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President's Message 19th October 2024
Bruce Turner
President’s Message
Greetings and welcome. Thank you for joining our online news and updates.
It was my pleasure to induct our newest member, Judy Rutter at Monday night’s meeting. Although a new member of Rotary, Judy brings a lot of knowledge and experience of Rotary due to her involvement with the Rotary Club of Southern Mitchell. Judy was supported by her partner, John Weber, and close friend, Elizabeth McCormick, President of the Southern Mitchell Rotary Club. I look forward to getting to know both Judy and John at our upcoming activities.
Our guest speakers for the night were Kelly and Paul Binyon, with reflections on their Paris Olympics experience. Unfortunately, Paul could not join us due to a dentist visit during the day that did not go to plan. Ironically, this was to follow up on an issue that first arose while in Paris. Thank you to Aimee for coming along as support for her Mum. Kelly’s presentation focused on the Olympics and Paris which, although the inspiration for the trip, was just a part of Kelly and Paul’s holiday that took in quite a lot of Europe. Paul’s experiences as a volunteer at the Golf in Guyancourt sounded fantastic and the fact that he was in the minority as a non-local shows how fortunate he was to be selected for that role. It was good to hear that Kelly was still able to keep herself busy while Paul was working, visiting many Olympic events and the obligatory tourist activities. Whilst there Kelly was presented with a banner by the Rotary Club of Lille Vauban, France District 1520.
Updates for members:
We have the BBQ trailer in use at a couple of extra events in the coming weeks. Geoff and Karen Dawson have their garden open for visitors as part of the Open Gardens program and will have the BBQ operating to help raise funds for Ocean Mind along with a charity which was started by themselves to assist a nurse undertaking studies at Deakin. Open Gardens is on Saturday 26th October, and Martin has arranged for the trailer to be provided for use at the HeartKids Walk on Sunday 27th October (Two Feet and a Heartbeat is the charity organising the event). Don't hesitate to contact Geoff or Martin directly if you would like to help with either of these events.
Thank you to the members who donated more hats to John Oswald’s collection for PNG - you bring more donations to the next meeting if you have spare hats or caps.
You will notice a story advertising the Bayside Rotary Club’s Trivia Night, Friday 22nd November. If you would like to attend this event, let me know, and I will coordinate a table (or two) if there are enough people interested.
Please support the “Rotary Walk With Us” team Lesley has launched and throw the club’s weight behind World Polio Day.
Ryans IGA Community Rewards Program: The Rotary Club of Torquay has been selected to participate in Ryan’s IGA Community Rewards program. Our group will appear at Torquay in September and October. If you think your next visit to the supermarket will result in a spend of over $20, it is worthwhile making that trip to IGA – still a couple of weeks to help our Club’s fundraising.
Join us for the Rotary Club of Bayside Annual Trivia Challenge - A fund raiser for mental health. Let's get a Torquay Rotary team together and challenge RC Geelong East. President Bruce is organising our team(s).
When - Friday 22 November 2024 at 7:00pm (doors open at 6:30pm)
Where - The Christ Church Hall corner of Little Myers & Moorabool Street Geelong
Last Wednesday, Trevor Hall and I had the pleasure of presenting Jason Cichocki with $1,000 worth of fuel vouchers as part of our annual disbursements.
Jason is the founder of Surf Coast Wildlife Rescue and last year's winner of the Not for Profit category in the Torquay Business Awards.
Growing up on a horse rescue property in central Victoria, Jason and his twin brother Dale would sit in the middle of the bush and wait for animals to slowly creep out from their hiding places, all the while gazing at nature’s resplendent beauty.
Jason runs Southwest Automotive Services in Grossmans Road, and receives between 10-15 phone calls a week from callers concerned about animals in trouble.
He has a network of 80 volunteers stretching from Laura to Forest and Apollo Bay who are trained in animal rescue.
Animals requiring ongoing veterinary attention are rehabilitated on a small farm he owns on the edge of the Otway state forest and are released into the forest on their recovery.
Two weeks ago, I announced that we would be conducting an Awareness Walk in Torquay. This will be held on Tuesday 26th November at 0930.
We would like as many people as possible to attend this, hopefully for an hour, and we can follow that up with coffee if you would like.
If you do not have a purple T-shirt, please wear purple or orange. Orange is the colour Zonta wears on their walks to raise awareness of this dreadful gender abuse.
I will have posters to place in the coffee shop/café toilets prior to the 16 days of Activision to increase awareness.
This is a serious issue within our communities, and we need to increase awareness.
Do you still have any spare hats or caps? If so, please bring them along to Monday night’s meeting or you could drop them off to John Oswald.
These are being collected to send across to residents of Lese Oalai where, as John describes it “there is an over-abundance of sun”. The collection has been kicked off with donations of hats from the “Lift the Lid” night at our last meeting and more were collected at the meeting last Monday night.
Hon Member Vernon D'Souza makes October his own - his birthday is the 16th, Wife Cha has her birthday on the 13th and he joined Rotary 52 years ago on his birthday - the 16th.
