Rotary Meeting Tuesday 24th August 2019
Call to order by Ian Cairns, acting chair for the meeting, who invited Brian to do the invocation and toast.
Announcements:
Terry thanked Rotarians who helped at the gates for the final, being Keith, Cathy, Glen, Anne, Gerry, Jim and Trevor.
Cathy reminded Rotarians of the Fashion Parade this Thursday evening (26th). Apparently there is also a function at the Football club so they are expecting limited car parking spaces (so get there early)
Ian reminded everyone of the raffle we’re conducting Sunday week (Oct 6) at Bunnings, 8:30-12:30. Volunteers were called for and everyone was reminded that we need to get plenty of donations for two hampers which we are raffling.
Johannes filled us in on his week’s activities. He finished school for the term on Friday, spent the weekend with Anne Adam’s son which included an engagement party on Saturday night.
On Monday Johannes, Glenn, Mary, Vicki and Chris along with Steve and Lachlan cycled various distances from Warrnambool to Port Fairy for a very pleasant lunch at The Mill and then back again. The outward journey was into a very fierce head wind which helped the oldies immensely on the return trip. Rumour has it that the 1/2 trip (Koroit to Port Fairy or Warrnambool to Koroit) will become a regular occurrence.
Brian reminded Rotarians that the 90th Birthday celebrations are only 8 weeks away, with RSVP’s closing in 6 weeks. Please order and pay for your tickets ASAP.
Louise filled us in on a letter we received from Monique who has spent the last 3 months holidaying in France and the south of France. Copies of the letter were left on the tables and we were treated to a short presentation of happy snaps from her travels. We will attempt to get a copy of the letter for this or a future bulletin.
After dinner, Louise was called on for her alternative fines session. Rotarians were treated to a Movies Quiz which turned out to be quite difficult, with John Hunt the winner with 9 correct answers – it’s obvious many Rotarians aren’t up on their Movie Trivia.
Those present were then treated to a very informative insight to Keith McLeod, who recently celebrated his 90th Birthday. To celebrate, Keith wore a suit which rumour has it he also wore to his 50th Birthday, which was hand made by Sir Fletcher Jones. He also indicated that it was required attire in the earlier of his 53 years of Rotary service. Some highlights from the session.
Keith was born in 1929, one of 4 boys and 1 girl. He moved to Warrnambool in 1941 at the age of 12 and attended school till 16. When they first moved here, his father opened the Snappy Snack Bar in Lava street, and Keith’s job was roasting peanuts and bagging them into threepence and sixpence bags. Apparently you were able to follow some customer’s home via the trail of peanut shells.
Keith met his wife Pat in the local chemist shop and they were married in 1952 and have 4 children. In the 70’s, Keith ventured into horse racing, and the first horse he became involved in “Unfortunately won 7 races. I thought to myself how easy is this?”. He branched out into breeding and training, purchasing a 5 acre property with stables on White’s Road. In 1988 he purchased a 100acre property, took his stables and horses and got into Black Angus cattle.
Keith has also succeeded at rowing and golf, getting down to a 4 handicap. He said he took up golf because it was the one sport he could play when he had available time. He was also heavily involved in pigeon racing. He’d had pigeons as a kid and thought it would be fun to race. He talked about sending the pigeon’s on the train to Qld for the Qld to Warrnambool race, over 700 miles, and how he had to ring the station masters along the way to ask them to feed and water the pigeons. He also sent them to the Burke police station on one occasion.
In all, it was a very informative and enjoyable session.
Ian closed the meeting with reminders of:
- Fashion Parade Thu 26th
- RSVP’s for the 90th, and
- Next week please bring donations for the Bunning’s raffle hampers.