Club Information
Welcome to Sunrise!
Wagga Wagga Sunrise

Service Above Self

We meet In Person
Tuesdays at 7:00 AM
Gardens Cafe & Function Centre
43 Tom Wood Drive
Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650
Australia
So we adhere to COVID-19 restrictions, we require an advice of attendance by 11:00 am on Monday immediate prior to our breakfast
Sunrise Key Dates
June 2023
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Sunrise Key Dates
Pre-orders have now been filled

JUST IN CASE YOU HADN'T HEARD!

Wow, you should see the cute and interesting items that Greg & Cindy are bringing to the markets, we are so excited to have them here
H & Hide will be presenting their amazing leather goods and accessories, as well as some new exciting gift lines. We are so thrilled that they will be there!!! Check out their great range on their facebook page H & Hide
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2022 Sunrise Rotary Christmas Tree Sales
 
 
 
Sunrise Rotary have been providing Christmas trees to the Wagga community and the greater Riverina for almost 10 years. This came about after hearing that Legacy and the Vietnam veterans had stopped collecting the wild self-sown radiata trees found in the Murraguldry forest on the Tumbarumba Road.
 
Our Christmas trees are raised by another Rotary Club down on the Victorian border near Hume Weir using genetically modified seedstock developed in USA specifically to be grown into Christmas trees that exhibit both denseness and a good conical shape. The trees are regularly pruned to maintain optimal shape and density over a 4-to-5-year period.
 
We have short supply this year, as does the whole Eastern Seaboard, due to bushfire and drought, so we are very fortunate to have the number of trees that we have. This supply issue will be in place for at least this year and next year.
 
 
 
         
 
Frequently Asked Questions
 
Where and when can I get a tree?
 
The trees are available from the Bunnings Car Park on the first and second Saturday in December from 8.00 am until sold out [last year they sold out within an hour]
 
Why buy a live tree?
 
Those of us as children who were brought up in the age when everyone had a live tree know the answer to this question, but for the benefit of a lot of parents today that only ever had a plastic tree a live tree gives off a fresh, beautiful natural scent that you will smell every time you enter the room. Selecting a live tree is a family affair where mum, dad and the kids [and sometimes grandparents] decide on the tree that is right for them. Having a live tree will provide memories of Christmas that will stay with the child for the rest of their life.
 
Finally, many of us now are making the conscious choice to move away from plastic and artificial goods and prefer to try and use natural products that minimise damage to the environment such as a live Christmas tree.
 
How do I look after a live tree?
 
If you haven`t had one of our trees before we will give you an information sheet which will outline in detail all you need to know about looking after your tree. We will also talk to you about setting up your tree to maximise enjoyment for you and your family.
 
How long will my tree live?
 
If you follow our set-up instructions and keep the water reservoir full so your live tree can constantly have a drink, your tree will survive for at least 4 weeks.
You can purchase purpose-built reservoirs from Bunnings a month before trees are available for sale, but your need to get in quick as they sell out the fixed quantity that they are given very quickly.
 
Cost of trees
 
Like everything at the moment the cost of the trees from our supplier is subject to price movements. We do our best to minimise price increases but unfortunately we have to pass on price increases reluctantly to our customers
 
What does Sunrise Rotary do with the profits from the sale of the Christmas trees?
 
We believe that Christmas is about giving, sharing and children. To that end the profits of the tree sales
. stay in the Wagga community
. are given to organisations that help families or children in our community
 
Over the last several years profits have been given to the Children’s Ward and the Special Care nursery in the Maternity Ward at Wagga Base Hospital as well as the Invermay family program where families who lose children are supported within the community by a specialist support organisation.
 
We are so excited to be holding our first Christmas Markets on 20th November at the Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens!
We are aiming for an over-the-top Christmas extravaganza with everyone dressed all Christmassy and we will offer a pony ride or miniature railway ride to any kids dressed Christmassy.
We look forward to seeing you all!
We are still taking applications for stallholders, please call Jo on 0437 325 323 for an application

A total of 15 Rotarians and 6 partners gathered at Wagga Beach around noon on Sunday 28th June for a catch up – with appropriate ‘social distancing’ of course. The menu was BYO lunch

Attendees were: President Jo (& Dennis) Wilson, Dave (& Donna) O’Grady, Max (& Sue) Chapman, Colin (& Alison) Wiese, Fred (& Rae) Loneragan, John (& Anne) Wood, Kim Baker, Anne Egan, Jenny Groch, Joan Skews, Dawn Smith, Sandra Rootes, Alan Sharp, Bob Martin & David Brady.
After all the great rain we have been receiving, the weather on the day was perfect for a winter’s day. Sitting around in very pleasant sunshine, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to catch up ‘face to face’.
President Jo provided some light hearted entertainment concerning how she & Dennis are coping (or not) with possums in their ceiling. Plenty of advice was forthcoming from various people as well as some recalling their own possum adventures from the past.
The beach gathering wound up around 1.30pm as the shade from the nearby trees turned the air a bit fresh. A few members however moved to a warmer sunny spot and continued with a bit more fellowship for another half hour or so before heading off. Overall, a great get together enjoyed by all
David Brady introduced Yomith, a year 12 student at Kooringal High, and a participant at the NYSF at Brisbane.
 
