Stories

More travels

Member Di Lane has been visiting Guernsey in the Channel Islands (between England and France) over the last week. As you will see below, the coast of the island is dotted with fortifications that Germany built or added to during their occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II. Guernsey is characterised by exceedingly narrow roads and signs in the local version of French.

Meanwhile, Bruce McDonald is holidaying in Norway with family, which has included strenuous hikes with grandchildren to high places.

Copy of RC Adelaide Parks film fundraiser

Rotary Club of Adelaide Parks Fundraising Event

You are invited to join members of the Rotary Club of Adelaide Parks at
The Regal Theatre, 275 Kensington Road, Kensington Park
on Sunday 11 April 2021
to see The Courier (we’ve got tired of waiting for James Bond!)

3.30 pm for 4.00 pm movie screening
Ticket price will include raffle tickets.
Tickets are $20 per person and proceeds from the event will be distributed to South
Australian agencies assisting the homeless and disadvantaged.
The movie length is approximately 2 hours.

Please contact Lesley Grady at lmgrady@hotmail.com for bookings.
Payment details will be provided when booking.

Copy of Volunteering training day

TRAINING DAY

SKILLS FOR

THE FUTURE OF

VOLUNTEERING

SATURDAY 20TH MARCH

9AM - 5PM (8.30AM START)

ADELAIDE HILTON INTERNATIONAL

Last year dealt many challenges for volunteers, forcing us to adapt and change the way we volunteered.

This year's VOLUNTEER TRAINING DAY, 'Skills for the Future', will focus on communications and fundraising techniques that ShelterBox volunteers can use to address these challenges and look to re-engage in volunteer activities in 2021.

This session will be invaluable to any volunteer engaged in communications, fundraising or promotional activities.

RSVP: kieryn.deutrom@shelterbox.org.au

or phone 0400 273 624

Please notify of any dietary requirements

(morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch will be provided free of charge)

*Numbers are strictly limited so please RSVP as soon as possible.

Funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and supported by Volunteering ACT.

Fundraising Report 2019-2020

Posted on Jun 29, 2020

The year started well with Bunnings barbeques at Mile End raising the majority of the money required to support our projects. We were close to achieving budget, however, due to COVID 19 restrictions which resulted in the cessation of barbeques, we will not meet our target. We were very grateful to receive the generous $500 gift voucher from Bunnings which will be used for the Catherine House garden project.

Christmas tree sales were very successful at Bunnings, Kent Town, making slightly over our budget amount. The supplier was able to provide us with high quality trees again this year.

Both of these major fund raisers were very well supported by our members who worked at times in uncomfortable weather conditions, for which we are grateful. We were also grateful for the Rotaractors' help with the Christmas tree sales.

The Superloop Adelaide 500 carparking fund raiser made a little less this year due to street parking being opened up to the public.

Our minor fund raisers such as bottle and can recycling, Christmas cakes and puddings sales, and Entertainment book sales were successful.

The money raised has been allocated to all of our projects and we have been able to provide donations to assist with bush fire recovery.

Changeover Zoom Meeting 25/06/2020

Congratulations to our new President Rob McLennan and thank you Immediate Past President Katrina for your tireless work during the 2019/20 year. This morning at our Zoom Changeover we congratulated Di Lane and John R Campbell
on receiving PHF’s for their contribution to our club and Rotary

Film Fundraiser dinner

Enjoying a delicious meal with fellow Rotarians after our film evening - joined by members of the Rotary Club of Adelaide Parks

Rotary & Toastmasters alliance

Rotary and Toastmasters have formed an alliance and are offering communication courses to help members to grow networks, improve skills and to increase their impact in the community.

The first two courses, which were developed by Toastmasters International, are:

Develop a speech – Learn how to write compelling speeches that take into account your topic, audience and goal.

Deliver a speech – Explore the effect your voice and body language can have on your audience.

Rob McLennan spoke at Toastmasters last Wednesday evening and found it to be a very useful experience and the feedback to be helpful. He felt that it would be beneficial for Rotarians to develop a relationship with a Toastmasters club.

Rob has invited a member of the Toastmasters City Club to be a guest speaker which Dean will organise.

Cancer Council Biggest Morning Tea

Thank you to everyone - Rotarians, Rotaractor and friends who joined us for The Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea which our Club hosted via Zoom last Thursday morning. Also a big thank you to those who were unable to attend, but chose to make a donation. This has resulted in $475 being raised by our club for the Cancer Council.

It was a fun morning when we all were able to get to know each other a little better through our “mug or cup” stories. Congratulation to John C who was judged as having the best story and to Angus for winning a competitive game of Cups and Saucers!

Julie Campbell

Zoom meeting

John Campbell's moustache cup - the winner

Di Nicholas (Casey)

We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Di Nicholas (Casey).

Di was a very active member of our Rotary Club for many years and held a strong interest in the development of young people. She was a great supporter of Rotary Youth Leadership Award, Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment and National Youth Science Forum programs and acted as "camp mum" at the RYLA annual camp for the young attendees.

At District 9500 level she was very involved in the committee for Rotaract (18 – 30 year old) and Interact (14 – 17 year old).

Di was an active member of the planning and organising team for the District 9500 Conference held at Alice Springs.

Di held the position of Director of Vocational Services and in memory of her son, Sam, Di set up the Sam Casey “Encouragement Award” and was involved in the SA Enterprise Workshops with the support of our Club. Each year, at the end of the workshop, the winners of the Award, were given financial assistance to develop their business.

Di also held the position of Public Relations Director.

Di was a very hardworking, kind and caring person and will be sadly missed.

Di with Deborah Wotherspoon at a RYLA dinner 2013

Di with Deborah at the 2005 Alice Springs District 9500 conference

COVID-19 Statistics

Many of us have an interest in following “the numbers” for COVID-19, not least because what happens from here may have impacts on our own health and well-being. Last week, I sent you the plot that is attached below and it occurs to me it might need a little explanation. The numbers below refer to the situation on 23 April.

