Narooma Rotary Beacon 15 June 2017

Short Words

I hope that everyone enjoyed the long weekend with some time to destress, relax  or even to catch up on some light reading.

One thing I have been reading is the Rotary Health News Letter. What struck a chord with me was this statement “Evidence suggests 3 in 4 adult mental health conditions emerge by the age of 24 and half by the age of 14.” Having dealt with this within my own family, I understand where this is coming from. Research dollars are still lacking, hopefully we have enough left in our charity funds to give a sizable donation to this vital cause. After all, youth are a big part of Rotary.

Finally, we have paid all the prize winners from the Busking Festival. Thank you to Lynn for her support and diligence in getting us over the line.

Last week, our meeting was full of “fishy stories” of sharks and seals which made us think of snorkelling with them off the Island. It was truly a great night.

Soon all the Changeovers will be taking place for the Clubs that I look after as Assistant Governor. I am happy that our Club will be in excellent hands with Bob Aston along with Mike Dent at Moruya and Maureen Manning at Batemans Bay.

Cheers

Bob Ant

Presidential Peace Conference

By Arnold R. Grahl

For more than a decade, the Rotary Peace Centers have been developing leaders in peace and conflict prevention and resolution. But that program isn’t Rotary’s only contribution to a more peaceful world. Every time Rotary members provide clean water and sanitation, support basic education, grow local economies, or stop the spread of infectious diseases, they’re building peace. To read the full article click here.

Global leaders and key donors affirm their commitment to ending polio

By Ryan Hyland and Teresa Schmedding

With polio on the brink of eradication, nations from around the world and key donors pledged more than $1 billion on Monday to energize the global fight to end the paralyzing disease.

The historic pledges of new funds at the Rotary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, will go toward drastically shrinking the $1.5 billion gap in the funding that the partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative say is needed to reduce polio cases to zero worldwide. Just five cases have been reported this year, the lowest number in history.  Click here to read the full story.

Vale Bill Hardie

Lillian and Bill Hardie at a Rotary meeting in 2002

Bill died suddenly last week in Glen Innes. Bill joined Narooma Rotary in 1999.

Bill and Lillian came to town to run and edit the ‘Far South Coast iMag’ a monthly tourist magazine covering holiday areas from Batemans Bay to Merimbula. After they sold the magazine Bill and Lillian ran a takeaway shop in Lynches Arcade (where the pizza place is now located) for a short period before setting up a picture framing business, also in Lynches Arcade. When Lillian became ill they closed the business and headed north to that they could be closer to Lillian’s daughter who lived in Brisbane.

Bill was president of the Club in 2003/4. He the club treasurer for a couple years and he also held several other board positions whilst a member of the club. Bill honoured as a Paul Harris Fellow in recognition of his contributions to the club.

Bill played a significant role in fund raising for the current food van that was purchased late in 2002, selling raffle tickets for a newfangled ‘surround sound’ system at the Narooma Sporting & Services Club on Friday nights for many months. Bill also spent many hours fixing up the van with new cupboards and helping to install fridges and the food warmer, whenever the electrics failed Bill was the one who had the skills to get everything working again.

Bill’s funeral service will be held in Inverell on Wednesday. Lillian passed away early last year.

The Week that Was

14 Members were present at last week’s meeting. We also welcomed our guest speaker, Bill Barker and his partner Barbara. We also welcomed Iris and Lynda Ord’s partner Ashley.

Frank three minute talk about his colleague, associate and boss, Brand Hoff, who set up the IT start-up ‘Tower Software’ in 1985. Frank worked for Brand foe many years helping to develop software packages and writing code to make them work. The most notable product developed was TRIM, an electronic records management system used extensively across government and industry.

Ange thanks our guest speaker Bill Barker

Bill gave a most interesting presentation on marine life in the Batemans Marine Park, especially the waters off Montague Island.  Bill’s photography and videos, especially of grey nurse sharks and seals was excellent.

Charmaine won the bread, our guest speaker Bill won the white wine and Peter Bull took home the red.

This Week

This week Belinda Lenihan will update us on the latest happenings with the PCYC in the Eurobodalla and Bega Shires.

Meeting of the 2017/18 Board  

A reminder to all 2017/18 Board members that there will be a meeting a Bob Aston’s home on Sunday 18 June at 10:30 am to finalise plans for the next Rotary year. An agenda will be emailed out later in the week.