QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
In which month and where will the 2025 Australasian Rogaining Championships take place?
Answer: March 2025 in the Snowy Mountains
Correctly answered by Mark Khangure
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES: The following birthdays and anniversaries were announced by Susan Watson:
Members’ Birthday
Mark Khangure 77 years old on 10 December 2024
Albert Deda 37 years old on 17 December 2024
Ann Bray 18 December 2024
Tony Chien 75 years old on 18 December 2024
Bruce Jeanes 85 years old on 25 December 2024
Russell Hawkins 78 years old on 28 December 2024
Kim Smith 66 years old on 1 January 2025
Stephanie Fryer-Smith 5 January 2025
Partner’s Birthday
Debbie Halbert 11 December 2024
Anniversaries
Win and Marg Jones 58 years on 14 December 2024
Bruce and Sue Jeanes 24 years on 16 December 2024
Richard and Barbara Ranshaw 47 years on 17 December 2024
John and Mary-Jo Lindquist 14 years on 18 December 2024
CLUB AND COMMITTEE REPORTS:
ROTARY MOMENTS:
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• A Dickens of a Christmas – Well done to Ann Bray and MetSO for its support of A Dickens of a Christmas play, acted on Friday 13 December at St George’s Cathedral. All artists, including MetSO musicians, producer Tony Howes, playwright Jenny Davis, the soloist Beth Redwood, the Echoes of Ukraine choir, The Theatre 180 Company and the Perth Undergraduate Choral Society and all the production crew and Cathedral staff gave their time for free with all the profits going to Rotary WA’s Give a Feed hampers for Foodbank.
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Ann Bray and Olga Hurina of Echoes of Ukraine
• Cans for Christmas – The Cans for Christmas food drive collected an impressive 2,502kg which equates to 4,508 meals for Foodbank customers. Foodbank has sent a certificate of appreciation to the Club for its work on its behalf.
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• Foodbank—The volunteers who went to the Food Bank on Thursday, 5 December, packed nine tubs of fruit and vegetables and 347 breakfast packs. Thanks to Ant McGrath for organising the opportunity again.
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• Post articles – Thanks to Jason van Straalen for two recent articles published in the Post, one on the Ronald McDonald dinner cooking and one on the toy drive for Grandcarers.
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• Volunteer hours for December – An extremely conservative estimate of the volunteer time given in December by Club members, family and friends is 139.5 hours. This includes the Cans for Christmas collection and the day at Foodbank but does not include travelling time or the time taken by Anthony McGrath to organise both these activities.
• Paul Harris Fellowship awards – At the Christmas dinner, two Paul Harris Fellowship awards were given. President Hugh read out the following:
Given this is our Christmas Dinner, in the spirit of giving as an annual donor to the Rotary International Foundation, the Rotary Club of Dalkeith has the capacity to nominate members and supporters of the Club for recognition of their contributions to Rotary. The acknowledgement comes in the form of Paul Harris Fellowship recognition. Tonight, we have two Paul Harris Fellowship awards to present.
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Stephanie Fryer-Smith
Stephanie joined the Rotary Club of Dalkeith in October 2020, and her sponsor was David Miller. Stephanie first became acquainted with Rotary when she was an exchange student living in the United States for a year.
Stephanie is a member of the Youth Committee, and this past year, she served as the mentor for our Club’s inbound Rotary Exchange student. Mentoring involves many activities, including finding and interviewing host families, liaising with the student’s Perth school, writing reports to the District, ensuring all members of host families have appropriate checks, and notifying the student of the tours and opportunities available.
Stephanie was an extremely capable mentor who hosted events for our student and cared for her well-being. Stephanie's support enhanced the student's experience. Congratulations to Stephanie on your Paul Harris Fellowship Award.
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Russell Hawkins
Russell joined the Rotary Club of Dalkeith in March 2004 and has been a member of our Charitable Trust since its inception in 2008. As each of you knows, Russell is currently the Chairman and volunteers his time to managing the Trust’s portfolio, obtaining investment advice, and speaking with financial institutions regarding the Trust’s interests. Russell’s devotion to the Charitable Trust and his experienced hand and wise counsel at trust meetings guide the committee’s deliberations when considering charitable requests.
In addition, over the years, Russell has raised many thousands of dollars for the Club’s project account through wine sales to Club members. His ‘nose’ for wine allows members to purchase attractively priced quality wine whilst also allowing for a monetary contribution towards Club projects. Please join with me in congratulating Russell on his third Paul Harris Fellowship award.
