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Op Shop reopens 2021

The Op Shop will re-open for business in 2021 on Wednesday January 6th. Strict COVID safe protocols will be in place,

No mask, no entry. Sanitise your hands and record details on entry please.

There are ongoing opportunities for volunteers to assist Tuesday to Sunday: all day, half a day, a few hours, we would love to see you.

January is Vocational Service Month

January is Vocational Service month on Rotary’s calendar. Read about this important Avenue of Service.

Hospital Beds to Sri Lanka

Delighted to hear of the arrival and handover of the container of hospital beds and mattresses to assist in Sri Lanka. Many thanks to Laurie Fisher at donations in Kind, the Rotary Colombo and Nihal De Run of the BEAP Foundation for making this happen.

State Minister of Health Dr. Mrs. Sudarshani Fernandopulle officially accepted the beds at the Ministry of Health warehouse. During her short speech she thanked Rotary for all the assistance given to support the Sri Lanka Government to treat the Covid-19 affected patients. She specially mentioned our Rotary Club as well as Colombo. She is pictured with PDG Senake Amerasinghe and President Nithi Murugesu.

Congratulations Olga Hilton

Congr

atulations to Olga Hilton, widow of our PDG and Past President Vance on
becoming a great grandmother.
Her granddaughter Lauren gave birth to a daughter Zali in Sydney in December.
Lauren is the daughter of Olga's daughter Tracey.

Pictured are 4 generations of beautiful girls.

Seasons Greetings

Op Shop featured with Flemington Traders

Jason Watts from Nelson Alexander interviewed President Anne Heyes at the Op Shop last week. See the video here.

Thank you to Bendigo Bank - Flemington Community Bank

Thank you too the Flemington Branch of the Bendigo Community Bank who have confirmed Gold Sponsorship for the 2021 Art Show.

The Bendigo Bank has supported the Rotary Club of Flemington Kensington for many years and has been a sponsor at the 2 past Art Shows. We look forward to continuing our long relationship with them as our bankers and partners in community events.

Situated at 242 Union Road,Ascot Vale, Manager Vijay and staff are able to help with all your banking needs. Did you know that the Bendigo Bank gives back 80% of their profits to the local community including scholarships for students entering tertiary studies?

Hospital Beds to Sri Lanka

Following an urgent request from the Rotary Club of C

olombo, and the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health, International Chair Peter Cribb leapt into action. With support from the BEAP Foundation and our club, 2 containers of hospital beds were shipped to Colombo with a further container to leave in January.

Thank you to Laurie Fisher, Bob Glindeman and the extraordinatory tream at Donations in Kind, and to Nihal De Run and the BEAP Foundation for their donation.

PDG Senake Ameresinghe and President Nithi Murugesu coordinated delivery in Colombo and sent through some photos of the ceremonial handover.

Craig Ondarchie MLC on RORP

Mr ONDARCHIE (Northern Metropolitan) (10:11):
As members know, I have a profound love of two countries on this globe: this country of Australia and the one of my heritage, Sri Lanka. I am pleased to congratulate, therefore, the Rotary club for their work on what is called the Rotary Overseas Recycled Playgrounds project. It all started with the Rotary Club of Flemington Kensington in my electorate of Northern Metropolitan Region, which has been fantastic in finding playgrounds that are being dismantled by municipalities or schools, recycling them, cleaning them up, refitting them and then putting them in containers and transporting them over to Sri Lanka, where the kids can have some playgrounds.

RORP presses the play button again

It's a go!

Thanks to Wayne Jenkins from Pensinsula RORP and John Arena from Arena Gardens who have this week delivered stored playgrounds to Donations in Kind.
Through lockdown, and the inability to transport to DiK, our supporters have collected and stored equipment for us. Now it has been delivered and will be loaded into the container and shipped within a fortnight. We are exceedingly grateful to John and Wayne and the councils and contractors who have stepped up to assist with storage and collection.

We may have be experiencing UNPRECEDENTED TIMES but this has been an UNPRECENDENT EFFORT by so many.

The container will be loaded this week by a team lead by Sam Nicol and a team from RC Yarraville.

Roses to say Thank You

The Victoria Racing Club asked for our assistance to deliver their roses to local community organisations.

What a lovely gesture to say Thank You to those tireless groups of people who have who have worked to support community during COVID.

Thanks to Daniel and Jasmine at the VRC for this opportunity.

Following each of the Melbourne Cup Carnival race days, gardeners have cut and pruned the magnificent roses at Flemington Racecourse and with assistance from VRC staff and Rotarians, these have been donated to identified organisations.

