The guest speaker at the 29th August meeting was Phillip Thurgood (President of the Greater Dandenong Rotary Club) and ambassador for swags for the homeless, who gave a very informative and moving talk swags for the homeless.
 
 
There is a world-wide, and growing, issue with the homeless in our society. In Australia we have over 116,000 people homeless on any one night and nearly 50,000 sleeping on the street. Most of those on the street are mails between 26 and 40 years of age.
 
 
Tony and Lisa Clark have established an organisation, Backpack Bed for Homeles, starting in Australia, and spreading world-wide to help.
They have developed a waterproof / fire retardant / quick drying / wind proof Backpack Bed for the Homeless. These cost $95 each.
Phillip highlighted that when his club raised donations to buy these bags, he requested that they be distributed through local charities to help local people. In Greater Dandenong’s case, through the local charity “Cornerstone”, and suggested we could do something similar in Whitehorse.