Our meeting on the 27/2/2024 was a special meeting for our Club with the aim not only of
hearing from Adam Kent, our speaker for the night, but to thank everyone who helped our
Club prepare and run the recent very successful book sale.
We welcomed our guests for the evening including our speaker Adam Kent and son Billy,
visiting Rotarian Frank Monger and Janet Phillips, Friends of Rotary Jenny Trenery, Joan
Austin, Phillip Ross, Jenny Lewis, past Rotarian Daffyd Wiesner-Ellix and Annette Wiesner-
Ellix.
Anne Adams welcomed and thanked all guests who helped and supported us with the recent
book sale. These people additional to those above who also helped include Peter and
Philomena Headon, Peg Davis, Barb Johnson, Cathy and Ken Parsons, Ali Kemp and
Maryanne Vagg. Pretty much everyone in our Club who could either helped to prepare for
the sale or participated on the days of the sale. It was a united club event that raised
considerable funds for the clubs’ projects.
Apologies for the meeting from Rachell Furnell, Terry O’Neill, Lola Lee, Keith McLeod, Anne
Body, Andrew Body and Brooke McLeod.
We were saddened to hear of the passing of Rachel’s Mum, Fran. The club sent flowers to
Rachel and several members attended the service which was last Thursday at Eastern Park
Chapel. It was a lovely service.
On Saturday a week ago, several of our members went along to the barracks on Pertobe
road to attend a BBQ with veterans who were visiting Warrnambool as part of the planned
Veterans Family Camp organized by Adam Kent from Asset in partnership with Geelong
Adventure Specialists (GAS). Brooke was there doing Face Painting and making the kids
and adults alike very happy with their designs.
Cathy Bligh in her role as Elder Abuse Prevention Coordinator at Mpower, asked if any
members were willing to be involved in a film on ageism. Contact Cathy if interested.
Glen Brotchie reminded us of the golf day March 22nd which unfortunately coincides with the
Framlingham Golf Club trip so both Trevor’s are out for the weekends. I am a golf widow
now! Peter Smid has kindly offered to take over coordination of the event on the day as Glen
will be unavoidably away that weekend. Thankyou Peter.
Adam Kent our speaker for the night. It was a well-presented talk and for me who was
around 18-20 when the Vietnam War was on it bought back memories of the returned
soldiers and how they were treated. I had several friends who went off to Vietnam and some
really struggled on their return. Tony Austin sent me a link to a YouTube video after listening
to Adams talk and if you listen to the words of the song, it increases your understanding of
the impact of this war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wL1lWm4pKo&t=74s
On reflection I think we could do a project even district wide aimed at helping and supporting
our young men and women who return from war in some way as we could link it into several
Rotary themes including mental health, domestic violence, and peace and conflict resolution.
Perhaps we should get together with Adam and RSL and have open discussions.
Adam spoke to us about his Army experience and life after discharge and the importance of
ex-military personnel not becoming isolated but remaining connected not just an individual
but within their families and the challenges that presents. He spoke of the recognition his
and others’ work has gained from taking the broader view of connecting families and people
within the community rather than separating people. It was an excellent presentation, and
we hope to be involved with Adam again in the future. Thank you also to Billy who came
along with his dad.
An outline on Adam is below.
To close the meeting Janet thanked John Beks and Kelly for organizing the Crossly St
Brigid’s evening, Adam for his talk and Billy for coming along. Thank you again to all who
helped with the book sale and a reminder that there is another one on at Easter.
Another Reminder
1. The Count - Super Tuesday this Tuesday the 5th of March from 7am - 9am* remember to
read your email.
2. This Tuesday is the Birthing Kits assembly at the Warrnambool Bowls Club Timor Street in the big room there, 6pm for 6:15pm start.
“Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams
into reality.” — Jonas Salk
6pm for a 6:15pm start at the Warrnambool Bowls Club
A reminder, if you cannot attend the meeting; please contact David Brown via 0438 647 536 or dljb3280@gmail.com If you are on sargeant, fellowship or invocation and cannot make the meeting, please contact Kelly Curran via 0431 746 478 or kellycurran001@hotmail.com
Please continue to bring along your washed milk bottle tops. Svet and her Girl guides are working with Lauren, who came and spoke to us. You can give the lids to Svet or Judy. Bread tags are also still being collected.
Robbie
Empty Medicine Packets
Robbie will be collecting empty medicine packets from now on to be recycled. If you would like to know how 'blister packs' get recycled, you can watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4IOv58Y4Xg
Rachel Furnell
It's time to start thinking about RYLA 2024! nominations are open for RYLA 2024, please see Rachel for more information
David Brown
Port Fairy Folk Festival _ one volunteer needed
We still need one volunteers to fill two vacant shifts .
The vacant shifts are Friday evening/Saturday afternoon
Undertaking 2 shifts entitles the volunteer to a weekend festival pass valued at $365.
The crowd management task is not onerous and essentially involves providing directions within the Tent.
If you have family members, friends or work colleagues who may be interested have them contact David on 0438647536 or dljb3280@gmail.com .
Thank you to the Warrnambool Rotary club for the flowers and kind condolence card.
Your thoughts and messages were greatly appreciated.
Regards
Rachel
Wisecrack of the week
From John Beks
A little about Adam Kent prepared by Tony Austin
Adam was born in Geelong but has been in Warrnambool since 2015.
Adam joined the Australian Army in January 2001 as a 25-year-old looking for an escape
from rural life.
His first deployment was to Timor Leste and then Iraq in 2003. Adam completed five years active service with the army returning to civilian life in 2006. Since leaving the army he has been a Reservist for 14 years. Adam is very conscious of the challenges faced by soldiers moving from active service.
back into the civilian community. These challenges include but are not limited to marital breakdown, alcoholism and difficulty relating to children.
