Exciting news! Millie has made it through and is going to the National Youth Science Forum. Congratulations to Millie!. Thanks to Greg Alison and members for backing her on this formative experience. We'll be hearing from her soon. Greg is currently away so I've stolen his thunder from telling you in person, but I know he is very excited to inform you all.
Robbo has written a wonderful update from the meeting last week so I'll keep it light.
We banked another 16 hours of service to the community this weekend at the stunning Multicultural Festival and at the annual Warrnambool Veterans Health Week Community Picnic, which is run by RSL Active, a program the club have supported for the past four years. Thank you everyone who got involved in both of those opportunities.
The board have acted swiftly to agree to match the Rotary Club of Mount Martha's $500 to make the total of $1000 to buy 200 birthing kits to go to Ingin Village. This village is very close to Moses' village Komea, and they have a mid-wife nurse there. These kits will assist mothers and babies odds of survival when birthing happens outside of a clinic or hospital
This month Rotary International suggest clubs focus on Community and Economic Development. We have spare guest speak spot if you have a suggestion!
Welcome back everyone who has been away, it's fantastic to see you again.
17 of us enjoyed a very nice Asian chicken, and an excellent and informative meeting. Great to see more of our “Queensland” members appearing, and particularly nice to see Stu Bethune and Tim Goodall after some time away. If everyone who has attended since 1 July turned up at once I reckon we’d have 30+, so let’s see if we can make it happen. Especially as there is a bit happening at present.
We were reminded of the Warrnambool Multicultural Festival on the Civic Green on Saturday 1st Oct, which turned out to be a truly wonderful day as I’m sure President James will report. Great that we were a part of it.
We were also reminded of Marg Hutson’s Inner Wheel fundraiser film on Sunday at 3pm…”The Phantom of the Open”. True story, and a real feelgood movie that turned out to be every bit as good as Marg had promised. Well,…at least the second half was….Bloody Daylight Saving!!....I changed the car clock, and every other clock in the house except the one in the kitchen being the one on which I was relying. I can’t wait to see the first half one day.
Our guest speakers were fabulous Moses Levi from Torquay, and Jonathon Mayne from the Rotary Club of Mount Martha talking on the potable water project which we have supported for some time in the Southern Highlands of PNG. Moses is a remarkable young 30 something man whose story is worth telling. Although he lives in Geelong, it is his older brother Tim back in the villages who is the project’s point-man. Villages drawing water from streams which see showers/toilets and animals combine have predictable problems. It is not good to use the rivers for drinking, but that’s what happens. After erecting buildings to provide rainwater run-off and storage in Moses’ home village of remote Meni (pop 3,000), the Water Project has just achieved the same great outcome for the slightly less remote (think mid-way between Mt Hagen and Goroka) village of Signi which has a similar population. With a very efficient total cost of $25,000, the whole project (roofed buildings, pipes, storage tanks) was completed in three weeks. Moses made the point that understanding “PNG time”, completion of this show in 3 weeks illustrates just how critical clean water is up there. Jonathon spoke briefly, and became quite emotional explain that without our donations (totalling I think $7,500) this wouldn’t have been possible.
I’m pretty sure our connection to all this came from James meeting Moses in PNG some years ago while James was up there photographing for UNICEF. And listen to Moses’ story which some of us elicited from him in conversation after the meeting. By the age of four he was orphaned, deserted and cursed. Seriously! His father a chieftain died, and his mother took up with the chieftain of a nearby village with whom they’d been warring for years. Not done! Moses was literally cursed, to the extent he couldn’t go outside in daylight or he’d have sticks and stones thrown at him. He lived as a street urchin, and fled to another village where an older brother attended a Baptist Missionary school. A young teacher couple from the Mornington Peninsula, doing two year’s service at the school wondered who this mysterious little street kid was? In brief they took him in, and brought him with them when they returned to Victoria. They raised him and he totally regards them as his parents. He is now a coronary care nurse at the Epworth in Geelong, with two young children.
The world is an amazing place.
Jonathon’s club’s next project is two provide 200 birthing kits to another village in the area where there are horrendous losses of mothers and newborns. Standard procedure is for the mother to wander off into the bush to give birth, usually with a woman who has at least had a child of her own. The birthing kits are relatively simple with a plastic sheet, scissors and so forth, but will make a significant difference. Our club will be looking to provide some support there as well. https://www.bkfa.org.au
Gerald Irvine had successful By-pass surgery in Geelong on Tuesday and should be home middle of this week. We are all thinking of you Gerald.
