President Leon Lorenzen opened the meeting at 6.30pm.
We welcome our guests, Matilda Aposto and Barbara North.
The meeting was opened by singing the National Anthem.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
What does the acronym ROMAC stand for?
Answer: Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children
Correctly answered by John Bolto.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY:
Gazman – John Bolto reported that he bought the Gazman shirt that he was wearing at the meeting a couple of weeks ago, in the meantime and coincidentally, his son and son-in-law bought exactly the same shirt! Good taste runs in families!
CLUB AND COMMITTEE REPORTS:
• Business lunch – The Business Lunch will be held at the end of next week, on Friday 4 September 2026 at noon at the Royal Perth Golf Club. This year’s speaker is Professor Jacques Eksteen, talking about critical minerals and metals. Please get your tables together and let John Bolto or John MacKinnon know names, numbers and dietary requirements as soon as possible, thank you. There are still a few places left to fill, as many members as possible are encouraged to attend. Mike Wigan from the Men’s Shed has crafted a beautiful side table which will be the prize for the raffle.
• Football tipping – John Bolto reported on the finals of the football competition. In third place, winning $200 was James Porter. Second place belongs to Bruce Fiegert, winning $300 and first place was won by Bruce McCracken with 158 points in total and scoring $400. The second last NATA winner was John Murdoch and the winner was Mary Warburton, for $100. Congratulations to all winners and thanks to John Bolto for organising the competition again and raising funds for the Club.
• Brekky for Better - The Uniting WA Tranby Engagement Hub is conducting a campaign called Brekky for Better. Last year the Hub provided 130,000 meals to homeless people in Perth. Until the end of August, the following breakfast items are requested:
Instant coffee
1L long life milk
Raw sugar
Spreads (Vegemite, peanut butter, jams, honey)
Cornflakes and Weetbix
Tinned fruit
Tinned baked beans and spaghetti
Muesli bars
Some local collection points include the Ray White Offices at Claremont and Dalkeith and Jonathan Huston’s office on Broadway. Please see the full list of donation points throughout Perth at https://unitingwa.org.au/brekkyforbetter/
Thank you for your support of this initiative.
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES: Susan Watson announced the following birthday:
Member’s partner’s birthday:
Shelley McGrath 25 August 2026
ROTARY MOMENTS:
• Ujjan project – Congratulations to Anita Bourke and her committee of Mark Khangure, David Miller and Anthony McGrath for putting together the Global Grant Application and myriad other documents for the Ujjan project. The project will implement a programme to support 700 vulnerable and at-risk children and adolescents from two of Kolkata’s largest red-light areas by helping them to stay at school and teaching them life skills so that they can escape the intergenerational poverty cycle.
• Foodbank – Six members, President Leon, Anthony McGrath, Michael Bisset, Mark Khangure, John Murdoch and Jill Elias were joined by friends Michael Elias, Julie Keane and Rick Hoad last Thursday at Foodbank.
The team worked in the Community Kitchen, where Mark packed up 254 chicken casseroles, cauliflower soups, potato and leek soups and strawberry pudding with coulis, whilst another team was in the vegetable cool room repacking carrots. Then the team went into the cold room to put together three pallets worth of packets of frozen chips. Congratulations on the hard work to all contributors and thanks to Anthony for organising another successful event at Foodbank.
ACTING SERGEANT HUGH SESSION: The following members were fined:
My father received an OAM but when I recently asked his grandson what it meant he thought it was Old And Moody. By my calculation we have 6 OAMs in the room. Will John Hopkins, Craig James, David Miller, Mike Snell, Kent Warburton and Susan Watson please be upstanding.
Mark Khangure please stand up. Now you probably think I am going to fine you because you have an AM – always moody. It is, however, for the best dressed award because I have observed apart from myself you are the only gentlemen wearing a bow tie in your club directory profile photo.
Everyone who won money in the footy tipping. In particular Kent who had one family member win and his wife come last!
I have just had four days in Sydney so I dob myself in for the Arrivals and Departures tax and anyone else who has travelled or about to travel please.
Please be upstanding if you own a dog or dogs. Did you know Wednesday is International Dog Day? Apparently it costs around $4,000 a year to maintain a dog so you can afford $5.00. $10.00 please if you have more than one dog.
Now there is a danger in our Rotary meetings of getting into a rut. I ask everyone who is sitting in the same chair they sat in for more than two weeks to be upstanding and pay a squatters’ tax.
Please stand Ant McGrath. I have it on very good authority that Ant is attending a wine dinner on Thursday evening where among the eight wines you will be drinking the white wine will be $200 a bottle, one of the red wines $900 a bottle and then drinking a further red wine from an imperial bottle valued at $40,000. Wine tax please.
GUEST SPEAKER: LEIGHTON CHADWICK – introduced by Michael Snell:
Leighton Chadwick is the newest member of the Rotary Club of Dalkeith and gave his life talk to the members.
Erik Erikson was a German-American psychoanalyst who developed a theory of psychosocial development which outlines eight lifelong stages from infancy to late adulthood, each centred on a specific psychosocial crisis or conflict. Leighton is in the seventh stage, Generativity vs. Stagnation (Adulthood, 40 to 65 years), when adults create or nurture things that will outlast them, often through family or community, developing the virtue of care. Leighton chose to join Rotary to give something back to his community.
Leighton was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand and moved with his family when he was very young to Margaret River. His father was a member of the Rotary Club of Margaret River for over forty years.
Leighton is a psychiatrist with 1,200 patients on his books, working on the Hollywood Hospital site. His areas of practice are general adult psychiatry, outpatient and inpatient, eating disorders and intellectual disability psychiatry.
Leighton is married to Matilda and they have a daughter, Sylvie, who is a lawyer living and working in Sydney and a son, Sebastian, who is a botanist. They also have a kelpie called Sully.
Leighton went as a Rotary Exchange Student to Belo Horizonte in Brazil in 1983 aged 17 years old. It is the sixth largest city in Brazil. It was an interesting year for Leighton, who attended the Escola Colegio Paloman. As Brazil was not spending money on schools, the school system meant that there were three shifts of school each day, Leighton attended the first shift, 7:330am to 11:30am. There was only one Rotary Club in the city, the Rotary Club of Belo Horizonte Mangabeiras.
Thanks to Leighton for giving us an amusing and interesting life talk.
REMINDER OF COMING EVENTS:
Monday 31 August 2026 - Rebecca Clarke, Principal of MLC
