The 2017/2018 Rotary theme was “Making a Difference’ and I’d like to think that our wonderful Dunedin Central Rotary Club has indeed made a difference in the past year. Big or small differences…it doesn’t matter.
Our projects, which we have completed through the year, have definitely made a difference!
We continued our regular Apples in Schools project (and I thank Bob Clark and his helpers for distributing the apples).
The Dictionaries in Schools programme saw dictionaries distributed to adult refugee learners through English Language Partners and the Red Cross in Dunedin and also to the two low decile schools which we support. The club applied for a matching Foundation Grant of $1,425 and was fortunate enough to be successful. These funds were used to purchase the dictionaries. ( I thank Bob Smith and Derek King for assisting me in the distribution of these great learning materials).
We eventually got the Books to Vanuatu ( we provided reading material to people who had no books and for some had never seen a book in their life.) personally this was a highlight for me… a small idea with effort from our club made a “BIG Difference” to underprivileged children AND adults in the Village of Lamap, Vanuatu.
We made a $1,000 donation to the ‘Casting For Recovery” programme where women who are recovering from breast cancer could attend a retreat weekend away in Central Otago…. learning to fly fish and enjoy the tranquillity of the environment. By all accounts this was a very successful programme.
We joined with the Rotary Clubs of Milton, Dunedin South and Dunedin to buy two heatpumps for the Mirror Youth Day Programme Centre at Waitati. We have been told that the heatpumps have made a huge difference for the staff and students. Team work is good!
District Governor, Bruce Cowan gifted $300 at the beginning of his governorship year and our club contributed $700 to buy a Rotary Youth Zone package from Access Radio. This package gave our club opportunities to promote activities and contributed to keeping the youth radio programme on air.
Other ways we have supported the youth in our city is through two sponsorships to the science forum in Auckland. Two Otago Girls High students attended the forum in January of this year, paid for by our club. I know these students are coming to speak to us in a couple of weeks.
Dunedin Central hosted the Area Speech competition this year and that night was a great success. Thanks to The Learning Place and Piet Van der Klundert for sponsoring the prizes.
We assisted the Dunedin Rotaract Club with their projects including donating stationery for their project in Rarotonga and baking for a sale to raise money for ChatBus. I personally find it very satisfying to support the youth of Rotary.
Some of our club members braved the element to plant trees at Sinclair Wetlands, mid-year. Ian Risely, the International President for the 2017-2018 year, had encouraged clubs, worldwide to plant a tree during his Presidency year. Our tree planting was a collaborative one with clubs from our area and by all accounts was a fun day.
A $1,400 donation from Cutlers Real Estate, courtesy of Heather Maclean was a very welcome surprise and greatly assisted our club charity funds.
Club members have helped out on street corners, collecting for Alzheimer’s Society, Orphans Aid, Red Puppy Appeal and Child Cancer.
We have enjoyed two vocational visits; one to Mint Gallery and the other to Gallaway Cook Allan. Both nights proved to very popular and interesting and a change from our normal meetings at the Dunedin Club.
Two family nights at the Bowl Line and dinner at Cableways afterwards were fun clan nights. Many thanks to Sandy Jefferies for taking on the role of Activities Officer and organising these nights for me.
Our club held it’s own Polio raffle towards the end of last year, along with the Bill Gates Foundation contribution, and raised almost $3,000.
We contributed to buying two emergency kits to send to the Pacific Islands after the devastating natural disasters during the year and our continuing weekly meeting fundraising through duty free auctions continued for shelter box purchases… to date we have raised $640 this year for the shelter box appeal. Thanks to the travelling members who contributed goods to be auctioned.
Dunedin Central Rotary Club, along with the Botanical Gardens and the Dunedin City Council, supported the importing of Gingko seeds from Japan, to be nurtured to planting size. These are seeds are from the gingko trees which survived the atomic bombing in Hiroshima in 1945. We had excellent media coverage for this project and it felt good to assist an ongoing collaborative programme such as this one.