The plot shows the total number of confirmed cases for each country, standardised by population. For example, we have 6800 confirmed cases for 25 million people, so the number “per 100,000” is 6800/250=27.2.
The vertical axis is on what is known as a “log scale”. What this means is that it is on a multiplicative scale, so the axis is marked in equal increments that are labelled 1,10,100,1000, so each equal increment corresponds to a factor of 10. The reason for this is that epidemics like this tend to grow at a multiplicative rate – if each person infected gives the virus to 2 others, say, then there will be 3 infected; if those 2 each give it to 2 others, there will be an extra 4, making 7; those 4 give it to 8, making 15; the 8 give it to 16, making 31; and so on. It basically doubles at each “generation” of the virus. If we use this “log scale”, the doubling will come out as a straight line. A really steep straight line, such as the early days for Spain, Italy, UK, US, represent about a 30% increase each day, so that the numbers doubled every 3 days. That’s what happens here without any constraints. With social distancing, the line flattens (flattening the curve), so reducing it to a 10% increase per day leads to a doubling every 7 days. The aim of course is to get the % increase as low as possible. We are now below a 1% increase per day.
The lowest curve is South Korea (I haven’t shown China since I don’t believe their numbers!). But Australia and NZ have similarly flat curves out to the right and very low infection rates overall. Its perhaps hard to see in this plot but Spain is at the top followed by Italy. The US and UK are not far behind but, worryingly, they are still going up quite steeply (about 10% per day).
I haven’t given the numbers of deaths here but that tells an even stronger story. In Australia, we have about 70 deaths. The US is 14 times our size, so if they were on a par with us they would have about 1000 deaths. But they have 40,000 deaths, so it is reasonable to suppose that their infection rate is about 40 times as high as ours. (Part of this high death rate may be due to them not being able to care for patients so well because of the enormous patient load).
In Australia, the death rate is close to 1% of confirmed cases and we believe we probably have recorded most of the symptomatic cases (asymptomatic cases are another story!). On that basis, 40,000 deaths in the US would equate to about 4 million symptomatic cases, whereas their testing only gives about 800,000 confirmed cases. This is a measure of how poorly resourced their testing has been relative to ours. Unhappily, when you repeat these numbers for the UK, it is even worse.
Why did we do so much better? It is pretty clear that the virus in the US and the UK started really getting going about 3-4 weeks earlier than it did in Australia and NZ. Prior to social distancing, it doubled about every 3 days – say, 4 times in one week, 16 in 2 weeks, 64 times in 3 weeks – and we “locked down” about the same time as the US, so it is not surprising that they have 40 times as many cases as we have. They needed the lockdown to occur about 3-4 weeks earlier than they did. Trump and Johnson were missing in action and didn’t take it seriously until far too late. We also had the great advantage of a coordinated response AND adequate protective materials (at least partly because of the much smaller load on the system).
If there are 4 million symptomatic cases in the US now, and many more that are asymptomatic, it is quite possible that the US will end up in a few months with 50% of the population immune to the disease and then herd immunity starts to kick in and it will gradually die out there. That is a problem for us. If we wipe it out in Australia and NZ but only 1-2% have immunity, then we have an almost complete population that is vulnerable. In the absence of a vaccine, that is particularly dangerous. It means that any outbreak can escalate very quickly, especially once we have relaxed those internal controls. I think it will be a good while before we will be able to open our borders.

In some respects, this is very encouraging, but we can also see that there are dangers ahead if we let down our guard.

Bottles & cans fundraising

Message from Rob McLennan :

Our annual amount from bottles and cans for this year is $554.40 and our annual budget was $700 and we reached $ 689.20. This is particularly an aim, given that BBQs have been ceased.

If members leave their bags out by their front gate, I will collect them if notified.

Cheers,

Rob

Women in Rotary, International Women's Day

On 4 March, some of our members and friends attended the annual Women in Rotary International Women's Day Breakfast, at the Wine Centre, to celebrate International Women’s Day and help raise funds to support Rotary International projects. This year’s project supports the prevention of maternal and infant deaths in PNG.

Guest Speaker - Judith-Marie Brown (above) and some of the attendees (below).

Adelaide City e-scooters

Last Thursday we enjoyed an interesting talk from Adelaide City Council speakers, Bryan Ruhle and Emma Watkins. They demonstrated the new safety features of the e-scooter which they brought with them.

Pictured below is Phil Harding.

News from Celia our last Exchange Student

Hy my dear Australian host families,

First I wish you a happy new year to all of you and your families.

My usual news message comes a little bit late this year. After finishing my Masters' internship I found a job in Paris in an urban agency. I joined a team of 4 people. We help municipalities to plan their territory and to design urban projects. The company is based in Marseille but has Agencies all around France. In Paris we are working for cities around Paris, but not for the city of Paris. Working in a private agency is a little bit stressful but I like what we are doing. I'm still in my trial period, until the beginning of March. It's a permanent contract, so when I pass this period, I can stay in this company until my retirement ahaha I don't think I will stay for ever in this company, but I will see later, when I will have enough experience to pretend to something better - maybe in the South-West of France.

At the moment, I'm living in a residence for young people (18-25 years). It's place where workers and student can live. It's really pleasant because we have our own bedroom and bathroom, but we share the kitchen, games, table soccer, and there is an overhead projector. And every night the dinner is served. People living there are coming from all around the world and work or study in all areas. We join each other for dinner and playing games before going back to our bedroom. Paris has usually a reputation of feeling alone in the middle of the crowd, but thanks to this place I don't have this feeling. I take advantage of living in Paris to visit a lot of museum and to walk all around the city during weekends. And I also enjoy going on week end to visit friends living in others cities, because Toulouse and even more Limoges, are not well deserved in train.