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SERGEANT SESSION:
The Sergeant fined the following members:
- Peter Webb for wearing the loudest shirt at the Christmas dinner last week;
- Ken Ilett for winning the door prize at the University Club;
- Nan Walker for an arrivals tax, literally getting off the direct London flight today;
- Susan Watson for going through the foreshore bins to collect 40 beer cans;
- Richard Ranshaw for losing his glasses twice this past week (yes, they were on his head once);
- Albert Deda for driving a totally gangsta G wagon.
PRESIDENT HUGH’S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE:
Christmas is a wonderful festival, full of history and symbolism.
I came across the Christmas message The Very Rev John Shepherd, former Dean of St George’s Cathedral, who would be known to many of you, gave when he was the President of the Rotary Club of Perth several years ago and he spoke about the rich history of symbolism at Christmas.
‘Christmas’ is Christ Mass - the Mass celebrated in honour of the birth of Christ. The ‘Christ Mass’ began in Rome in the 4th century and then in England in the 10th and 11th centuries.
Santa Claus is actually Saint Nicholas who was the bishop of Myra in Turkey in the 3rd century, the patron saint of children, bringing them gifts on 6 December. Thanks to St Nicholas we give presents at Christmas.
The day after Christmas is St Stephen’s Day. This is how the carol ‘Good King Wenceslas went out, on the feast of Stephen’ came about. Wenceslas was Duke of Bohemia in the first century and it is the true story of him setting off in the snow to help a beggar.
The tradition of Christmas trees came from Germany and Charles Dickens popularised the celebration around the Christmas tree.
Enough about the symbols of Christmas. Importantly John Shepherd also reminds us in his message Christmas is when we think about our families and those important to us.
Christmas is a time when we do what we can to be with our families and friends and offer hospitality. We also open up our homes and offer hospitality to others. By way of example I have three Christmas orphans coming to my home for Christmas lunch – friends who have no family here in Australia. This is what Christmas does to us.
Then, Christmas also gives us a chance to put aside all that frenetic, life-sapping addiction to text messages, emails and schedules. It gives a chance, to stop thinking about ourselves and appreciate others.
Christmas lets us show we really do care about other people. For most of the year we are often too busy to pause and think about those close to us, let alone contact them. Christmas says – get in touch. Tell people we remember them and we care about them.
And then, Christmas gives us a nudge. The stories of Christmas make us realise we ‘are’ what we give, not what we get. And as Rotarians, we get this. I have not come across anyone yet who has joined Rotary for what they can get out of it – except the joy of giving and being useful and helpful for the need of others.
And most importantly, Christmas is all about hope and brings us hope.
Sometimes we might think that what is going to happen next is bound to be worse than what has happened in the past. The trick is to take it one step at a time.
We are not faced with the problem of next year as yet or even next month. What we are faced with is tomorrow. And hope says tomorrow will be better than today.
So to my fellow Rotarians I wish you a happy and holy Christmas. If you are travelling, travel safe, and I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year full of hope and ready to join with me in giving more of ourselves for the needs of others.
Merry Christmas
Hugh Stowell
President
Rotary Club of Dalkeith
16 December 2024
REMINDER OF NEXT ROSTER:
Monday 13 January 2025
Russell Hawkins Welcoming members and guests
Steve Halbert Table duty
Richard Gorham Registrar 1
Bruce Fiegert Registrar 2
Anita Bourke Introduction of guest speaker
Kent Warburton Pass the microphone
REMINDER OF COMING EVENTS:
Monday 6 January 2025 Informal gathering at Steve’s, from 6 pm, no need to RSVP
Monday 13 January 2025 Mark Khangure, Life Talk, Nedlands Golf Club
Monday 20 January 2025 Welcome barbecue, Nedlands Golf Club
Monday 27 January 2025 No meeting, public holiday
THANKS:
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Thanks to the Staff of the Nedlands Golf Club, Claire and Matt, for their service tonight and throughout
the year and Chef Zamry for dinner.
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WE RECOGNISE OUR VERY GENEROUS SPONSORS:
- Lizzi Bee - supplier of flowers
- Dry Kirkness Chartered Accountants (Butler Settineri) – Club Auditors
- Accura Accounting & Advisory Services for providing Xero Accounting software and
Sharesight Portfolio reporting software to the Charitable Trust.
- Dirk Vanderstruyf from Euroz Hartleys.
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MEETING CLOSE:
President Hugh closed the meeting recognising the Rotary International presidential theme for 2024-2025 THE MAGIC OF ROTARY
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