BULLETIN

24 March 2026

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 

The past week has been another productive one. Not just busy, but genuinely purposeful. Several plans are coming together. Thank you to all who have contributed. Your efforts are appreciated.

Our Zoom meeting was a highlight, with Sue Williams delivering an engaging presentation on The Duke’s Secret. The online format continues to prove its worth, though I would welcome members’ thoughts on how we might best use Zoom into the future.

Planning for our Business Breakfast in August is advancing steadily. We are bringing together the key elements of speaker, venue, timing and marketing approach. While it is still early days, firm foundations are being laid.

Our major fundraising Lunch in October is also progressing, with a highly regarded speaker and a topic of broad appeal. We will soon be seeking sponsorship and contributions. These events rely on a shared effort, so please support Terry when the call goes out.

It is particularly pleasing to see momentum building around the Towards Respectful Relationships initiative. Interest is growing across clubs and schools, with our support of Sophia Mundi Steiner School an important step. Dorothy deserves real credit for getting this important initiative established in Melbourne.

We were well represented at the Boroondara Volunteer Expo. Thank you to those who engaged with the community and helped tell our story. These opportunities matter, and we have a list of potential volunteers to follow up.

Last Thursday, Katrina, Geoff Wright, John Perry, and I were at Donations in Kind preparing medical equipment for shipment to the Children’s Surgical Centre in Phnom Penh. This project is now nearing completion.

The previously committed $2,000 has been transferred to the Rotary Club of Alexandra to support those still recovering from the January bushfires. The need remains, and our contribution is appreciated.

As we look ahead to the Multi-District Summit in Horsham, fuel supply concerns are a reminder that, currently, routine travel is no longer straightforward.

In preparing In Memoriam material for the Summit, I was again struck by the calibre of those we have lost, including PDG Bernie Walshe and PP Lawrence Reddaway. They were people of real distinction, both within Rotary and beyond, and not easily replaced.

All in all, a big week, and another ahead.

Ian Bentley

President 2025-26

NEXT MEETING – KOOYONG –31 MARCH 

Maire Ruance, CEO FREO2 Foundation 

Freo2 Foundation is a global non-profit organisation established out of a Melbourne University Chemistry department project to design and build a medical grade oxygen system for lower income countries to reduce child mortality from respiratory illness.  Respiratory failure claims the lives of more than 1.6 million children under the age of five every year

Freo2's mission is to improve access to life-saving oxygen and reduce health inequalities. 

Since 2018 Freo2 have installed over 150 Oxylink units in Uganda, Tanzania and the Solomon Islands and treated over 35,000 infants and children in remote communities.

UPCOMING CALENDAR

31 March: Maire Ruance, CEO of the FREO2 Foundation

7 April: Easter Tuesday, No meeting

14 April: Club Meeting at Kooyong

21 April: Annual Service to Senior’s Award, Ben Rogers, CEO COTA and Seniors Rights Victoria  

28 April: Club Meeting by Zoom                                                     

CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS 

If you are available to volunteer every couple of months for our Club’s monthly working bee at Donations in Kind (DIK), you can sign up online to register your interest.  The packing days are held on the second Thursday of each month. The process is very simple — just click the link below, enter your name on the form that opens, and tick the dates when you are available to join other Hawthorn Rotarians at the warehouse:

https://forms.gle/BRcRuVvXPXQnB8r8A Don't forget to hit the submit button.   

CLUB SERVICE NEWS – Terry Kitchen

We are once again taking part in the GWS COMMUNITY RAFFLE. Last year we raised over $600 through the raffle, so our challenge is to do better this time round. Please support this activity as it will contribute to our annual fundraising; tickets will be on sale at our Club meetings.

BUNNINGS BBQ SUNDAY 31 MAY. I will be calling for volunteers to fill the roster between 9am - 5pm. Given the age of some of our members, we are trying to source helpers from Seek Volunteer and Uni Melbourne Rotaract Club. We may also need to call on some of our younger family members if we are short.

BUSINESS BREAKFAST FRIDAY 21 AUGUST. Mark Eldredge has taken the lead on this event as part of his membership drive. It will be held in the Stadium Room at Kooyong from 7.30am - 9am. Guest speaker will be Anshul Chopra, Enterprise Account Director at Microsoft, and his topic will be Beyond the AI Hype: What Business Leaders Need to Know Now. The objective of this breakfast is to increase awareness of Rotary Hawthorn and to attract potential new members; we will promote it to CEOs and staff of businesses in the Boroondara/Stonnington area.

PRESIDENT’S LUNCH FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER. Please note the change of title for our fundraising lunch at Kooyong. In the past we have referred to it as a Lift the Lid on Mental Health event. This year, we have secured as guest speaker Professor Jodie McVernon, Director of Epidemiology at the Doherty Institute. We have asked her to speak about Lessons learned from the Pandemic and how we can be better prepared  for the next one. 

As this will be our major fundraising event for the year, we will again be looking for sponsors, auction and raffle items.

We hope you will support these activities and encourage other members to do so as well. Please contact me if you have any comments or queries.

PROJECT UPDATE

Last week’s meeting, I presented a Rotary SAFE Families initiative which is proving to be a great success with Rotary Clubs and schools.  The Towards Respectful Relationships program is now scheduled to run for 8 weeks in four schools around Melbourne.

Rotary Hawthorn is sponsoring the Sophia Mundi Steiner School

Rotary Brighton North is sponsoring the Melbourne Montessori School, Brighton

Rotary Werribee is sponsoring Grange College, Werribee

Rotary Caroline Springs is sponsoring Lakeview College, Caroline Springs. The school is already planning to run this program in 2027 and 2028.  READ MORE

Who Am I? 

Clue 1: I am the “greatest” collector of anything that can be donated.

Clue 2:  My other “half” may be our President!

Clue 3: My surname is the name of a beautiful automobile

Clue 4: JJJJJJJJJ????????

Email or message David Pisterman (pisterman41@gmail.com with your answer to this month’s Quiz. A bottle of the best is waiting for the winner at our lunch meeting  3 March donated by the last prize winner.

Be afraid! Do not incur the wrath of DP!

YOUR CLUB BULLETIN NEEDS YOUR STORIES!

Editor note: Please send a travel story, project update, story of interest and photographs to Editor, Dorothy Gilmour by Sunday afternoon and you will be Bulletin celebrity and know you have made a difference by contributing!

DID YOU KNOW?

It was 1983-84 and in conjunction with Rotary Malvern, that we orchestrated a survey into diabetes and hypertension. Two thousand people were tested:

• 75 had positive blood glucose

• 75 had raised blood pressure

This is a perfect example how for very little financial cost, and just using members’ time, a very important community project can be created.

ROTARY NOTICEBOARD

ROTARY WERRIBEE’S ‘RHYTHMS & RIDES for CHANGE’ 

Sunday April 26 at Wyndham Harbour

Note:  All proceeds are generously being donated to our Rotary SAFE Families Towards Respectful Relationships program.

        ONWARDS and UPWARDS