Ange’s Chat
What a great week it has been.
On Tuesday night we regained the coveted Cinders Trophy at our annual Trivia challenge with Moruya Rotary (see more in Laurelle’s report below). It was a great night (apart from our win!) and a lot of fun thanks to Quiz Master Extraordinaire Keith Armstrong, some great initiatives which made the night run smoothly, and the very warm welcome we received from Moruya.
Last Thursday, Roz Hill from the Rotary Club of Young enthralled us with her talk about the Young Prostate Cancer Support Group which is running so successfully in Young. She is the group coordinator. It was formed as a Community Service Project of Young Rotary Club.
Prostate Cancer afflicts many men in our society; statistics quoted show that 1 in 6 is diagnosed with it. Roz said getting men together to chat, access information and raise their awareness has encouraged many to visit their doctor for PSA tests (measures the prostate-specific antigen) to establish a necessary base line. She said early testing and proactive networking through social and informal coffee meetings is imperative. The group meets once a month, has run for five years and gone from strength to strength. Their sponsors are Tegra Young (Concrete business), NR Sales & Property, and Rotary and are proudly affiliated with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
Our Club is considering starting such a group in the future to facilitate awareness. Roz stressed the Rotary brand is highly respected everywhere and can play a great role. Thank you Roz for your wonderful informative presentation, the literature you provided, and the very kind offer to help us along the way.
Our Market last Sunday was wonderful and benefited from it being such a beautiful day. Thanks to everyone who helped. What a team! It also yielded a great result with gate takings $1090, Van $544 (still some expenses to pay), and the Wishing Well $575.
THIS THURSDAY:
No Rotary because we went to Moruya on Tuesday for Cinders.
The Week that Was
Cinders Challenge with Moruya
Moruya’s bulletin this week reported that “some years ago Narooma seemed almost invincible winning the trophy most years”. President Peter Smith said after “some intensive forensic research, it was determined that a particular Rotarian “down there” was identified as a modern day Barry Jones. This unusually knowledgeable person was assessed as being solely responsible for Narooma’s success”. That person was Ian Thomlinson. Peter said “theory was of course translated into reality when eventually Ian retired from Rotary and his departure set us on the road to success”. The truth is it wasn’t only Ian…
However, Narooma proved this week that our team of 14 Rotarians, partners and friends had such a pool of wonderful trivia between them to bring the Cinders trophy back to Narooma. It was a close tussle, the final scores being Narooma 49, Moruya 48.5.
Quiz master Keith Armstrong had four rounds of 10 questions (he said mainly recycled from 2011 with some obvious updates) plus 34 fascinating word puzzles. Rohan Gleeson entered the scores on his computer and only revealed them on screen before the final round. Could Moruya close the gap? They did close it a little, but not enough. Then there was the hidden trophy… It was a wonderful night, great company, lots of fun, well organised and the pizzas and salads were excellent.
It’s our turn to host next year; maybe we should look to Bodalla again as a possible venue.
Remembering Animals in War
Our Club took part in last week’s memorial service for Australia’s Animals of War at Club Narooma on 24 February, our National Day for War Animals. Narooma RSL sub branch was delighted to have 60 people there, their first such memorial service.
Other groups represented included WIRES, Eurobodalla Animal Welfare League (AWL), Dog Obedience Club, Marine Rescue Narooma, Narooma Quota, CWA, Narooma Community Choir and a strong contingent from Narooma High School and Carroll College. Most laid wreaths; our Club instead thought a basket full of various animal treats was more appropriate which was then passed onto AWL. Charmaine White, Gero Mitchell, Laurelle Pacey and Chris O’Brien made it happen.
The main speaker was Professor Geraldine Hunt (sister of Dr Kate le Barrs, one of our local vets). The Community choir, with Lynda Ord and Sandra Doyle, sang a song Sandra had written especially for our war animals.
Breakfast Meeting
A small group from the Club met early this week to plan the breakfast meetings which will be coordinated by Andrew Lawson. Andrew was pleased with the progress made at the first planning meeting and anticipates such meetings will occur each week to ensure the breakfast meetings get off to a good start. The first breakfast meeting is planned for Thursday 15 April.
World Rotary Day 23 February
Unfortunately we missed mentioning last week that World Rotary Day and Rotary International’s 116th birthday was on 23 February (Charmaine though was on the ball on our Facebook page). Since Paul Harris and three friends met on 23 February 1905 in Chicago, Rotary has spread worldwide.
Rotary International is now one of the most important global humanitarian service organizations, bringing together 1.2m men and women in 35,000 clubs in 537 districts in more than 200 countries and territories. They come from all walks of to pool their skills, time and energy to support the most urgent humanitarian causes. Rotarians work passionately not only on sustainable actions and solutions at the local or international level, but also support important issues such as peace and conflict resolution, prevention and treatment of illness, water and sanitation, the health of mothers and children, literacy and education, the environment and economic development globally and locally. Rotary International is also the catalyst and spearheading partner in the global effort to eradicate polio.
Joining a local Rotary Club is of course the key to the world of Rotary.
Out and About
International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is on next Monday 8 March. Women in Rotary has organised an online Breakfast that seems to be mainly for businesses 9-12 March with the theme for speakers “A Bold New World”. If you are interested in finding out more, please google it.
Moruya Probus ‘killed by Covid’
Moruya Rotary established Moruya Probus as a Community Service in 1994, initially for men but then also open to women. The purpose of every Probus Club is “to advance intellectual and cultural interests among adult persons who have retired or are semi-retired from their former occupations”. But Moruya Probus has now folded; Moruya Rotarians say it was “killed by Covid”. No one at Probus’ February meeting was interested in taking on an active position so those present voted to close.
NEXT WEEK: 11 MARCH
Board meeting at 5pm at Narooma Golf Club followed by a dinner meeting and Club Assembly 6 for 6.30. Hope to see you there.