Dear Everyone,
Last Tuesday’s meeting was a night of fun and frivolity, and thank you to our fabulous Fundraising team for their superb organisation. The wines were very enjoyable and the generous portions of cheeses were delicious. We would like to have another fun-filled Social Night on Melbourne Cup Night, November 3rd.
It was lovely to have PDG Shia Smart present the Rotary International Platinum Citation to Immediate Past President Catherine and the Club, in recognition of the Club achieving its goals last year. I am hoping that we can have the same success this Rotary year.
And the evening concluded with us wishing Tina a very happy birthday for the following day, and singing, candles, birthday cake and chaos. It was splendid to have the opportunity to celebrate with Tina; a wonderful human being who is incredibly generous in every sense of the word, and a magnificent role model. May the next decade be as awesome as your previous one Tina.
I would like to draw your attention to an online fundraiser organised by the Whitehorse Cluster of Rotary Clubs, of which Box Hill Central is a member. The presentation “Growing Great Girls” is on Sunday 11th of October from 7-8pm., and the presenters are Yasmin Poole, speaker, writer and youth advocate, and Jessica Watson OAM, the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Tickets cost $15 per device with the proceeds going towards “Days for Girls”. Please see the flyer below after the Hat Day image to register. Anyone with girls in their lives should consider attending.
We are getting to that time of the year when we need to form a Nominating Committee to choose the President to succeed Shalini in 2022-2023, a very important year as Ken will be District Governor and Melbourne is host to the Rotary International Convention. Catherine, Shalini and I are ex officio members of the Committee, and I shall ask for the three other members we require at next Tuesday night’s meeting.
Readers of last week’s Vignette will recall that I wrote about The Rotary Foundation and the Centurion Club. Unfortunately, donations have been dwindling over the years and more so now with the recession brought on by COVID. District would like 50% of Club members to be Centurions. We currently have 6 Centurions, or 16% of our members; if we could double that number, that would be excellent. It entails making a tax deductible donation of $100 annually, and the form to sign up and have the amount debited directly is
HERE. 50% of contributions in 2020-21 will be returned to D9810 in 2023-24 to be used in District Designated Funds (DDFs) to fund projects. Our Club has already received a grant this year, and is in the process of applying for another. So if you are able, please become a Centurion and support the ongoing work of the Foundation.
And now for the pièce de résistance:
I was invited to a meeting by the RC of Lilydale last Wednesday night and the RCs of Croydon-Montrose, Healesville and Wandin were also represented. Monbulk was an apology as DG Alma was visiting. The purpose of the meeting was to get ideas from one another for the 100 years of Rotary celebrations. The Lilydale Club has booked space for Saturday 17th of April at Eastland Shopping Centre, and they hope to book the big screen in the forecourt for the week beginning the 12th of April, and scroll Rotary projects and short videos that already exist on it. There is also the Art Gallery space, where we could have stands for different Rotary projects. Each Rotary Club could have a table to promote itself. A Baton Relay could be run around either Lillydale Lake or Ringwood Lake finishing up at the Plaza. Everyone would be wearing their Rotary shirts, thus making a bit of colour when entering the display area. Perhaps there could be a huge birthday cake.
Delyse Brown from the Healesville Club thought that they may have to do something more local, and our Club may have to also, given our distance from Ringwood. Wouldn’t we be more likely to shop at Knox or Fountain Gate? Regarding a Baton Relay in our area, we can have different sections for the relay, they don’t have to take place on the same day and can go into May.
Lilydale RC are in the process of contacting all of the Primary schools to see if they would like to involve their students in the promotion of Rotary and the value of community service. They have also invited some local community groups such as Lions to join the organising committee.
Regarding organising the Baton Relay, it was suggested that the “Cycle to Conference” people be contacted, as they have a lot of equipment, and “Bicycling Victoria” too. Their people will participate if approached.
Another idea was to incorporate “Wheelchairs For Kids”’ Relays for Schools, if a school or schools would like to be involved. Russell Hayes, who was a guest speaker in August, has a trailer with all the wheelchairs. Apparently the children really get into these relays and they take about three weeks to organise. Children love Fun Runs too. We already have contacts in 6 of our Primary Schools thanks to the Primary Schools Speech Contest. Emerald Secondary College might also like to participate.
We need some of you 👫👫👫 please to form a committee to plan our Baton Relay. As mentioned, it can take different forms; apart from a WFK Relay, we could walk/cycle on different days from Menzies Creek>Emerald>Avonsleigh>Cockatoo>Gembrook. We could have static displays at The Hub, Library and ?Gemco foyer and a community BBQ, Sausage Sizzle or picnic at Emerald Lake and at the other endpoints. We would need to organise our dates to fit in with the other Clubs especially if we intend sharing banners and bunting etc. What dates would the stages be in? Perhaps we can do a promotion at the PAVE Festival. So, if you are asked to be on this committee, please say “Yes”.
If you have a topic for a future speaker, kindly email Russell Marnock or me.
Next week:
On the 6th of October, we have Guest Speaker David Brown from Australian Rotary Health speaking about “Ride for Research” and “Hat Day” – Lift the Lid on Mental Illness. Remember to wear a hat on Tuesday night for Hat Day.🎩🧢👒⛑
And we have a “Know Your Rotarian” segment featuring Il Magnifico Martin.
The following week: It’s the Debate at Club Assembly with Sergeant David as the Moderator and Andrew McAllister as the Time-Keeper. Thank you to those gentlemen for their assistance.
Stay safe, stay home, - and stay Rotary Proud!
Yours in Rotary,
Vicki.
