The club has had another busy month despite experiencing another lockdown.
Melina Caccetta has started as Manager at the Flemington Op Shop and brings a wealth of community experience and contacts. She previously managed the Kensington Markets at Kensington Town Hall and has also led fundraising for the Kensington City Soccer Club where her daughter plays.
Welcome Mel.
Edith, Lesley and I attended a ZOOM forum on the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor based on the work of Emma Cutting in South Melbourne. This project aims to develop unused land, nature strips and public land and plant out flowering plants to support birds, insects and bees with food. We will investigate how we can be involved in the Kensington and West Melbourne areas as this links to the work we have been doing with Moonee Valley Council along the Maribyrnong. The Heart Gardening Project
We are delighted to welcome Ann Nicoll as a new member. Ann is Lyn's sister, a lawyer based in Geelong, and has nominated to take on the Treasurer's role next year as Edith has asked to step down. Welcome Ann, we hope to see you at changeover.
President Elect Lesley has requested a BBQ date at Bunnings Maribyrnong for September/October. Please consider this service activity if you are able to - BBQs are great fun and fellowship as well as raising money for the club.
With the easing of COVID restrictions, our club changeover will go ahead as planned - fingers crossed - Sunday 20th June at the Mercure Rydges Hotel on Flemington Road North Melbourne.
Thank you to everyone who has RSVP'd. Please see below for payment details.
I do hope that all members and our friends can join us to celebrate the year.
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BOARD Meeting reports:
Despite COVID and lockdowns, the Op Shop and Fit4 Use Store have achieved strong income in the last 11 months. The loss of our Bunnings BBQs has been tough: members will remember that the establishment of the RC Flemington Kensington Foundation sees all Op Shop income directed there for charity donations.
Our thanks go to the volunteers, managers and Rotarians who have helped achieve this. Without volunteers our shops would not succeed.
The Board has voted to retain club membership fees at Rotary incurred costs only. Last year this was $253 and for the coming year it is expected fee will be $259 depending on the USD/AUD exchange rates at 1 July.
At recent Board meetings, the club has approved the following additional donations at the end of the Rotary year
The Rotary Foundation $2500
The OakTree Foundation $1500
WERN $1000
Donations in Kind $5000
The Board has also committed to fund an Australian Rotary Health PhD Scholarship focussing on mental health in children. This scholarship will be advertised by ARH on 21 June. Please share this opportunity with anyone you know who may be interested.
The Board has also agreed to support the newly established RIMERN: Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network. We will continue to support WERN and believe that with 2 Op Shops we have the capacity to direct excess stock to both. RIMERN will be based in Brunswick and support inner Melbourne.
The club has previously donated funds this year to:
Christ Church Essendon for refrigeration,
Kensington City Soccer Club for player uniforms and registration for disadvantaged women,
Shipping of 2 containers of hospital beds to Sri Lanka,
Support for shipment of sanitiser to Timor Leste
scholarships for students at local schools
Thank you to our volunteers:
May 17-23 was National Volunteer Week and in recognition
of their work, President Anne invited all our shop volunteers to lunch. They were all presented with a certificate acknowledging their contributions and thanked for their time and friendship supporting community.
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Guest Speaker Tommy Quick - riding for social inclusion and stroke awareness
With the reintroduction of COVID restrictions, our meeting last week was via ZOOM instead of at Quest. Our guest speaker was Tommy Quick, a neighbour of member Len Seddon.
Tommy is soon to embark on a 9000km ride to the 4 points of Australia on his recumbent bike in order to raise awareness and funds for stroke.
Tommy suffered a stroke at age 12 after suffering headaches and then spent 4 months in the Royal Children's Hospital learning ow to walk and talk again. He returned to school in year 8 and struggled to fit in.
He needed to find a purpose in life and through a disability camp as a leader began to challenge himself. This led to him waking the Kokoda Trail with his father, a journey which took not only determination, but courage and commitment. The photos he showed us of this trek were inspiring.