Adam now believes that the first step in putting things right is for the person to accept that they need help. Adam was initially embarrassed when he realized he needed help but is now proud that he had the strength to make the decision to do something about it. This realization set the path for Adam’s future role in the vet community. Adam now spends most of his time working with regional vets in suicide prevention, health and wellbeing.
In 2018 Adam became involved in RSL Active. A group which helps its members, primarily vets, open and promote connections, re-integrate, stay mentally and physically healthy and achieve a sense of belonging that they often miss when they return to civilian life.
In 2021 the Warrnambool RSL Active had over 200 veterans and family members participating. In October 2019 Adam was a witness at the Legislative Assembly Economy And Infrastructure Committee Inquiry into sustainable employment for disadvantaged jobseekers.
I’m going to read an extract from the transcript of the enquiry attributed to Adam where he clearly articulated part of the problem he’s trying to address.
“… people are getting out voluntarily and they are okay, but then they do not know how
to fit back in. You have got people in their late 20s that have joined as 18-year-olds who come back
into their communities. Their friends are different. Their friends do not know how to treat them, they do not know how to act in front of their friends and then they decline to the crisis state.”
In 2022 Adam was employed in a new state role as a Victorian Veteran Family Services veteran liaison officer with Melbourne Legacy. In that role he worked on a project that supported Veterans, families and people who had been impacted by veteran suicide. In 2022 Adam was the recipient of the Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak’s Peter Johns Community Service Award recognizing his volunteer contribution to the RSL and The RSL Active Warrnambool program.
In 2023 Adam began his own business, Asset Connecting Communities however, as Adam commented, Asset Connecting Communities doesn’t pay the bills. Adam works part time as an arborist to pay the bills but through Asset Connecting Communities he works to change the damaging perception that veterans are broken people.
Late last year Adam approached our Rotary club seeking support for a proposed Veteran and Families Weekend in Warrnambool which he wanted to offer to the statewide veteran community. Because of the projects connection to veterans and their families I’m proud to say our Board had no hesitation in agreeing to help in any way we could. Adam was successful in getting the project up and it was held on Friday through Sunday last weekend.
Several of us attended the group’s BBQ on Saturday and it was obvious that, thanks to the work of Adam, the project was a resounding success. Adam is here this evening to speak to us about the weekend and his work. Adam our club is becoming increasingly aware of the need to raise mental health
awareness and we are keen to do what we can to achieve that. What you have achieved tonight is to brought that one step closer.
I’ll close off by paraphrasing something Adam once said when speaking about how we should work together to address the issue:
“For me it is a two-way street: veterans have got to be open-minded and have got to want to say, ‘How do I fit in?’, and the local community need to say, ‘How can we include these guys? How can we understand them to start with?’. They are assets sitting there, not leaving the four walls of their house.”
Blister-pack Recycling Trial Program
The environment is a new area of focus for Rotary. The four Rotary Clubs of Warrnambool are working to implement a variety of environmental projects in our community. Accordingly, the four Rotary clubs (Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak, Rotary Club of Warrnambool, Rotary Club of Warrnambool Central and the Rotary Club of Warrnambool East) have begun a medical blister-pack recycling trial program across Warrnambool. The trial project has received support and funding from Warrnambool City Council through their Community Development Fund, meaning that pharmacies and businesses participating in the project will not incur any cost during the trial period.
Currently, most medical blister-packs in our region go into landfill. This project aims to divert this waste from landfill by collecting the blister-packs and forwarding them to Pharmacycle, a company in NSW which sorts and recycles the material.
The collection process is very easy. Community members can recycle their pharmaceutical
blister packs by dropping them into collection boxes in the following locations;
Anchor Point Retirement Villiage, 55 Aberline Road.
Archie Graham Community Centre, 118 Timor Street.
Direct Chemist Outlet Target, Shop T11, 154 Koroit Street.
Infinity Pharmacy Warrnambool, 143-149 Lava Street.
Soulsby and Struth Pharmacy, 103 Liebig Street.
Rotary Contacts
Liza McCosh, Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak, T:0410464330 E: liza.mccosh@icloud.com
Tony Davies, Rotary Club of Warrnambool Central, T: 0418 582 024 E: anthony.davies@hotmail.com
Graeme Ward, Rotary Club of Warrnambool, T: 0428 573 280 E: graeme.ward57@bigpond.com
Nicole Larter, Rotary Club of Warrnambool East, T: 0408 368 145 E: nicolelarter1971@bigpond.com
Information for Golf Day and Bowls Day for March 22nd.
District 9810 Conference in Warnambool March 22 – 24 2024
Rotarians from Melbourne District 9810 are having their Conference in Warrnambool on the 22 – 24 March. On the 22 March the WRC will be hosting a Golf Day at East Framlingham GC and a Bowls Day at Dennington Bowls club. The aim is to give the participants of conference a taste of Warrnambool. We are hoping that Rotarians from our clubs in Warrnambool might participate in either of the events. The aim is to support the conference and to meet rotarians from the Melbourne District 9810.
Golfing Details
Competition will be a 4BBB Stableford game
Venue: East Framlingham Golf Club
Date: March 22 nd 2024
Time: 8:00 AM Hit Off
Cost: $45, includes round of Golf and BBQ Luncheon catered by the East Framlingham Ladies
$5 will go towards Rotary End Polio Now Project.
RSVP by March 1st
Contact:
Warrnambool Rotary Club Rotarian Glenn Brotchie
0432680558
brotchieg@gmail.com
Bowls Details
Rotarians who wish to play in the bowling day should contact Friend of Rotary, Phillip Ross.
His contact mobile number is 0428 827 533.
Phillip and his committee have arranged an interesting day, with a game of bowls, morning
tea, and luncheon provided
