Bob’s Blog
Hello Everyone
Well what a week!
It started last Thursday evening with the Narooma Australia Day Awards. It was great to see a good turnout of Rotarians at the function. Rotary was recognised for its contribution to the community as well as the Busking Championship and Renewable Energy Expo. It was pleasing to see Laurelle recognised for her contribution to many community organisations, especially Narooma School of Arts and Rotary.
On Friday morning we awoke to the news that a former member and Past President, Terry Irvine received an OAM in the Australia Day Honours Awards. A wonderful achievement for Terry and justified recognition for his contribution to pharmacy over many years. It was also pleasing to note that Marg Saker, a former Narooma resident and active member of Quota, also received an OAM.
At 9 on Friday morning we headed to Narooma Bridge for our annual duck race. Despite all the changes to the start time because of the president’s inability to read a tide chart, we had an excellent crowd turn out to watch the launch and race. I must say it was one of the best contested races I have seen with most ducks sticking to the main channel rather than taking detours under the boardwalk. The winner was from Safety Beach in Victoria and the last place went to a Wagga resident here on holidays.
Saturday saw Narooma Motors’ Fourth Annual Car Show on NATA Oval. A large variety of fancy cars were on show and a wonderful crowd turned out to check them out. Congratulations to Narooma Motors on a great event. The food van did a roaring trade feeding the crowd with sausages, steaks and bacon and egg rolls. Lynn reports that we took $1199.00 on the day.
Sunday saw us front up again at NATA Oval, this time for our January market. We had an excellent roll up of stallholders and all looked good for a bumper market. Unfortunately the rain started to tumble down about 8:30am dumping approximately 40mm on the oval, causing us to call the market off at around 10:00am. Of course, the sun came out about an hour later and those stallholders who stuck it out seemed to do well. We took $1,575 at the gate and ended up with $159.80 in the van after some of the food was paid for out of the till. Unfortunately we had a lot of food wastage. We will offer some stallholders a credit towards our February market.
Thank you to everyone who helped out during the week. There are too many to mention here, however please be aware your commitment to Rotary is appreciated.
Don’t forget it’s back to our meeting schedule this week with our normal ‘Rotarian Presents’ night followed by our dinner meeting at the Club. Laurelle will start us off at Mill Bay at 5:30pm with a short stroll along the Boardwalk looking at some of our local history along the way. We will then move to the Club for dinner at 6:30pm.
Have a great week.
Bob
The Week that Was
Tertiary Scholarship
Alicia Bate has been awarded the 2018 Narooma Rotary Tertiary Scholarship. In announcing the award at the Australia Day presentations last Thursday, President Bob spoke about the bequest that makes the $9,000 scholarship to a student from Narooma High possible. Alicia is the 28th student from Narooma High who has benefited from this bequest, assistance that now totals almost $240,000.
Alicia has deferred her studies in Animal and Veterinary Science at Charles Sturt University for a year so she can undertake a bovine embryo transferring course in the USA. Lynda Ord said the interviewing panel was particularly impressed with the fact that she organised the course, her accommodation and work experience at a vet clinic through a number of contacts in Australia. Next year she will start a Bachelor of Animal Science and then hopes to transfer to a Bachelor of Veterinary Science/Veterinary Biology. She was unable to defer a Veterinary Science course so accepted a place in Animal Science instead.
The Duck Race
The winning duck 208 was held by Melanie Reid of Safety Beach in Melbourne, who won $1,000. The last duck was 543, held by Tamara Prowse of Wagga Wagga who won $100. President Bob presented the cheques at Narooma Motors’ Car Show on Saturday. Proceeds from the race will go towards Australian Rotary Health and the Club’s Tertiary Scholarship fund for students from Narooma High. Donations will also be made to Narooma Surf Club in appreciation of their assistance and to Bermagui CRABS (Cancer Research Advocate Bikers) who lend us the ducks.
This Thursday
Please meet at the Mill Bay end of the Boardwalk ready for a 5.30pm start. Some of you might like to organise a car at the netted beach car park, rather than walk back to Mill Bay. The walk will end at the netted beach. I am looking forward to sharing with you some aspects of Narooma’s fascinating history.
Cheers
Laurelle
A few bloopers, courtesy Peter
‘It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.’ Al Gore, former US Vice President
‘We’ve got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?’ Lee Iacocca, former American automobile executive (best known for spearheading the development of the Mustang and Pinto cars while at Ford in the 1960s, and then reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO in the 1980s. He was a passionate advocate of U.S. business exports during the 1980s.)
‘We don’t necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.’ Colonel Gerald Wellman, Instructor with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC is a group of college and university-based officer training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces)
‘Traditionally, most of Australia ‘s imports come from overseas.’ Kep Enderbery, a judge and a former Cabinet Minister in the Whitlam Government (and a lifelong champion of human rights, civil liberties and the underdog)