I also found Zof, a wildy girl, living in Paris ; and Claire, also a wildy girl living in London. I plan to take advantage of being in Paris to visit other friends from my exchange year living in others European's capitals.

It wasn't easy at the beginning because everything goes very fast in Paris. In December we had a big strike: there were no public transport. For a month I was walking 45 minutes morning and evening to go to work, in the cold...it was very tiring. Now it's over but I keep walking the morning when it's not to rainy or to cold.

My siblings also had big changements in their lives. My sister gets pregnant last winter, and gave birth the 4th of Octobre to a little boy, Raphaël (so cute). And my brother is now a teacher not far from Carcassone (1h from Toulouse, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees). He teaches physic to post graduate student. My parents are enjoying moving between Bordeaux, to see my sister, Raphaël et her husband, and Paris, to visit me and the city.

I hope to hear from you soon !!

Lot of love

Célia 😘

Catherine House

Excerpt from the letter received from Louise Miller Frost - CEO, Catherine House:

As a supporter of Catherine House, I am writing to you as it is important to us, that you understand how your support has made an incredible difference over this past year.

As a small frontline service, and the only service specifically for women experiencing homelessness in South Australia, we are very conscious to make sure that everything we do, every dollar we spend, is targeted at getting better outcomes for the clients we support.

It is you, our invaluable supporters, that ensure charity organisations and support services like Catherine House can continue. The doors of our Emergency and Recovery Programs are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for women who desperately need our support and the opportunity to make a difference in their lives.

Currently, we are only 60% funded by government, which means every year we need to call on our community to provide the additional 40% to ensure we can simply open our doors.

We are so grateful that every year, you answer our call and help us to change lives for the women who come through our doors. We truly couldn’t have the impact we do, without your support.

With some sadness, I am also writing to tell you that I am leaving Catherine House in March 2020. In my past three years at Catherine House, I have been so privileged to come to know a community that cares, a community that is so generous, and a community that is willing to commit to making a difference to those less fortunate.

I have been so honoured to be the face of a service that strives to help the most disadvantaged in our community in a way that is meaningful and makes a permanent difference to their lives. The commitment of each staff member and volunteer to hearing, seeing and helping each individual woman to recover from the trauma that brought her into homelessness, to rebuild her life and move on from homelessness permanently, is heart-warming.

While I am leaving, there remains a strong, skilled and dedicated Leadership Team committed to continuing the exemplary services that Catherine House has become known for. Alongside them are an incredible group of staff from front line to admin that ensure our service provision continues seamlessly, no matter what else is changing. Please feel assured that during this transition phase, it will be business as usual at Catherine House.

Again, on behalf of Catherine House and the women who will stay with us this year, thank you so much for your support and we look forward to another wonderful year making a difference to the lives of women in our community.

Xmas Trees

Once again, our Club will be selling Xmas trees at Bunnings Kent Town over the 3 weekends prior to Christmas.

The trees will be approximately 6ft (180cm) tall, and priced at $79.

They will be available at the following dates and times (until sold out):

Saturdays 7, 14, 21 December, 8am-4pm
Sundays 8, 15 December, 9am-4pm

Come along and enjoy breakfast with us!

Posted on Jun 22, 2019

If you have a passion for "serving the community", our Breakfast Club would like to welcome you to one of our meetings. If you are a visiting Rotarian from interstate or overseas, we would love you to visit us.

We meet for breakfast on the second and fourth Thursday of each month (7am for a 7.15am start). Our meetings feature either entertaining guest speakers or the planning and review of our various service projects.

Those who are able also meet informally on the first, third and fifth Thursday of each month for a "Coffee Conversation" at 9:30am at "The White Picket", 10 Stuart Rd Dulwich.

If you are interested in coming along to a meeting to see what we do and meet our other members, you can just show up, but it is probably wise to contact us first by email, at membership@rotaryadelaidelight.org.

Last week's meeting

Posted by Richard Jarrett

Last week's speaker was Lisa Burman, originally a primary teacher, but now an educational consultant specialising in Early Learning. Lisa spoke about her 120 years in New York, which started just a month after the World Trade Centre disaster in 2001. Her role there was as a consultant in a company called "Aussie" (Australian-US services in education). During her time with the company it grew from 60 to 350 consultants, 80% of whom were Australian. She moved into a borwnstone in Brooklyn and consulted with 3-4 schools, the most challenging of which was a "bilungual" school, wgere each class had two teachers, one using American sign language and the other speaking in English. She found some of the most effective changes were to change the environment from "cluttered" to "beautiful", and to introduce books into the classroom.

A lot of the ideas for all this come from Carla Rinaldi, one of the Thinkers in Residence in Adelaide, who comes from Reggio Emilia in Italy - one of the leaders in innovative educational practices. One of the fascinating aspects in what Lisa presented was the idea of young children producing their own books. We saw a video of a 4-year old "reading" his own book, which consisted of a series of pictures he had drawn, and then another video of two 7-year olds who read and talked about quite complex stories they had written. So, the program is about encouraging the children's imagination, and giving them a sense of "I can do this" - rather than criticising their shortcomings and failures.

Guest Speaker

Posted by Julie Campbell on Dec 01, 2016

Our Guest Speaker for last week was Lincoln Size from the Cancer Council.

Rotaract Changeover, Jun 2016

Posted by Julie Campbell

Adelaide Light Rotary congratulates Adelaide City Rotaract Club on their changeover last Friday night when new president Paige Honor introduced her exciting new board for the coming year. Outgoing president Kirsti inducted two new members, summed up a very busy year and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Logan for her commitment to Rotaract. This was presented to her by Past District Governor John Campbell.

District Changeover, Jun 2016

At District 9500 Changeover, the Rotary Club of Adelaide Light was presented with the recognition of 100% Paul Harris Fellows membership awarded to us by Rotary International Chicago Head Office. Present at the Changeover from our club to receive this award were Barry and Barbara Grear and John and Julie Campbell.

