Bob’s Blog
Hello Everyone
When I turned up at the Early Falcon Nationals show day on Sunday morning at 7.30, I thought it was going to be a slow, slow day. However things picked up after about 9.00 and everyone rostered on worked hard keeping up the food to the hordes checking out all the old cars. Lynn Hastings reports we grossed $1,438.20 on the day. If we attribute all the expenses to the rally we still made a profit of more than $480.00, however, it is a little unfair to do this as we still have left over meat and drinks we purchased not just for this event but for next week’s event at Narooma Motors and our Sunday markets. Thank you to everyone who helped on the day, especially to John Doyle for making it all happen and to Ange for ordering the supplies.
Last week’s meeting was a great success with members and guests turning out in some interesting and varied hats to help us ‘lift the lid’ on mental illness. Laurelle has more elsewhere in the Beacon, including some photos. Thank you to Karen Bull and Steve Deck who did a great job as judges.
At last week’s Board meeting we decided:
- All Rotarians and their immediate family who have one-on-one contact with children and young people must complete ‘Form 3’ in line with Rotary Policy.
- We will hold our annual Christmas Party at Casey’s on 21 December. The club will provide red and white wine to help us celebrate Christmas.
- To conduct a special ‘Friends of Rotary’ meeting on 2 November.
- To liaise with Eurobodalla Shire regarding the planting of one tree for each member of our Club.
- That the Club write to the DGE and DG regarding the development of an AED data base.
- To hold weekly meetings of the Expo committee leading up to the Renewable Energy Expo
Lynn Hasting reported that at the end of September the Administration account had a balance of $8,290.82; the Charity 1 account $17,209.78 (note that since then the Friends of Rang’i cheque of $6,200, NYSF payment of $1,000 and van repairs of $2,200 have been deducted from this Charity account); the Expo account a balance of $200.00 and the Busking account a balance of $2,421.50.
I will not be at this week’s meeting so Laurelle will be in the chair. We are fortunate to have Lynne Thomas as our guest speaker this week. Lynne is an Elder of the Yuin community, an Ambassador for Aboriginal culture, an accomplished artist and Education Support Worker at Narooma Public School. I am sure that you will find Lynne’s presentation rewarding and interesting.
Have a wonderful week everyone.
Bob
The Week that Was
Our ‘Lift the Lid’ dinner
Our ‘Hatter’ night last week marked Mental Health Week (and Month) . The idea was to open a conversation on mental health and to raise funds towards Australian Rotary Health mental health research. Members’ hats ranged from Sandra’s and Chris’ exquisite creations to beanies (see photos) and everything in between, including President Bob’s impressive Fedora. It was a difficult task for hat judges Steve Deck and Karen Bull so they narrowed the competition down to the silliest hats, with Rolf Gimmel, Iris White and Gordon Bentley the winners (see photo).
On Australian Rotary Health
Peter Bull gave us some background on Australian Rotary Health (ARH) before launching into two fun trivia quizzes around the hat theme, with the Deck-Pacey duo taking out both prizes. Our Hatters night raised $115 towards ARH, the first of several donations the Club will make to ARH this year.
ARH funds areas of health research that don’t readily attract funding. Since 2000, it has focused on mental health research, more recently on youth mental health, and is now one of Australia’s largest non-government funding bodies of mental health research. ARH funds research grants, Ian Scott PhD Scholarships (named in honour of Rotarian Ian Scott who founded Australian Rotary Health in 1981) and postdoctoral Fellowships.
Guest speaker
Joining us for the evening last week was Liz Ruck, Red Cross’ Community Visiting Coordinator for the Eurobodalla based in Red Cross’ Narooma office (7/114 Wagonga Street). She explained that everything Red Cross does is governed by its seven Fundamental Principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality (worth checking them out in more detail if you are interested). She outlined the work of the Narooma Hub of Red Cross, including its close association with the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal community and it’s Study Centre.
Liz particularly focussed on the Community Visitors Scheme (CVS), a fairly recent initiative by Red Cross to help brighten the lives of socially isolated people. She said an increasing number of aging retirees in Narooma, Moruya and Batemans Bay were becoming socially isolated living in their own homes or even in aged care as they lose friends, have family living elsewhere and therefore receive few visitors.
The CVS matches volunteers one-on-one with people who would like to have someone visit them just to chat, reminisce, listen to music, read the newspaper or possibly take them on an outing. ‘This increases people’s self esteem, reduces their anxiety and depression, and increases their connection with the community, and so increases their confidence and ability to cope. It also often results in friendships. Liz said they are always looking for friendly and reliable volunteers to visit weekly to fortnightly. Initial training is provided, and support and resources are ongoing. If you are interested in working as a volunteer, please ring Liz on 6234 7614
Some background on Red Cross: Formed in Geneva in 1863 initially as the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, later to become the International Committee of the Red Cross. The following year, 12 governments adopted the first Geneva Convention; a milestone in the history of humanity, offering care for the wounded, and defining medical services as ‘neutral’ on the battlefield. Red Cross was formed in Australia at the outbreak of the First World War. Today Australian Red Cross is a member of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement (the International Movement) with millions of members and volunteers operating in over 190 countries. The Movement’s mission is to prevent or reduce human suffering, wherever it is found, always guided by its Fundamental Principles. National Societies, such as Australian Red Cross, act as auxiliaries to the public authorities of their own countries in the humanitarian field and provide a range of services including disaster relief, health and social programs. During wartime, National Societies assist affected civilian populations and support army medical services where appropriate.
Interestingly, Liz mentioned Narooma’s volunteer branch of Red Cross had ceased to exist in recent years after a long history.
The Early Falcon Nationals
We catered for breakfast and lunch on Sunday for the 18th Early Falcon Nationals show day on NATA Oval, hosted by the Classic Falcon Owners Club of NSW. What an extraordinary AND immaculate collection of retro cars that seem to look better with age (ours and theirs perhaps!). As Bob said, after a slow start business picked up. Rolf jumped in at the last minute after the coffee van the organisers had booked decided Batemans Bay was a better bet and shot through earlier that morning. So much for Rolf’s one day off…
Cheers Laurelle
Random thoughts, courtesy Peter Bull
Around politics, government and bureaucracy…
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
George Bernard Shaw
Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. Douglas Casey, classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. Mark Twain
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mea
n politics won’t take an interest in you. Pericles (430 BC)
More photos from our Hatters’ night
