MC John Hopkins started proceedings by people taking their places and singing the National Anthem as led by John Thornton.

 

John Hopkins gave a run-down of events this evening’s format and then invited Pres Anthony McGrath to welcome Members and guest to our Anniversary Dinner.

 

 

Welcome Rotary Club of Dalkeith Members and Guests. In particular, I would like to welcome Mr Richard Court AC, who will be speaking to us after dinner this evening about his time as Australia’s Ambassador to Japan from 2017 until recently. Welcome, All.

 

In the unusual times in which we have been living over the last 12 months, it has caused some reflection. One realises a few home truths, such as;

That “Community is important” leads us to why we are here tonight. The Rotary Club of Dalkeith has been helping our community for the past 37 years through Good Works and Fellowship. We are a Club full of friendships. We have a great group of intelligent people wanting to help out in their communities and make the world a better place. We try and live out our Rotary motto of “Service above Self”.

So, on this 37^th Anniversary, I would like us to reflect on this great Club, the wonderful friendships we have made, the huge amount of Good Works we have done and the positive difference we have made to our Communities.

As such, we should celebrate and embrace the Fellowship within the Club. Hence, I welcome you ALL to our Celebration Dinner tonight. Enjoy!

 

 

MC invited Mr John Lindquist to propose a Toast to the Club on the occasion of its 37^th Birthday.

 

John Lindquist:

 

President Anthony, Paul Harris Fellows, fellow Rotarians, distinguished guests and of course I include our wives and partners in this category.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to propose the Toast to our great club.

Our Club continues to go from strength to strength and from its foundation on 24^th April 1984 with 31 members under the guidance of our founding President David Foulkes to have as at this date more than 60 members with 4 charter members still in the club is a great effort. We welcome two new members in Barbara Chandler and Stephanie Fryer-Smith.

 

Thoughts should go to Ron Wilson, Stuart McCoubrie, Stewart Brash, Brian English, George Melville, and Tom Langley who for various reasons are unable to attend our club meetings.

Tom Langley, however, despite his health problems continues to do an outstanding job with the Club Runner and our weekly Bulletin.

 

The Rotary Club has achieved significant milestones over the past year even given the difficult situation the country has been in. Functioning through a pandemic we should not forget that we may have had to hold virtual meetings every now and then but over the last 12 months, we have missed only ONE club meeting. Some clubs in other parts of the world have not had a meeting for over 12 months. This is a great credit to our President and his committee and to the membership for making the effort to understand how “Zoom” meetings operate!!

 

Our Club earned the Rotary Platinum Citation, the most significant award a Rotary Club can achieve for its efforts during 2019/20. During a year that was challenging for many Rotarians around the world, our club demonstrated a commitment to achieve its goals which ultimately helps strengthen Rotary and shape our future. Only ONE of five in District 9455.

 

In this, the Centenary Year of Rotary in Australia, bushfires, floods, cyclones, droughts, and the Covid-19 health pandemic have challenged us, but I think that our Club and Rotary, in general, has risen to the challenge and given support in so many ways.

Our club members are dedicated people who share a passion for both community service and friendship. Becoming a Rotarian connects us with a diverse group of professionals who share our drive to give back.

 

The Rotary World President’s motto for the year “Rotary Opens Opportunities” is I think a very appropriate one for Rotarians and I would like to give you a few examples of what our club has achieved and is continuing to achieve over the year.

Kim Smith and his committee have done an outstanding job, and whilst the Pandemic prevented us from having a new Rotary Exchange Student, our student from Norway returned and we are looking forward to seeing him.

 

Our club mentored five International university students as part of the Rotary Global Citizen award. This is a unique opportunity for overseas students to help develop lasting career connections and networks in WA, participate in voluntary projects to build community involvement and increase professional and personal development. Our club mentors were Kim Smith, Peter Panek, Michael Bisset, Tim Humphrey, and Leon Lorenzo.

Under Kim’s guidance, we sent 4 year 10 students from Shenton College to the Science Experience School and four RYLA students to participate in the RYLA camp.

We have a monster Science and Engineering Challenge looming in May, and I know Richard Gorham and Michael Bisset have worked extremely hard to make sure this is a success having raised more than $35000.

 

On the International front with Anita Bourke’s drive and enthusiasm, we have continued support of the Nokor Tep Women's Hospital in Cambodia. Soon to be another one I understand!

 

Win Jones as Chairman of the John Fawcett Foundation, with the help of his wife Margaret, continue to do outstanding work and they really make a difference to the people of Bali and surrounding districts.

 

Michael Bisset organised and sent 5000 educational books weighing 1100kg to PNG and to WA Indigenous Communities as part of the Books for Children programme.

He has also been part of a group at the Men’s Shed whose objective is to send 220-250 bicycles per year to Africa after they have been repaired at the Bicycle repair workshop. One container has already been despatched.

 

From a Community perspective, we have helped contribute to the My Home Project to house Homeless which is an area that I think our club will continue to be involved in.

We continue supporting Foodbank with our Cans for Christmas, and our club donated $10000 to the Bushfire Appeal made up of member donations and a Charitable Trust Contribution.

 

The Club’s Vocational Excellence award for 2020 was awarded to Carol Shannon for her work with the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation, and only last week the 2021 award went to Bret Christian from the Post Newspaper.

John Hopkins continues to run our Guest Speaker programme and who could forget the talks by Dr Rohan Hocking on Drug Therapies, Amanda Stafford on Homelessness, Michael Morgan the Principal of Shenton College or Bret Christian from The Post Newspaper to name a few from a long list.

 

The Club continues to enjoy special events including the visit to the Men's Shed, the visit organised by Kevin Jackson to see the WA Ballet performance of Dracula, the Xmas cocktail party at the Weld Club, The International dinner at Vin H, the Golf Day, the Guess Who is Coming to Dinner, Visit to Foodbank and continued participation in the Bike Count.

 

Our presence in the Community has been enhanced by the great work Kevin Jackson has done via his connection with the Post Newspaper.

 

Fundraising has been difficult this year but who could forget the Business Lunch with the Thai Cave Rescuer Craig Challen as our guest speaker which raised more than $13000.

 

Finally, we must not forget the fantastic job our Charitable Trust plays and distributing well over $50000 to worthy not-for-profit organisations. The Trust has a balance approaching ONE million dollars and special thanks must go to Russell Hawkins and his dedicated team.

 

Even though it has been a tough year the DRC still strongly supports the Rotary Foundation, Polio Plus and the ARHRF who do a great job within our community and the World.

 

As I reflect on our performance, I have no doubt that our club is maintaining its high Rotary ideals and Pres Anthony under your guidance, enthusiasm, and dedication we continue to “Open Opportunities”.

 

Congratulations on a great year and I now ask you all to stand and drink to the continued success and prosperity of the Rotary Club of Dalkeith.

 

 

 

MC invited Pres Anthony to recognise special contributions to two of our members by inducting them as Paul Harris Fellows.

 

Pres Anthony inducts David Ellis & John Bolto with Paul Harris Fellowships for outstanding service.

 

 

 

 

The Sergeant handed out some Special Certificates to worthy members.

It was a fine collection of Sergeant Awards that were presented to several members who for the first time in many a session, were not levied with a fine, but received a framed certificate of their misdeeds.