Co-Presidents St. Johns Rotary, Penny McGarry (Ph: 021 702 310), and Lesley Harris (Ph: 027 4935 498).
Lots of reminders this week, Thanks to Hugh who has championed the Foodbank collection on Saturday. He is pleased to report that with the help of CAB volunteers all 'slots' were filled. Great Rotary project, and thanks to Rotarian Graham for providing the New World Stonefields support.
Stop Press - Last shift reports via Co President Penny - Wonderful effort 80 boxes of food donations and $177 in cash for the CAB, what a generous community we live in. Thanks to everyone who helped - It is always good to be part of the team in action- feeling good doing good in the community.
A reminder that the Rugby fellowship event is being held Saturday 7 August, see Bulletin for details, don't forget to RSVP ! - Go the AB's !
Also planning for the Quiz (September 10) in underway, let's make it an extraordinary fund raising event, get your teams ready!
Tom asked for Volunteers to do Youth projects and the call went out for any volunteers to serve as Trustees
Our '"new sergeant" Cheri posed a splendid set of questions that taxed our early morning brains, and we welcomed back the familiar face of Conrad Le Ponte, from Habitat for Humanity, who gave us an update on their housing policies and progress.
Oh we nearly forgot... It was Tom's birthday
Next week is a dinner meeting and certainly 'RYLA flavoured' as we hear about their RYLA experiences from our sponsored candidates. We are also being joined by some members of the RYLA District Committee. It may be a good opportunity to encourage younger members of your family to come along, don't forget to RSVP
A small group of 17, including two guests, were present at last weeks breakfast meeting. Our guest speaker was Conrad La Pointe from Habitat For Humanity, (HFH), and an overview of his talk is included below. It was also our good fortune to welcome Gary's eldest grandchild, Odessa, to our meeting, who was spending some quality school holiday time with Poppa. What a charming young lady!
Prior to listening to Conrad, Co-Presidents Penny & Lesley reminded all of the activity calendar for the next few weeks - and a busy one it is. Some of these activities are the subject of a separate story in this Bulletin, but a brief summary of what lies ahead is;
August 5th - Dinner Meeting - RYLA Awardees talk about their experiences,
August 7th - Club FUNdraising event. Pizza and All Blacks, (What a combination). See separate story below and please RSVP to PP Robyn Ingram asap
August 22nd - Churchill Park Open Day
August 29th - Rotary Leadership Institute Training - Parts 2 & 3. Interested? Please contact either Penny or Lesley.
August 30th - Joint Meeting with the Rotary Club of Remuera. (Note no St. Johns Dinner Meeting September 2nd),
September 10th - St. Johns Fundraising Quiz night - more details to follow. (Note no St. Johns Meeting September 9th).
Prior to moving to our guest speaker, our Co-Presidents advised the meeting of the requirement we have of rotating Trustee's on the St. Johns Rotary Trust. As per the constitution this process now needs to be completed. It is not an onerous role and as a trustee you are exposed to another aspect of our Rotary club. If any members are interested please contact either Lesley or Penny for more information.
Conrad has spoken to our club on numerous occasions during HFH's 25 years in New Zealand and he felt that, as we all had a good understanding of the basic work undertaken by HFH, he would focus his talk more towards the challenges HFH and the country are facing at the moment when it comes to housing affordability, and housing stock availability.
The present housing challenges are a very political issue and there are no easy solutions that will resolve the issues facing the country presently. All political parties have a role to play, and over the years various parties have introduced legislation that is having minimal impact and the near term outlook is not looking positive.
HFH and Conrad have their own opinion on what could be, should be, and needs to be done, as do many Rotarians, to address and fix the housing related issues. However, as this publication is not the appropriate forum to debate government policy we will leave it at that and thanks to Conrad for once again agreeing to talk to us and share his knowledge on this subject.
Editor's Note: Many of our guest speakers address us with very thought provoking and excellent content. Securing speakers is nearly a full time job, and thanks to all members for doing their best to attend meetings whenever possible. This acknowledges the effort that goes into securing speakers, and of course a large audience helps to send a positive message to our speakers, that we very much appreciate the efforts that they have made to take the time to talk to us. See you on Thursday!
THURSDAY AUGUST 5th - Dinner Meeting - Guest Speakers; This year's St. Johns Rotary sponsored RYLA participants.
This year's RYLA was held from 3-10 July. We have invited our sponsored RYLARian's to report back on their experiences. Always an inspiring meeting - please be sure to get your RSVP in to PP Robyn, Director Club Services NOW!! Robyn looks forward to your RSVP responses filling her inbox.
THURSDAY AUGUST 12th - Breakfast Meeting - Guest Speaker: Eddie Uini.