Our regular auction night, held last November had the theme of ‘nautical’… we had pirates, mermaids, sea urchins, naval officers and many more costumes for what turned out to be a fabulous and fun night. We raised $9,395 to go towards our Foundation pledge and to add to our pot of funds for projects. An excellent organising committee headed by Andrew Meek, …. assisted in the success.
Our Christmas party was a very warm and friendly evening. Santa Claus was very generous to all the people who had been good through the year and Patricia Payne entertained us in world class fashion. It was a lovely way to finish 2017.
The annual Book Sale raised approx. $4,200 and I would like to thank Ah Lek and his team for organising the pack up from the Regent in the first place and then the setting up of the books for resale. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to recycle the Regents left- overs and make some cash for our bank account. I believe it’s a fab fundraiser and adds to the social side of the club. We’ve had some good chats together as we tidied books or stood at the til and took the money from avid book fans.
The Otago Rally has been a good fundraiser and an enjoyable one for the petrol heads amongst us. A sure, $1,000 into the pot for just marshalling other petrol heads… easy money.
Some energetic ‘stay in Dunedin for Christmas members’ painted the foyer of the Servants Health Centre over the Christmas holidays. I am sure Beth Stitely and her team and also the patients would have appreciated the fresh look of the environment they work in.
We welcomed six new members:
Jean Lai Robyn Chirnside Patricia Payne
Hilary Bisset Robyn Lennon Julia Pye
And farewelled six retiring members
Ken Lawson Randall Trainor Sam Mullholland
Peter Nees Lisa Foster Heather McLean
Quite a few of our members and family had a fun filled and interesting trip to the Oamaru area in late April. We visited places unknown to most of us and dined in fine style at Riverstone on the Saturday night. These trips away help with the bonding of club members and do make a difference to understanding and knowledge of each other. We appreciate the organisation of our now retired members Heather Maclean for her outstanding organisation of the activities and venues.
One of my goals for the year was to involve the partners of our members in our club nights , so we trialled a Partners night where the partners did the duties. This went very well even if I did have to convince some partners that they could do the duty allocated. Another enjoyable night and one that our new President may consider repeating in his new term.
Talking of fun filled nights, my idea of having Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner evenings has been hugely successful. Members and their partners had no idea who they would be dining with at the shared dinners at my home. It was so funny watching the anticipation on people’s faces as they entered the house to greet the other guests. Everyone was subjected to playing the ‘Jabber Magic’ game created by my daughter… and to be honest there were times when I thought I’d split myself with laughing over the weird and whacky answers people gave. Out of all the members who live in Dunedin, only two couldn’t make those dinners due to health or family reasons. I worked out that 55 people had been to my place for dinner in my Presidential year!
Two highlights for me were the presentation of a
- Paul Harris award to David MacLeod and a
- Paul Harris Sapphire to Graham Spence. Both were very worthy recipients.
I want to thank some special people who have made my job so much easier:
- Past District Governor, Bruce Cowan for always being there for me with a kind and encouraging word every time he saw me. … quite a special man.
- Eleanor Archer for being my Secretary and friend
- Grant Batchelor for being my Treasurer and answering the many questions I had of him.
- Neville Hall for being Speaker Seeker with Murry Eskdale’s help as well. We would all agree that our speakers this year have been outstanding.
- To my other Board members, Brigetta Anselmi, Piet Van der Klundert, Andrew Meek, Derek King, David Macleod and Ah Lek Tay.. A huge thanks for supporting me in my role. I wouldn’t have enjoyed the year without you.
- Graham Spence did a fine job of being bulletin editor and I must thank Murray Eskdale for standing in for him at short notice towards the end of my term.
- Bob Smith’s expertise on web issues has also been appreciated.
So… the first female President of the Dunedin Central Rotary Club done and dusted! I think the year went really well and I have enjoyed the challenge …… but it’s time to hand the reigns to David Macleod now.
I wish him all the best in his role as President for the 2018/2019 year. I’m sure it will be another fabulous year for the club.
Thanks Everyone