What an incredible Vocational meeting we celebrated together on Wednesday - our last meeting for April. We had some lovely guests attend with their families and what a delight to meet them all. Many connections in our local community.
Thank you to Ken Broadhead for following up and keeping everyone on track with the awards, to all those who nominated the awardees, to Stuart Armstrong for the Citation printing and to the Vocational team for their efforts in bringing it together.
On Friday the Rotary Club of Turramurra had a tree planting event as part of Rotary100 project. Wendy Carver from Lifeline was there along with the Ku-ring-gai Mayor Jennifer Anderson, Deputy Mayor Cedric Spencer and our own local MP Alister Henskens. The Turramurra High School Junior Band played two sets, one jazz piece, which were most enjoyable.
The Ku-ring-gai Council’s tree planting staff were the same gentlemen that helped Wahroonga Rotary plant a tree in Wahroonga Park in 2018, in PP Sue Owen’s year.
It is great to see how well connected our local Rotary Clubs are especially through the Bobbo cycle ride each year. Thanks to President Tim Shea from Turramurra Club who kindly invited Rotary Presidents to attend and it was a most relaxing and enjoyable event.
Saturday’s two session event for the launch of “Sisters of Freedom”, hosted at the home of Jo-Ann Moffat and organised by the Community Committee, was sold out early so we were prepared for a full house. John Collins did a great job ensuring we were a COVID safe event and Jo Karaolis was a master at navigating and organising the event - her skills never cease to amaze me. (see Jo's report below)
All funds from the entry fee, the book purchases and other purchases go to the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Women’s Shelter and you may remember their President Louise McCann came to talk with us earlier in the year. A huge thank you to our sponsors for making this possible. They are The Moffat Family, the Rotary Club of Wahroonga, SOS Removals & Storage, Cavalcade History of Fashion, Soroptimists Hornsby, Element ICT and teachers, students and families of Barker College and Knox Grammar school. I’d also like to thank Mary O’Connor, best selling author, who wrote the book Sisters of Freedom which has an historic connection to Jo-Ann’s house and therefore made this event very special.
The District 9685 award applications have closed for this Rotary year and we have a couple of entries in the running. We also now have a team to help with technology in the Club and help Simon with Zoom and off site events that involve technology. Simon, Simran, Sabarish, Neil and Max thank you all for volunteering. These are the people that will help you if you need help with Zoom or a presentation.
This coming Wednesday we have the postponed AGM for F20 Accounts. It will be the first order of things. Helen Jarvis will be speaking from KYDS. Also Radha will talk briefly about the COVID crisis in India and our Rotary projects there. Peter Kirkwood will be bringing in Rotary Caps this week. Good news everyone gets one but it will be a gold coin donation or even better a “fiver” ($5)!
The meeting last week was well attended as most members who are able are making their way back to face to face meetings. Jo-Ann sought assistance with some additional cake and slice contributions for the Book Launch event to be held at her home on Saturday May 1 and also confirmed that Sisters of Freedom books are available for sale before and at the event. Peter Smith confirmed that just one table (of 8) remained available for the Wine Tasting Event on June 9.
The key feature of the meeting was the presentation, chaired by PP Ken Broadhead, of the annual Pride of Workmanship and Vocational Excellence awards. Six worthy candidates joined us accompanied by friends and family. Citations were delivered by Ken and recipients spoke of their delight and passion for the work they do in the Community and the value the relationships developed had brought to their lives. We did enjoy Paul Willis (Sydney Trains) addressing the meeting with his explanation of the current upgrade work being undertaken at the Wahroonga Station.
Ken thanked his committee members and others who assisted in developing the event - particular mention and thanks to the sponsors of the candidates (below) and to PP Sue and PP Stuart and Ross for their work in developing and producing the citations and David Firth from Rotary Club of Pennant Hills for the plaque production in record time.
This week we are pleased to have Helen Jarvis join us as our Guest Speaker.Helen currently works as a Counsellor, Nationally Accredited Mediator, Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, Coach, Child Consultant, Facilitator of Restorative Engagement conferences and Clinical Supervisor in private practice.
Helen is the Chair of the Management Committee for KYDS. KYDS is a Lindfield-based organisation, founded in 2005, provides barrier-free counselling to young people across Sydney’s northern suburbs in an effort to help them navigate through difficult patches and discover their inner strength and potential. They also facilitate schools and community workshops with the aim of prevention and early intervention of mental health difficulties through the promotion of good emotional and psychological health.
Helen will be presenting details about Youth Mental Health in Northern Sydney
The challenges of responding to the extraordinary surge in demand for youth mental health support in our region
Collaborative, innovative solutions to:
Assist young people and families to navigate a complex network of service providers to find the service/s that can best meet their need/s when they need it.
Provide group based support to young people and families while they wait several months for 1:1 support.
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There will also be a re-scheduled Annual General Meeting segment to approve the financial accounts for the Rotary year ended 2020.
Secretary Greg Starr and Treasure John Cameron will run this segment.