Tommy later enrolled at VU and undertook a PT course and wanted to go to the paralympics. He discovered recumbent bikes which gave him freedom and mobility and thus sparked this project. The 4Points journey 4points (the4points.org)
Containers #5 and #6 are due to arrive in Sri Lanka next week totalling over 80 playgrounds collected and distributed. The 2 containers bound for Nepal are just awaiting a shipping date and Shradd, on the ground in Kathmandu, is awaiting an end to their lockdown so she can travel to some of the remote schools to take photos and speak with the teachers.
RORP is now a Multi District project and is being managed by Bob Allardice at Rotary Nunawading with support from Peter Cribb, Don Shields at Geelong, Wayne Jenkins at Mt Martha and David Balshaw at Ivanhoe.
CLUB PRESIDENT 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.
Our meetings will continue to be a mix of face to face and ZOOM for the time being due to the ongoing concern about COVID.
The first meeting of the new Rotary year will be held on Wednesday 7 July at the Quest. At that meeting we will discuss the club direction for 2021-2022, review our strategic plan and identify members' ideas for service projects in the local and international community.
All members are asked to consider their areas of interest and willingness to participate in a sub committee on Community, Environment, International, Youth or Membership.
President Elect Lesley has nominated her board members:
Secretary - Lyn Borghouts, Treasurer - Ann Nicoll, Past President Anne Heyes - Environment & Fit4 Use oversight, Edith Chen - Community & Diversity and Equity, Shraddha Sharma - International, Cody Bettanin - Investments.
Volunteers are sought for:
Club Service/meeting setup
RIMERN/WERN coordination
to produce the club newsletter each month.
Thank you to The Quest for their support of our club. Quest provides high quality apartments for business and leisure travel in a great location close to the city. Owner Peter and business development manager John have been very helpful in negotiating our return.
They manage both the Quest we know as well as Quest Flemington Central on the corner of Ascot Vale Road.
It s that time of year when we need to confirm members for the new Rotary year. Any member who is not intending to continue their membership as from 1 July is asked to please advise Lesley asap so we are not charged by RI.
Rotary International President Elect
Shekhar Mehta
President-elect 2020-21
Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar
West Bengal, India
Shekhar Mehta is an accountant, and chair of the Skyline Group, a real estate development company he founded. He is also a director of Operation Eyesight Universal (India), a Canada-based organization.
He has been actively involved in disaster response and is a trustee of ShelterBox, UK. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, he helped build nearly 500 homes for families affected by the disaster.
He pioneered a program that has performed more than 1,500 life-changing heart surgeries in South Asia. He is also the architect of the TEACH Program, which promotes literacy throughout India and has reached thousands of schools.
A Rotary member since 1984, Mehta has served Rotary as director, member or chair of several committees, zone coordinator, training leader, member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, and district governor. He is also the chair of Rotary Foundation (India).
Mehta has received Rotary’s Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Awards.
His focus for 2021-2022 is Equality. Equality is a fundamental human right, and it's necessary for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Still, girls and women worldwide face inequities in areas including health and education and experience significant violence and disproportionate poverty.
District Governor Changeover: Sunday 27 June - a face to face event venue Hyatt Essendon Fields.
Rotary Club of West Footscray Changeover Dinner on Wednesday, 30 June, 2021, 6pm for 6.30pm start at the Medway Golf Club, 57 Omar Street, Maidstone.
davidpalmerksj@gmail.com
Rotary Club of North Melbourne Changeover Thursday 1 July at 7pm
Mercure Hotel swda@hotmail.com.au Rotary Club of Footscray Changeover, Friday 2nd July at 6pm.
Croatian Community Centre, 72 Whitehall Street, Footscray, 3011. $70 per person, includes three course meal and pre-dinner drinks. rodney.rotary@gmail.com
Gold Sponsor
Kensington Business Network
Silver Sponsor
City of Melbourne - Major Sponsor
Nelson Alexander
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Spouse Birthdays
Bill McCarthy
June 27
Join Date
Betty Kitchener
June 8, 2010
11 years
John Elston
June 29, 2020
1 year
Flemington Kensington Rotary are proud members of ESRAG.
was via ZOOM instead of at Quest. Our guest speaker was Tommy Quick, a neighbour of member Len Seddon.