Thank you to Anne Heyes, Dulcie Cawsey, Carolina Sevcikova, Jessica, Betty Kitchener and Edith Chen for their help so far in delivering to Gregory Lodge, Farnham Street, Wingate Avenue, Royal Freemasons, The Venny, Kensington Neighbourhood House, Flemington Community Centre, Unison Housing and more.

Guest Speaker Betty Kitchener AM

Betty co-developed the Mental Health First Aid Program with her husband Professor Tony Jorm, and was CEO until 2016.

She has qualifications and experience as a schoolteacher, a counsellor and a registered nurse. She has a Research Masters Degree in Nursing, a Bachelor Degree in Psychology and post graduate qualifications in counselling. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Deakin University in Victoria. She was awarded an OAM in 2008 and an AM in 2015 for her work in Mental Health.
Betty was also listed as one of Australia's 100 Women of Influence in 2008 and 2014, and was listed on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2011.

Research indicates that 1 in 5 people over the age of 16 have a diagnosable mental health illness.

Flemington Kensington Walk for Polio

Posted by Anne Heyes

Join President Anne and the members to walk and fundraise for End Polio Now. We are ..... this close.

The Flemington Kensington team are well on the way! Please donate now at the link below.

https://www.rotarywalkwithus.org/fundraisers/FlemingtonKensington/walk-with-us

https://www.rotarywalkwithus.org/

2021 Arts Show

Planning for the 2021 Arts Show is well underway with Gallery 247 about to go live. https://www.gallery247.com.au/

Planned for Kensington Town Hall over the weekend of March 25-28, we are now seeking sponsors to support the Art Show. Sponsorship allows us to award significant prizes to the winning artists, drawing quality as well as sufficient quantity to provide joy to visitors.

We understand that COVID has caused difficulties for many businesses but hope that with the end in sight, our supporters will find themselves in a better financial position by the end of the year.

Sponsorship provides you with an opportunity to promote your business and community involvement across a very wide audience as listed on Gallery247, the otary Club of Flemington Kensington website, as well as all our publicity and communications.

There are 3 levels of sponsorship currently on offer. Please consider your capacity to support and celebrate community in March 2021.

Badulla Playground

The playground at the Badulla school was formally opened on September 21st. This playground was collected from Ocean Grove and dispatched in Container #2.

Badulla is located in the southeast of Kandy, almost encircled by the Badulu Oya River, and is about 2,230 ft above sea level and is surrounded by tea plantations..

Badulla is 230km east of Columbo and DGN Pudubu De Zoysa and President RC Colombo Nithi Murugesu travelled 6 hours for the ceremony.

Flemington Kensington receives Rotary International President's Gold Citation

Past District Governor Grant Hocking attended the club's meeting on September 17th to present this citation to Past President Lesley and members.

The Rotary Citation recognizes Rotary clubs that support Rotary strategic priorities by completing certain activities. The Rotary Citation is a significant award that honours clubs whose leaders and members show a commitment to success. Clubs that achieve the goals required to earn the Rotary Citation are strengthening Rotary and shaping our future.

For the 2019-2020 year, clubs could also receive the Rotary Citation with Distinction when they achieve the Rotary Citation plus one to three additional goals under the headings; Connect leaders, connect families, connect professionally, and connect community.

Congratulations Led Seddon

Len Seddon joined the Rotary Club of Flemington on September 1st 1990. He had just come back from working in the country and was invited to join

Together with his wife Audrey, Len was an active participant in every event; BBQs, gate duty at the football, Pooches in the Park, the Book Sale, social events, the Op Shop, Whatever activity was on, Len was part of it.

Congratulations Jennifer Jones, RI President Nominee 2022-2023

Jennifer E. Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, has been nominated to become Rotary International’s President for 2022-23, a groundbreaking selection that will make her the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 115-year history. Jennifer will officially become president-nominee on 1 October if no other candidates challenge her. Jennifer says she sees Rotary’s Action Plan as a catalyst for increasing Rotary’s impact.

'As we reflect upon our new strategic priorities, we could have never envisioned that our ability to adapt would become our North Star during what is inarguably the most profound time in recent history,' Jones said in her vision statement. 'Silver linings rise out of the most challenging circumstances. Using metric-driven goals, I will harness this historic landscape to innovate, educate, and communicate opportunities that reflect today’s reality.'

As the first woman to be nominated to be president, she understands how important it is to follow through on Rotary’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statement. 'I believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion … begins at the top and for us to realize growth in female membership and members under the age of forty — these demographics need to see their own reflection in leadership,' she said. 'I will champion double-digit growth in both categories while never losing sight of our entire family.'

