Knysna Rotary Club

Rotarians Carol and Theo Bohlmann gave a very interesting overview of their home Rotary Club from South Africa. Knysna is a holiday town between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth - population 65,000. Their club was chartered in 1962, has 57 members - average age 65- and they meet weekly for lunch. People in Knysna are very aware of the needs around them - there is lots of poverty from migrant workers and there is insufficient medical care. Every July their club raises 90% of their $130,000 budget with the Knysna Cycle Race. They have many different types of projects including bursaries, sports school and a feeding program that started with 70 school children and today is at 3000! They run a Sea Cadets which is a small program that has a large impact - many go on to careers in the Navy. They have Interact at 7 schools with one Rotarian assigned to each school. "Get to Know Your Town" is a project where Interactors are taken to the court house, fire station, hospital etc with Rotarians. They have a very active Rotary Ann group made up of the wives of Rotarians who do their own projects plus support their husbands projects. The wives can choose to be a Rotarian or a Rotary Ann - as Leigh noted - you can't be in Rotary unless your partner is supportive. Carol and Theo are visiting Vancouver to be hands on grandparents this summer.