Guest Speaker

Former Adelaide Light member Tony Williamson spoke passionately about "Cows for Cambodia" which is a project started by Andrew Costello (better known for his TV show "South Aussie with Cosie". Originally Cosie proposed an animal farm in the Adelaide Parklands near the Zoo or Police Training Grounds but this didn't go ahead. Cosie still wished to use his expertise (he has a degree in Agricultural Science) to help people as so was born "Cows for Cambodia" after a trip showed him the poverty that existed in that country.

Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest nations. All rural families dream to own a cow but the reality is that most families will never be able to afford one. Cows for Cambodia is essentially a “COW BANK”. They loan families a pregnant cow, they must look after it and when it has the baby they get to keep the baby and we take our cow back. It’s more about providing an opportunity to break the poverty cycle rather than a direct handout.

Cows for Cambodia occurs around Siem Riep - a rural area where cows are the absolute asset. Cosie currently has one beautiful bull and 25 cows but with the overwhelming success of this project his the long term goal is to have 1,000 cows in the project which will make Cows for Cambodia one of Asia's biggest Agriculture charity projects. Cosie visits the area 3 times per year to vaccinate the cows, do a general health check and ensure that the families are undertaking their promise to look after the cow. Families with children are targeted by Cosie as this teaches the children to treasure the cows, helps educate them about responsibilities and they gain an understanding of wealth generation. With a cow in the family, children are also able to attend school as they don't need to help scrape out a living for the family.

A project being undertaken by Cows for Cambodia in association with the Australian-Cambodian Foundation is attempting to raise (with Rotary Club's help) a total of $4,000 by April 2017 (although the commitment is required by October this year) for more dispersal of cows to worthy families. Currently $A1 million worth of cows are being tended by the families, and Cosi is hoping to achieve a sustainable level of cows and new calves so that more poor families can benefit from the project - and subsequently improve their living conditions which is dirt floors and shanty-like accommodation.

Another project that Cosie undertakes is the Rice Run. They started the rice runs in 2015, with Cosie sending out a Facebook post from Cambodia asking Australians to donate $30 each so he can buy a 50kg bag of rice and deliver it to a family. The Aussie donor gives me their name, suburb and a message for the Cambodian family which is then written on the bag. A photo is taken with the rice recipient and these photos are placed back on Facebook. This all happens IMMEDIATELY with 100% of your donation reaching the Cambodian people in under TWO HOURS! Cosie believes this is the WORLDS FASTEST DONATION TO RECIPIENT TURNAROUND! It’s something they are very proud of.

From the acting President

Posted by John Campbell on Apr 28, 2016

Our Speaker last week was Peggy Veloudos and her topic was “Tea and how to do business with it.”

Peggy gave us a wonderful insight into how her love of tea transformed into a family successful business – T Bar based here in Adelaide, now with a wide range special imported and brewed teas catering for her many clients here in Adelaide and around Australia.

Peggy spoke of her mothers special formula, based on Amgoorie tea but enriched with favourite garden essences which was the catalyst to her developing her business.

We all received a complimentary T Bar package – want more - visit Peggy’s shop in the Adelaide Market.

John Campbell

IMPORTANT REMINDER:

There will be no Thursday Morning meeting on May 12^th – this will be replaced by the 7pm Wednesday 11^th May “Welcome to Adelaide Light Rotary” function at Royal Coach Hotel . All Rotarians will be expected to attend to welcome and meet invited guests.

The costs of the guests and their partner will be covered by the Rotary Club of Adelaide Light. The cost for Members and partners is $28 each which includes 1 glass of Sparkling wine, red or white wine, beer or soft drink on arrival. Finger food will be provided throughout the evening.

Meeting starts – 6.45 for 7.00 pm

Our Rotary projects (Soles4Soles, Colombia scholarships, and the Rotary Foundation) as well as Shelter Box will be on display and the Club will also make financial presentations during the night. It will be a celebration of the work we do in front of potential members.

John Campbell

Membership Team Leader

BBQ in Elder Park

Rotarians at Hills Hoist 70th Event - jack the black Labrador is our best customer so far!
Posted by Julie Campbell on Friday, November 13, 2015

BBQ in Elder Park

<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=507598269413665&set=o.1675169319394541&type=3" data-width="500"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=507598269413665&set=o.1675169319394541&type=3"><p>Yesterday's guest speaker Steve Davis enthralled our Rotary Club describing "The Adelaide Show" a weekly podcast he broadcasts. Steve is pictured with Rotarian Phil Harding drawing the lucky number raffle</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/julie.campbell.10888938">Julie Campbell</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=507598269413665&set=o.1675169319394541&type=3">Thursday, November 12, 2015</a></blockquote></div></div>

Quiz Night

Posted on Sep 10, 2015

The Good Guys BBQ

The Good Guys BBQ is progressing well. There have, however, been a few developments.

The Good Guys are keen to make the BBQ available to other organisations as well, so we have negotiated with them that the 1^st weekend of the month will be available for other organisations
Our Club gets the rest
We have agreed with them for the dates for the next 3 months, so the dates we are NOT THERE are
1. 5/9 & 6/9 (includes Fathers Day)
2. 3/10 & 4/10
3. 7/11 & 8/11

The online roster will be amended to reflect these changes.

Facebook!

After a false start (apologies!), we are now on Facebook as a Community Page - Rotary Adelaide Light - just go to the website https://www.facebook.com/rotaryadelaidelight .

You will be able to see the latest posts, but to do any more than that, you will need to have a Facebook account and login properly to Facebook. Then you can "like" the page. Once you have done that, any posts to Rotary Adelaide Light will automatically come up in your Facebook feed.

Community Service Report

Posted by Deborah Wotherspoon on Sep 01, 2015

I have had a few suggestions put to me regarding projects for this coming year for Community Service.

Following Di Lane's suggestion that it would be a good idea to become involved in Youth Opportunities, I contacted Peter Carey and below is his response.

