President Steve Giddens welcomed Rotarians and guests Julie Trelfall-Ryan, Julie’s father Tony Trelfall and her sons Thomas Ryan, Harry Ryan, Jack Ryan and his girlfriend Jacinta Seater. Steve explained Julie was to be inducted as a member of our Rotary club later in the evening. Steve also welcomed our guest speaker Adrienne Anson from the CFA, and Karina Wood who is to be inducted into our club next week.
Steve updated everyone on the last Board meeting:
- Racking for Alan Lane Pavillion has been collected and Tony, Judy and Phillip will organise a working bee to install
- The Board has agreed to donate $750 to the Tararer Concert being held as part of the Aussie Music Festival at the end of October
- Support for Alternate Schoolies week with a donation of $600 towards the classroom project in the Philippines
- Tony Austin submitted a detailed report on his proposals for the Sariri project. Funds and offers of support are growing
- The Board agreed to support Hat Day for Mental Health. Will be held in October
- It was agreed that there will be NO Rotary meetings on 22 and 29 December.
Louise Keogh welcomed her friend Jules and provided members with a brief outline of Julie’s background. Julie is the devoted mother of four sons and, a devoted daughter of her parents Marie and Tony Trelfall. Jules would say her greatest achievement is her four sons but her friend Louise wanted us to know there is so much more to her. Jules has run a number of small businesses, but her first love is hairdressing. She has run and owned a number of different hairdressing salons and now she runs a salon from home. In addition to this she helps her partner with his business cooking casseroles etc on her days off from her own business. Jules also volunteers at Palliative Care at South West Healthcare doing patients hair and also runs a mobile hair dressing business for her clients at Mercy. Jules is the sort of person that if you are not well or are in need of a helping hand she will be the first person on your door step with a cooked meal for one or two nights. Louise said Jules optimises the Rotary value of serving others before self.
President Steve inducted Julie to Rotary who was warmly welcomed as a member of the Club. Julie’s mentor will be Terry O’Neil and has been assigned to International.
Judy Ross has arranged the first of our Club’s fun activities, starting this Sunday 20 September - coffee and cake at 10.15 am at Pronto’s (near the corner of Henna St and Raglan Pde). Judy is hoping we may have a lunch in October but this has yet to be arranged as the month is already full of activities.
Show Gates
Doug Maclean reminded Rotarians to email him if they are UNABLE to work on the show gates this year. The show will run for 3 days this year from 30 September to 1 November.
Sariri Project
Tony Austin reminded Rotarians of the goodies for sale on the table and asked people to purchase lemons and jams with the proceeds going toward the Sariri project. Tony thanked everyone who had made very generous donations to this PNG village project.
Tony is also looking for volunteers to bake cakes and slices to help out with a cake stall at Bunnings on 25 October. Tony will send out a reminder email.
Gardening Commitments
Tony also reminded Rotarians that we have two gardening obligations from the last two Dinner Auctions which are yet to be fulflled, one for Anne Hunt, the other for Anne Adams. Anne Hunt would like to have some light gardening work done within the next couple of weeks. Around 5 volunteers are needed to do a little digging, some weeding and general gardening cleaning.
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Let us Lift for the Lehmann’s
Ian Cairns placed flyers on every table and encouraged people to come along to The Whalers on Sunday 20 September between 2:00 pm – 10:00 pm for a fund raiser for the family of a Brophy Foster Carer, Cindy Lehman who was tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident. Cindy who was buried on Wednesday on what would have been her 59 birthday was an amazing woman who had five children of her own, and has been a foster mum to over 300 children. Ian encouraged Rotarians to attend this fun event and help support Cindy’s family.
Mental Health Day – Tuesday 29 September
Svet Lineham reminded us of Mental Health Day on Tuesday 29 September and as this coincides with football finals, she encouraged us all to wear a football related hat to Rotary - all funds raised on the night will go towards Rotary Mental Health projects.
Chair, Gordon Curran introduced guest speaker Adrienne Anson from the CFA. Adrienne gave Rotarians a shortened, but nonetheless powerful version of her usual session on fire prevention in the home. Adrienne explained that the groups of people most at risk from fires are the elderly, those with poor mobility, hoarders and people who have cluttered homes and young mums. In the last two months there have been 308 preventable house fires in Victoria. 30% of fires are caused from unattended cooking. Winter is the worst season for fires which are caused by heaters, items being left too close to heaters, clothes dryers and people heating wheat packs in the microwave.
In order for a fire to burn it needs 3 things - oxygen, fuel and a heat source. Adrienne quipped fires are started by three sources - men, women and children.
She spoke of the surprisingly large number of people who are hoarders and die in house fires. Excessive clutter not only presents a danger to home owners and occupiers but also the emergency service personal, particularly fire fighters. Most hoarders are over 50 years of age. If a room is too cluttered to be used for its intended purpose then that can be classified as hoarding. 77% of hoarders are men and many of them have hoarding problems in their sheds. If a house is cluttered then the whole house will burn, however if a house has no clutter then generally a fire will be contained to the room in which the fire started. Adrienne asked Rotarians who knew of anyone with a cluttered home to make sure entrances and exits had clear pathways and their smoke alarms were checked regularly and working.
A working smoke detector is your best friend and your second best friend is a fire blanket - if you don’t have either of them make sure you have both in your home. Neither are expensive items. A small powder filled fire extinguisher is also a worthwhile item to have in your home. Make sure when you purchase a fire blanket and extinguisher that you do not mount them between the stove and the sink - they must be accessible if a fire breaks out on the stove. Also is you are cooking make sure you have the lid of the pot nearby. The Fire Brigade takes approximately 8 minutes to get to a house fire in Warrnambool.
Steve Ryan from the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority will talk about managing the Merri River System and issues relating to the ecological management of the Merri, including seasonal variations in river flow, mouth openings and fish ecology.
RCW Warrnambool East is once again mounting the City of Warrnambool Art Show which is scheduled for 25-27 September, with the gala opening scheduled for Friday evening September 25. 70% of the funds raised will go towards supporting the local community. This year the primary local focus will be to assist Lifeline South West Vic, to install a call back phone system. The remaining 30% of the funds will go towards continuing work the club has been doing over the last few years in East Timor, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Tickets to the Gala Opening are now selling at $20 per person. Attendees are automatically in the draw, announced on the night, for 2 nights for two at a 4 star Melbourne hotel. Drinks and canapes served, accompanied by the Warrnambool City Jazz Band playing on stage background music. Several further afield artists will be exhibiting for the first time this year.
Contact Roger Cussen, Convener, Art Show Committee, on 0409389080, or let Judy Ross know.