Yomith thanked Sunrise for the opportunity to attend NYSF held at the University of Queensland in January 2020.
 
He gave an excellent presentation on this wonderful program for Australia’s scientifically talented final year school students. He was allocated to an Engineering interest group and attended all lectures, workshops and site visits in this group, named Mirzakhani, after an prize winning Iranian female mathematician.
 
In their college accommodation, he was a member of a floor group, whose “staffie” a former NYSF student ran events like toothbrush parties in the bathroom to get friendships developing.
 
Yomith visited a range of STEM focussed facilities eg the Centre for Hypersonics where he learned more about Engineers without Borders, and QUT research facilities looking at development of batteries. His favourite was the Boeing Test Centre, which trains pilots from familiarity with basic panels and switches up to experiencing full control systems in moving simulators. Students had a go, too.
 
Eminent lecturers from backgrounds in biodiversity, biomedical engineering, neuroscience and sustainability and physics spoke with passion about their chosen fields. Yomith was interested how the different subjects converge.
 
Practical workshop activities included the preparation of coding instructions for robots to go in circles (not as easy as it looks, apparently). In another workshop teams had to offer a solution to cleaning up the amount of space debris in space. The team had 30 minutes to prepare their response and Yomith had 1 minute to present it: a space ship with AI which could track the rubbish and fling it into the atmosphere so it would burn up.
 
In a third workshop, “Passion Pitches,” students practiced their public speaking skills and presented their special interest to all their fellow students. Yomith spoke about “vertical farming” a way of improving farming and yield by setting up layers of garden beds in a building.
 
Social activities included NYSF Olympics which involved running from station to station and solving puzzles at each station and “Marvellous Minds” with fast paced trivia questions for floor groups to answer.
 
At the “Nerds’ Night Out,” students could show off their talents such as one student whose talent was solving Rubiks cube in 12 seconds.
 
Yomith summed the whole experience as amazing in opening up the STEM pathways. He affirmed his interest in megatronics which links electrical engineering, software design and mechanical engineering. His aim is to develop robots with the encoding to do the functions we physically can’t.
 
David Gilbey praised Yomith’s organisation of his talk in his vote of thanks on behalf of the club and proffered the black box (mug) and certificate of appreciation
 
Val Samuelson was captured on the Jolly Old Christmas Bus charter with member John Woods and President Jo Wilson. Jo presented Val Samuelson with her Paul Harris Fellowship Sapphire Pin.
 
A fantastic achievement for Val's long and dedicated record of community service over 20+ years..
 
Sue Chapman and Di Cutler (pictured right with Max Chapman), Sue Brady, Phillip Tome, Ron Walter and Rae Loneragan joined fifteen members to hear Kay Humphries (case worker and therapist for the past 22 years) describe the specialised counselling that Linden Place offers to children who have been sexually abused or are showing inappropriate sexualised behaviour.
 
Linden Place also offers capacity building to foster parents to care for children who may have been in up to 12 homes in one year, and reparative parenting programs for non-offending parents to enable them to support their children through the trauma of abuse.
Following the 2019 AGM DG John McKenzie presented Marilyn Walter (left) with a certificate recognising her as a member of the Paul Harris Society. Marilyn referred to three life changing experiences seeing the work of the Rotary  foundation which inspired her to make regular donations. Firstly at the School of St Jude in Tanzania, secondly when part of an international Rotary medical team in the slum settlements of Nairobi and thirdly at a medical clinic in Hout Bay.

She respects the work of the Foundation because its projects are set up and managed on a community basis, in the six areas of focus such as education, health and economic development, and finally their funds are accountable, so she knows her donation is being used wisely and appropriately.
 
DG John McKenzie presented President Jo Wilson & Fred Loneragan with a banner signifying that Sunrise was No 1 in D9700 for foundation giving, as well as in the top 7 clubs for End Polio donations.
 
 
(Right: Jo Wilson and Fred Loneragan with DG John
McKenzie)

 
Peter (pictured with Darren Verus [on left] and Fred Loneragan [on right]) is the author of Terrorism in Australia. The Story of Operation Pendennis.

Peter provided a broad picture of the events which raised Australian awareness of the possibilities of terrorism, namely the September 2001 attacks in the USA and the Bali bombings in 2002 (where 88 Australians died).