"Thanks for your feedback Deborah, and thanks very much for your offer for assistance. I will keep it in mind and certainly let you know if we can use your help.

I have attached an invitation to our upcoming graduation ceremonies and they are a great example of what our program achieves.

If anyone is interested, please let me know who and what ceremony they are attending.

Regards, Peter Carey."

The graduation ceremonies are as follows:

Murray Bridge High School, Thursday 24th September at 3:30pm, School Drama Space, Murray Bridge High School Campus, Lohmann St, Murray Bridge.
Craigmore High School, Thursday 24th September at 3pm, School Library, Craigmore High School Campus, 2 Jamieson Rd, Blakeview

If anyone is interested in attending either of these graduations, please let me (Deborah) know and I will forward the information on to Peter.

I have also contacted Miriam about possible connections with Catherine House and DeafCanDo and following is her response.

"Yes, Catherine House are keen to do something with us. They have just changed CEO and will meet with us in a few months to figure out how we can help in a practical way. I will make contact with DeafCanDo and see if we can get them to meet with you (or come to a meeting) to talk about their projects, etc.

Kind regards, Miriam."

Walk a Mile in My Boots event

Volunteers needed!

Posted on Aug 10, 2015

run concurrently with the

and Mini-Marathon Family

When?	6:30 - 11am on Sunday 23^rd August
Where?	Meet at Adelaide Oval, Memorial Drive (race is mostly around River)
What’s to do?	Keep drink stations supplied for runners around course – display Rotary Banners (more detail later)
What’s in it for Rotary?	Public awareness about the value of Rotary, opportunity to interest potential members in volunteering
How to volunteer?	Contact John Wotherspoon (licketty split please)
	m: 0488 0000 50 or e: waddy@adam.com.au
	*Lightly used shoes for Tanzanians* *to prevent life-changing* *parasitic invasion (jiggers)*

President of Rotary International in 2017-18: Ian Riseley

The Rotary Club of Adelaide Light congratulates Ian Riseley, an Australian accountant and member of the Rotary Club of Sandringham, Victoria on his selection as the 2017-18 Rotary president.

Ian H.S. Riseley, of the Rotary Club of Sandringham, Victoria, Australia, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International in 2017-18.

He will become the president-nominee on 1 October if no other candidates challenge him. Riseley says that meaningful partnerships with corporations and other organizations are crucial to Rotary’s future.

“We have the programs and personnel and others have available resources,” says Riseley. “Doing good in the world is everyone’s goal. We must learn from the experience of the polio eradication program to maximize our public awareness exposure for future partnerships.”

Riseley is a practicing accountant and principal of Ian Riseley and Co., which specializes in advising local and international businesses, and has a strong interest in international affairs. He received the AusAID Peacebuilder Award from the Australian government in 2002 in recognition of his work in Timor-Leste. He also received the Order of Australia medal in 2006 for service to the Australian community.

“Governments see Rotary as positive representatives of a civil society,” he says. “We should work with them to advocate for peace and conflict resolution, just as we are advocating for polio eradication.”

A member since 1978, Riseley has served Rotary as treasurer, director, trustee, RI Board Executive Committee member, task force member, committee member and chair, and district governor.

He is also a former member of the Australian Polio Eradication Private Sector Campaign and a recipient of The Rotary Foundation’s Service Award for a Polio-Free World. He and his wife, Juliet, are Multiple Paul Harris Fellows, Major Donors, and Bequest Society members.

DG's Partner's Project - Soles4Souls

The Club has been actively involved in supporting the District Governor's partner's project "Soles 4 Souls" over the last 12 months. Here is a thankyou note from Julie:

President Yvette and Club Members,

I am emailing your club to thank them once again for the support they have provided to my “partners project” while John is District Governor this year.

During the 2014/2015 year your club has donated $115 and 280 pairs of shoes

Please convey my thanks to your members for their generosity – in particular Deb Wotherspoon who arranged a collection for most of these shoes through a local playgroup.

Your club has assisted in attaining my District 9500 goal of 8,500 shoes.

In 2015, thanks to the wonderful community who support Soles4Souls:

1,500 pairs of shoes were sent to the people of Vanuatu on board Carnival Cruise Line Australia in April following the cyclone devastating much of the community
100 pairs of boots gifted to the Australian Refugee Association
Through Northern Domestic Violence Society footwear has been provided to women and children in emergency accommodation

I refer you to the website : http://soles4souls.com.au/australia/ for more information

Regards, Julie Campbell

Update from Yuya (former Ambassadorial Scholar)

Successful Quiz Night

Quiz Night Fri 12 June

Hello from Yuya

Port Lincoln Conference

District Conference

Posted by Richard Jarrett

Thanks to all of you who contributed to making the District Conference such a great success. Great location, delicious food, fantastic speakers and delightful company! My particular thanks to the Conference Committee who worked so hard over 18 months of planning. It all paid off, with the conference running very smoothly and efficiently from start to finish.

DG John and Julie, plus Yvette Reade, made the trip over a day early so they could spruik the conference in the print and radio media. We had about 25 locals who came along to hear either Keith Abraham or Gill Hicks, largely as a result of this publicity.

We all started work on Thursday morning, with one team setting up the display tables and registration desk, a second doing the final packing of the registration bags, and a third team putting up banners everywhere and dressing the stage. So efficient were they all that we were pretty well ready to go by 11am! Registration started at 2pm, with Chris Dibden and Joy on the desk. The Local Arrangements desk handed out bus tickets for the dinner and then lured people into buying tickets for both our raffles. The main raffle had a set of prizes put together by Andrew Black, while the magnum raffle had a magnum of d'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz kindly donated by Chris Dibden. Barry and Barb Grear, Bruce McDonald, Di Trethewie, Don Tindale and Angus shared the duties on these two desks. Meanwhile, Dean and Pam Sullivan, together with Angela Rodoni, set up the Rotary Down Under stall and did brisk business for the whole three days - 15% of those proceeds come back to the Club.

