2024 Changeover

 

Thank you all for making the Rotary Club the club it is; a club that punches above its weight and makes an important contribution to Leeton and our community.

Everyone has been very supportive and done their bit to help. I am very grateful and really appreciate the time that you all have given to helping our community. Leeton is a great town, and I think, maybe the best town on the planet. We may not be a big club, but we have been an effective club.

I would particularly like to thank the board members for their support and the work that went on behind the scenes.

Secretary Brian Munro has been a great help keeping me on the straight and narrow. Not only was he doing agendas, correspondence and keeping minutes, Brian is our grant writer extraordinaire achieving a significant grant from Australia Post to fund the Resilience Breakfast sessions, which have been very well received. Interest in the breakfasts continues to grow and I think people will be disappointed to see them finish with the final one to be held August the 7th. The showground gates have also been helped with Brian’s grant applications, most recently from the Sun Rice Festival committee.

Brian has also had a major impact with his Facebook skills. The regular updates have given us a large following and lifted the club’s profile in the town enormously.  Raising awareness about Rotary was one area that I was particularly keen for our club focus on and I am very pleased to report that due Facebook, and the good work of members, this has been achieved.

The Facebook posts have been helped by the very interesting speakers Nicholas Wright has put before us each week. Nicholas’s ability to contact those across the whole spectrum of the town, as well as out of town, have put before us a very diverse program and I for one know so much more about the town as a result. We were not restricted to the Hydro on Thursday nights as members also enjoyed vocational visits to Baamirra Sanctuary and Morricom Orchards.

Treasurer Len Wade has kept the books in good order in a very time-consuming role. Len continues working in some remote areas and I would like to thank Matt Rhodes for stepping in as treasurer on meeting nights when Len has been serving in the back blocks as a relief chemist.

Service Director Barry Patten has done an excellent role behind the scenes organising our fund-raising activities. Barry was the driver behind 11 Farmer’s markets, 2 reunion breakfasts, Aust Day breakfast, Ham carnival, Chill and Grill, Sunrice Festival and the Art Deco festival. It is a big job and Barry will be taking a well-earned break. Dan Cotter has also stepped in to help organise when required.  Thank you to both of you for this very rewarding and successful work.

A big focus of our club is youth and I would like to thank Greg Brown for his role as Youth Director. I am very grateful for our host families which allowed us to again have an overseas exchange student. It is an enriching experience for the club, Leeton High School and our town. At the risk of giving Javian a swelled head I have to say he has been an excellent ambassador for Germany and his family back home. Erin may say he is still a work in progress, but Erin likes to strive for perfection. First stop for Javian was Len and Annette Wade who have had a lot of experience with “breaking in” new students. It is a credit to them that Javian is number 35. That is a big family to have scattered round the world.

Dan Cotter jumped in at short notice when Len required surgery and quickly learned that he should have bought shares in Woolworths. Growing teenage boys have hollow legs. Thanks Dan.

Javian’s counsellor George Weston was able to swap roles with Len and so Javian was hosted by George and Carol before going back to Len and Annette and finally out to the farm with Erin and myself. His time with us is quickly drawing to a close. Javian’s visa expires17th July and he has ensured he gets full value of that, flying home the same day. We all get to say farewell on the 11^th July, when he does his final presentation to the club.

We don’t always get to see the final result of our exchange students but from the students Erin and I have been associated with they have gone on to lead very full and productive lives. Their time in Leeton does have a very positive effect and you could say our club has had a world-wide influence.  We will look forward to following Javian as he journeys through life and we hope that his time spent with our club will be of benefit to him in the years ahead.

Further support to the youth in our town has been through our continuation of donations to support school student citizenship awards and young artists in the Penny Panitz Art show.

Laurie Lewin as Public Relations director has continued the major task of turning out the weekly bulletin to a very high standard. It does take a lot of time, but I do know members appreciate it and people do pick up the subtle errors occasionally put in by Laurie to check it is being read cover to cover. Laurie also organised articles in The Irrigator for the change over and Javian.

Geoff Beecher has done a sterling job as Foundation director. Under his watch we continued work in conjunction with “Friends of Luro”. Geoff was also instrumental in a joint meeting with Leeton Central to watch “Breathe” to highlight Rotary’s role in continuing the elimination of Polio in the world. Rotary also now has a more visual role in raising awareness about Domestic Violence and the Ted talk which he organised about it being a “men’s issue” was very thought provoking.

The Rotary Ball was also another successful function at the commencement of our year. A large number of debs and their families/friends enjoyed the night which was superbly organised by Bruer Chiswell, Anne Lepper and Brian Munro.

One of our club members also served as a conscientious Area Governor. Jennifer Newton travelled many kilometres in her van supporting clubs across our area and is now enjoying a well-earned rest sailing around the world.

We welcome DG Andrea travelling over from the ACT for our change over.  We met for the first time at our successful Rotary Ball at the beginning of our year and it is now only fitting to finish with our end of year change over.

The completion of the Showground gates project will see the club move onto the next major project which is the re erection of the Rotunda in Rotary Park. I know the Leeton community will be very happy to see it back in action again.

A special welcome back Graeme. It has been a challenging year for the Krugers and it is so good to see Jackie’s smiling face out and about again. We’ve missed you.

The current year’s theme “Create hope in the world” will soon make way for the new theme “the Magic of Rotary”. I am looking forward to supporting Carmel and her new board when she takes over the role of President next Thursday and wish her all the best.

I would like to save the biggest thank you for my wife, Erin. She is my number one supporter and very much a “friend of Rotary”. I know she enjoys cooking and entertaining, and the belated Xmas party and today’s feast are testimony to that.

Thank you again members and partners I am truly grateful.

 

Everything that is done in this world is done by hope” Martin Luther King

 

 

 

“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen”