This past fortnight has been very busy for us with the District Conference, the Rotary 100 Tree Planting Day and our first meeting back at the Quest. Thank you to all members for their support and participation.
At this week's meeting we were pleased to welcome Ching Chan and Miriam Feldsher-Berkovich together with student Flora from Mount Alexander College. We also welcome Tony McManus who helped out on tree planting day.
I was delighted to present Peter Cribb with the District Recognition for RORP.
At our last meeting at Fresh Prince Cafe in Kensington
we celebrated Rotary's 100 years Down Under. Thanks to Carolina for organising the birthday cake.
We have finally secured a venue and date for the Club Changeover: thank you Josie Magri.
Sunday 20th June at the Mercure Rydges Hotel on Flemington Road North Melbourne.
See the details below.
I do hope that all members and our friends can join us to celebrate the year.
District Conference Saturday 1st May at the Hyatt, Essendon Fields
Lesley and I attended in person and Lyn attended online. It was an excellent presentation with inspiring guest speakers including Zone 8 Director PDG Jesse Harman and RI President Elect Jennifer Jones.
Our club was awarded a District Recognition under the category Environment for the Rotary Overseas Recycled Playgrounds Project. Congratulations to Peter Cribb, Lyn Borghouts, Sam Nicol, Shraddha Sharma and the multi district RORP team on the amazing work.
The other environment award was to Bendigo South whose members have collected native plant seed from the bushfire areas around Bairnsdale, and are growing them to be replanted later this year. This was collected by our friend Anne Peace on behalf of the club.
Rotary 100 Tree Planting and Habitat Development at Fairbairn Park
Thank you to Len Seddon, Jon Temby, Anne & John Heyes, Betty Kitchener, Lesley McCarthy, Nicole Marshall with Julia & Nat, Tony McManus, Tony Jorm and Parisa from Carlton Rotary, Paul & Lee MacDougall and boys, David & Erica McCarthy & Buster, Ching Chan, her mother I Lan and Nick from MAC, Edith Chen and Jessica.
The BBQ was run by Keilor East Rotarians Gerard Mahoney, Phil O'Brien, Paul Perrottet and friends and was a fitting end to the morning.
During the morning we planted 100 trees and 380 understorey and groundcover plants. Council had already planted 10, 1.5 metre river red gums and banksias and placed the stakes ready for us.
We were joined by Councillors Katrina Hodgson, Rose Iser, Samantha Byrne and members of the Moonee Valley Conservation Group as well as large number of Indian Environmental members who made the planting much quicker.
Sincere thanks to Milly Burke, Aron, Charlie and Ruth from MVCC who gave up their Sunday to work with us.
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Guest Speaker David Dippie, Rotary Keilor - Environment and Sustainability
David is a member of the District 9800 Environment Committee
and is also one of the executive of the Environment and Sustainability Rotary Action Group covering Australia, New Zealand & the Pacific Islands. Both these roles involve him using his skills and expertise to help clubs participate in environmental projects.
David complimented our club on the work we have done: the 2 Op Shops which recycle goods to the community, our membership of Donations in Kind which supports the repurposing of hospital, medical and educational equipment to disadvantaged overseas countries, our school garden projects and our latest effort, the Tree Planting and Habitat Development at Fairbairn Park.
David participated in the tree planting day.
ESRAG encourages clubs to do what they can, to start small and to celebrate and publish their stories. There are a number of possible projects listed on the ESRAGANZPI website which any club is invited to replicate. Some of them have grown from industry partnerships and support communities on south Pacific islands with solar for light and power; others involve a regular rubbish clean up or tree planting exercise.
Partnerships such as the one we now have with Moonee Valley Council enable greater impact in any effort and David encouraged us to also contact VINC who supplied our plants, the local conservation and environment groups and schools.
David had also prepared some posters and placemats showing some of our work and promoting the environment as Rotary's 7th area of focus with funding available through the Foundation as from 1st July.
Thank you David.
The 2 containers destined for Nepal are almost complete. It is hoped they will ship within the next 2 weeks.
Shradd is currently in lockdown in Nepal with family and has reported that the COVID situation in Nepal is dire. We have requested assistance from Donations in Kind, however they are under great demand and the timeline for any support is long. Our thoughts are with Shradd, Samira and family as they manage their health and safety in this pandemic.
RORP is now a Multi District Project and is currently managed by Bob Allardice from Rotary Nunawading. bob.allardice@gmail.com
CLUB CHANGEOVER:
Join us to celebrate President Anne Heyes year of COVID and Rotary Opens Opportunities and handover to Lesley McCarthy for Serve to Change Lives.
Sunday 20th June 12.30 to 3.30pm
The Hotham Room, Mercure Rydges Hotel, corner Flemington Road and Harker Streets, North Melbourne.
$45pp for a 2 course meal, water, tea and coffee.
Drinks at bar prices.
Dulcie celebrated her birthday on May 4th with a number of special events. She had a lovely afternoon ea with friends and family on Saturday organised by son Paul and daughter in law Susan and then received flowers, gifts and lunch with friends.
Dulcie has been a major supporter of Geoff and the club over many, many years and for several years managed the op Shop. She is a keen bowler and bowls at Maribyrnong Park Bowling and croquet club where we have had several social events. She and Geoff were original organisers of Maribyrnong PROBUS.
Join the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association annual conference
On 19 June, the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association will host a virtual 24-hour program, the Global Peace Conference: Weaving a Shared Future Together. The conference will include online regional programming from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. This year’s conference will be the largest alumni-led peace conference to date and will have a truly global reach!
COMING EVENTS:
MOONEE VALLEY ART SHOW organised by the Rotary Clubs of Essendon and Keilor East will run over the weekend of May 14-16.
St Columbans Mission, "North Park Mansion", 69 Woodland Street, Essendon
Our next meeting on 19th May will be a ZOOM meeting where our guest speaker will be Past District Governor and Zone 8 Director Jesse Harman from Rotary Club of Wendouree Breakfast in District 9780
District Assembly - Saturday 22nd May, 9.30-11.30 by ZOOM
Cafe in Kensington