ESRAG ANZPI

The ANZPI Chapter of ESRAG met again today with over 30 attendees from Australia and New Zealand.

Planning for project support, advice, templates and communication are underway. Work in District 9800 is being led by Fabienne Nichola RC Camberwell, John McCaskill RC Canterbury, David Dippie RC Keilor and Rob Anderson RC Canterbury.

Check out the draft website at https://www.staging4.esraganzpi.org/

There is no Planet B

The Bosin Twins

The Bosin twins today

21 years ago co-joined twins were born to Magdalene, from a small island near Bougainville Papua New Guinea, which was, at that time,

war-torn. A difficult birth meant that half way through the delivery, Magdalene, was transferred to a larger island over 400 meters by boat, and then a power failure during the caesarean operation forced the completion of the delivery under moonlight! The twins were transported to Port Moresby the following day.

They became the patients who laid the foundation for what has become ROMAC - Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children.

Eaustina and Eusthocia were flown to Melbourne by ROMAC where they were successfully separated at the Melbourne Children's Hospital.

Another ROMAC success story!

Eusthocia and Eaustina

Rotary's 7th area of Focus announced

The Rotary Foundation Trustees and Rotary International Board of Directors have both unanimously approved adding a new area of focus: supporting the environment.

Supporting the environment becomes Rotary's seventh area of focus, categories of service activities supported by global grants.

It joins peacebuilding and conflict prevention; disease prevention and treatment; water, sanitation, and hygiene; maternal and child health; basic education and literacy; and community economic development.

Sewing Machines for Sri Lanka

International Women's Day in Negombo Sri Lanka this year was marked by an extra special event thanks to the Rotary Club of Negombo.

Inspired by Mudara Weerasinghe, a member of the Rotary Club of Negombo and daughter of the District Governor Elect Ajith Weerasinghe, the first ever celebration and luncheonwith a Women's Empowerment Seminar, guest speakers and a trade fair for IWD was held on March 8th in Negombo. A very special guest, Mrs World, Caroline Jurie, a former a Sri Lankan actress and mother of one made presentations.

The Rotary Club of Flemington Kensington contributed to the unique event by funding the purchase of industrial sewing machines presented to several deserving women. These machines will enable the recipients to earn an income and support their families.

Our Partners

Flemington Kensington Rotary is proud to partner with a number of organisations in our surrounding suburbs. We work with a number of not for profits, councils and businesses to share and support the work with local residents and people in need.

Amongst our supporters are Bendigo Bank Ascot Vale, Bunnings, Flemington Cycles, Flemington Traders, Gregory Lodge, Moonee Valley Council, Moonee Valley Racing Club, Nelson Alexander, One Good Street, Pepper Café, the Victoria Racing Club.

Rotary Club of Flemington Kensington Foundation

Posted by Lesley McCarthy on Oct 16, 2019

The Rotary Club of Flemington Kensington has established a foundation to manage and disburse funds raised through their two Opportunity Shops. This foundation is a registered company and has received registration as a charity from the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission effective 26 September 2019.

The Trustees for the Foundation are: Lesley McCarthy, Peter Donnellan and Lyn Borghouts.

All requests for funding/support from the foundation must be submitted in writing through a member of the Rotary Club of Flemington Kensington and will be considered at a monthly meeting. Criteria for support are those identified by the ACNC for benevolent need. The Rotary Club of Flemington Kensington Foundation also requires all project claims to adhere to the goals and areas of focus identified by Rotary International.

Ascot Vale West Primary School Sensory Garden

Posted by Lesley McCarthy on Sep 07, 2019

Today we held the first working bee at Ascot Vale West Primary School.

The plan is to create a sensory garden to surround the new Buddy Bench,
and create an enjoyable space for children to sit, chat and enjoy the fragrances.

This project has been supported by a Rotary District 9800 Foundation Grant.

The end result looks amazing.

photoalbums/ascot-vale-west-ps-garden

New Playground installed at Ampara

Posted by Peter Cribb on Aug 06, 2019

It is with immense delight we were advised that the first playground from the recent container to Sri Lanka has been installed and officially unveiled today. This playground has been placed at a children's play area in Ampara, about 360 km east of Columbo.

The formal ceremony was conducted by President Dr. Rohana Dayaratne of the Rotary Club of Ampara in the presence of President Sarav Soundar of the Rotary Club of Columbo, Past District Governor Senake Ameresinghe and PP Pubudu De Zoysa Chairman of District 3220 projects as well as Urban Council dignitaries and a large number of Rotarians.

This playground was extracted from the Quantin Binnah park in Werribee.

Pictured at far left is Past District Governor Senake Ameresinghe and far right Past President Pubudu De Zoysa.