Co-Presidents St. Johns Rotary, Gary Key (Ph: 021 611169), and Graham Fabian (Ph: 021 826292).
Greetings Fellow Rotarians.
What a very busy week we have had! Monday saw us attend a combined meeting with Auckland East and Remuera to hear AE guest speaker, Simon Bridges. Thank you to those members who attended.
Thank you also to those members who attended the Salvation Army Food box packing and assisted with putting together the Goodie Bags for our Golf Day Friday.
Huge shout out to Graham and David for organising our very successful Golf Day, assisted by Lesley and Penny and a number of Members, to make this a truely memorable event supporting Dove Hospice. We are so grateful for the support of New World Stonefields, Eastridge, Remuera and their Suppliers.
Sunday - Thankyou to the members who supported the Rotary Club of Auckland East assisting to run their annual “Top School” competition.
Be safe
G&G
New World Stonefields is the primary sponsor of the Rotary Club of St. Johns, but once a year they join forces with New World Remuera and New World Eastridge, to sponsor the St. Johns Rotary / Dove Hospice Golf Tournament. A huge thank you goes to the owners of the three stores; Graham Fabian, Sam Cockroft and Adrian Barkla .
This year's event was held last Friday, and once again it was a great success raising much needed funds. These will support Dove House to deliver the wide rage of services that the hospice is renowned for, as well as funds to support St. Johns Rotary Youth Development and Leadership activities.
Tournament organiser, David Hartsone also deserves a huge thank you. Dave has sent an email message to all involved and this is inserted below.
"March 17th 2023 will go down in the St Johns Rotary history as a very successful fund-raising event with in excess of $40,000.00 collected, (not bad for a fun filled afternoon).
This event would not have been possible without the support from Graham Fabian’s New World Stonefields, New World Eastridge and New World Remuera. Our thanks also goes out to all the Hole Sponsors and Teams.
This event now runs like a well-oiled machine, led by Lesley Harris and her team of fantastic volunteers…well done!! With a shotgun start at 12:15 in sunny weather, thirteen holes were completed before the forecast rain arrived, but fortunately didn’t last too long. Drink and food sponsor holes were well patronised and provided a well-earned respite to thirsty and hungry players.
The Griffins Team won the Tournament with a nett score of 55.1.
Prior to the Prize Giving we heard from Dove Hospice regarding the work they do and how funding from the Tournament will be used. Thank you to everybody involved with promoting and volunteering to make this an very successful event."
To get a taste of the day, thanks to "Candid Kev", please click on "Read More" below.
St. Johns meeting this past week was cancelled and our members were invited to join with the Rotary Club of Remuera to visit the Rotary Club of Auckland East, for their weekly meeting on Monday 13th March.
Eleven St. Johns members attended a very enjoyable meeting and meal prior to the guest speaker, Simon Bridges, former leader of the Opposition. Simon is now CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber, which is the oldest Chamber in New Zealand which has been supporting Businesses for 167 years. They run and/or organise over 200 events annually for members.
Simon spoke for over 30 minutes plus 10 minutes of Q and A. In his talk he covered off many memories and highlights from his political years, as well as sharing his thoughts about the roll he will play in his new position at the Chamber, the importance of the Chamber to Auckland and to business, and how the Chamber can help all businesses, small, medium, large as well as the very large.
Our thanks to Auckland East Rotary - we look forward to seeing many members from your club when the invitation is reversed.
During the formalities of the meeting, Simon Kouk, President of Auckland East, introduced visiting Rotarian Mr. K. Raisinghani from Jaipur in India who briefly addressed the meeting. Simon also asked our Co-President Gary and President of Remuera Rotary Wayne Brewer, to each exchange banners with Mr. Raisinghani.
THURSDAY MARCH 23rd - BREAKFAST MEETING - Our three sponsored "Science Forum" students will speak. They are;
Mimi Dunbar, Glendowie College
Anthony Hawke, Sacred Heart College
Joseph Bahoo, Sacred Heart College
The students will be accompanied by their supporting teachers, Anna Mortiaux from Sacred Heart, and Thais Nafissi from Glendowie College.
THURSDAY MARCH 30th - BREAKFAST MEETING - GUEST SPEAKER: HELEN SARGENT, Heart 4 KIDS.
Helen will explain what they do, including their recent mission to Fiji. Each year in the Pacific, 350 children are born with congenital heart disease. Unfortunately, they have limited access to life saving surgery. How can we help?
THURSDAY APRIL 6th - BREAKFAST MEETING - Members Quick Chats
One of the most important dates in the Rotary Year is "Change-over".
The 2023 Change-over for St. Johns Rotary is scheduled for Thursday June 22nd - an evening dinner. Recogniseing our current Co-Presidents and the Board for all they have achieved this past year, and to welcome in the new President and Board, deserves a good turn-out.
More information and detail to come, but in the meantime please note this in your diary now!! THANK YOU
One of Auckland East's annual events is the Top Schools fun sports days. This year the event was scheduled for Sunday March 19th, but in the week leading up to the date, Auckland East realised that they were going to be short of members to run the event and a "can you please help" message went out to their cluster clubs. As you would suspect, lead by Co-President Gary, St Johns Rotary raised their hand to assist with 10 members making themselves available.
It was a really worthwhile and a well organised event, where students, teachers, parents, and organisers together had loads of fun at an event held in perfect weather and Auckland East were very appreciative of the help from St. Johns - many thanks to all who volunteered.
St. Johns Club Member, Ainie Kwok, who actually resides in Wellington, continues to be very busy with D9920 activity, and below is a call for Volunteers to help at the upcoming "Halberg Games".
Do you think the Club is keen to help here? I am coordinating it.
I am intending to ask the RYLArians to help out as this is similar to the "Breaking Barriers" Disability Day Camp that we had back in October. I will be asking other Clubs as well.
Halberg Games is 3 days long, Friday 14th April - Sunday 16th April, and it is held at Kings College in Otahuhu.
Disability Sport Auckland takes a team every year, and volunteers would support us in the following areas;
Cheering on participants - especially athletics
Supporting blind / low vision athletes in running events
Being a sport leader - eg, looking after a sport and ensuring families are there and getting involved.
Helping with a small amount of food preparation.
Disability Sport is looking for those who show initiative, are encouraging, positive & willing to get stuck into it.
Looking for 2 - 4 volunteers, and if they could share their availability eg all day Friday etc, that would be awesome
Simon spoke for over 30 minutes plus 10 minutes of Q and A. In his talk he covered off many memories and highlights from his political years, as well as sharing his thoughts about the roll he will play in his new position at the Chamber, the importance of the Chamber to Auckland and to business, and how the Chamber can help all businesses, small, medium, large as well as the very large.
During the formalities of the meeting, Simon Kouk, President of Auckland East, introduced visiting Rotarian Mr. K. Raisinghani from Jaipur in India who briefly addressed the meeting. Simon also asked our Co-President Gary and President of Remuera Rotary Wayne Brewer, to each exchange banners with Mr. Raisinghani.
THURSDAY MARCH 30th - BREAKFAST MEETING - GUEST SPEAKER: HELEN SARGENT, Heart 4 KIDS. 
One of Auckland East's annual events is the Top Schools fun sports days. This year the event was scheduled for Sunday March 19th, but in the week leading up to the date, Auckland East realised that they were going to be short of members to run the event and a "can you please help" message went out to their cluster clubs. As you would suspect, lead by Co-President Gary, St Johns Rotary raised their hand to assist with 10 members making themselves available.
