Our Melbourne Cup meeting was a lot of fun last Monday Night. Thank you to Susie Fennell for her decorations and everyone who dressed to suit the occasion. We had some great outfits expressing our colourful racing identities! The St Ives Club opened especially for us and we really appreciated the excellent meal and having the entire Club to ourselves.

We visit Cromehurst School at Lindfield this Wednesday 14th between 6pm and 7pm for an update on where and how are funds are spent to help the kids. I urge you to come so you can see Rotary in action. Afterwards we have booked the St Ives Club for a $25 meal at 7:30pm.

The following week is our Youth Celebration Evening on Wed 21st at The St Ives Club. Lyndall is doing a great job and I would really like us all to support her hard work by coming to hear these great “kids”. We look forward to hearing what some of our RYLA and RYPEN students hope to get out of their courses. We are so pleased that the young people have volunteered to help us with the Tree of Joy and The Bobbo. We really appreciate their help as we have a lot of events that need our ‘bodies’ on the horizon.

At our Board Meeting on Wednesday 7th, we were advised that Room to Read has a benefactor who will match any donation before 31st December ‘dollar for dollar’. As we are donating $20,000 from our Food & Wine Festival to Room to Read, we have sent $20,000 to them prior to their presentation in February to take advantage of this offer. We thought this was a fantastic deal.

The Dementia Café Project is underway from 8 November at PCYC. Well done Tim England and his team and we look forward to an update. This Tuesday 13th, Tim is conducting his last Dementia Public Education Event “Facts about Dementia” for the year at Canisius House.

Our FoodBank donation is at work in Lockhart and we look forward to a further report in the next few weeks.

Lastly, don’t forget our Tree of Joy. Not just to volunteer of course but to promote to our friends and neighbours how they can help others by taking a card from the Tree of Joy and buying a gift for a senior citizen in a residential aged care facility. See if we can beat last year’s donations!

Have a great week!