The Rotary Club of Mitchell River’s Rotary Junior Community Awards
 

The event was held at St Mary’s Parish Hall on Saturday 8th October, 2016.  All were welcome.

 

The Junior Community Award was originally designed by late Mitchell River Rotarian and school principal David Hawkey to help develop resilience in young students. It was trialled in four Bairnsdale schools in 1997 before being promoted to other schools and Rotary Clubs.  

 

The Rotary Junior Community Award is specifically designed for students in grade 6. It is non-competitive and can be achieved by children of all physical and mental abilities.  The program engages students in four main areas of endeavour to be completed over the school year – community service, social experience, physical recreation and skill development.

 

Over the 20 years since its inception, about 3000 grade 6 students in the Bairnsdale alone have completed the Award. About 1500 diaries are sent around Australia each year and the number of schools still taking up the program is increasing.

 

As our ‘official’ Lift the Lid on Mental Illness day comes to a close, and having seen and heard of the activities from so many Clubs, I really wanted to thank you all for giving your support.

 

While I have never doubted the importance of Lift the Lid, and where we can take this in the future, the fact that we started from nothing meant that we had to have a great deal of support. In Rotary terms, you five were the first and most important to give your imprimatur, without which the involvement of your Clubs would not have been so readily given. No doubt there will be some Clubs who were slow to adopt Lift the Lid but that was always to be expected. Overwhelmingly, the messages I have received have been wonderfully positive.

 

The aims of Lift the Lid were to raise funds from the general public for mental illness prevention research and for Rotary to be actively promoted in the public arena. Certainly, the double page in the Herald Sun today and Neil Mitchell’s promotion on 3AW over these last two days have given us significant positive publicity.

 

While I don’t have all their contacts, for those AG’s who have also helped you, please pass on my gratitude to them ... and please extend the thanks of Australian Rotary Health to all participating Clubs through your DG Newsletters.

 

It has been a significant Rotary day ... and there’s so much more to come.

 

Good health

 

 

(Greg Ross, Vice Chairman, Australian Rotary Health,  0407 891 048)