Youth Service

 

 

What a year we had.  Youth is always an exciting portfolio and this year with the availability of some extra funds we were lucky enough to help a lot of young people in their journey.

 

We have continued to make ourselves known to the Community through the High School and the Primary Schools.  Once again, we have been involved in Breakfast Club- and it is fantastic to see the development of the students through a couple of years.

 

One of the first events in the Youth Rotary Year is the Primary School Speech Competition – this year held at Macclesfield Primary School, with 5 schools participating.  This year it was such a great success that two of the students went on to be part of the District PSSC. 

 

Then things start to get busy – with the ongoing purchase and packaging of Care Bags for the Local High School.  This initiative was started during the Covid Pandemic Year – when we were trying to find a way to show the Year 12 students that we understood how hard things were for them not being able to go to all their usual end of year events.  It has been so well received that the students and staff at Emerald Secondary School have asked us to continue it. 

 

Things start to get busy with the end of year events.  With Citizenship watches presented to 2 students at Emerald Secondary College awards night and also 2 citizenship vouchers presented to each of the Primary School in the area - Cockatoo, Emerald, Macclesfield, and Menzies Creek and Gembrook.  The Gembrook citizenship awards are in the name of one of our longest serving Rotarians – Chris Adams, and his wife Jeanette and family, who have lived in Gembrook for many years.  Chris worked tirelessly on behalf of the community and in the surrounding district.   Chris passed away this year in August.  We miss him greatly-   It is wonderful to go to the Presentation Nights and see the amazing talent of our young people.

 

For the last few years we have been very proud to offer scholarships to students at the Emerald Art Society to help pay for the cost of materials.

 

We provided the money to pay for the bus for the ESC students to attend the very important Rotary Youth Driver Awareness course held in August last year and again in April this – the course was held at the school, so that we were able to pay a part of the course training. 

 

We were also very excited to be able to pay for the bus for the Macclesfield Year 6 Students to attend the Science exhibitions in December.  And we helped the ESC to take their Year 12 students into the city at the start of this year to familiarise themselves with the University Courses that were available.

For the first time this year we were able to offer 2 music scholarships to 2 students at ESC to pay for their musical tuition for the year. 

 

And money has been set aside to pay for a young person between the ages of 18 and 30 to attend a really fantastic program called Rotary Youth Leadership Award.

 

One of our biggest projects for the last few years has been the Kitchen Garden Program at Emerald Secondary College.  It has been a long process, with teachers and students working at different times to recreate the kitchen garden that was established some years ago and had gone into disrepair. This new garden area includes a new shed, a chicken coop, new fencing, new planting beds provided by the Men’s Shed, with new tools to be purchased, soil to be spread and seeds to be plants, and the greenhouse with new plastic covers, doors and new shelves.  It has been a great learning process for the students and I might add for the Rotarians.  We were lucky enough to receive Grants from Casey Cardinia and a matching Rotary District Grant for the Garden.  The area should be ready for planting.

 

This is my last year as Youth Chair – It’s been a wonderful 4 years and I have enjoyed every single minute of it, but it is time to hand on the baton to someone with fresh ideas.

 

Thank you to the team and to the club for their ongoing support in the Youth Program.