Hello everyone, welcome to the May Edition of the Centennial!!
The busy times continue as we come towards the end of one Rotary year and continue preparations for the new year ahead. As you are aware Virtual District Assembly kicked off last Monday evening, with DGE John Clue and his team outlining the program for the next 3 weeks.
It is important that all club office bearers attend their relevant sessions as the information has been developed to assist you in preparation for your role. Assembly is open to all members looking to learn a little bit more about Rotary.
Multi District Conference - Virtual Victoria
Thank you to those members who attended the recent Virtual Multi District Conference held at the start of May. For those who missed this opportunity you can catchup with the excellent speakers and entertainers by following the links below. I have also made some recommendations at the time intervals as listed. *indicates priority viewing.
16:09 Major Jenny Begent Homelessness and the New Poor*
1:03:58 Pat Armstrong ESRAG
1:09:43 Vic Grosjean Rotary Innovation in Environment and Sustainability
1:27:30 Katie Halliday Inclusion in Rotary – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion*
Include Rotary Information Sessions at your Meetings.
I strongly recommend that you take the opportunity to show the speakers listed above as part of your Rotary Information Session at future meetings. We don’t do that at our meetings I hear you say? Well, I strongly suggest you start because there is a plethora of material around which will be of interest to your members. Your next speaker or meeting filler is only a click away.
Putting our Communities and our Members at the Centre of What We Do
You will remember that one of my focus areas or clubs this year has been Community, and the need for us to find out what is needed right at this moment as we continue to emerge from the impact of Covid. This means we need to get out and network with organisations and front-line agencies about what is needed - not we THINK they need.
One way of doing this is inviting someone from one of your community organisations as a guest speaker to your meeting either virtually or in person. Involve or invite other Clubs to participate.
If you have taken the time to look at PDG Jessie’s address as listed above, her call to action is:
Seek to Diversify Your Membership
Put your Members at the heart of the Rotary experience, find out what floats their boat!
Change your club to fit or suit your members! Not the other way around!
Make a difference in your community:
By tackling the pressing community issues
And Making Rotary Part of the Solution
DG Phil
Rotary Opens Opportunities
The Rotary Club of Ballarat is Supporting the India Appeal and Needs Our support
Rotarians across the District would by now, well realize the enormity of the problem now facing India with the Covid 19 pandemic.
Dr. Sanjay Sharma (a local Ballarat Doctor) has sought the help of our club in raising much needed funds. The RC Ballarat Board has decided to assist the Ballarat Indian community to raise funds for the desperately needed oxygen concentrators. This is a genuine community run organisation run by volunteers and there are no hidden admin costs involved. All the money raised will be purely utilised for Covid relief and all the accounts made available.
You can donate to this cause by sending it to our club by bank transfer. We will accumulate all donations into a single donation from our club.
The Bank details you will need to complete the transfer of your donation are:
BSB: 633 000
Account No: 140 596 339
Account Name: Rotary Club of Ballarat Inc. When making your donation, simply reference it “India Appeal – Your Surname/Club Name
Thanks for your support!
A Challenge to all Clubs by Casterton RC – Calling all Rotarians with Artistic Flair
As part of the upcoming Casterton Kelpie Muster Rotary Art Show this year, is a Rotary Club Art Prize Challenge for Rotarians and Clubs in District 9780 –
The Casterton RotarArt Show!!!
Our Big ‘R” Challenge to your club is to produce a “Work of Art” to depict a ‘Rotary Project’, to frame it, send it and we’ll exhibit it!
You have only until 30th May,to encourage any visually competent and creative members of your club to produce and submit their representation of a Rotary fundraiser, a service, a success, or a kindness that your club may have achieved. It’s all about promoting the ideals and / or successes of Rotary creatively.
Please have a go and help us raise some much needed funds for our club and hopefully make this an annual event and in turn, we may be sending you $250 to help your club’s fundraising as well!!!
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo Have a Gooooooooooooooooo!!!
Refer to the entry form and promo flyer for further information.
New Focus Icons set off Kerang Rotary Club’s New Information Boards
Our four new Information Boards at our BBQ shelter in Atkinson Park Kerang, are now complete with the addition of the now seven “Rotary’s Areas of Focus” Panel below our club history timeline.
I’ll wager this is the first usage of the new focus icons in the District on such a scale!!!!
Anyway, they look great!!! So next time you are passing through Kerang, drop into the park to see for yourself.
