|
The first fine of the day was straight back to Sergeant Patrick for introducing our Co-President Gary as "John Key"! I guess Patrick could be forgiven as he felt a little bit insignificant as our Guest Speaker was a real "Sergeant" - more about that later. Lots of club notices at this meeting; Quiz Night. The final number is now available: With sincere thanks to all who contributed in one way or another, and particularly to the Project Manager Aubrey, we can confirm that the net funds raised, and now available to continue to support our Youth Development Programmes, was $12,623.34!!! Fundraising Raffle: Only $200 tickets, a great prize, excellent odds! Tickets now available for purchase. See separate story below. St. Johns Rotary / New World Annual Golf Tournament: Date confirmed for March 10th 2023, Whitford Park Golf Club, and the expectation is that this will be a sell-out very quickly as soon as sales are launched. Interested? Diary today and let Dave Hartstone know that you would like to book a team. Book Sale: See story below. Not only do we do good by volunteering to help, but our club volunteers will each earn $20 per hour for the club. Are you available to assist for two hours on Saturday 5 November? Please contact Co-President Gary to secure your spot. GI Food Bank Collection: The final collection of the year will be held on Dec 3rd at New World Lunn Ave. Many thanks once again to Graham Fabian and New World. More details, and the opportunity to register your availability, will follow shortly. In the meantime please diary this date. Brian Gibbs Memorial Trust: Co-President Gary advised the meeting that the club had received from James Davies, a request for a grant of $2,000 to help fund his planned attendance at the November 5th Outward Bound Course. This opportunity has come at very short notice as James has only just received advice of an opening in this course following a late cancellation. The following is an excerpt from James application to the club, which has been accepted: "My name is James Davies and I'm a 21-year-old, civil engineering graduate from the University of Auckland. I was born and raised in Auckland, where I attended St Thomas' Primary School, and finished my education at Sacred Heart College, where I was fortunate enough to be the head academic prefect, and partake in many sports (rugby, basketball, cricket, tennis, and hockey). Following on from Sacred Heart, I was awarded a 'Top Achiever Scholarship' to the University of Auckland, where I enrolled in engineering. This year (2022) was my final year, where I have chosen to specialize in Civil Engineering. Next year I have taken up the opportunity to work for McConnell Dowell. Furthermore, last year (2021) I was privileged to attend RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) where I met some amazing people and was able to further progress my leadership and personal characteristics. In my free time, I love anything to do with sports, the outdoors, and photography. My main hobbies include wakeboarding, running, and tramping. I would like to thank the wider Rotary Club of St Johns for their consideration of this application and assistance, and I look forward to meeting you all in the coming months." Director Science & Environment Peter B: Advised that the potential Working Bee on the "Around Stonefields Walking Track", has been delayed, due to other remedial work on the track which is currently underway. Peter also confirmed that the club has selected 3 students who will be partially sponsored by the club to attend the Live-in week long Science Forum at the University of Auckland in January 2023. Co-Director Club Services, Penny, advised that next weeks Dinner Meeting will be a Breakfast meeting at Charlie & George Cafe Stonefields, due to a double booking at the Golf Club. The November Dinner meeting will now be on November 10th. District 9920 Conference is now open for Registrations: See separate story below. With DG Allan Smith being a member of St. Johns Rotary it is essential that there is an excellent turnout from our club. Visit the website now to register and watch for updates of the conference programme as more guest speakers are confirmed. Snap Chat: Last weeks Snap Chatterer Miles Cain who managed to slip through the net was given another chance at this meeting to say his piece. Miles is a Chemical Engineer who spent the last 27 years of his working life with NuFarm, before retiring in 2015. He has been a member of the Rotary Club of St. Johns for 20 years, married to Margaret and has two wonderful daughters, and two wonderful son-in-laws. One daughter lives in Sydney and one in Auckland with one delightful grand daughter. Since retiring travel had been an important activity in the Cain's calendar, until Covid came along. The highlights in his travel diary includes the 6 Habitat For Humanity Builds, he and other Rotarians did in some incredible places that he would never had visited had it not been for these 6 experiences. Guest Speaker - Sergeant Rhys Smith: Rhys has been in the NZ Police for 23 years with the last 5 years being responsible for the Glen Innes Youth Services Team. Rhys' talk focused to a large degree on the current Ram Raid activity, which in fact is not a new problem, but is gaining more publicity now than before. Much of his time is spent working in and with the community to eliminate these crimes. He also stressed that much of their time is also spent with the victims, businesses etc. The age of these types of criminals used to be 16 - 18 year old's whereas today the primary age group is 12 - 14 year old's and when it is considered that these young offenders live in homes dominated by drugs, alcohol, crime and mental health issues with very little chance of them attending school, it's no wonder there is a problem. Much of the teams effort is to get these kids to go back to school, but it is a huge challenge. There are only about 100 individuals involved in these crimes and one of them is known to have committed over 60 offences. The law makes it very hard to deal with the very young age group - they can be arrested, but if under 14 they are not criminally libel and once they have been processed they must be taken home, and with the disfunctional environment that many come from, it's only a matter of time before they are back offending. Even if the individual is over 14, and by law can be placed in "custody", most of the facilities do not have the staff, or are designed to keep them secure - they can literally walk out and the cycle begins again! One of many soundbites that caught the attention of the audience was, "one Ram Raid does $30,000 in damages for a return to the perpetrator of $200 worth of ice cream!! Rhys strongly believes that getting the kids back to school, engaged and interested, is our best hope of reversing the trend. An excellent presentation and once again we were reminded what a tough job our Police have and it makes one ask - do we provide the resources and support they need to do the job that they were employed to do? |
