ron who is in recovery mode and George who sadly isn’t.
Our meeting this week will be given over to the Youth committee to brief the Club on several fundraising initiatives that are underway to fund the Youth Activities in the absence of funding that would normally be generated from the Novus Foundation Gala Dinner. A number of online activities are planned and some face to face activity which will be welcomed.
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A new member induction will also be undertaken for
Anshu Saxena
Anshu is a local resident where she lives with her husband and young family and her interests are
painting, photography, poetry reading, gardening, the environment and wildlife.
Welcome to Wahroonga Rotary Anshu.
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An update on the details for the upcoming Trivia night will also be explained by the organising team
Well! It’s been a bit of strange year for all of us and we know the fundraising efforts of all clubs and charities have been terribly impacted, as everyone tries to predict the future.
This horrid Pandemic has certainly brought out the 'resilience and creativity' in some people and I think we all want to add value to our community in some small way.
So, I decided to approach some of the more experienced sewers in the group and asked them if they would like to help me make 200 face masks.
Believe me, it was no mean task, when you consider making a medical grade face mask takes about 30 mins and that’s not including cutting 6 pieces of fabric for each mask.
But, with the help from Jan Cameron, Margaret Broadhead, Joan Giacometti, Jo-Anne Moffat, Ann Davison and a great friend of Joyce Collins, Cynthia Cohen supporting, we are on our way to completing the task in readiness to sell them ALL on
We will have a table outside the Pottery Green Bakery on Eastern Road, Turramurra and another in Wahroonga village, opposite the zebra crossing. We do need volunteers for selling the masks please, so if you have a couple of hours spare on the Saturday between 9am - 3pm I would really appreciate your support.
Once again, a huge thank you to all the beautiful women who helped me create these masks and I’m really looking forward to having lots of fun selling them to the community. We’re hoping to raise $3,000 for the Youth Committee.
We still have room for more teams! If you haven’t registered, please do so by Wednesday 23rd September, because we will have a Zoom briefing for team captains on Thursday. There are still a couple of teams which consist of only one or two people. If you have not got your whole team registered, please get them registered as soon as possible. If you cannot round up enough people to join you, then try to join another team. If you contact me, I can tell you which teams still have vacancies.
The quiz should be great fun, but all of the new technology will almost certainly create some issues on the night. It will be a fun journey to share together!
PLEASE NOTE: You can have up to 8 people in a team, and they can either be in one place, or distributed among two or more locations. Team members can all book in together, or separately, but please tell us the name of your team captain in the space provided. We will send you a follow-up email to provide extra information about the Zoom sessions.
I was present last Thursday afternoon with three other Rotarians, Peter Smith, Stuart Armstrong and Doug Reid at the site meeting of a proposed Rotary project.
Also present were representatives of Ku-ring-gai Council, Meals on Wheels and the Hornsby/Ku-ring-gai Community Transport.
This project will be in consultation and co-operation with the land owner Ku-ring-gai Council. The land faces Gilroy Road, Turramurra, just behind the Turramurra shops. It is between Gilroy Road and the old house converted to the 'Centre for Seniors' and was an old tennis/croquet lawn and it is now rarely used. The project is for a Community Garden and outside recreation area.
After about 30 minutes of discussions I asked for a hands up vote, to all 17 of us present, if they were in favour of the project. It was 100% in favour vote. That might be a first... So a letter will be sent from our Club to Council giving, in broad terms, our vision for the project.
We are hoping we can make it a 100 Anniversary Year Rotary Project.
An entertaining first day of the Zone 8 Conference was held on Saturday the 19th September with the International President - Holger Knaak- leading the way.
There were in excess of 800 people joining the livestream - a fantastic response -including a few Wahroonga Rotarians
A challenging address by past RI Director Stuart Heal laid out a pathway for CHANGE in Rotary to meet the challenges of future generations, identifying structural change needed along with the need to make Rotary more relevant and simpler.
Community engagement NOT attendance being the key indicator of success.
A wonderfully passionate presentation was also made by Chair 2020 - 2021 Rotaract Australia, Samantha Fewster
Podcasts of the 2 day proceeding will be available - links will be provided when they come to hand.
Ian Stuart from Turramurra Rotary Club is the presenter of a FM Radio programme on our local station - 2HHH 100.1 - every Friday at 4 pm.
Podcasts of each week's programme can be found on the Rotary Matters facebook page soon after the programme's timeslot.
See below an explanation of Friday's programme 18th September plus a link to the programme for your enjoyment. Click on "Read More" below.
This week we meet Carmel Robinson from Castle Hill Rotary Club - and hear about Books in Homes providing free books to remote and disadvantaged communities and an update on the Club's Beirut Project.