Our speaker for this coming Monday is District Governor Elect Tania Lowery who hails from the Balclutha Club. This weekend a number of us are going to the District Conference at Oamaru which has some excellent speakers and activities to look forward to including tours of Dots Castle and the Tempero motor body workshop. Full report at Monday nights meeting.
On Monday 18 March, a group of about a dozen members of the Rotary Club gathered at McLay Boats ready to head up McNally's Track for the annual spruce up. Heading up Bush Gully Road, we came round a corner to find a cyclist pushing his bike up a steep gravel section. Here's me thinking, "who would be stupid enough to ride their bike up here?". As we drove past we realised it was or own Dean , riding his bike to meet us at the top. What a great effort, Dean.
Some members of the group headed to the top, armed with cloppers, weed eaters, rakes, and other useful equipment, to clear out the bush area and tidy up the track. Another budding group started from the bottom, clearing the track and repainting the markers on the way up. Thanks to Suzie and Ross for taking along their 4-wheelers - saved all the walking up the hill!
Thank you to all those who gave their time and energy to help out. The track is a great asset around our Milton community. If you have never been up their, I suggest it is worth a visit. Thank you also to John Fegan for allowing us to access the track through his farm.
The evening finished with a bbq back at Jim Murdoch's garage - thanks for the venue, Jim, and special thanks to Jenny Scott who prepared all the food - hot and ready when we got back there.
Note: The McNally Track is an open country hike starts on the outskirts of Milton and climbs to a panoramic hilltop, 318 metres above sea level. It is a fairly tricky 7km trek taking about 3 hours. There is parking and you can also drive up to the lookout (it is a bit of a windy, bumpy gravel road up to that lookout, so you know).
Many of our members continue to be involved in leading tramping and cycling trips, and all report how much they enjoy meeting people from all over New Zealand and the world, who come to take advantage of these opportunities.
Recently we have had members on the Wanaka Bike Camp, the Routeburn Greenstone tramp, the Mount Aspiring camp, Alps 2 Ocean cycle trip and the Humpbridge - and there have probably been many more since then.
A special think you must go to the club members, and the members of the wider community, who help out with the Tramping Club, not only providing wonderful experiences for a wide array of people, but also raising amazing funds for the Rotary Club and for the Otago Youth Adventure Trust.
Rotarians in the District are trying to raise funds to help support Sakhr Munassar to stay in New Zealand.
Let’s help Sakhr become a Kiwi
Sakhr Munassar came to NZ as a Rotary Scholar in 2016. A Yemeni passport holder, he came via the United States to study a Masters in peace and conflict studies at the University of Otago. While he was in New Zealand, the American immigration rules changed, which banned Yemeni passport holders from access to the US. Yemen is in the grips of war so going home has become an equal challenge.
Now graduated, Sakhr works as a youth coordinator for the Red Cross in Otago. He runs multiple youth programs throughout the district, has assisted with the many Syrian refugees now settled in Dunedin and is actively involved in the community through Rotary, Rotaract and music. The strength of Rotaract in Dunedin is very much due to the effort and energy he put into it as a student – creating a sustainable organisation. He is an all round excellent citizen, but his first application for residency has been turned down by Immigration NZ. Sakhr has decided to appeal that decision, but that comes at a price. Rotary D9980 is inviting support from members to assist Sakhr in the legal costs of challenging that decision. His lawyer is an experienced immigration appeal lawyer and is confident there is a good chance of a successful appeal.
Sakhr really appreciates the support Rotary members have given him.
Donations can be made direct to the District 9980 bank account number: 01 0678 0015978 046
As a reference please put your Name or Club Name and Sakhr.
At our last meeting, Jackie Muir, our President Elect, reported on the fantastic weekend she had at the President Elect Training in Auckland, where she got to spend the weekend with all the incoming Presidents and District Governors form the South Pacific region.
Of course, Tania Lowrey, is the incoming District Governor for district 9980.
At the conference their was a focus on continuing to develop ways to increase Rotary membership levels, as well as a focus on seeing through the final stages of the world-wide elimination of polio.
Jackie also reported that Balclutha will be hosting the District Conference in 2020 and Tania has invited our club to help with this. She is going to visit the club to talk about this in the near future.
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