President Marcus’s Announcement:

Behind the Badge

• Chris attempted to bribe the president with a bag of Easter eggs so that the questions would not be too difficult.
• At the market on Saturday, Chris was disappointed that she didn’t get to put the bunny suit on but did so later that day.
• was born in 1956 in Newcastle New South Wales.
• has one brother who still resides in Newcastle.
• went to school there leaving after year 10 to attend the Agricultural College in the Hunter Valley where she is studied agronomy, mechanics and biology.
• her ambition was to be a farmer and she wanted to work at CSIRO and grow things.
• favourite Hunter Valley winery is Calais Estate who do an amazing red.
• first job was on a dairy farm milking cows. She had to get up at 5 am.
• stayed in the job for two years.
• does not like horses and thinks they are scary.
• after leaving the farm she worked at a preschool in Newcastle and stayed there for about a year.
• met her first husband when aged 16.
• had three children who are now aged 43, 41 and 36.
• moved to Melbourne 30 years ago.
• worked for a doctor.
• got divorced, remarried and had two more children who are 27 and 25.
• children no longer live at home.
• works mostly doing admin and accounts and as Sangeeta would know, it’s not very exciting.
• works for Ecodynamics in Bayswater and describes herself as methodical.
• moved to Monbulk as she always wanted a property that was not in the ‘burbs, where she could garden her heart out and get to know her neighbours.
• has really good neighbours and finds Monbulk the best place to live.

• came to the Emerald market and found the people a lot friendlier here.

• the brilliant people at Emerald Rotary.

• favourite sausage? - the English sausage
• favourite barbecue? - the one on her deck.
• Hobbies are music, dancing and gardening.
• played tennis and squash when younger.
• Travel - Chris is going to Sydney this weekend and to Bali in May with her new friend who happens to be English.
• bought a campervan named Dora last August and it has broken down twice.
• favourite team is Carlton as it is compulsory to barrack for a football team in Victoria.
• best concert attended is Ed Sheeran’s followed by Paul McCartney’s.
• going to Mundy Mundy in Broken Hill soon.
• hasn’t travelled a great deal as yet, but 10 years ago she went to Malaysia with her children for three weeks and they had a ball.

Committee Reports:

• Thank you to everybody who attended last Saturday’s market.
• The set-up went excellently under blue skies but rain quickly followed so pack-up started at midday.
• Payment for the 8 stallholders was waived given the weather.
• Thanks to Anne Wheeler and Gloria, a dozen new stallholders have been booked for May.
• Emma tweaked the email Catherine sends out to stallholders so this now gives us up to 30 stallholders, a wonderful outcome.

• The bike ride was 590 km.
• John rode a bit more than 200 km. because the Thursday before, he caught a heavy cold.
• He rode from Bendigo to Maryborough via Maldon to Newstead and then back to Maldon.
• Day two which was the fifth day of the actual ride, took him to Rochester where they had lunch.
• There was a heavy black cloud but fortunately it kept moving out of the way.
• The rest of the riders decided a coffee at Elmore was a far more attractive proposition
• John rode 70 km. that day.
• The last day was Bendigo to Murchison to Lake Nagambie where the ride finished.
• John went back to Bendigo to pick up his car.
• Three days in the saddle was okay.
• Thanked everyone who agreed to sponsor him.
• Has raised $2.5K.
• Over the years John has raised up to $35,000 for Australian Rotary Health through the ride.
• 28 riders and 10 drivers took part.

• RYDA stands for Rotary Youth Driver Awareness.
• Program was presented to the Year 11 Emerald Secondary College students on Tuesday, 4 April.
• Rotarians volunteering on the day were Lyn, Shalini, Carol and Vicki.
• About 30 students in each group.
• It was sensational!
• RYDA cost us $800 and the students put in $10 each.
• Emerald Secondary College are so grateful we are involved with all of the projects.
• We’re involved with their Breakfast Club.
• We have finally made a connection with Emerald secondary College and we are there to help.

• RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Award.
• Goes for a week and it is for 18 to 30 year-olds.
• Once completing the course, some become Rylarians, young people who run the leadership course for other young people.
• We paid for one student Ebony, which cost us $1,250
• Ebony will attend at Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula from 26th June to 1st July.
• Do you know a young person who could benefit from doing RYLA?
• If so, the Monbulk or Belgrave Club could pay for them.
• At Emerald Secondary College we are also supporting their music program.
• We are paying for two Year 10 students to learn the guitar.
• It’s costing us $100 a term over three terms which comes to $600.
• The invoices will read “paid by the Rotary Club of Emerald”.
• The school is really happy about advertising Rotary so it’s a win-win for us.
• They have acquired a drum set which needs to be refurbished at a cost of $1,000 which we will pay for.
• It will read that the kit was donated by the Rotary Club of Emerald and District.
• A Gaga pit is an enclosed area for a ball game - read the EVA newsletter you recently received to learn more.
• We have donated $500 to the Menzies Creek Primary School for the pit.
• The Men’s Shed charge us for the materials and they do the work for free.
• We are building a community connection with Emerald Secondary College, the Men’s Shed and Mitre 10.
• The Men’s Shed are building the planter boxes for the ESC’s kitchen garden and Sean McCloskey is playing a part in this.
• The men are doing the work for the kitchen garden on a concrete slab.
• In term 2, the Men’s Shed will show the students how to put the planter boxes onto the concrete slab.
• We received $2,500 from Cardinia Shire Council and $2,500 for the watering system from District and we have matched those grants.
• On 22nd April there’s a giant Monopoly night run by the Rotaractors of Whitehorse at a cost of $20pp.
• Tina is going and inviting anybody else who is interested to attend.

• The Container needs to be sorted out.
• Our three marquees are drying out in the Emerald Primary School lock-up following Saturday’s market.
• On Wednesday, 19th April Ian intends to repackage them and he is looking for help.
• Roy and one or two others have volunteered and that is enough.

• On Friday 9th June, the Wandin Rotary club is holding a fundraiser with BABBA a tribute band to ABBA to support their fundraising for Shelterbox.
• Shelterbox is a project that provides tents and water filters quickly after natural disasters for immediate relief.
• Shelterbox originated in England and is complementary to Disaster Aid which is an Australian project.
• Russell sent a sheet around to gauge members’ interest in attending, so that we could book a table(s).
• Wandin is good at organising these shows and many of us enjoyed the comic magician Jonathan Usher at a fundraiser they put on a few years back.

Closing Remarks: President Marcus

• John Shaw has done 13 bike rides and has raised a considerable amount of money for ARH over those years - an absolutely outstanding effort!
• The Holland Festival raised $200 for our club.
• Shalini is making a great effort in the press - there is coverage this week in the Star Newspaper of our cheque presentation to Monash Medical Children’s Cancer Centre and
• Ian Ash’s article on the Pride of Workmanship is on the same page.