Thursday evening we had a Mayoral Reception in the Ballroom at the Port Lincoln Hotel. DG John and the mayor, Bruce Green, welcomed us to Port Lincoln and the hotel put on a fine spread of finger food.

Back to work Friday morning, registering more people and selling more tickets. We had a lunch for "First Timers", including Youth Exchange and the Rotaractors, to which we also invited Presidents, as a way of welcoming them all, and then the conference proper got under way at 1pm.

The backstage team, led by John Wotherspoon, was highly praised by all the speakers who were made to feel at ease, knowing exactly what they had to do and how it was all going to work. John's team consisted of our melifluous MC Rob McLennan, our intrepid time-keeper Ellen Tindale, with assistance backstage from Terry Rodoni on the first day and then Angus Tuck for the last two days. Technical support came from the local expert Peter Mihalaras, assisted by a team from the Port Lincoln High School who manned the equipment and the video camera.

We had a great selection of speakers - Rotary International Representative Greg Ross, an actor and singer, spoke about Light Up Rotary and gave us a song as well, while local identity Stephen Kemp told us about the history and development of Port Lincoln and what makes it such a special place for him. Steve Larkins spoke about the Virtual War Memorial project that the RSL and Rotary are working on together, and Keith Abraham showed us that "it all starts with passion" and how to find the things that we are passionate about.

Saturday morning continued the trend. Mel Irons spoke about the disastrous Tasmanian bushfires, when the Facebook site she created became the vehicle for people to know what was happening and provided a means of channelling requests for help and almost instantaneous responses to those requests. Doris Zagdanski talked to us about how we can better support people in their grief through more reflective listening ("it sounds like..."). After morning tea, we had a great "youth" session where Emma Forster talked about her experiences as an exchange student in Japan and how it changed her life, and then Steve McLachlan moderated a session where one ex-Youth Exchange student and four of our Rotaractors talked about how they got involved and what the experience meant for them. During the morning, Terry and Angela headed off to begin their European odyssey but the team was bolstered by the arrival of Katina Jones, Barb and Fred Field and Miriam Silva.

The Conference Dinner was held at the Leisure Centre, a big double basketball court which the Port Lincoln Club had transformed - fishing nets along one wall, Rotary banners everywhere, seven boats brought in from the Axel Stenross museum, all adding to a great atmosphere. I had totally misjudged the desire for raffle tickets and we ran out early in the evening, so Yvette volunteered to try to find some at Woolworths - as a result we sold another $700 of tickets! The raffles were a great success - the topaz pendant that John Karran had crafted (complete with a set of photos showing the making of it) was won by our speaker Doris Zagdanski who was totally thrilled by it. Thanks to Andrew Black who couldn't be there but did a great job putting the prizes together. The magnum raffle sold out and a second magnum, kindly donated by d'Arenberg when Chris rang up to get some tasting notes about his magnum, was auctioned off, with Adrian Glover of Port Lincoln being the successful bidder. The food, by the way, prepared by Kris Bunder and his team, was delicious, with the seafood entree the highlight. And we were royally entertained, first by the local High School band and then by the local group the Marksmen.

Our first speaker on Sunday was Gill Hicks, who told her remarkable story of courage and persistence, together with her idea of turning the word 'peace' into a verb - something we can all use to take positive steps for a better world. This was followed by Bruce Allen for the Foundation, and then Malcolm Lindquist talking about membership (Who's flying the plane?) and Kay Patterson on Interplast. Doug Layng announced the next conference will be in the Barossa Valley and then Greg Ross and DG John wrapped up the whole proceedings, a few minutes early! We all then repaired to a wonderful barbecue at nearby Puckridge Park where the local club put on a great spread.

As you can see, it was a great team effort, both by our club and the Port Lincoln guys. There have been moments, but overall its been a great ride and we were all pleased to put on a good show.

Rotary Club of Adelaide Light Quiz Night

Posted by Andrew Black on Aug 19, 2013

What a great night we had last Saturday. Although we were all fairly snug the venue was perfect and created a great atmosphere for a very successful Quiz Night.

Our net return of over $2000 for only 115 attendees was a good effort. This was due to many members generously donating a range of exceptional prizes and items for the auction. Our thanks goes out to all members who attended, John W. and Don for their efforts, together with Rob Mc, a better MC you could not find in Adelaide, and Kym who came up with some very unique questions and games to help create a fun night for all.

It was great to have so many of our Rotoractors join us again for our fundraising events. No doubt there will be many more events to come where we are able to combine and assist each other’s clubs.

Lisbon International Rotary Convention

Posted by John Campbell on Jul 22, 2013

I recently attended the Rotary International Convention in Lisbon, and this was an exhilarating experience. It was a significant decision to hold the RI Convention in Lisbon - a city with significant world history as a base for global exploration.

On Saturday 22 June, an Orientation for First Time Convention Attendees was conducted which gave us an indication of what was to come over the next 4 days. There were 25,000 attendees from 167 countries and the internationality of Rotary was on show. This is a very large Convention, so large that the Opening Ceremony is held once in the morning and repeated in the afternoon, so that all attendees are reached. Meeting with members from around the world and hearing their accents, and seeing the wonderful vibrant colours of their National Dress brought this home. As Past RI President Sakuji Tanaka said – ‘at this meeting our differences diminish.’

President Tanaka grew up in post war Japan – the rebuilding period, and at an early age he declared he would do the best job he could, get the most customers, never forget his origins and never be too proud to do the humble deeds.

The presentation of Flags of the World was a moving experience, especially when the Australian Flag came forward. All the flags were raised high above the stage, where they stayed for the duration of the Convention. A surprise finish to day 1 of the Convention was a ¾ hour performance from Il Divo.

The common theme that came through at the Convention was not to be a by-stander. As Leymah Gbowee – 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate and President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa said, ‘Too many people step into the shadows and let evil stand in the light. We need to step out of the shadows and leave a Legacy.’ Leymah called on us to ‘turn the upside down world UPRIGHT.’