Orange Sky provides free laundry, warm showers and genuine conversation to people experiencing homelessness. Eddie is the NZ Operations Manager of Orange Sky and will tell us about the NZ operation of this charitable organisation; exactly what they do and who they are helping. Orange Sky was started in Australia in 2014 by two twenty-year olds; and then came to NZ in 2018. https://orangesky.org.nz/
THURSDAY AUGUST 19th - Breakfast Meeting - Guest Speakers: DG Steve Chaney accompanied by DG Ashwini Sadhur;
Anaddress from DG Steve and AG Ashwini. will bring us up to speed with District plans and aspirations for the new Rotary year.
EARLY ADVICE OF CHANGES TO OUR ACTIVITY CALENDAR LATER IN AUGUST / SEPTEMBER:
The combined meeting with the RC of Remuera on Monday August 30th will replace the St. Johns September 2nd evening meeting.
Instead of our scheduled meeting on September 9th we will defer by one day and have our QUIZ night on Friday September 10th.
Once again our club organised a very successful Foodbank collection for GI CAB. Huge thanks to Hugh and to all others who volunteered.
We filled 80 boxes of food donations and $177 in cash for the CAB.
Pictured above is one of the many teams who volunteered on the day. If others have photos that they would like to see in next weeks Bulletin, don't hesitate to forward, (in JPEG Format), to the Bulletin Editor.
Let the fun begin! It doesn't get much better than this. A great night of fellowship, a great night of rugby, (potentially) and a great opportunity to raise some funds for "doing good in the community" .
Unfortunately Candid Kev was unable to attend last weeks meeting, but without hesitation stand-in paparazzi Aubrey, added a few shots to the Candid Album;
Do you think anyone else is coming or is it just the two of us!
A very proud Grandad introducing delightful Granddaughter Odessa Key.
Even though there are not many here today Murray, I still want you to behave yourself.
For goodness sake - if you don't know the answer, just pay the fine!
Tom asking all if everyone can still see David's name on the wall above.
...And the Thank you's for Have A Go Sailing sponsorship just keep on rolling in!
...And more
Looking forward to seeing a lot larger attendance at the August 5 meeting!!
Past member Donald Bowie has asked us to pass on this invitation to all St Johns members, to visit "Gibbs Sculpture Farm" for an upcoming MS fundraising event.
For those who have never visited the farm - this is a must do - you will not be disappointed. To see more details, click on the following link; https://www.msakl.org.nz
Donald also asked to pass on his best wishes to all members and he extends his sincere thanks to our club for their support of MS.
On Friday 13th August the Ellerslie Sunrise Rotary Club has a guest speaker - Professor Shaun Hendy, the lead COVID-19 modeller to the Government.
Shaun is a scientist, he teaches in both the Department of Physics and the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland. He was founding Director of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a national Centre of Research Excellence, and is a co-founder of the green fintech company, Toha. He has won a number of awards, including the Callaghan Medal, the Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication Prize, and the E. O. Tuck medal for applied mathematics. In 2020, his team was awarded the Prime Minister’s Science Prize for their COVID-19 response. He co-authored Get Off the Grass with the late Sir Paul Callaghan in 2012, and has since written two other books, Silencing Science and #NoFly.
Shaun is very good at describing complex science in lay persons language. He is well positioned to present the topic COVID-19 describing:
What exactly is COVID-19?
How does it act inside our bodies?
Why are some variants spreading quicker than others?
What does Dr Ashley Bloomfield mean when he says ‘we in NZ are just at the end of the beginning of COVID-19’?
What does the World Health Organisation mean when they say ‘no-one will be safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe’?
The science of the current vaccines available around the world – how do they work in the body, are some better than others, etc?
Why has NZ chosen the vaccines it has?
Why should I get vaccinated if it seems people are still getting the disease after they are vaccinated?
AND much more including the range of questions the audience will have.
We would like to invite you and your members to come and join us for our breakfast meeting so you can get all the latest information on COVID. It will be a very very interesting morning.
The meeting is at:
Ellerslie Convention Centre, Level 2, Silks Room
From 7.00am - 8.30am
Friday 13th August 2021
Breakfast cost is $28.00pp
It would be fantastic to have a group of Rotarians from different clubs along to join us on this special occasion. To assist, we are happy to bill your Club direct for breakfast costs.
For catering purposes, could you please advise if you or your Rotary members/friends would be interested by Tuesday 10th August.
The Rotary Club of Somerville, has sent the following invitation to an Anniversary Fund Raising Dinner;
Dear Lesley,
Rotary Club of Somerville is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a fundraiser. We would like to invite you and your club members to help us celebrate.
After 25 glorious years of selfless service to local and international communities, Rotary Club of Somerville is hosting an evening packed with charm, wit and wisdom with Chris Luxon, former CEO of Air New Zealand. Luxon will share his secret mantra on Leadership and success.
A three-course dinner with plenty of entertainments, silent and live auctions and raffles is guaranteed to make it a fun evening to remember. All proceeds go to Rotary projects both local and international.