The Second Half Highlights of Rotary Year 2020-21
The second half of the year is traditionally busier in our club and our program this year was no exception. Fortunately, we were able to continue to operate without major disruption from the Covid pandemic until towards the end of June when a lockdown in Greater Sydney meant we could no longer meet face to face, so we reverted to meeting on Zoom.
Our highlights included -
Our Australia Day Celebration including our Australia Day Merit Award;
The induction of our second new member for the year, Herbert Chan;
Our regular Pride of Workmanship Awards Night with 9 awardees;
A Special Keynote Speaker, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Lloyd Babb SC;
And the Changeover from President David Firth to President Kaye Carter.
On January 27, we held our Australia Day Celebration meeting with David Raphael, Principal of St Lucy's School, Wahroonga as keynote speaker. He recounted the processes he and his staff had gone through in continuing the school open throughout the Covid lockdown in 2020. He explained that, as the school caters for students with a range of disabilities, it was considered essential to maintain the program for both the students and their families. We went on to present our Australia Day Merit Award to David after his talk.
District Governor David Clark making the presentation to David Raphael.
District Governor David Clark making the presentation to David Raphael.In February we were delighted to welcome our second new member. Herbert Chan, whose vocation is as an Actuary, joined us having previously been a member of Chatswood Sunrise club. Herbert and his wife had moved to Pennant Hills recently and he decided that he would like to join the local Rotary club. He subsequently gave us his autobiography so that we have some understanding of his background.
May 19 saw us hold our 45th Annual Pride of Workmanship Awards Night in which we recognised 9 awardees from 8 different organisations. Guest Speaker on the night was the then District Governor Elect, Lindsay May OAM, who provided a fine message appropriate for the occasion. We had almost 60 people in attendance at the Pennant Hills Golf Club who provided an excellent dinner for us.
'Stories from the DPP's Office' was the title of the speech by the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Lloyd Babb SC, who was our Keynote Speaker on June 2nd. We had a number of members of the West Pennant Hills - Cherrybrook club join us for this meeting and a most interesting talk was enjoyed by all.
Our Changeover from President David to President Kaye was consigned to a Zoom virtual changeover due to the late June Covid lockdown. Nevertheless, as they say, the show must go on so June 30th Kaye was installed as the president for the Rotary year 2021-22.