Jorge Sampaio, former Mayor of Lisbon and former president of Portugal, spoke passionately of the plight of Syria, where they have lost a generation of academics and they are re-building and re-healing and educating their current generations.

Past Rotary International President Bill Boyd spoke of the need to strengthen Rotary’s message of the impact that we have in communities, recognise our strengths. He said there is a difference between Rotary and other organisations - we are in a category of 1.

 We think differently - because of our diversity

 We act differently - because of our leaders

 Not often projects fail

 We act with passion and perseverance – i.e. Polio eradication started in 1985 and we will carry it through to success

What is wonderful about Rotary and the challenges throughout the world that are presented to us, is that Rotarians in 34,000 communities throughout the world, step up into the light and take the lead and get things done because it is in our DNA. We are not by-standers. A stand-out speaker was Craig Kielburger, Co-founder of Free the Children , Co-founder of Me to We. He spoke of his horror , when at the age of 12, living in Canada he read in the paper of a young boy of the same age who worked as a slave in Pakistan who was murdered because he spoke out against slavery. With passion, this led to the formation of these 2 organisations, and in his early teens, he canvassed Rotary Clubs in Toronto for funds for his passage to Pakistan to investigate this frightful situation and also for introductions to Rotarians in these areas who could provide safe passage for him. He promised the Rotary Clubs that upon his return he would report back his findings, and in his address he said “that is why today – 18 years later, I am still speaking to Rotarians.” Read more at these links: http://www.freethechildren.com/ and http://www.metowe.com/about-us/

I attended 2 Presidents Luncheons, and sat at Past RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s table and Past RI President Bill Boyd’s table for the other. It was a privilege and an honour to share conversations with these 2 great leaders. I attended Breakout Sessions that provided great ideas to share with our Club and the District.

The House of Friendship showcased Rotary’s projects from around the world. Those appealed particularly were ‘AIDS Free Birthright for Children (http://www.aidsfreebirthrightforchildren.org/index.html?page=Pilot_project) and Child Slavery Action Group - both projects being run out of the UK. Rotary has an amazing list of Fellowships that cater for many – for example the Fellowship of Rotarian Train Travellers (this would appeal to Fred) and The Fellowship of Rotarian Wine Appreciators (this would have great appeal)

I look forward to sharing more of my Lisbon Rotary experience with you.

PP and DGE John Campbell

The Rotary commercial and ...

Posted by Colin Davies on Jul 22, 2013

Members will have heard Colin talk about the Rotary commercial that has been produced by Liz Davies and others with the aid of a large grant. It is now available for viewing at http://youtu.be/b0uUZEOZneg

Colin has also supplied us with information about eClubs and eMakeups as follows:

"I first used the services of a Rotary eClub about eight years ago - I was in Moree NSW for a few days as my car had broken down and that year I was determined to achieve 100% attendance.

Solution was an article I had read in RDU about e make ups so I searched the internet at the local library and presto found the site http://eclubone.clubexpress.com/ (for you information this was the first ever E Rotary Club in the World and I joined it all those years ago how cool is that). This type of make up was a bit new for our Club!

There are now (at least) two Australian E Rotary clubs.

http://www.rotary-eclub-greatersydney.org

http://www.rotaryeclubofmelbourne.org.au/

Sydney E Rotary Club was the first ever one in Australia; the second is the Melbourne E Rotary Club. Unfortunately there is a feeling with the old guard that e clubs steal members from the traditional club model but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary."

News from Soles4Souls

Posted by Dalice Kennedy on Jul 15, 2013

As I am currently in Melbourne running our first interstate campaign and do not have access to a printer I hope you will accept this email and attached letter as my sincere thanks for the recent donation for the club. I wish to thank you for your ongoing contributions to the shoe program which will ensure thousands of people globally will be supported.

The Melbourne campaign is going well and we have achieved some local media coverage - The Age has also done an interview and story which I am hoping will be selected this week. Fingers crossed.

[Stop press: We just received from Dalice the following link to a story in The Age: http://m.theage.com.au/victoria/solesearching-charity-steps-up-to-provide-needy-with-bare-necessities-20130710-2pqfw.html ]

I am also working on a three-day event in Federation Square for early-August which will be fantastic. More news on that to come! The Rotary Donations in Kind Warehouse here is lovely and have been very supporting. We are in fact doing all our sorting and packing there.

I hope everyone is well and I look forward to sharing more soon as the campaign progresses here in Melbourne.

Warm regards, Dalice Kennedy

And the Committees for 2013-14 are:

Posted by Richard Jarrett on Jul 01, 2013

At our first Board meeting for the year (25 June), the Board finalised the composition of Committees for 2013-14. there are two key changes:

While the Secretary, Treasurer and Sergeant are technically part of the Club Administration Committee, we have asked each of them to be part of one of the other Committees when we meet for Club Assembly, so that we have some additional 'brain-power' to apply to the deliberations of those Committees.
While we have Directors for PR/Marketing (Tony Reade) and Foundation (David Riggall), we will not have separate Committees for these two functions. Instead, these two Directors will sit within the Membership Committee.

Committee	Director	Members
Club Admin	Yvette Reade	Phil Harding (Speakers), Di Lane (Newsletter), Bob Buckerfield, David Rowe, Bruce McDonald (Treas), Fred Field (Sec), Terry Rodoni (Serg)
Voc/Youth	Peter Briscoe	John Karran (Rotaract), Dean Sullivan, Feisar Joya, Rob Brooke, Fred Field
International	Kym Pedler	Chris Dibden, Katina Jones, Rob McLennan, Angus Tuck, Peter Veitch
Community	Rohan Richards	Bob Angove, Ray Cullen, Paul Richardson, Graham Smith, Carolyn Wigg, Deb Wotherspoon
Fellowship/ Fundraising	Andrew Black	Di Casey, Colin Davies, Don Tindale, John Wotherspoon, Bruce McDonald, Terry Rodoni
Membership	Geoff Bell	John Campbell, Barry Grear, Dalice Kennedy, Tony Reade, David Riggall

Adelaide Light Quiz Night!

