President John, Fellow Rotarians, I am pleased to propose the toast to our great club under these most unusual circumstances and trust that you have a glass of something available to toast at the end of my brief talk.
For the benefit of our newer members and a reminder to our older ones, the Rotary Club of Dalkeith was founded on 24th April 1984 and chartered on the 8th June that year.
The Club had 31 Charter members of which only 4 remain. I refer of course to Stuart McCoubrie, Terry Rogers, John Martin and myself. It was very sad to record the passing of Ian Ritchie during this past year. Ian was also a Charter Member and was a great contributor to the success of our Club. We should also note that Ray House retired from the club after giving many years of outstanding service.
It is so pleasing to see the club numbers going from strength to strength and our club now numbers over 60 members with the addition of Bill Charlton, Mahes Pushpalignam, Mike Snell and recently Jason Van Straalen and we look forward to them making a sound contribution to the continued success of our club.
In these very interesting and difficult times ( I refer of course to the COVID 19 Pandemic), there is a lot to be taken from these experiences. To coin an old phrase for every dark cloud there is sometimes a “silver lining”. It gives us time to regroup and think about what the real priorities in life are!
Will this change the way Rotary views causes? It reminds me of the incredible decision in 1985 that Rotary would help rid the world of Polio. At that time there were over 500000 cases in 150 countries. As at Feb 2020 there were only 12 cases, all in Pakistan down from 173 in 2019. What a great result but still not quite there. One wonders if Rotary can play a role in putting a stop to the spread of this Coronavirus. The Club’s continual contribution to Rotary Foundation and the ARHRF is even more important in these extraordinary times.
It is a great credit to Pres John and the Board to initiate these virtual meetings and especially the way they have kept members involved with support teams and additional Bulletins. To have most of our members take part and contribute to these high-tech meetings is great to see. Who would believe that we now have an electronic payment system!!!
However, my personal view is that I can’t wait to resume our normal meetings and enjoy the camaraderie which is part of Rotary.
Thanks to Kevin Jackson, the public image of the DRC has been vastly improved particularly due to his connections with the “Post”.
Don’t forget what a great job Tom Langley does with our Bulletin.
It was particularly pleasing to see three of our members David Miller, Peter Panek and Graeme Sansom awarded Paul Harris Fellows.
In any event, it is a time to reflect on all the positive things we have done as a club. We do make a significant contribution to our community and by our participation in Rotary programmes, to the world in general.
It is a credit to our club that the Charitable Trust has been put on a sound footing for future generations. Chairman Russell and his team should be commended for their wise investment decisions. Let’s hope the virus has not taken too much off the top!!!
One of the highlights of the year would have to be the recent opening of the Men’s Shed by our Premier. This is a great endeavour and the outstanding efforts of Trevor Gorey, Peter Panek, Michael Bissett must be applauded.
Other highlights include the Annual Business Lunch, the Nokor Tep container sent to Cambodia and Anita’s fundraising stall at Claremont Quarter raising over $6000.
The Bushfire appeal raised $10000 with the help of the Trust. A donation of $10000 to Greenbatch was completed in March. The club participated in three bike counts which contributed about $4000 to the club.
The DRC played a leading role in Rotary Global Citizenship Award program with 5 mentors participating.
Don’t forget the RY Exchange Programme continues with Daniel Court departing for Norway in Jan and Cadu going back to Brazil last year.
This year “Cans for Xmas” appeal was an outstanding success with the involvement of other Rotary Clubs adding to the volume of collections…a staggering total of 6500kg!!!
We continue to have a very high calibre of Guest Speakers and again John Hopkins must be recognised for his effort. Our own members continue to share their life with us in an entertaining way. Remember Anita’s life talk and the high calibre PowerPoint presentation by Hugh Stowell.
On the social side, we enjoyed the GWCTD in August, the Harry Perkins visit, the Walk in the Park for Parkinson’s, the Holmes a Court gallery viewing, the Sleeping Beauty Ballet outing, the International dinner at Prego’s and the highlight, of course, was the wonderful Christmas Cocktail Party at the Weld Club.
It has been disappointing that a few of our major events had to be cancelled due to the virus, but I am sure they will come back bigger and better next year. I refer of course to the Science and Engineering Challenge, the Rotary Golf Day, the Anniversary Dinner and the District Conference.
When we reflect on the contributions made by so many of our members the list is endless and our Club must be proud of its continual effort, so I encourage each of you to explore, discover, contribute and continue to make this club the best in the District.
President John on behalf of the members I congratulate you on the way you have introduced new Technology to our club which, with your enthusiasm, vision and encouragement has ensured the DRC has had another successful year.
I now ask you all to charge your glasses and enjoy a drink to the many people affected by the Corona Virus in the hope they recover quickly and to the continued prosperity of the DRC.
