Hello Members and Friends,
Well, what an excellent last face to face meeting for the year held on Monday 17th June at Kithbrooke Park which was an exciting joint meeting with Grovedale Waurn Ponds Rotary Club as we heard from the two RYLA participants Adrien Aurel and Thomas Wallis who we jointly sponsored to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp in April.
As many of you would know, RYLA provides an inspiring and challenging personal development and leadership program for many. If you attended District Conference in Mount Gambier in March, you would have witnessed the MCs Safari Smith & Jed Castle who led the whole weekend very competently - they were past RYLA participants!!
Adrien and Thomas were certainly up to the mark and both entertained and informed us about their experiences at RYLA, once again proving that the program makes a meaningful difference to the participants.
Time now to look around amongst family, neighbours and friends for young men and women aged 18 to 25 years to participate in next year’s program.
District Changeover
Last Sunday some of our members were part of the 106 Rotarians from across the District who came together at The Sands to witness the Induction of District Governor Leslie Shedden.
It was a lovely event with the sun shining on the golf course as a backdrop to the event.
This year’s District Governor Ian McKay reflected on his year which has been personally rewarding, having had the opportunity to support clubs and meet members across the District. Ian fostered the expansion of the Say No to Family Violence programs, encouraged support and raised funds for ARH Mental Health Research programs and established the District 9780 Polio Plus Society supporting District Polio Plus Chair Gary Newton.
Thankyou for a job well done DG Ian!
Perhaps a little selfishly, the standout for the day was the induction of our very own Lesley Shedden as District Governor for 2024-25 by outgoing DG Ian.
Lesley outlined her vision and goals for the year ahead which are Environment, SNTFV, End Polio, Australian Rotary Health and Rotarians Against Malaria. (See image below)
We will learn more about these focus areas with a future visit from DG Lesley early in the Rotary year.
A big thankyou to PP Michael Reed who led the direct support to Lesley in setting up and running the event on Sunday.
Thankyou to Judy Beasley who put together the table settings supported by Gail Birchall and Helen Plumridge.
Thank you to Neil Henderson for rallying the troops, encouraging our members to attend.
Thankyou to our members who helped in setting up, catching and transporting the rocking horse and acting as event guides on the day.