Rebound Exchange Student, Conor Brown, escaped Bushfires at Malacoota just weeks before boarding a flight to Germany on January 18, 2020, to commence a 12 month stay through the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. The 17-year-old from East Geelong remembers orange skies, distant flames, thick smoke and “sirens all through the night” during his family’s camping trip, before boarding a navy ship for Melbourne on January 3rd. Conor hadn’t heard too much about COVID-19 when he left for a Rotary sponsored youth exchange trip to Germany. When the pandemic hit worldwide, Conor and his parents were “on the fence” about him returning home immediately, but had confidence in Rotary and Germany’s health system. Conor was able to travel to France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria as the pandemic abated during the European summer. But “things” really started getting “bad’ mid-October with 10,000 to 15,000 cases daily and strict lockdown. The Rotary Exchange program’s insurance enabled Conor to fly home on November 2nd and he had a row to himself, with about 30 people on the plane. Conor’s sister picked him up from Sydney airport and, as an unaccompanied minor, he was permitted to quarantine with her in Wagga. With the NSW and Victoria border closed Conor had to walk across the bridge at Albury-Wodonga to reunite with his parents. “I felt overwhelmed and happy to see them”, he said. Recently Conor joined the Geelong leg – featuring 13 classic cars, of a nationwide baton relay, celebrating 100 years of Rotary in Australia. Fourteen Rotary Clubs in the Geelong area participated in the baton relay culminating in a celebration at the Christ Church hall in the city.
“I had a pretty good year compared to some people,” he said. “Bayside Geelong Rotary Club sponsored me and I will be forever grateful to them.”
Information taken from an article by Luke Voogt from the Geelong Independent, April 2, 2021
The hygiene kits for children living in remote areas of the Northern Territory have proven to be more than improving hygiene to end Trachoma. They have also been great for literacy development as well. Over 2,000 kits have been prepared from Rotary Districts around Australia and our District 9780 provided 414 kits from 17 clubs across the District, as well as financial support from a number of clubs. Clubs were encouraged to also include a few special items such as books, literacy materials, caps, etc. for the children they were supporting. Some clubs included hand written letters by students from local schools. Transport to Alice Springs was coordinated with a freight company in Camperdown. The owner of the freight company, whose daughter was previously a Rotary Exchange Student, generously covered the cost of delivery to Alice Springs. District Governor Philip Beasley organised a 'Certificate of Appreciation' from the District to the freight company, thanking them for their support. The 414 hygiene kits (64 cartons) were packed on 3 pallets and delivered to Alice Springs Education Centre in February. 20 hygiene kits were delivered to the Alice Springs Maternity Hospital for new mums. One of the participating clubs, the Rotary Club of Hamilton North, were very pleased to receive thank you letters from students at the Alcoota School in the Northern Territory, who they supported with hygiene kits, in the End Trachoma project.
In the middle of Arnhem Land, about 3.5 hours drive inland from Nhulunbuy and a good 8 hours on the road from Katherine, is the small community of Gapuwiyak.
The 2020/21 wet season in the Top End has been “terribly wet”, says Sharee Nagle, who works in the Families as First Teachers(FaFT) program, based at the local school.
Many roads in the region are still flooded but the big wet hasn’t held back the FaFT program in Gapuwiyak.
In 2020 about eight children aged zero to four years attended each day. But this year, on average, between 20 and 25 attend every morning with their parents or carers.
“I’ve seen the program fly from one year to the next.” Says Sharee.
FaFt is an early learning and family program for remote Indigenous families, whose aim is to support children's learning and development, by working with Indigenous families and children prior to school entry.
A Yolngu teacher works with “balanda” Sharee. Officially the FaFT program starts at 8am on Mondays to Fridays, but often there are kids and their parents waiting outside from 7am.
There is little variation in the daily routine, which includes conversational reading, based around the books and resources supplied by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s Book Buzz program.
For the Centenary of Rotary in Australia, DG Philip and partner Judy have chosen the Indigenous Literacy Foundation as a project for all the Rotary Clubs of District 9780 to support.
Thank you to all the District 9780 Rotary Clubs and individuals who have made or offered pledges of support.
If you / your club would like to make a contribution to the DG and Partner Project -
Please use the following bank details to make your club / individual donation.
Rotary International District 9780,
BSB 633000, Account Number: 164 290 835.
Please put as your reference: ILF and your club / individual name.
Thank you so much for your support!!! It is greatly appreciated.
DG Phil and Judy
Do you have something great you would like to share with everyone in District 9780?
If you would like to place an article in the District Governor's Monthly Newsletter, "The Centennial", please contact the DG's Monthly
The need for social contact, that sense of belonging are needs that we all have. Further to that, is our collective strong desire as Rotarians to help and assist those in need, but we must not do this at the risk of becoming infected or infecting others.
Please follow the advice from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, available through this link:
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