Thanks for the fantastic support from the Community
and
An extract from Jo's report to members who participated in the day.
Thank you for all you did to make (Saturdays) the events such a great success through your care of all guests, especially those of you who led tour groups. It was a lot on your shoulders looking after up to 8 people for more than two hours and giving them all such a good time.
Special thanks to Helen and Anshu who did two sessions, to Janelle for helping all over the place, and to Helen for organising and bringing the Knox boarders. They were a great help...
It was a splendid day, Jo’s house looked marvellous, Mary-Anne spoke movingly and now we just have to hear how much we earned for the Women’s Shelter.
... thank you Jo-Ann ... for creating the event and doing so much to pull it off, not to mention the huge effort she put into presenting her house and garden in the best possible way.
I want you to know that the special effort made by each of you is very, very greatly appreciated, approx. $10,000 was raised from the event including book sales. (TBC)
A reminder of the schedule for the following dates, including log in times (sessions commence 15m later):
District Assembly Zoom Series - LOG IN FROM:
Date
Time
Part
Session
Lead by
Sunday,
16th May
8.45 am
C
Foundation
David Dean
10.45 am
D
International
Rod Rose
Sunday,
23rd May
9.00 am
E
Community
Lucian Keegel
10.30 am
F
Vocational
Ken Broadhead
12.15 pm
G
Youth
Melody Gonyora
Sunday,
30th May
9.00 am
H
Membership
John Fenessy
10.30 am
I
Public Image
Gina Growden
The registration link for all of the District Assembly events is below.
Zoom links to each session will be broadcast on the Friday before each event to those specific portfolios and others who have registered for that event.
I am beginning this letter having just left our weekly Zoom meeting of Misbourne Matins. We had a fascinating talk from a friend of one of our members who had started life as a good ‘ O' level student, graduated to be an engineer, a scrap metal merchant and finally a Child Nursery owner. It is amazing the variety of work and play that Rotarians get up to!! It was his first time on Zoom but was really interesting and he spoke in a very relaxed manner.
That made me glance out of my window and look with relief at the ground. I have been watering my garden (well a patch of astro turf with feeble plants) for the last month and even had to invest in a new hose pipe! We had a bit of rain yesterday and they promise one or two showers this week. April has been the frostiest in the last 50 years or so - really cold at night which has changed into warm weather during the afternoons.
From Australia that may seem usual but climate change is really beginning to impact on us.
In the UK we are beginning to consider socialisation and although we can only meet outside at the moment it has resulted in much relief for the population as a whole, many of whom have been "confined to quarters” since at least December and many from well before. So, along with NZ and Aust, Israel and one or two other countries there is a general feeling here that the world is beginning to improve. In the UK we are all becoming Statisticians and Virologists. With luck the number of scientists and research will increase and the youngsters will embrace change. The rate of change is huge - too fast for oldsters like me to comprehend properly.
Yesterday evening I joined one of my favourite Family History Societies for a lecture on Scott of the Antarctic. I was amazed as it was not the usual hour’s lecture but a film with an actor revealing the story of Scott via the photographic record that was left. He had added sound into the film which lasted for almost two hours and was never dull. I knew the story as a child but it was well brought to life with moving pictures of the ponies and dogs and men and ships.
I must go to my exercise routine now but I wish all of you a great day and week ahead.
This week we record that from the 1820s for 120 years more than 500 large wooden ships were constructed on Brisbane Water, just an hour north of Sydney. This maritime history is commemorated on 2 May with the Shipbuilders' Heritage Walk, an initiative of Kincumber Rotary Club.
We meet Peter Rea who expands on the history and some of the famous ships built there
The Virtual Convention will be open to all Rotary members and participants. Event registration will open in mid-April and will include a promotional fee of $49 for 21 days, with an increase afterward to $65. A wonderful experience - we will bring you additional details as they come to hand. (Convention dates 12 -16 June 2021)
Following our Club's special ANZAC day commemoration one of our weekly Bulletin readers Graeme Goodsir (resides in Pennsylvania USA) shared with us their local ANZAC day recognition.
"An annual ANZAC commemoration event is normally held here in central Pennsylvania - close to the April 25th date - at a big local restaurant with outdoor extensions called "The Boomerang" and owned by Greek Australian Nick Loxas - with flags & ceremonies supported by multi-nationality officers from the US Army War College at nearby Carlisle (but not held this year, due the pandemic). Our family (having had vaccinations a month ago) nevertheless went there to dine this weekend with other Australia-linked friends and we enjoyed great food - specially the lamb gyro wraps".
Click - here - to read the latest from the Principal - and other fantastic highlights.
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Lifeline are conducting a series of Domestic Violence Workshops during May/June 2021.
Click on the image above for more details
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Read the latest news and business tips!
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Ku-ring-gai Council wants to help local businesses reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Their goal is for the Ku-ring-gai community to cut overall emissions to zero by the year 2040.
Several workshops are planned.
Click on the links below for more details and booking arrangements.