Posted by Andrew Black on Jul 01, 2013

Date: 10 August 2013

Venue: Kensington Gardens Tennis Club, East Terrace, Kensington Gardens

Time: 6.30 for 7pm start.

Cost: $15 per head

BYO nibbles and drinks ($8.00 corkage) or buy from the bar

Members are invited to organise tables of 10. Let Andrew Black know if you are organising a table.

We are also asking members to provide donations to help with prizes on the night. Please contact any businesses you are associated with to see if they will donate items in return for 'endoresement' on the night.

From the Changeover Dinner

Posted by Yvette Reade on Jun 24, 2013

President Dean congratulates new Paul Harris Fellows, John Karran, David Rowe and Geoff Bell.

President Richard congratulates Past President Dean and Pam on a job well done.

President Richard introduces his new Board.

Our venture in Colombia!

Posted by John Campbell on Jun 07, 2013

John Campbell has just received a long email for Gabriel Martinez, the incoming President of the Rotary Club of Bogota Suba. Here are some excerpts from the email.

"As you know, we have two Programmes of Scholarships for children to study their Secondary Level, and for young men and women, to study Technical and Technological Studies at SENA with the financial help of your Adelaide Light Rotary Club. Now, we are beginning a new Educative Programme oriented to Adult People of the same town, Suba and the same Sector, Miramar. This Programme is destined to help adult students to finish all their Primary Level in one year or in few months, time depends on the interest of studying of each student. Students will go to study only on Saturday or on Sunday, because they have to work during the week and they have family. Very important: The responsibilities of teaching the adult people, will be our students who study at SENA and who receive scholarships with the resources given by the Adelaide Light R.C. They are being prepared for these activities by CAFAM, an important Colombian Private Educative Organization, during this week.
In one year or less, we will transfer the Adults, who have finished the first level, to study their Secondary Level at CAFAM. It has a special Pedagogic Model oriented to help Adult Students to develop their studies in three years. Time, also, will depend on the interest of each student. The adults will go to study there, only on Saturday each week, because the most part of them, work, have family and different responsibilities. They will need to pay some money to CAFAM each semester and our Club is interested to find a Rotary sponsor who could give scholarships to them during their studies (6 semesters each student).
You see, we have a lot of work for the next Rotary Year, but we are very happy because your help, our action and our common solidarity are helping to a Colombian Community to change and to have a better future for their children, their young people and their adults.
GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR ROTARY CLUB!
Gabriel Martínez
Elected President R.C. Bogota Suba 2013 - 2014"

Bottles and cans

Posted by Andrew Black on Jun 01, 2013

We now have new arrangements for the collection of bottles and cans.

Members should leave their bags of bottles and cans against the fence near the western entrance on Angas Street before the meeting each Thursday. Please remember to remove all tops from bottles. Empty bags will be available inside.

Whoever is rostered will collect these bags after each meeting and deliver to the bottle recycling depot. All cash received and empty bags should be given to David Rowe the following week. David will continue to present the proceeds to our Treasurer on a monthly basis.

District Conference, Bendigo 14-17 March 2013

Posted by Richard Jarrett on Apr 15, 2013

A number of members and their partners travelled to Bendigo in march ofr the Rotary District 9500 Conference. There were a number of presentations, amongst which was one by our own Miriam Silva, a great show from the Vocational Training Team which was visiting at the time from the Philippines, and several sessions on membership issues. Inspirational talks were also given by Li Cunxin (Mao's Last Dancer), who spoke of his desire from an early age to seize any opportunity he had to lift himself out of poverty, and Matina Jewell, the ex-Australian army officer, who was injured while a UN peacekeeper near the border of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. More about her story can be heard in an ABC interview with Richard Fielder.

Vocational Training Team from the Philippines

Posted by Richard Jarrett on Apr 14, 2013

A VTT team from the Philippines visited Rotary District 9500 from March 9^th until April 6^th. Our Club in partnership with Adelaide Parks Club looked after the team for the last week, including hosting the Farewell Dinner which was held at Regency TAFE on the Thursday night. Those of us privileged to host one of the team members (President Dean, DGN John Campbell, Colin Davies and Richard Jarrett) had a great opportunity to get to know the team. We were impressed by the dedication and hard work that they put in in their various roles at large schools and colleges in Quezon City.

The team, shown below with John Wotherspoon who did much of the organisation for the visit, consisted of (from left at the back) Mimi, Veron, Bobby, Czar, and then (at the front) Ron and Devie.

Adelaide City Rotaract Club

Posted by Richard Jarrett on Apr 11, 2013

We are very privileged to be the sponsors of a new Rotaract Club, the Adelaide City Rotaract Club which was chartered in December 2012 and now has 26 (at last count!) members.

Adelaide City Rotaract Club meets on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month. Check the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/AdelaideRotaractClub for more details. One or two members of the Rotary Club of Adelaide Light attend each of the Rotaract meetings, so that we can keep close contact with their activities. In return, we have had a number of members from the Rotaract Club visit us at our meetings. And three members of the Rotaract Club joined us at the recent 9500 District Conference in Bendigo (Mar 14-17, 2013).

Latin American Fiesta!

Posted by Richard Jarrett on Mar 25, 2013

Our first Latin American Fiesta was held on Sunday 24 March 2013 at Linde Reserve, Dunstan Grove, St Peters (opposite the Avenue Shopping Centre). An estimated 1000 people attended the Fiesta. Our thanks to all attendees and to all those helpers (Rotarians and their partners, Rotaracters, etc.) who worked so hard to make it a success.

Funds raised will provide a great boost for our Colombian project.