Weekly Message from Ngaire
Anyone visiting our club today may have thought they had wandered in to a Melbourne Park Rotary meeting, if the number of young people was anything to go by. Cherisha Koshy, our invited guest speaker from TREAD – Thai Rural Educational and Development - and five of the committee members, all from International House, presented an enthusiastic overview of their program in Thailand. These young people are so committed to making a difference that they pay for their own airfares to get to Thailand each year to work in the community. They are inspiring young people! They were ecstatic to learn from Chairman Gordon that RCH had allocated $1000 towards their 2012-13 program. International Director Ian Macfarlane will assist them this year to access needed school supplies from DIK.
Regretfully, our application for the Global Grant to build a toilet block at the Imbaliyethu Day Care Centre (Durban Creche) has not been successful, which is very disappointing, given the huge amount of work that Richard Groom had put into the application. We now have those allocated funds of $6000 to direct into another project.
To date we have received no feedback from the Senior Citizens Clubs about our Rotary Cares program, and I am not hopeful they will contact us now 3 weeks after the Presidents’ meeting!! The Community Service committee will now go back to the drawing board to find an alternative hands-on project. If you have any ideas please call Ken McNamara.
There were announcements this week about the Garden Show roster, November 17 and 28, and the City to Surf day on November 11 - both fund raising opportunities. Please help us fill these rosters when they are sent to you. Also Bill Troedel wants you to play golf with him.(see below))
RCH honorary member Josh Frydenberg, MP, invites us all to attend a Senior Citizens Forum at MLC on Monday, September 24th from 10am to 12 noon. Please ring me if you would like to attend – RSVP date is next Tuesday, September 18th.
Noel Halford reminds us again that he would like payment for the War Horse tickets, for the evening show on February 6th. Please send your cheques asap. And do buy your Camcare Concert tickets soon.
Enjoy your gifts...
Yours in Rotary,
Ngaire
Thought for the week: “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hand. You seek the problems because you need the gifts.” – Richard Bach