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President's Message 12th October 2024
Bruce Turner
President’s Message
Greetings and welcome. Thank you for joining our online news and updates.
Hat Day is Australian Rotary Health's longest running mental health research fundraising event, held on the 10th of October, World Mental Health Day. It is a day to wear an exciting hat and spread awareness of the 1 in 5 Australians suffering a mental health disorder.
Although a couple of days early, our recognition and promotion of this event took place at our Club Meeting on Monday night. Thank you to Maggie Isom for organising such a fun start to our meeting as our attendees showed off their designs and congratulations to the winners John Oswald, Garth Symington, Maggie Isom and Martin Duke.
Thank you also to our members for getting involved in the spirit of the occasion. We did not run this event as a fundraiser, however if you would like to make a donation you can do so through Australian Rotary Health via this link. An added bonus of the night was the opportunity to support John Oswald’s drive to collect hats for residents of Lese Oalai where there is an “over-abundance” of sun. Quite a few people donated their hat from the evening to the cause, and if you have any spare hats or caps, please bring them along to Monday night’s meeting or you could drop them off to John.
The remainder of the night was devoted to our Club Assembly and I again thank you all for attending and engaging in what seemed to be quite enthusiastic discussions. I will collate the comments and suggestions and provide feedback to the club.
You will notice there is a brief article in this bulletin from Linda Neale advertising a walk to highlight the “Say No to Family and Domestic Violence” campaign, if you are able to support this event it is certainly a very worthwhile activity. There is also an article in the recent Rotary Pacific In Unison Newsletter that discusses the varied actions clubs can take, and we are fortunate to have a “club champion” who is prepared to encourage our involvement in this, thank you Linda. There are quite a few good articles in the “In Unison” newsletter; if you have a moment, it’s worthwhile checking it out. Link to Rotary Pacific In Unison Newsletter
Updates for members:
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 for 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
Save the date Friday 22nd November: Bayside Geelong RC Trivia Night, venue Christchurch Geelong Hall, tables of 6-8 people, BYO drinks and food. Cost and more information to follow.
Last Monday night, 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 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.
One in three people in Torquay will need blood during their lives — and without amazing locals like you spreading the word, that blood may not be there at the crucial moment.
As one of our amazing supporters, you’re in an ideal position to let as many people as possible know that we’ll be popping in, with extra support needed in the coming week, at:
Save these dates to attend or assist at our conference:
Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd at 13th Beach Golf Club and Sunday 23rd March 2025 at The Sands, Torquay.
Home Hosting
Richard Hawker is the co-ordinator for this - rjhawker48@gmail.comThis is an exciting opportunity for you to offer a room or two in your home for Rotarians coming to the conference to stay for the weekend.
Polio is the world’s forgotten disease and something that should have been made history a long time ago. It is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and the world is polio-free.
This October we are asking you to Walk With Us for those who can’t. We are challenging you to walk, run or roll 10, 20 or 50km throughout the month and raise vital funds that will help eradicate and prepare us for a Polio free world.
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.