Vocational Visits.
Rob Harris has organised a vocational visit morning on Wednesday 19th of October between 9.00am and noon. We will be visiting SWI Engineering, Pacific Materials Handling and K9000 Dog Wash. Keep the morning free and join us for what should be a very interesting experience.
Veterans' Health Week
James and Adam are busy attending Veterans' Health Week activities including the annual Warrnambool Veterans' Community Picnic and Walking off the War Within (20kg/20km pack march around Lake Pertobe) and PolliePedal (Adam reports very sore buttocks with day one being 105km of hills!)
These events raises the profile of veterans and emergency services, and their families, connecting the community to them which supports better mental health outcomes.
If you know a veteran or a family member, reach out and say a special g'day this week.
The Commissioner for Emergency Management, Andrew Crisp. dropped by the Warrnambool picnic and said " Mental health doesn't discriminate and whether you wear a uniform or not, you're a commissioner or in a junior role, everyone has been through tough times and if just one or two people put their hand up and tell tier story, today is a success."
And a success it was! Many stories on the tracks and out on the roads, new mates, good times!
Rotten Returns.
This week Ron basks in Geelong's premiership. Apparently Ron is personally responsible for most of the South East Asian Geelong supporter base. Ron writes;
Brain Cancer Fundraiser.
EXCITING NEWS!!!! Someone, who wishes to remain a mystery, has offered to match dollar for dollar for all monies we can raise. Register and bring mates. This is a big opportunity to get behind Brendan and his family and help the Brain Cancer Foundation keep advancing their research into a cure - there is currently No Cure.
From Brendan and Linda - This year our family is walking to remember Matty who passed away in Feb 2019 from brain cancer aged 26.
We will again walk from The Pavillion to Granny’s Grave and return to remember Matty. Feel free to join us on this walk as we raise money to research this disease that has no effective treatment or cure. The average life span of someone diagnosed with brain cancer is 14 months.
Please help to make this a treatable disease and remember Matty.
Last week your correspondent travelled to New Zealand. Because of the time difference, once we landed, we had to put our clocks forward by two hours. Two days later NZ went into daylight savings time and we lost another hour. Six days later we flew home and we gained two hours. However, Victoria was not on daylight savings time, so we put our clocks back a further hour. (Incidentally, the flight time was 2:50, so the flight landed ten minutes before it took off.) A day later Victoria went into daylight savings time, so we reset our clocks again.
Nobody understands the problem better than Ron, and this week he sends us a report from the Old Blighty as they prepare for the end of daylight savings.
Positions vacant.
2022 has been characterised by surging demand for product and services and a shortage of products and raw materials, and a shortage of labour to meet that demand. Everybody is hiring, and almost nobody is looking for work. New Zealand is, if anything, worse. Almost every business has a help wanted sign out the front and many are offering reduced services due to staff shortages. I thought this sign summed up the ‘surging demand but nobody to do the work’ era we find ourselves in.
Rotary Horse Racing report.
After a long winter, we finally had a horse running in a race this weekend. The mighty Sirileo Miss went down to Flemington to race in the Furphy Rose of Kingston Stakes. I suspect we might have been well represented trackside on the day. Potholes was one of those on course and kindly sent us this snap of Sirileo pre-race.
The stables were honest about the fact that Sirileo was unlikely to do well at this point in her preparation and really just wanted to give her a run. Eleventh out of thirteen reflected this reality. Wilde Racing assure us they have bigger fish to fry with Sirileo a bit deeper into the Spring. Fingers crossed.
Ten years ago.
Ten years ago, Hawthorn fans were recovering from a disappointing loss to the Swannies in the Grand Final. Most of the current Geelong team were in their early to mid-twenties. Essendon fans were looking forward to a very promising 2013 season with James Hird and Bomber Thompson in charge.
Rotary International's statement of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
As a global network that strives to build a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change, Rotary values diversity and celebrates the contributions of people of all backgrounds, regardless of their age, ethnicity, race, colour, abilities, religion, socioeconomic status, culture, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
