Sergeant = Noel Hodges was the Sergeant for the night who told us an exciting story about a man excited about his zealous promotion of Jesus, but with a wrong gesture.
Bunyip = Nayer collected a $2 coin from every member in the meeting to make sergeant’s job easy and give him time to tell us his story!
The Raffle was taken out by Grahame Werrell and Heads and tails by the Lawnmower man, Claude Harvey – well done.
Pauline Armstrong, presented the beautiful framed art print given to our club, in the District Conference, in appreciation of our club’s service to the Vanuatu Hospital project.
Next meeting 21 March at the Mermaid Tavern.
The meeting closed at 8:00 pm and followed by the board meeting.
Guest speaker, Mr. Claude Harvey, was introduced by Jim Hawkins. 77-year-old Claude was the 2023 QLD Senior Australian of the Year.
Claude collected money for the Gold Coast Project For Homeless Youth for the first few years. But then, three things changed his life.
Claude explained in 2006, two little girls very close to his heart, just three and four, were playing in their backyard. A 16-year-old boy climbed over the fence and sexually abused them both. He was horrified and equally upset the teenager was not punished for his crime.
The second thing occurred one night as he was watching “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” on TV. A contestant won $60,000 and announced he would give $30,000 to Bravehearts, a child protection organisation that organizes educational activities and specialist counseling. The gesture and the work of Bravehearts inspired Claude, who decided to do a lawn mower walk from Tweed Heads to Hope Island to raise money for the organisation.
The third thing converted him solely to helping Bravehearts. Claude was present when the organisation delivered a program at a local school. It made a big impression on him. He went to the Bravehearts the next day and told them he would push a lawnmower to Sydney in two months for them, and he’is been doing it ever since.”
Claude has walked over 23,000km around Australia over the past 20 years.
He spends five months a year on his task and has visited every State in Australia. His longest walk took him from the Gold Coast to Cairns.
Over the years, he’s become a bit of a media superstar – he’s been on Sunrise five times! – and even met the Prime Minister. Occasionally, he has been abused by some people and a fake charity, but has always been fully supported by the police.
Jim presented Claude with our whisky glass and wished him the best for future fund-raising activities.
An attentive audience listening to "The Lawnmower Man"
